The Importance of Clean Dialogue in a Film Opening-Research

As it is my second time around making a short film, now I know how important it is for the story, tone, and characters to be introduced properly by the film opening. A main part of opening film is clean dialogue, if the dialogue is not clear enough for the audience to understand what is being said by the characters there is a chance of them to feel disconnected from the film. As sound designer for my group's film I will make sure clean dialogue is a main focus. 

Why Clean Dialogue Matters

Lays the foundation of the story

• Most important information is in the opening scene, like conflicts and character goals
• If the dialogue is unclear the audience will be lost from the start

Example: 

In the movie Inglorious Basterds (2009) the opening scene is the characters conversating and the tension was built through the dialogue only with the pauses in between the words and the clear audio letting the audience catch the hidden threats

Keeps Audience Engagement

• If the dialogue is not clean causing the audience to strain to hear, it'll make them aggravated
• Keeping the audience attention to the stories emotional cues

Example: 

In the movie Social Network (2010) from the beginning it starts with a very fast conversation with quick dialogue and if the audience couldn't listen to what was being said they would be lost the rest of the movie as that is what builds the rest of it.

Makes the character more believable 

• Muffled dialogue may make the characters less convincing 
• Voice recorded properly makes scene more real and impactful for the audience

Example: 

In the movie Quiet Place (2018), the sudden moments of spoken dialogue are precisely recorded a certain way making the audience feel the vulnerability of the characters from it's little words being said

Write better dialogue in 8 minutes

Takeaways/Tips:

• Every character should have it's own different sound based on the background and personality 
• Make sure the dialogue said by a character also reveals that character
• Break up the dialogue with pauses or distractions
• Add reactions from characters
• Avoid characters in conversation oversharing information 
• Make sure every word said serves a purpose 

How this will be applied to my film:

For my groups opening scene, dialogue is extremely important because it introduces our two characters, the main conflict, and the relationship between the two. Eventually, building the rest of the story. I plan to make sure the audio is recorded and edited properly for clear and balanced dialogue. With e doing this it will make a powerful first thought of the characters by the audience allowing out short film to be more realistic and great.