Daily Dialogue — April 4, 2018

Jack (V.O.): Let me tell you a little bit about Tyler Durden.

EXTREME CLOSE-UP — FILM FRAME

— And we see it’s PORNOGRAPHY.

INT. PROJECTIONIST ROOM — THEATRE — NIGHT

Jack, in the foreground, FACES CAMERA. In the BACKGROUND,
Tyler sits at a bench, looking at individual FRAMES cut from
movies. Near him, a PROJECTOR rolls film.

Jack: Tyler was a night person. He sometimes worked as a projectionist. A movie doesn’t come in one big reel, it’s on a few. In old theaters, two projectors are used, so someone has to change projectors at the exact second when one reel ends and another reel begins. Sometimes you can see two dots on screen in the upper right hand corner…

Tyler points to the side of OUR FRAME and the TWO DOTS briefly APPEAR ONSCREEN.

Tyler: They’re called “cigarette burns.”
Jack: It’s called a “changeover.” The movie goes on, and nobody in the audience has any idea.

Tyler: Why would anyone want this shitty job?
Jack: It affords him other interesting opportunities.
Tyler: — Like splicing single frames from adult movies into family films.
Jack: In reel three, right after the courageous dog and the snooty cat — who have celebrity voices — eat out of a garbage can, there’s the flash of Tyler’s contribution…

In the AUDIENCE, CHILDREN suddenly start squirming, confused, looking at each other.

A WOMAN abruptly stops sucking her soda straw, feeling vaguely terrible. Her uncomfortable HUSBAND slowly leans back in his seat.

Jack and Tyler watch from the projection booth window.

Tyler: One-forty-eighth of a second. That’s how long it’s up there.
Jack: No one really knows that they’ve seen it. But they did.
Tyler: A nice, big cock.
Jack: Only a hummingbird could have caught Tyler at work.

— Fight Club (1999), screenplay by Jim Uhls, novel by Chuck Palahniuk

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Breaking the 4th Wall.

Trivia: Tyler’s job as a ‘projectionist’ mirrors the fact that he himself is a projection of the narrator.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This is an interesting use of breaking the 4th wall because while the character who actually faces the camera — Jack — Tyler is also aware of the narrative conceit and chimes in from the background.