Daily Dialogue — March 1, 2018

Officer: Come on, get everybody to clean this mess up now.
Robbie: We’ve just arrived, sir. Can you tell us what we’re supposed to be doing?
Officer: Nothing. Just wait.
Robbie: Where are the ships?
Officer: A few made it in yesterday, Luftwaffe blew them to buggery. Lost 3,000 men when they sank the Lancastria. High command, in its infinite wisdom, is denying us air cover. A disgrace, a fucking disaster.
Robbie: No, look, the thing is, you see, I’m expected back, you see.
Officer: There’s over 300,000 men on this beach, Private. You’ll have to wait your turn. Just be grateful you’re not wounded. I’ve orders to leave the wounded behind.

— Atonement (2007), screenplay by Christopher Hampton, novel by Ian McEwan

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Walk and Talk.

Trivia: Shooting the five minute Dunkirk beach scene was arguably the toughest portion of shooting. The shooting schedule dictated that the scene must be completed in two days, because the crew has limited time with the 1,000 extras. However the location scouts report indicated the lighting quality at the beach was not good enough until the afternoon of the second day. This forced director Joe Wright to change his shooting strategy into shooting with one camera. The scene was rehearsed on the first day and on the morning of the second day. The scene required five takes and the third take was used in the film. On shooting, Steadicam operator Peter Robertson shot the scene by riding on a small tracking vehicle, walking off to a bandstand after rounding a boat, moved to a ramp, stepped onto a rickshaw, finally dismounting and moving past the pier into a bar.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Here’s a variation on a ‘walk and talk’ scene, the five minute tracking shot in the movie Atonement. The point of the scene: Drive home the helplessness of the soldiers’ situation. The amazing visuals make it more of a ‘shock and talk’ moment.