GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “Buried” — Dialogue

We wrap up our week long analysis of the script Buried by considering its use of dialogue. There are the standard set of questions:

* What do you consider to be the most memorable lines, either good or… not so good? Why did they work — or not — for you?

* Any notable callbacks (a line used once, then used again later in a different context)?

* How about set-up & payoffs?

* Any exposition that caught your eye for being handled exceptionally well?

I reached out to Chris Sparling, the screenwriter of Buried to see if he would answer some questions about the movie for us, and he kindly agreed. Here are his responses to questions about the story’s dialogue:

Scott: I know a lot of writers who have a problem with characters talking out loud to themselves when they are alone. It feels artificial to them, an easy way out for writers to have characters express what they’re thinking and feeling, and they avoid it like the plague. In Buried, Paul talks aloud to himself a pretty significant amount, especially as he tries to process where he is and what’s going on. Was that at all an issue for you? For example, did you ever have any hesitation having Paul say several variations of the line, “What is this?” in the first few pages of the script? Or did that feel like a natural and realistic thing a person would do in that type of situation?

Chris: I tried pretty hard to avoid having Paul talk to himself too much, but at times it seemed necessary — at least to me. If anything, I tried to make those moments more for Paul’s sake than for the audience. Lines like the one you mentioned are Paul actually wondering out loud what’s going on. The audience doesn’t need him to explain that he doesn’t know what’s going on, as it’s pretty clear by the setting, his actions, etc. that he doesn’t know. These moments were the utterances of a scared man, not a device for conveying information.

Scott: I was struck by this comment you made about characters: “Movie characters are as cool as a cucumber in times of crisis; real people are frantic and illogical.” Was that at work when you were writing Paul’s dialogue as he tried to explain his circumstance the first few times he reached people on the phone? Because as I read those sides, I found myself getting frustrated with him because he was doing such a crappy job providing a coherent account of his situation, but then perhaps that’s an example of your point, that real people would screw up that type of thing, and I should feel frustrated because Paul is a flawed human being in a really stressful situation?

Chris: That’s it exactly. To put it in perspective, give yourself ten seconds — and only ten seconds — to come up with a list of people who, at this very moment, might be able to do something so simple as give you a ride to the grocery store. And then factor in that you don’t have any phone numbers stored in your phone, you’re short on breath, it’s over 100 degrees, and — minor detail here — you’re buried alive. Truth be told, if you (or I) were even able to come up with a single person, and were then able to make contact with them, you’d (and I’d) be lucky to put together a single coherent sentence, let alone a cogent explanation of why we need that ride. And that’s because we’re real people; not movie characters. Paul needed to seem just as real.

Scott: I’m sure you’re well aware of screenwriting hardliners who insist that we can only use scene description to convey what we can see, nothing in the way of going inside the mind of characters or commenting on the mood or feel of the moment, what we may call a more ‘novelistic’ approach or perhaps editorializing. However Buried has a lot of that. For example:

* “It becomes clear to him that he is buried.”

* “He tries to remember the Safe Number he was given.”

* “He knows preserving oxygen is paramount, so he does his best to calm himself.”

* “It becomes clear that Jabir is responsible for all this.”

Did you feel like because of the limitations of your story conceit — telling a story of a man stuck in a coffin — you could take liberties in this regard. Or maybe you’re more of my mindset which is we do have the license to editorialize if that’s what it takes to tell the story in the best way possible?

Chris: Because there aren’t many scene breaks, I felt the script already read somewhat like an oddly-formatted novel. So to continue in this vein seemed unusually acceptable. I’d normally try to avoid editorializing a script, but given the extremely heavy role the physical predicament played in Buried, it seemed very important to keep the reader equally aware of Paul’s ongoing mental struggle.

Scott: Finally could you share a bit about some of the projects you’re working on now, in particular the ones you are writing and directing?

Chris: It would be my pleasure. In addition to the film I wrote ATM, which comes out this spring, I’m currently polishing two scripts, “Mercy” and “Incident on 459” to get them ready to shoot some time this year or early next. I was also very fortunate to work with one of my influences, M. Night Shyamalan (MNightShyamalan), for whom I wrote the film Reincarnate, the second in the series ‘The Night Chronicles.’ Lastly, I will be making my feature directing debut this spring with “Falling Slowly,” a supernatural drama/thriller based on a screenplay I first started writing about two years before writing Buried.

Once again some invaluable insight into the craft from Chris. For example, the question I asked about the novelistic / editorializing approach he took in the script for Buried, Chris’ response speaks to the idea of narrative voice which is a story’s invisible character, the attitude you take toward the style you use in scene description. In Buried, the narrative voice is inside the coffin with Paul, intimately aware of what the character is thinking and feeling. There is a forced level of intimacy because of the central story conceit [man trapped in coffin], therefore the NV reflects that circumstance.

Please go into comments and thank Chris for taking the time to answer these questions.

For Day 1 of our analysis of Buried, go here.

For Day 2 focusing on structure, go here.

For Day 3 focusing on characters, go here.

For Day 4 focusing on themes, go here.

This is our last script to read and analyze in 2011, so jump in before it’s too late.

NOTE: THIS SERIES AND THE USE OF SCRIPTS IS STRICTLY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES!

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