You can find thick books devoted to the art of film dialogue. Much of the advice can be summed up this way: “Less is more.”  There are many ways to achieve that goal, such as  omitting small talk (“How are you doing?”  and making sure that your characters don’t say what the viewers can see. Peter Olsen brings that wisdom to life in his “Incendiary,” a short thriller featuring a husband and wife bomb-defusing team. If you see–and listen to—the movie two or three times, you’ll discover many lessons in writing memorable dialogue.

 

The director packs a lot of dialogue into a movie that runs just over two minutes. But he doesn’t waste a word. One example of efficient dialogue writing occurs when the husband admits: “I made out with Janice at the Christmas party.” Janice is totally unknown to the audience at that point, but in just four words—”My maid of honor?”—the man’s wife tells us all we need to know.

Going Behind the Scenes

“Incendiary,” shot using a Padcaster Verse, is an entry in this year’s Moment Invitational Film Festival.  Entrants were required to shoot their movies using Moment lenses  and the FiLMiC Pro camera app. Each film had to fit into the suspense genre. Incendiary uses a ticking clock–a time bomb—to build tension. For a very different use of the ticking-clock device used in a mobile movie check out our article about Peter Chan’s “Three Minutes.”

The editors of MobileMovieMaking.com have chosen “Incendiary” as a Mobile Movie of the Week.