One of the most common scenes written in scripts is the humble dinner scene. It is so common because eating happens to be the time which we are most likely to convene with family and friends, we can catch up and most importantly in film land have a good old discussion that elaborates the story.
However it is also a minefield of cliche and bad exposition, but when done right can elevate your story massively:
https://www.stage32.com/blog/coffee-content-ensembles-dinner-scenes-3193
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This reminds me of an epic scene from The Way We Live Now (BBC), where a banquet is held - and they show the greed, gluttony and avarice of all the people eating at the table of Melmotte. It's a wonderful piece of theatre/film. Dread to think how many buckets they needed there....
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I didn't know that, M LaVoie. How do actors react to having to eat food that gets cold (the food getting cold as they act out the scene)?
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Wow I didn't know that about Charlie Chaplin! I extra'd on X-men First class and watched James Mcavoy down 8 yards of ale for a scene. He would walk off the set, throw up the full yard and then walk back on to do it all over again.
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As a former dailies editor, I had to watch every camera take, from every new camera position. From what I remember, multi-cameras were often used to film reaction shots, coverage of two or more actors in the shot.
As for scenes being cliche & bad exposition, most cases the rest of the movie isn't any good either.
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Pretty hard to shoot indeed. I had to direct a big dinner scene with 15 people, a lot of food, during Covid, plus the characters were all Muslims so they had to eat with their bare hands. Hard to film, but fun.
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I can’t remember name of film but one of the best dinner scenes for me was where meal “didn’t” happen due to anticipation, suspense & dread it conjured. 2 sets of parental in laws were invited but a druggie couple forgot to de frost the turkey and were going to bizarre lengths to get it ready. It wasn’t a comedy either.
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Thanks, M LaVoie. It's interesting to hear about this behind-the-scenes problem. Does anyone know any more behind-the-scenes problems (food or otherwise)?
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I absolutely love a great dinner dialog. So intimate and nuanced.
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The Shawshank Redemption director’s commentary has some interesting insights into dinner scenes… lots of mess hall scenes in that movie and how he overcomes making them all different… a great ‘how-to’ masterclass… he nails them all… great dialogue and effective expositions