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.
Howev...
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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 d...
Expand commentI 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