How my favourite filmmakers do boring scenes.
Dialogue.
Dialogue is something that seems boring to film and edit because it seems as though there are very few ways to do it interestingly. I decided that it might be interesting to take straight dialogue scenes from some of my favourite films and see if I can learn anything that could give me ideas on how to make these scenes more interesting. I have missed out Yasujiro Ozu, as his way of shooting dialogue is so unique that it needs a whole blog.
Ichi The Killer
Thinking about the film Ichi The Killer I realised that there is not much straight dialogue in the film. Most of the dialogue is made more interesting by characters moving around or doing something else while talking. One dialogue scene in the film features seamless cutting between the scene in question and a scene representing one character’s memory. The scene that I chose was one of the few I can think of in the film that features two people opposite each other talking. Here are screenshots of a few of the shots from that scene.
The establishing shot zooms out from a Majong board. Once again the characters are not simply sitting they are doing something else at the same time. This appears to be key to the film’s success. 
This shot continues slowly out and to the side until it stops at the position of an ordinary side view of two people sitting opposite each other. It holds this position for some time before cutting. As you can see by the position of the actors in this shot, the camera isn’t the only thing which has moved. Jiji has sat up and Karen has adjusted the way she sits. Jiji has also handed her an envelope, which she has opened and looked inside. Therefore a prop is also involved.
This is later in the same shot, which is held for much longer than I remember from watching as a passive viewer so many times. Between the last snip and this one the actors have done many things. Karen has thrown the prop onto the floor and changed her seating position a few times. Jiji has picked the prop up from the carpet. They are also occasionally turning their attention to the Majong board, while continuing the conversation. They are constantly doing something and this helps the scene keep your interest.
The scene finally cuts to a close up of the prop in Jiji’s hands. The prop does not stay in focus for very long (as you can see by this snip), as Jiji’s hands are moving a little, but when the shot begins it is in perfect focus for half a second or so.
This is a snip from later in the same shot. Jiji has turned the prop around for Karen to look at again and the camera has followed it before changing it’s focus to Karen’s face looking at the prop.
There is a cut to another scene, which plays without sound while the conversation continues.
It then cuts back to a similar shot in the main scene, but it is a little bit closer up to Karen’s face. This shot is held for about 7 or 8 seconds before cutting to a distorted flashback of a scene that may or may not be from Karen’s memory. (This flashback contains a few shots which are not dialogue based)
When we return to the scene Karen is shot from the side at another close angle. 
This snip is from the same shot. Karen moves her head around quite a lot during this shot. The camera gradually gets closer.
It then cuts to a close up of Jiji.
This is from the same shot. The camera has gotten closer, but only slightly. The closeness of these shots adds extra intensity to this part of the scene. The fact that the camera subtly gets closer also adds intensity.
The lighting in this scene hits them from the window on one side, putting one side in slight shadow. This has an effect of almost silhouetting the characters in the side shots.
Overall from this scene I have learnt that there was a lot more interesting directing choices being made than I remember from watching as a passive viewer and I have learnt lots of things which could be used in my own films.
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