people watching
7 Jun 2015 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennickelsMost writing advice includes "people-watching." It's a good way to learn speech patterns and body movement and other things humans do. I've never really been able to do it. I feel weird staring at people in public, and I can't actually pull a few voices out of a crowd to understand their speech--it all blurs into a noise for me.
But I noticed the other day that I pay close attention to what characters in TV shows do. I mentioned I rewatched certain scenes in that Enterprise episode. It wasn't just because the scenes were funny or enlightening it; it was because each time I focused on a different thing--voice inflections, dialogue, body language, facial expressions, the way the scene was blocked, etc. I've actually memorized the dialogue from the video I posted along with most of Trip's expressions. I've watched it that many times.
I've done it a lot with Enterprise to the point that I really noticed what I was doing, but looking back, I've done it before while watching many different shows/movies. Certain scenes from last year's Christmas episode of Castle got rewatched a lot. Mostly the Lanie/Esposito ones. Me and Brenna (12) couldn't get enough of them. She was watching for the comedy; I was studying the way they spoke the words and the looks on their faces.
All of this really helps when I'm writing fanfic because I can hear the character's voices in my head reciting the dialogue I write. I can see the way they should be walking and the expressions they would be making. In my original fiction, I tend to pick a favorite TV character that I've studied and use a lot of their expressions/movements to build a character of my own.
This is one of the reasons I can't really watch stuff with my family (except maybe Brenna who can rewatch her favorite scenes over and over--especially if there's a hot guy in them). They want to get to the next scene; I want to live in one forever.
But I noticed the other day that I pay close attention to what characters in TV shows do. I mentioned I rewatched certain scenes in that Enterprise episode. It wasn't just because the scenes were funny or enlightening it; it was because each time I focused on a different thing--voice inflections, dialogue, body language, facial expressions, the way the scene was blocked, etc. I've actually memorized the dialogue from the video I posted along with most of Trip's expressions. I've watched it that many times.
I've done it a lot with Enterprise to the point that I really noticed what I was doing, but looking back, I've done it before while watching many different shows/movies. Certain scenes from last year's Christmas episode of Castle got rewatched a lot. Mostly the Lanie/Esposito ones. Me and Brenna (12) couldn't get enough of them. She was watching for the comedy; I was studying the way they spoke the words and the looks on their faces.
All of this really helps when I'm writing fanfic because I can hear the character's voices in my head reciting the dialogue I write. I can see the way they should be walking and the expressions they would be making. In my original fiction, I tend to pick a favorite TV character that I've studied and use a lot of their expressions/movements to build a character of my own.
This is one of the reasons I can't really watch stuff with my family (except maybe Brenna who can rewatch her favorite scenes over and over--especially if there's a hot guy in them). They want to get to the next scene; I want to live in one forever.
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GOOBLE GOBBLE ONE OF US
Date: 8 Jun 2015 05:52 am (UTC)FANGIRL LIFE 5EVA
Re: GOOBLE GOBBLE ONE OF US
Date: 8 Jun 2015 06:10 am (UTC)