How to Break Down Dialogue

Making a story out of hundreds or thousands of lines of dialogue is a special skill unique to trailer editors (and documentary filmmakers!). Sifting through, selecting and breaking down dialogue is an essential part of making a story trailer; it allows the editor to see what they have to work with while also building familiarity with it.

Well edited dialogue in a trailer is achieved by finding the lines which say just enough to communicate a story, even if they're from totally different scenes or in an order completely different from their original context. Poorly edited dialogue results in a lot of scenes which work on their own in context, but when cut into a trailer amount to complete narrative chaos and confusion which will likely confuse and disorient the audience like a poorly shot and edited fight scene.

Every story trailer I make typically starts with a script or spreadsheet with hours upon hours of dialogue, which I then sift down to selects, categorize, and then piece together into a trailer script. Every line of dialogue is a potential piece of the puzzle, and can be repurposed into a trailer in any conceivable order or formation. Developing an ear for good trailer dialogue takes time and experience, but here are some guidelines I follow to decide whether or not a line will make it into that first massive pile of dialogue.

A good place to start is to just think: "Who, what, when, where, why and how?" Though oftentimes asking "How?" is a much less important question to answer in a trailer. For example in The Matrix Revolutions, the line: "The machines are digging; they're burrowing straight from the surface down to Zion." answers the question: "What are the machines doing?" The answer to the question: "How are the machines digging?" would be something like: "They're using giant mechanical drills to dig down to Zion." Not really that important in the grand scheme of things.

The main categories of dialogue you want to be on the lookout for are related to:

Backstory & World Building
Character Building
Actions
Stakes
Ideas & Themes
Setup & Prompts
Humor
Interjections

Backstory & World Building

"In the land of Middle Earth, legend tells of the Dark Lord Sauron, and the ring that would allow him to enslave the world. Lost for centuries, it has been sought by many and has now found its way into the hands of the most unlikely person imaginable."

Oftentimes the dialogue in movies or games are tailor made for trailers because they simply say what is happening. Trailer editors aren't always so lucky to get an exposition dump like this, but it does happen from time to time. This sort of dialogue can also happen in the context of a conversation between people such as this one from the Black Panther Teaser Trailer:

"What do you know about Wakanda?"

"It's a third world country. Textiles, shepherds, cool outfits."

"All a front. Explorers have searched for it, called it 'El Dorado.' They looked for it in South America, but it was in Africa the whole time."

This is the bread and butter of trailers which is a lot like the "In a world..." style of trailer narration from the 80s and 90s, but if it can be pulled from the original source material it will feel more authentic because it's the material speaking for itself.

Character Building

"I don't know what he can do to save us. But I do know that as long as there is a single a breath in his body. He will never give up, and neither can we."

There are so many ways to build up a character in a trailer. You can talk about their personality, role in the story, relationship to other characters, their problems, beliefs, wants, and a lot more. Knowing these details helps us relate, sympathize or understand a character.

For example, this line from the first Matrix trailer explains how Agent Smith sees humans which sets him up as the antagonist:

"Human beings are a disease. You are a cancer of this planet. We are the cure."

Back to Black Panther, this line sets up T'Challa's dilemma as rule of Wakanda:

"You are a good man, with a good heart, and it's hard for a good man to be a king."

It's worth at least selecting any dialogue where someone describes a character, or a character says something about themselves. There are also lines which say something about a character without being explicitly descriptive such as T'Challa's line: "I never freeze" which indicates his cool confidence.

Action Illustration

These are lines which show action moments or simply actions which happen in the past, present or future. For example in The Matrix Reloaded trailer, the line: "So now he's found a way to copy himself?" gives the trailer editor the power to show Agent Smith copying himself. In the Mission Impossible: Fallout trailer Tom Cruise yells "I'M JUMPING OUT OF A WINDOW" to set up an action moment and add a bit of humor.

Any dialogue which describes things that happened in the past, are happening in the present, or will happen in the future are worth selecting because they give the opportunity to set up cool things to show in the trailer.

"No one has ever done something like this."

"THE DOCK IS BREACHED!"

"Here they come."

"Neo is doing what he believes he must do."

Stakes

"What happens if I fail?"

"Then Zion will fall."

"In less than 12 hours the machines will breach the dock walls."

These lines help answer questions like: "Why is this important?" or "Why should we care?" They declare what is at stake whether it's the annihilation of the human race, or a character not being able to be with the person they love.

"If I don't get food, I'm going to starve..."

Ideas & Themes

"Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?"

These lines can either be good for backstory exposition or trailer filler for end montages where there's a random assortment of cool shots not intended to be literally paired with images. Any time big ideas, themes or ideologies are expressed, they're worth hanging onto. It might be the thesis of the writer/director of a film or the developers of a game. Oftentimes they're hypothetical questions like this one for the end of the trailer for The Matrix Reloaded:

"What if the prophecy is true? What if tomorrow the war could be over? Isn't that worth fighting for?" Isn't that worth dying for?"

"Sometimes the cats we save, are really the ones saving us..."

Setup & Prompts

These lines are frequently divorced from context because they often work like the glue of the trailer which connects the different story sections. For example, the line from the first Matrix trailer: "Buckle your seatbelt Dorothy, because Kansas is going bye bye." is a prime example of dialogue which builds anticipation and sets up the climax of the trailer.

There are also a lot of questions which are prompts for exposition, character building moments and actions. For example:

"What is the Matrix?"

"So what do you need?"

"Do you know what happened to Neo?"

Some of these will have corresponding answers from within the scene, but they can also frequently be paired with things from completely different scenes. Any time someone asks a question or creates anticipation, that's a prompt for a shot or line of dialogue to be cut in as a response or contrasting moment.

For example, "Do you know what happened to Neo?" could be paired with a shot of Neo lost in limbo if you were to play it straight. But if you paired it with a shot of Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, that prompt would be the setup for a laugh.

Humor

There aren't any humorous beats in any of The Matrix trailers, but the moment from the first film when Neo fails to jump from one building to another has the lines:

"What does that mean?"

"Everybody falls the first time"

These could absolutely have been used for humorous moments in the trailer had they decided to go that route. Of course, comedic films and games will be rife with jokes, so it's important to have those separated out and organized in your project.

Interjections

These are even more frequently divorced from context, because they're single words, grunts, screams, cries of pain etc. If you've ever watched TV spots for Blu-rays or DVDs, interjections are the things most frequently in "conversation" with the narrator describing the amount of content and special features. For example, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets when Harry emerges from Tom Riddle's diary and says: "Whoa!"

Knowing what dialogue NOT to select is just as important, otherwise you'd just be selecting every single line, which for games especially can just be out of the question due to sheer volume of lines. A lot of movie and especially game dialogue is not consequential enough to fit into a trailer. A way to think of it is: Does the dialogue refer to something which will affect a character's entire situation or just a small moment?

For example, the scene in The Matrix where Mouse talks about missing Tasty Wheat and wondering whether or not its taste in The Matrix is correct or not does not significantly affect any of the characters or world. More importantly, in order for the trailer audience to understand it would require a LOT more exposition about how The Matrix works.

Dialogue which requires a lot of context is generally not good for trailers because it means a lot of dialogue or custom narration for it to be understood be understood. For example the line: "A deja vu is a sign of a glitch in The Matrix, they've changed something" requires us to know The Matrix is a virtual simulation, who are the people in control of the simulation are, and also what the signs of a deja vu are.

Similarly, the entire line: "Do not try to bend the spoon; that's impossible. Instead try to focus on the truth. That there is no spoon." is steeped in ideas which a trailer will have no time to get into, and even if it was a trailer for people who've already seen the movie, it would probably still feel rather odd.

The important things to ask about each line of dialogue are:

What is the bigger story or character beat this dialogue illustrates?
Can this set up or illustrate a moment in the trailer?
How much context does this line need to be understood?

If the line doesn't refer to a significant world building or character building idea, it can't be paired with a visual to communicate an idea and if it requires far too much time to explain, then it probably isn't worth hanging onto in your project, at least not in your main string of selects.

If however you have the opportunity to re-record some dialogue, sometimes there are lines which just need a little bit of tweaking to more directly express an idea which would be good for the trailer. Simply watching a lot of well edited movie trailers will help you learn to hear good dialogue and narration, but doing it yourself via a feature film, TV show or screenplay is the best way to practice. It's a lot of work, but well worth it if you want to make a great story trailer and have a smooth editing experience!

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