The Power of Silence

As a service to the young filmmakers who submit films to the YoungCuts Film Festival, we will be featuring weekly filmmaking tips from YoungCuts Alumni, Partners and Friends.

A screenwriting professor once told me that if I couldn’t think of a valid reason for having my characters speak, or what the dialogue was communicating about the story, then maybe they shouldn’t be speaking at all. Seems like no-brainer, but I have actually lived by these words ever since.

My first few short films were silent films; I simply couldn’t think of any satisfying way to have the characters speak, so I decided instead to embrace another widely-held maxim of cinema: show, don’t tell. This is not a full-proof method by any means, but it is a good example of turning a weakness into a tool for self-improvement, and a hell of a good way to train your filmmaking intellect.

Silence is more powerful than any amount of witty banter or clever one-liners.

If you can communicate a story without saying a single word, you learn not to, for instance, waddle in exposition dialogue when you should be creating your story visually and aurally. You also learn to put more care into choosing your shots, your sounds, and begin to really appreciate dialogue as a component of film instead of contrived chatter. Silence can be often more powerful and poignant than any amount of witty banter or clever one-liners.

In Montreal, the first short films produced by film production students at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema are one minute silent films shot on a Bolex. It is a very effective exercise designed to force the student filmmakers to focus on telling their story purely visually. 

Focus on telling your story purely visually

The animation students at the CEGEP de Vieux Montreal produce short films every year with music and sound effects, but no dialogue. Even though the films typically have French titles, they can (and are) enjoyed by audiences around the world regardless of language. 

As an example of a film from the YoungCuts Film Festival, told with no dialogue, that played on TV on the HiFi HDTV channel along with my film Imprint, watch Francis Martineau's film Blacksmith. Francis shot the film as part of a 48 hour film challenge. They recorded dialogue, but an equipment malfunction made what they filmed useless. With a deadline breathing down his neck, Francis improvised and re-cut his film without dialogue, winning awards in the process. 

Sometimes a disaster on the set is an opportunity in disguise

Proof not just that you can sometimes tell a better story without dialogue, but that sometimes a disaster on the set is really an opportunity in disguise. 

Jason Ambrus is a filmmaker from Montreal. His film Imprint was one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. Follow Jason on Twitter: @Wolfsenior

This post is based on one originally presented on Jason's blog The Reverse Angle.

Agree with Jason? Disagree? Have your own filmmaker tips, best practices or mistakes to avoid that you would like to share? Get in touch! E-Mail the YoungCuts Film Festival Director, Michael Ryan: Mike@YoungCuts.com