What is 'on the nose' dialog?

[nq:1]What is 'on the nose' dialog?[/nq]
I think of it as characters speaking the subtext. If you had your character say, 'I love you,' when he means, 'I love you,' that's on the nose. So you look for a way to have the character say it in subtext. It's often best to say it in action.
I once got a note about 'on the nose' action too, by the way. I had a scene where a man uses the threat of

[nq:1]What is 'on the nose' dialog?[/nq]
When people say exactly what they mean (and usually exactly what the screenwriter needs them to say). It's not only bland and boring, it's not realistic. In real life, people hint and beat around the bush - no one comes right out and says anything. They secretly nudge conversation toward what they want to know... and even then have to figure out what th

[nq:2]What is 'on the nose' dialog?[/nq]
[nq:1]When people say exactly what they mean (and usually exactly what the screenwriter needs them to say). It's not only ... what they want to know... and even then have to figure out what the other person really means. - Bill[/nq]
What Bill said is right, and the way people hint and beat around the bush is called "subtext" in screenplays, w

[nq:1]What is 'on the nose' dialog?[/nq]
"On the nose" dialogue is, of course, having the characters say exactly what they they mean.
"I love you." when they mean that they love.
"I hate you." when they mean that they hate you.
"I can't commit to you because I was raised in a really dysfunctional family and I never learned how to trust," when they mean that they were raised in a re

[nq:2]On Oct 23, 6:02 pm, "rand...@nowhere.net" length about the dangers of global warming, or about the virtues of Bhuddism.[/nq]
[nq:1]Now if you happen to be doing a biopic of Jimmy Durante, on the nose dialog just may be the ticket, you know.[/nq]
Yeah, but it's Schnozz what it used to be.

[nq:1]That is, the worst offense that OTN dialogue takes is when the character actually disappears altogether and the screenwriter possesses ... he sticks his words into the mouth of a character who is, of course, helpless to resist this unspeakable violation.[/nq]
This is about as a good of way of putting it as I've ever seen.

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"

I once saw this, in my days as a script reader: the speaker is referring to a character who hasn't been involved in the action for a while, and the writer obviously had serious reservations about the audience's (and the reader's) memory...
"I've just been talking to Maria. You know - your wife."

Bert
www.bertcoules.co.uk

[nq:1]I once saw this, in my days as a script reader: the speaker is referring to a character who hasn't ... about the audience's (and the reader's) memory... "I've just been talking to Maria. You know - your wife." Bert www.bertcoules.co.uk[/nq]
Noel Coward wrote scripts?

[nq:2]I once saw this, in my days as a script ... been talking to Maria. You know - your wife." Bertwww.bertcoules.co.uk[/nq]
[nq:1]Google lost my message, so here goes... This line is great if the guy is having an affair with Maria. Other perfect on the nosers - The subject was roses Please pass the asparagus (American Beauty)[/nq]
Rhett Butler was pretty good with on the nosers.

[nq:1]I once saw this, in my days as a script reader: the speaker is referring to a character who hasn't ... serious reservations about the audience's (and the reader's) memory... "I've just been talking to Maria. You know - your wife."[/nq]
Incredible.

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"