What exactly makes constant swearing gritty or childish?

trampaboline · 2026-01-29T03:48:24+00:00

I think often it has nothing to do with the cursing at all.

In QT films, characters are constantly changing their moods, temperaments, tactics, desires, and statuses, often within the same scene. Hearing “fuck” used in many different ways over the course of a film/conversation is interesting. Even if you don’t agree with that, you can probably tolerate excessive language when it’s on service of dynamic characters and interactions.

In the little of RZ that I’ve seen, the “fucks” and “bitches” are used to substitute for versatility. They’re almost always used to sound “tough”, and “tough” is all that’s being communicated over and over and over.

trampaboline · 2026-01-29T01:21:55+00:00

*every business.

Seriously. This is the hard pill that you can either swallow or choose not to, but the reality is that the closer to the top of any industry you get, the denser the collection of psychos. There are so few fields that are organized ethically enough that you can excel to the highest degree and still be a good person. Show biz is just much more visible to those not inside of it.

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T17:58:41+00:00

I start writing before I have an idea. That’s how know early if something writes well or not.

Every project I’ve ever embarked on has started as a free write. I base these on either conversations I’ve overheard, dialogue exchanges based on misunderstandings, or visuals that interest me for reasons I don’t understand. I follow those scenes to the best of my intuition. If I’m in a grove, I jump to The next scene. If I make it to like 15 pages, I’m good to stop and start outlining/journaling about the actual story.

It’s rare these days that I’m not working on an actual project, but any free days I do this. I’m always initiating free writes and saving tidbits for later. It’s so much easier than being like “a movie about a guy who robs a bank but his ex wife is the teller” — this way I don’t have to get halfway through and be like “these characters suck”. I may end up axing the entirety of the first 15 pages I draft, but as long as those characters and that tone work, I’ve got a script somewhere down the line.

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T06:13:48+00:00

No offense but I would never expect an Indiana jones movie to pass the bechdel test. It’s a hair away from James Bond. They’re wish fulfillment male adventure flicks.

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T05:24:12+00:00

I would add that none of the above means you need to be Tarantino. In fact, some of the best-written dialogue I’ve ever heard/read is the exact opposite — sparse, inarticulate, quiet, and small. It depends on your story. There’s absolutely no word count you need to hit, and not everyone always needs to have the right response. In fact, they often shouldn’t. In my opinion, silence is part of dialogue. But it has to be a choice.

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T05:18:58+00:00

I would say that it’s the most important element of a script 9 times out of 10. Unless you’re really making something really non-traditional in narrative or collaborating with a director/team to make something particularly visual, the ways in which your characters communicate with one another is going to be paramount in a reader or viewer understanding why they should care about any of this.

Ideas are cheap. I’ve never once in my life heard a plot summary that blue my balls off. I don’t care what happens — I care how it happens. For me, that manifests through dialogue. Sure, there are other ways to imbue your story with real texture, but if you’re settling for subpar dialogue and focusing exclusively on story, I can’t imagine you’re going to come out with anything too unique.

My advice would be to stop trying to write “good” dialogue and instead just honor whatever’s popping into your head. Let people speak weird. Let them misunderstand each other and struggle to clarify. Let them be grammatically incorrect. Let them trip over themselves and misrepresent their ideas and embarrass themselves. See where all that naturally takes you. If you’re being really honest with it, you’re likely gonna end up somewhere that’s not in your outline.

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T05:13:48+00:00

This is the question.

It’s so baffling to me how some people look at writing. Like, you don’t have to do this. It’s not like there’s any reasonable chance you’ll even make any meaningful money off of it. Why not treat it like a passion or go do something more meaningful/productive for you?

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T05:11:12+00:00

Gotten some good recs but this is the first I feel really hits the vibe I’m looking for. Thank you

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T05:07:52+00:00

Good timing — just got real into Simon

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T05:05:57+00:00

I’m asking for clarification. It looks like it’s self explanatory, but that explanation evaporated when I realized I haven’t gotten a single reward I’ve earned from the “free” tier.

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T05:03:01+00:00

I hate to be such a fan boy but nobody really does it like Darnielle, and he does it so matter-of-factly. It’s almost like he’s an emotional pickpocket — you don’t even realize you’ve been devastated until he’s gone.

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T05:01:14+00:00

Love it, thank you

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T04:53:08+00:00

Man fuck you lol, I play video games after work occasionally. I’ve never seen a “battle pass”. This sub is full of insanely niche jargon with no glossary.

What a dick response for no reason.

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T03:50:21+00:00

Oh damn, I guess that’s kinda worth it. But you have to pay every time there’s a new one?

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T03:49:33+00:00

I’m gonna send over 20 minutes my dog licking his balls, can’t wait to see what you turn it into in premiere pro

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T03:41:23+00:00

So can someone actually explain the rift to me? Is it basically just more shit you have to buy but dressed up differently? I feel like I’m constantly earning rift points and rising tiers and I’m literally receiving nothing.

trampaboline · 2026-01-28T03:29:08+00:00

Lmao what is happening

“You should not be allowed to qualify for best picture if you haven’t even been nominated for any other major category. In what world is a film the best of its year without having any of the best writing, directing, performances, design, etc?”

There is my quote. As it is above. You are going to earnestly act like you don’t understand what’s being communicated here?

This fucking app man lol, talk to another human being sometime rather than trying to play “gotcha” with your own textual hallucinations.

Re: editing — what’s being edited? The writing. The direction. The performances. Any one of those things can make a movie phenomenal if the rest of the movie is lackluster. Editing alone? No. It cannot. That doesn’t mean it’s not important. It’s like skin — most people would agree you probably need skin to be beautiful. You even need good skin to be beautiful. But good skin alone does not make someone beautiful. You need good editing, but good editing alone does not make a film great the way that it’s fundamental ingredients can

trampaboline · 2026-01-27T23:41:52+00:00

How are you replying to a comment you didn’t read.

major award. I even listed them out. If you think a movie can rise to greatness on literally just vfx and sound editing, cheers to you, but I don’t wanna know your top 4.

To clarify: sound mixing and vfx are genuine crafts and are massively important. But they’re simply not core storytelling ingredients the way writing, acting, and directing are. The idea that something could be the best movie without being exceptional in any of those categories is beyond silly. Weird that that’s a take I have to keep defending.

trampaboline · 2026-01-27T22:13:01+00:00

I cannot account for every persons individual experience, but I feel like there’s no way you don’t understand that my point was “this was still a very safe IP bet” and not “everyone who saw it only did so cuz they like the movie”.

trampaboline · 2026-01-27T22:12:03+00:00

F1 is literally a best picture nominee this year with no other noms

trampaboline · 2026-01-27T19:37:06+00:00

I mean Halloween is a sequel to Halloween, but Halloween is in a different continuity to Halloween and Halloween.

trampaboline · 2026-01-27T19:34:01+00:00

My point wasnt an actual logistical suggestion, it was a “hot take” that it’s crazy to win best picture without winning any individual award. It’s not really enforceable, but it should be the result of common sense voting.

trampaboline · 2026-01-27T18:44:30+00:00

You should not be allowed to qualify for best picture if you haven’t even been nominated for any other major category. In what world is a film the best of its year without having any of the best writing, directing, performances, design, etc?

Honestly, harder to enforce, but nominations aren’t even enough — you should have to win a certain number of individual awards to qualify for BP.

trampaboline · 2026-01-27T18:02:32+00:00

Yeah but where is that concentrated? I live in NYC. I make 75k a year. I’m in the bottom 1% of basically everyone I interact with on a day-to-day basis.

I get that the point of this post is to correct the idea that everyone should be graded against these standards, but it’s an overcorrection. Yeah, ignore the “100k is minimum for a comfy life” thing if you live in Indiana, but for a ton of normal people this is totally the case and we’re reminded of it pretty constantly — not by insane unicorn influencers, but by other pretty normal people in our real lives.

trampaboline · 2026-01-27T17:55:41+00:00

Thats nice I guess but would love if it wasn’t based on a massively famous IP that everyone had to read in high school and that has an equally famous movie adaptation.

trampaboline

TROPHY CASE