Dialogus: an audible scenario prototype tool
Dialogus is an interactive scenario prototype tool created by Keez Duyves (PIPS:lab). It lies in between a text editor and DAW, a digital audio workstation. In essence, Dialogus connects a time-bound written text to audio files. Dialogus enables scenarists to write multilayered conversations and immediately listen to their creations.
Dialogus has no particular workflow, as there are many use-cases and ways of utilizing the tool in the work process. The system automatically changes the text into sound and audio files. The audio files can be playbacked by a computer-voice, or an actor can record the text by means of their voice. The scenarist can record his or her own voice too. Moreover, Dialogus is bidirectional: it can transcribe an audio file into written text.
Dialogus is also compatible with other platforms: It is possible to first write a text in Dialogus and then export the text to another tool such as Final Draft, change things and then import it back again to Dialogus.
Dialogus enables real-time manipulation of the audio version of a written text, in the same way a scenarist may manipulate a written text in real time. This is enabled by Dialogus’ embedded timeline. The scenarist can experience and manipulate the rhythm and dynamic of the scenario before handing it over to the director.
A scenarist wanting to write a conversation among different characters can work with Dialogus. Dialogus is especially handy when the scenario includes inner thoughts of a character alongside a conversation, as we have done in our project Anyways (PIPS:lab, 2016). Normally in a script all text –including inner thoughts– are written after each other. However, in real-life, inner thoughts are not experienced in a linear manner. Research has shown that we produce a new thought every 6 seconds.¹ These thoughts may be situation-driven (in the form of a comment on the situation), or thoughts may be totally irrelevant of the situation (such as thinking what to cook for dinner during a meeting). Plus, a thought does not wait for the sentence of the person speaking to be finished; it may pop-up anywhere during the sentence simultaneously. Therefore, as a scenario tool, Dialogus is more life-like in the way it creates the interplay between a conversation and inner thoughts. In Dialogus, the scenarist can experience the interaction between inner thoughts and conversation and discern if the interplay between the two storylines work.
The added value of Dialogus is that it offers synchronous visual feedback (you see the text immediately) along with audio feedback (you instantly hear the text). The fact that you can see the text and audio in a timeline resembles it to a music score. Dialogus renders scenario writing into a time-based practice and, in this sense, it is ontologically compatible with the time-based media of film or 360 cinematic VR.
Context
It was a challenge for the scenarist, Willem van Weelden, to find a tool in which he could write the text of Anyways, a 360 railroad move, which entails inner thoughts on top of a general conversation between 6 passengers. Anyways is simultaneously experienced by six participants. They are immersed in a conversation between 6 eccentric personas sitting in a train compartment. Each participant experiences the dialogue from the point of view of one of the six characters and the characters specific inner thoughts, depending on which headset he or she has on.
Willem started out the writing process in Word. But as the scenario became too complex -imagine a conversation between six personas and add to this six distinct inner thoughts embedded at various intervals in the scenario- Word became insufficient to format this complexity. The next option, Excel, provided at least a format to organize the conversation and inner thoughts but it was impractical and time-costly. In addition, as inner thoughts often overlap with the general conversation, it is necessary to pay extra attention to their timing and place regarding the conversation. In Excel, it is is difficult to get a sense of the rhythm and timing of the inner thoughts vis à vis the conversation. The scenarist needs to wait for the actors to speak the text to understand if the balance between the two storylines work. This slows down the work process and gives the scenarist less autonomy.
Hence, Willem needed a tool that could format efficiently the interplay between conversation and inner thoughts, and enable the written text to be recorded and playbacked auditively to provide the scenarist with a sense of timing and flow between inner thoughts and conversation. Because no such tool exists, Keez decided to develop this himself.
Creation process
Prior to Dialogus, Keez had created another interactive scenario tool called ‘Paperol’. Paperol was inspired from a white roll of paper to write on. It is a completely free form text editor, in which the user can write anything anywhere on the screen. Paperol has a general timeline, and texts only have a visual length depending on the fontsize. In order to be more precise, Keez needed to calculate the length of the content of each text. Paperol does not know what to play where and when. There is a general timeline, but the program does not know what is what, what are actors, what is dialogue, as everything is very open. So Keez decided to create a program that converts text into audio by a text-to-speech program to estimate the length of each sentence. Keez found this interesting and developed a program that enables to create audio tracks from written texts. This is how Dialogus was born.
The length of a text in Paperol vs the length of the audio containing the same word in Dialogus.
Keez developed Dialogus in certain phases based on the feedback of scenario students from the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam who took part in our workshops. They used Dialogus to create specific assignments and gave feedback on its usability and tips for a better workflow. For example, for these students, the ‘invisibility’ of the interface is very important. A good interface is an interface that mediates the scenarist’s thoughts with the text onscreen while remaining unnoticed. When writing, students should not be hindered by technical problems that distract from the writing flow.
Another important feedback was to create the possibility to import and export texts written in other frequently used tools, such as Final Draft and Word, to Dialogus. Since Dialogus was not developed to compete with other established text editors, Keez ensured that one could import and export texts from other tools into Dialogus.
One student suggested to combine Paperol and Dialogus for sketches and improvisation and, then, create a clear part with tracks. Currently in Dialogus there is no place for descriptions of the environment or the actions of a character. It is purely text. Apparently, it is important for scenarists to integrate the description of the environment and actions that occur in the story.
Another point of concern turned out to be the computer-generated voices. According to the students, computer voices are limited and do not always refer to the character that they create. When you listen to your scenario via computer voices, it does not always sound realistic. Hence, Keez added the option of recording one’s own voice or using voice actors to record the text.
Keez is currently working on developing a more efficient operating system. In Dialogus, one can already work on texts in 6 separate tracks, but this can be further expanded. He is investigating whether it is more efficient to have a central recording system, like the central system of the text, instead of separate tracks. He also has to improve the interface. Dialogus is currently operating with OS/Mac but a PC version is coming soon. Data management is -slowly but surely- taking place. To save a few takes of a certain scene before deciding which version to use, for example, would ease the workflow greatly. Once the improvements are implemented, Dialogus will be made available to the students of the Film Academy.
Please send an email to info at pipslab dot nl in case you are interested to know more about this tool.
References
- Klinger, E. Modes of Normal Conscious Flow in Pope, K. S., & Singer (eds), J. L. (1978). The Stream of Consciousness. Retrieved on 21 August 2018 from, https://www.scribd.com/document/270109393/The-Stream-of-Consciousness-Pope
- This text is based on an interview with Keez Duyves on October 7th, 2018.
This blog forms part of the Scenario and VR research trajectory, a collaboration between the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam (AHK), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA), and PIPS:lab, an Amsterdam-based collective creating multimedia installations, performances, and inventions. The research sprouts from the 360° VR movie Anyways (PIPS:lab, 2016) and includes audience research, design and development of two interactive scenario writing tools Dialogus and Paperol, two use cases regarding Paperol, and three workshops with scenario students of the Film Academy to test Dialogus. The blog series documents this research trajectory. The research is supported by RAAK.
