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Sliding Scale of Visuals Versus Dialogue: Difference between revisions

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Sliding Scale of Visuals Versus Dialogue (view source)

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{{quote|''"A funny picture can save a poor joke, a good idea can save poor presentation. Getting them both perfect, however, is an exercise in futility."'' |[[Calvin and Hobbes|Bill Watterson]]}}
 
When confronted with the antics of the rest of the cast, does the [[Only Sane Man]] [[Deadpan Snarker|crack a wry comment]] or does he [[Face Palm|sigh and put on a long suffering look]]?
 
Does a work of fiction rely on [[Scenery Porn|gestures, sweeping shots and visuals]] to get the story moving, or does it have [[Walls of Text]] and [[Seinfeldian Conversation|loads of talky scenes]]?
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The examples which focus on the visuals go on the top, and those that depend on dialogue go to the bottom.
{{examples|Examples}}
== Visuals ==
* Rather obvious, almost all silent films.
* All examples listed under [[Silence Is Golden]].
* Next to no dialogue is spoken in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl: The Subspace Emissary''; the characters' actions and facial expressions do all the talking. Since a fair number of them are [[Heroic Mime|Heroic Mimes]]s in their signature franchises (Mario, Link, Samus, Yoshi, etc.) this makes sense in context. However, it enters [[Fridge Logic]] territory when Snake joins the brawl... and jumps to [[Fridge Brilliance]] when Sonic does.
** Snake ''does'' have one line ("Kept you waiting, huh?") when he first appears, and is also a regular chatterbox in the normal modes if you activate his Codec.
* Many [[Cirque Du Soleil]] shows are short on dialogue, and much of said dialogue is merely [[Speaking Simlish]].
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* The first half of ''[[WALL-E]]'' has little to no dialogue.
* ''[[Minus (Webcomic)|Minus]]'' probably falls somewhere around here.
* ''[[Star Trek: the Motion Picture (Film)|Star Trek theThe Motion Picture]]'' featured large stretches wherein characters would react silently to special effects sequences.
* Many of [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s films, particularly ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (Film)|2001]]'' and ''[[Barry Lyndon]]''. Of course, ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'' and ''[[Doctor Strangelove]]'' both have their share memorable lines.
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. Visual metaphors abound, from the utterly alien design of the Angels to [[Mind Screw|Mind Screwing]]ing religious symbols everywhere. One notable example is Gendo's [[Scary Shiny Glasses]], which become steadily less scarily shiny as we get to know more about his motivations.
** Then again, when it comes to personal backstory, motivations, and psychological trauma, the series is rather good when it comes to dialogue. When it comes to the [[Mind Screw|notoriously difficult to comprehend]] ''plot'', they either don't want to talk about it, or don't know anything anyway. Then again, the plot may just be an excuse to explain [[Dysfunction Junction|all the characters' overwhelmingly huge]] [[Freudian Excuse|Freudian Excuses]]s.
* ''[[Primal]]'' - Twenty minutes of expository cutscenes before the player gets to do more than just walk through the large, empty Nexus.
** The trend continues with each new world and situation.
** In between (and during) the cutscenes are mind-blowing [[Scenery Porn]], though. Puts this kind of in the middle.
* The comic books where [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Huppen:Hermann Huppen|Hermann]] does ''both'' story and drawings (like ''[[Jeremiah (Comic Bookcomics)|Jeremiah]]'', for instance) tend to have many pages without words.
* Works by [[Mamoru Oshii]]
* None of [[The Sims]] has any proper dialog, as they all talks simslish. You still can know what they are talking about thanks to the images in the talking bubble and their gestures.
* [[The Arrival]] by Shaun Tan, is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel. With heavy emphasis on the "graphic" part. As in, there are NO recognizeable letters or words anywhere within the body of the story.
* The comic version of ''[[Three Hundred300]]'' used two or three double-spread panels per page with few word balloons or captions. This allowed for [[Frank Miller]]'s gorgeous art, colored by his wife Lynn Varely, to tell the story.
** Likewise, many ''[[Sin City]]'' stories tend to have few captions and word balloons spread along "widescreen" panels. ''The Yellow Bastard'' is one such example where you have entire pages with only a few words.
 
== Dialogue ==
* ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'', although it does use the occasional mind blowingly gothic drawing to set the mood, 40k relies mostly on quotations and snippets of fluff to set the plot pieces. Good thing it's one of the most quotable pieces of fiction out there.
* ''[[Order of the Stick]]'', being a stick figure webcomic, relies on its characters' banter to set up its jokes and distribute its plot coupons. Sometimes a victim of [[Walls of Text]]
* ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]''' entire gimmick is that [[Remix Comic|it always has the same crappy clip art images]]. Fortunately, the dialogue is hilarious.
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* A lot of the filmmakers who came from the American independent film scene of the early 1990's (such as [[Stephen Soderbergh]], [[Kevin Smith]] and [[Richard Linklater]]) focused much more on clever dialogue than impressive visuals. It also helped that it cost significantly less to shoot clever dialogue than clever visuals. Nowadays, independent filmmakers can make gorgeous movies [[Tech Marches On|for the cost of an HD camcorder and a laptop]].
* [[Quentin Tarantino]] films are usually dialogue heavy.
* [[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]. It's got pages of [[Wall of Text]], and most of the story is characters monologuing their mind games to themselves or the group.
* Ever since dialogue was introduced into a ''Mario'' game starting with ''[[Super Mario 64]]'', ''[[Super Mario Sunshine]]'' is actually the ''only'' game in the series since then to feature full voice acting. By ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'', everyone's back to talking with dialogue boxes and [[Voice Grunting]]. And do you know why? Talking Bowser.
* ''Sonichu''. The author claims it's to preserve marker ink.
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[[Category:Sorting Algorithm of Tropes]]
[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]
[[Category:Sliding Scale Of Visuals Versus Dialogue{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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