When your budget is severely limited, casting is one of the first areas affected. Cost conscious filmmakers make huge efforts to keep their casts to a minimum, but a nasty side-effect can arise in the script. Yep, our old enemy "on-the-nose" dialogue. This pernicious beast lurks in scenes where two characters attempt to tell the story without the benefit of a full cast, multiple locations and an extended production period.

The simplest definition of "on-the-nose" dialogue is when a character has to give out important information and in doing so, disrupts the normal way that people talk. Here's an example:

"Hey John, good to see you. I'm surprised you're back at work after that nasty accident you had on the freeway last week when the Toyota you bought from my brother Fred had an unexpected brake failure. It's terrible that your beautiful wife, Jane, whom I dated at high school, injured her knees, but thank goodness it didn't affect her pregnancy!"

How do writers overcome this horrible tendency? By writing shorter sentences and by making the audience work it out for themselves.e.g.

"Hey John! Back to the grind so soon?"

"Yeah, I need the money to fix that darn wreck your lousy brother sold me".

"Did I tell you to buy Fred's car?" "Should've known. You and your brother have been down on me since high school".

"It could've happened to anybody, buddy. Brakes fail. Especially on cars as old as Fred's Toyota."

"Yeah, well Fred's Toyota is now a dead Toyota!"

"So how's Jane? Is she okay?"

"Oh right, Jane! I should've guessed she'd be on your mind, lover boy. Well, she bruised both knees. Doctors say she was lucky..."

"And the..the.. you know, the.."

"The baby? She didn't lose it, Bill, if that's what you're asking."

Do you see how suddenly the characters are interacting, how a subtext creeps in (John's resentment of Bill's concern for Jane) and how the dialogue seems to be pushing forward all the time? Most of the information is getting through, but now it sounds like real people talking (well, kinda) - and there's an element of conflict between the two men which keeps an audience watching to see how this will develop.