Writing
“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for
the love of it, then you do it for a few
friends, and finally you do it for money.”
-Moliere
Screenwriters
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Screenwriters are considered one of the most
important elements in any film
•
Some directors do their own writing, but even then
employ screenwriters to clean up what they have
done.
•
Screenwriters face the challenge of making
characters come alive without the benefit of novellike narration
Scripts
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Scripts seldom make good reading because they
are primarily blueprints to a movie
•
Some directors follow a script very literally, some
make changes often and with little regard for the
original material
•
Scripts are often modified to suit particular
personality stars.
Scripts cont.
•
That said, some very good dialogue heavy writers
exist and make scripts that are a pleasure just to
listen to
•
For example, Quentin Tarantino uses very
conversational dialogue to make his movies feel
like normal people, not just characters in a movie
•
Reservoir Dogs tipping scene
•
http://youtu.be/VRBPbgd4bbg
Figurative
Language
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Motifs, symbols, and metaphors are saturated in
film
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Motifs is anything systematically repeated
throughout the film
•
•
Man v. Nature Ex. Jurassic Park
http://youtu.be/3m695PR_L90
Symbols are palpable things within the frame, like a
fire acting as a wall to prevent two people from
being together
•
The loons in On Golden Pond
Figurative language
cont.
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Metaphors are a comparison of some kind that
cannot be literally true
•
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey
http://youtu.be/qtbOmpTnyOc
Figurative
Language Cont.
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Allegory and Allusion
•
•
Allegory is seldom used in movies because it
tends to be simple-mindedness
Allusion is a common type of literary analogy.
Filmmakers ofter drawn upon stories from religion,
mythology, and history
•
Ex Neo in The Matrix trilogy
http://youtu.be/DX3qLIwHoUo
Point of view
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First-person narrator tell his/her own story
•
This narrator can be objective about the events or
not, depending on the film
•
ex A River Runs Through It and Forrest Gump
Point of view cont.
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Omniscient point of view narrators are generally
detached from the story and tend to be objective,
but can have their own personality and character
•
ex The Shawshank Redemption and Conan the
Barbarian http://youtu.be/ypAAsmgVmhk
Point of view cont.
•
Objective point of view
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Like omniscient point of view, objective point of
view tells the story from an objective point of view,
but does not necessarily tell all side of the story
•
Ex Run Lola Run follows one character’s point of
view most of the movie, but the character does not
narrate.
Literary adaptions
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Movies can be based upon plays, novels, even epic
poems
•
Adaptions can be a double edged sword: if you
stray too far from the source material, it makes for a
poor representation of the original; if you stay too
faithful, especially for novels, the movie can be
extremely long
Adaptions
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Loose adaptions take the original work, but rework
some events and characters to make it fit into a
movie better and may change the plot altogether
ex. The Lion King
•
Faithful adaptions attempt to recreate the original
works, but may have to cut scenes or add scenes
to make the written work adapt better to the screen
ex. the Harry Potter films
•
Literal adaptions take the original work and recreate
it word for word... these are usually restricted to
plays ex. Henry V