WritingWriting“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

“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

• 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 novel-like narration

Scripts

• 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

• Motifs, symbols, and metaphors are saturated in film

• 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.

• 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.

• 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

• 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.

• 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

• 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

• 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• 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