Why Scripts Are the Backbone of a Good Film

Clerks is one. Another is Primer, you know a script will be crazy when its written by an engineer.

Reply

Sweet Smell of Success

Reply

Sideways is a great script. So funny.

Reply

Magnolia. To think that it was written in only a matter of weeks and the complexity of it boggles the mind. Also very personal stuff for PTA.
I think Behind the Mask also had a great script.

Reply

Anthony — I was gonna mention Sweet Smell of Success! A long overlooked gem. Ernest Lehman's best.

Any script by John Sayles — Lone Star, City of Hope and Passion Fish especially.

Sunset Blvd — Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, D.M. Marshman, Jr

Chinatown — cliche, but true.

NOTHING by Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Diablo Cody... as re-iterated above, "most filmmakers agree that dialogue is the least of it." So get off the dialogue driven monologues and oh-so-cool quips and write something with substance!

Reply

And Quentin movies/Juno/some of Kevin Smith's movies don't have good characters or driving, interesting plotlines?

Reply

L.A Confidential is tight and extremely well written

Reply

Jack:

No, they don't.

Reply

If anything, the terrible movies of this summer--Wolverine, Terminator 4, Transformers 2, etc.-- are proof that a good script is key.

Star Trek worked despite its bad script, due to the character interplay and charisma of the cast.

The exceptions are Up, a superbly written film, and The Hangover.

Reply

I haven't actually read the script yet, but The Incredibles is a movie in which you can see the attention to detail. So much thought went into making that story work, and it works so well. From relating the smallest detail of the character's last name (Parr, as in average) to the overall theme of living up to one's potential and embracing your special skills, all in the guise of a superhero film. It's very well done.

Reply

Casablanca, of course, and perhaps the very best script with so many writers.

Reply

Others...

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
----------------------------
"when the legend becomes fact, print the legend

awrence of Arabia
----------------------------
I always liked the quote after the funeral when they compare the legend of Lawrence to the real person

Reply

Scripts are important to a film yes, but the script is only PART 1 of the writing process that develops the film. Part 2 is directing and Part 3 is editing.

These three parts all depend on each other and must work together. When just ONE of them lacks, the entire film suffers. You can have the best script in the world that can easily result in a bad film. Why? Because, again, the script isn't the film.

A film is visual after all and there are many many elements at play that contribute to the finished piece that is the film.

People like to think that someone writes a script and the shooting and editing come easily because its all there in the script, as if the script were the directions for how to make the film, and that could not be further from the truth!!

Films are not "written" in the same sense as a book. The "author" of the film is and always will be the director at the end of the day because they are the only ones involved at every stage of this "writing" process.

Even once a screenplay is finished, a director (whether he wrote it or not) will take that and develop a "shooting script" in which many things change based on the director's vision for how best to tell the story, even if that means changing the story. The same will happen on set, because once you actually have all the elements there (meaning the actors, production design, lighting, etc) you begin to discover and be even more inspired on what else to do with your story. And more details change.

That's a key word here to also emphasize in filmmaking: "Discovery".

The writing of a film is not only a 3 step process (script writing, directing, editing) but also a discovery process. The film itself will evolve as each step progresses because of the many discoveries to be had along the way.

These discoveries are inevitable because not only is film visual, but it is collaborative. Each element that makes up the story will be interpreted by other talents like actors, cinematographers, production designers, etc. They will be following the vision of the director yes, but they will still have to interpret that vision as best they can.


Once shooting has wrapped, which by the way, is always the shortest part of the "writing" process, comes the editing of the film. The term editing itself is very misleading because it implies something is already done and you just have to go back and do some tweaks.

This is not the case.

Editing is literally the constructing of the film. Once shooting wraps, there is literally hundreds of hours of footage. And it just isn't as simple as choosing takes you like and puting them side by side. The editor will be using little bits and pieces from every take and every angle and puting them together in a way that is so seamless you simply assume it was always planned to be that way.
In order to do this, the editor must also have a good sense of storytelling and rhythm. Because there is so much footage there is a million ways it can be put together. And each of those options will actually have an effect on the way you perceive the story.

Each shot means nothing when by itself. It is the combining of the shots that form the meaning. And in the editing, you even have power over changing the meaning of a shot depending on where you put it. Because, at the end of all this, the editing is actually the language of the film. But it is a language that is dependent upon the elements it is given. It can only go so far, so it is still dependent upon a good director who will give them elements that have the most potential to be utilized.

So if you really want to summarize the basic core of what each process does/provides,
you can say that :
1.) the screenwriter provides a story outline/arc and characters that have the most potential to develop
2.) the director provides a point of view/atmosphere for the way we should be feeling about this story
3.) the editor provides the perception, telling you when to feel what and when while explaining the story to you, using the elements provided by the director..


It's all about elements coming together to form what is the finished film. How you get these elements together doesn't matter. But you certainly can't write them all out on paper. Paper can only go so far. If all you needed was the paper to tell the story, you would write a novel.


Mike Leigh is a well known British director who is constantly being nominated for Best Screenplay awards. But guess what? He never uses screenplays.

The screenplay for Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A space odyssey" was one paragraph long.


Story is important yes, but a tangible "screenplay" is not. The screenplay is just a way to organize the ideas for a story you will develop into a film.






(No the storyboards don't plan it, those are for the camera department, and typically storyboards aren't really used much unless its for a complicated visual effects sequence)

Reply