Script Analysis: “Moonrise Kingdom” — Part 2: Major Plot Points
Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:
Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
Tuesday: Major Plot Points
Wednesday: Sequences
Thursday: Psychological Journey
Friday: Takeaways
Today: Major Plot Points.
In every scene, something happens. A plot point is a scene or group of scenes in which something major happens, an event that impacts the narrative causing it to turn in a new direction.
A relevant anecdote. Years ago, I was on the phone with a writer discussing a script project. My son Will, who was about four years old at the time, must have been listening to me talking about “plot points” during the conversation because after I hung up, he asked, “Daddy, what’s a plop point?”
That’s in effect what a plot point is. It’s an event that ‘plops’ into the narrative and changes its course. So when you think Plot Point, think Plop Point!
The value of this exercise:
* To identify the backbone of the story structure.
* To examine each major plot point and see how it is effective as an individual event.
* To analyze the major plot points in aggregate to determine why they work together as the central plot.
This week: Moonrise Kingdom. You may download the script — free and legal — here.
For Part 1, to read the Scene-By-Scene Breakdown created by Daniel Bigler, go here.
Written by Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola
IMDb plot summary: A pair of young lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out to find them.
Writing Exercise: Go through the scene-by-scene breakdown of Moonrise Kingdom and identify the major plot points. Post your thoughts in comments and we’ll see if we can come up with a consensus.
Tomorrow we consider the script’s structure in terms of its sequences.
If you’d like a PDF of the Moonrise Kingdom script scene-by-scene breakdown, go here.
Major kudos to Daniel Bigler for doing this week’s breakdown.
This series started here and we already have 24 volunteers to do scene-by-scene breakdowns of contemporary movie scripts.
American Hustle: Jon Raymond
Argo: Nora Barry
Barney’s Version: John M
Belle: DaniM
Beginners: Ali
Enough Said: Ali
Flight: 14Shari
Frankenwenie: Will King
Frozen: Christina Sekeris
Gone Girl: NateKohler1
Gravity: Matt Duriez
Hanna: John Arends
Lincoln: pgronk
Looper: erikledrew
Moonrise Kingdom: Daniel Bigler
Mud: Alejandro
Paranorman: OhScotty
Prisoners: Melinda Mahaffey Icden
Short Term 12: Carolina Groppa
The Artist: Traci Nell Peterson
The Social Network: N D
The Way Way Back: Ricky
The Wolf of Wall Street: jkilhefner
Wadjda: iamdaniel
If you’d like to participate and do a scene-by-scene breakdown yourself, please indicate which script in comments. We are using scripts available on our site here. Note some of the 2014 scripts now available there: Belle, Birdman, Boyhood, Calvary, Get On Up, Gone Girl, How To Train Your Dragon 2, Kill The Messenger, Locke, St. Vincent, The Boxtrolls, The Fault In Our Stars, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Theory of Everything, and Wild.
For new volunteers and those who have already volunteered, but not sent me a breakdown yet, please do so as soon as possible Thanks!
Circling back to where we started, reading scripts is hugely important. Analyzing them even more so. If you want to work in Hollywood as a writer, you need to develop your critical analytical skills. This is one way to do that.
So seize this opportunity and join in the conversation!
I hope to see you in comments about this week’s script: Moonrise Kingdom.
Two notes: (1) We will take a break from our weekly script reading and analysis series for the holidays to reconvene on Monday, January 5. (2) I am leading a Quest Writing Workshop in Santa Monica this week and won’t be able to post comments until the evening, so don’t wait around for me to upload your thoughts and observations. This series has been a tremendous success — I’m even getting email from pro screenwriters impressed with the quality of the analysis. So let’s do everyone proud this week and take us out of 2014 with a strong showing!
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