GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “Black Swan”
Welcome to the GITS Script Reading & Analysis series, Volume 24. This week we will be analyzing the screenplay for the 2010 movie Black Swan, screenplay by Mark Heyman and Andrés Heinz and John J. McLaughlin, story by Andrés Heinz. The movie was nominated for the WGA Best Original Screenplay Award.
You may download an November 3, 2009 version of the shooting script here.
Some reviews of the movie:
Chicago Sun-Times [Roger Ebert]
Los Angeles Times [Kenneth Turan]
New York Times [Manohla Dargis]
Variety [Peter Debruge]
Wall Street Journal [Joe Morgenstern]
The BoxOfficeMojo site for the film’s performance in theaters [$329M worldwide].
A 35-minute interview with the movie’s director Darren Aronofsky:
Let’s use this post today for your general reactions to the script.
Did you enjoy it? What aspects about it made the most impact on you? Would you consider it a ‘good read’? What struck you most about the writing?
And I have this question for you: What genres would consider Black Swan to be? I say “genres” because it feels like a cross-genre, not just drama, or thriller, or horror, but some type of amalgam.
Our schedule for discussion:
Monday, October 22: General comments
Tuesday, October 23: Structure
Wednesday, October 24: Characters
Thursday, October 25: Themes
Friday, October 26: Dialogue
We will have another live TweetCast on Wednesday, October 24 at 8PM Pacific. What’s a TweetCast? Everybody lines up a DVD, Netflix, or whatever of the movie, then hits play at precisely the top of the hour. While the movie plays, we comment on it real time on Twitter.
We generally have a group of professional screenwriters participate including Tom Benedek, Scott Frazier, John Gary and myself, and anyone is invited to drop by. It’s a lot of fun, but as you can see from the transcripts, also a great way to break down and analyze a movie. Hashtag: #swantc.
A scene from the movie:
The Bitter Script Reader did a four part series comparing early drafts of the script to the movie. You can read that series here.
If you know of any great behind-the-scenes videos or interviews about Black Swan, please post them in comments.
Remember: Reading scripts is one of the most important single things you can do to enhance your understanding of the craft of screenwriting. So download Black Swan and join us the last week of October to analyze the script.
For all of the other screenplays and commentary in the GITS Script Reading & Analysis series, go here.
NOTE: THE USE OF THESE SCREENPLAYS IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.
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