GITS Script Reading and Analysis Series: “(500) Days of Summer” — Characters

This week we are analyzing the screenplay for the 2009 movie (500) Days of Summer, written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. The script was nominated for the WGA Award for Best Original Screenplay.

You may download the script legally from the Fox Searchlight website here [draft dated April 16, 2008].

In my never ending effort to support creative people, here is a video by artist Shanna May who not only has some interesting observations about the Expectation vs. Reality sequence where Tom goes to Summer’s party, Shanna also does a painting of the scene in the video:

Today we discuss the script’s characters. Here is a list of the most prominent ones:

Tom [Joseph Gordon-Levitt]

Summer [Zooey Deschanel]

McKenzie [Geoffrey Arend]

Paul [Matthew Gray Gubler}

Vance [Clark Gregg]

Millie [Patricia Belcher]

Rachel [Chloë Grace Moretz]

Autumn [Minka Kelly]

I think you could use the five primary character archetypes [Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, Trickster] as a lens to interpret these characters… and come up with some very interesting analyses.

See you in comments!

SPECIAL NOTE: TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT FOR THE TWEET-CAST!!!

At precisely 8PM Pacific [U.S.] tonight, you are invited to push play on whatever device you have to watch the movie (500) Days of Summer in real time with a host of others, all of us commenting on Twitter. We will record the Tweet-Cast to make it available as a transcript for later review.

As a special treat, professional screenwriters F. Scott Frazier [@screenwritten] and John Gary [@johngary] will be participating in the Tweet-Cast along with myself, breaking down the movie as it plays. You are cordially invited to join in the fun and analysis.

The Twitter hashtag for the Tweet-Cast on Wednesday: #500daze.

NOTE: This series is for educational purposes only!

For Part 1 of this week’s series, go here.

For Part 2 focusing on structure, go here.

Comment Archive