Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis: Hanna
Tomorrow we begin our next installment of the Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis series. This week: Hanna, screenplay by Seth Lochhead and David Farr, story by Seth Lochhead.
You may download the script here.
The schedule for the week’s discussion:
Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
Tuesday: Major Plot Points
Wednesday: Sequences
Thursday: Psychological Journey
Friday: Takeaways
The scene-by-scene breakdown for Hanna was written by John Arends and will be available tomorrow.
I am pleased to announce that Seth Lochhead, who conceived the story and wrote Hanna on spec, using it to break into the business, has agreed to answer questions GITS readers may have. This is a great opportunity to dig into a writer’s creative process, so I encourage you to read the script, watch the movie, then participate in the our conversation.
As background, you may read my October 2013 interview with Seth here.
My plan is to do this script read and analysis series on a bi-weekly basis as long as we can round up volunteers to do scene-by-scene breakdowns and we sustain good energy for the discussions. The ones we did in November and December — American Hustle, Argo, Frankenweenie, Gravity, Moonrise Kingdom, and Prisoners — were all excellent.
I hammer on the importance of reading scripts. Now let me allow another screenwriter to make the point. Chris Sparling (Buried, ATM, The Atticus Institute), whose interview I will be running this week, said this when I asked him for the best single piece of advice to learn the craft of screenwriting:
Screenwriters need to read screenplays. You have to, have to, have to. It’s a free education and it’s arguably just as good as any other form of education you could get in this field. I can say, wholeheartedly, reading screenplays made me a better screenwriter. And like I said, it’s free. Few things of that much value are.
This series is your Call To Adventure! So do yourself a favor: Read the script for Hanna and join the discussion!