Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis: The Artist

Starting Monday, we begin our next installment of the Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis series. Next week: The Artist, winner of 5 Acadmey Awards, written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius.

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 The Artist was written by Traci Nell Peterson.

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. We resumed the year with a series on Hanna, which was also really strong.

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 The Artist and join the discussion starting Monday, January 19.