October is Great Scenes Month

An early GITS fixture was the Great Scenes series (you can visit the archives here). However as things evolved, I basically ran out of room to continue it given everything else I put into the blog schedule. I was pondering this the other day and that didn’t set well with me. After all, writing a scene is perhaps the most basic act of a screenwriter. A script may have anywhere from 45, 60, 80, 100 scenes or more, so in a very real way screenwriting is scene-writing.

So I’d like to kick-start the Great Scenes series back to life by using the Noon time slot each day in October to spotlight a great movie scene and I’m asking for your help: Post a favorite noteworthy movie scene in comments. If I can find either a script or movie version of it online, I will look to feature it next month as part of the series.

In addition, I’d like to see if we can generate some analysis of the scenes. I’ve got some ideas on how to do that. For instance, identify the core conflict or tension in the scene. Note the Beginning, Middle and End of the scene.

What other analytical categories would you add? The goal is to create a list we can use to dig into and discuss why the scene is great, what makes it work so well.

Aggregating a list of 31 Great Scenes should be pretty easy, but if you need inspiration, here are some resources:

100 Great Movie Moments (Roger Ebert, April 23, 1995)

100 Top Film Moments (The Guardian, February 6, 2000)

100 Top Movie Moments (IGN)

100 Greatest Film Scenes (AMC)

50 Greatest Movie Scenes of All Time (What Culture)

For some visual stimulation, check out these 25 unscripted moments, each of them part of a memorable scene:

So let’s do this, shall we? October is Great Scenes Month and I invite each of you to join in by suggesting one of your favorite movie scenes. What can we learn about the craft of screenwriting by studying that scene? Thanks for your input!

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