Script To Screen: “Magnolia”
From the 1999 movie Magnolia written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, a multilinear story involving multiple characters.
Setup: What can one say? A variety of characters leading up to a precipitous moment in each of their lives and then…
INT. JIM KURRING'S CAR - THAT MOMENT Sequence JJim Kurring drives a few more feet....slows down...then starts
to make a u-turn to go back to the store....JIM'S POV - MOVING - THROUGH THE WINDHSIELD.
The car starts to turn 180 degrees......as soon as it is headed
going back the opposite direction............CRACK........From the sky, out of the blue, a large GREEN FROG lands on Jim Kurring's
windhsield.CU - Jim Kurring. Scared shitless.POV - Another GREEN FROG slams on the HOOD OF THE CAR.CU - Brake. Jim's foot SLAMS ON THE BRAKE.CUT TO:EXT. MAGNOLIA BLVD. - THAT MOMENTCAMERA holds a wide angle as Jim Kurring's CAR SLAMS AND SKIDS TO
A STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE EMPTY STREET.CLOSER ANGLE, PUSH IN ON THE DRIVER'S SIDE WINDOW.
Jim is scared and sweating.....he looks up, out the driver's side
window....JIM'S POV - LOOKING STRAIGHT UP.
It's dark and empty sky.........hold on him....he looks at the Frog that has landed on
the windshield....it's dead and splattered.....SUDDENLY:The SOUND of ANOTHER FROG FALLING FROM THE SKY AND SLAMMING
ON THE ROOF OF THE CAR.Jim jumps.....looks up again........from straight out of the sky comes ANOTHER FROG falling
DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA....it SPLATS.......then another and another and another.....WIDE ANGLE. THE STREET.It starts to RAIN FROGS in the middle of Magnolia Blvd.CUT TO:INT. CLAUDIA'S APARTMENTCU - Claudia snorts a line of coke off her coffee table.She comes up and INTO FRAME. Outside the window, behind her.......a FROG FALLS straight past.....She hears the sound and turns around....sees nothing...CU - Profile on Clauida....through the other window...another
FROG falls past, through the tree outside on it's way down.....She turns her head again sees nothing....BEAT.Another FROG FALLS...she looks...she walks to the window.........A dozen FROGS FALL IN VERY QUICK SUCCESION.....She jumps back from the window...stumbles a bit...knocks
over a lamp, which SMASHES to the floor.....her apartment
goes DARK....except for street light...more FROGS FALL and
we hear the sound and see them through the window in glimpses.....CUT TO:EXT. CLAUDIA'S APARTMENT/STREET - THAT MOMENTThe FROGS are falling sort of heavy now....Rose's JAGUAR comes
through it....skids and SMASHES into a PARKED CAR....CAMERA DOLLIES over to her....she looks up at them....they FALL
STRAIGHT INTO CAMERA AND ONTO THE HOOD, WINDSHIELD AND ROOF......Rose puts the Jaguar in reverse and tries to back away from the
smashed parked car.....the bumper's are stuck....CUT TO:INT. EARL'S HOUSE - THAT MOMENTThe CAMERA holds on Earl and Frank. Frank has his head buried
in Earl's bed holding his hand, crying....it's very quiet....CU - Phil. He's crying a bit standing off to the side.
He looks out the window's and the glass doors and sees the FROGS
come raining down. His mouth drops and he can't speak.Frank doesn't notice. The FROGS fall in the backyard and into THE POOL.PHIL
There are frogs falling from the sky.CUT TO:EXT. WHITSETT/NORTH HOLLYWOOD MED. CENTER - THAT MOMENTThe PARAMEDICS are driving real fast down the street.....CUT TO:INT. AMBULANCE - MOVING - THAT MOMENTLinda is on life support stuff in the ambulance. Looking past her,
we see the view of the road through the windshield -- the amubulance
driver going real fast and just about to pull into the hospital
emergency entrance....FROGS START PELTING THE WINDSHIELD.....THE DRIVER SWERVES...CUT TO:EXT. STREET/AMBULANCE - THAT MOMENTA WIDE ANGLE where we see the FROGS falling onto the moving,
swerving Ambulance....one FROG lands so hard on top of the
red lights on the ambulance that it CRACKS.......the FROGS in the middle of the road start to act as a
lubricant on the already wet/damp street and the Ambulance
starts to SKID SIDEWAYS.......it FALLS ON IT'S SIDE.CUT TO:INT. AMBULANCE - POVAs it falls on it's side and skids a bit....over the Frogs...CUT TO:EXT. EMERGENCY ROOM ENTRANCE - THAT MOMENTAmbulance skids right up to the emergency room entrance.CUT TO:INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - THAT MOMENTJimmy with the Revolver to his head...he cocks it back...INTERCUT:EXT. SKY/INT. HOUSE - THAT MOMENTCAMERA above Jimmy's house, looking straight down and MOVING
towards a SKYLIGHT above the kitchen...a FROG enters FRAME,
falling straight towards this skylight --Inside the house,
Jimmy about to pull the trigger...SOUND DROPS OUT.The falling FROG comes STRAIGHT THROUGH THE SKYLIGHT, SMASHING
THROUGH.......falls straight down onto Jimmy's head....the GUN GOES OFF
WILDLY.....SMASHES the TELEVISION.......Jimmy falls to the ground....GLASS FALLS from the broken skylight.......more FROGS continue to fall through it and into the kitchen
and around Jimmy........the BULLET into TELEVISION has sparked something and the SOCKET
it's plugged into CATCHES FIRE.....CU - INSIDE THE WALL, NEAR THE SOCKET.
Camera moves in and sees some SPARK and FLASH and FIRE started....CUT TO:EXT. SOLOMON AND SOLOMON ELECTRONICS - THAT MOMENTDonnie starts to climb up a ladder attached to the side
of the building....near the loading dock area....CUT TO:EXT. STREET NEARBY - THAT MOMENTJim Kurring is in the middle of the Frog Rain...he puts his
car into gear and drives down the street........about twenty yards later and he's out of it.......he pulls into the parking lot behind Solomon and
Solomon.....it's not raining frogs here.....Kurring's HEADLIGHTS catch a glimpse of Donnie starting to climb......Donnie gets scared and FREEZES.......Kurring is oblivious to Donnie for the moment. He looks in
his REARVIEW MIRROR and sees the FROGS FALLING.......Donnie looks past Kurring and now sees the FROGS FALLING
in a 50 x 50 area in the street.......Donnie looks up.......FROGS ARE FALLING STAIGHT AT HIM/CAMERA AND THEY KNOCK HIM DOWN
AND TO THE CEMENT.....he falls flat on his FACE......Jim Kurring turns his head and sees Donnie, fallen flat face
and bloody on the pavement....he gets out of his car and runs over
to Donnie, through the Frogs that rain down, and picks him/drags
him out of harm and under shelter in the LOADING DOCK AREA.
Here is the scene from the movie:
Questions to ask to analyze the scene:
* What elements in the movie scene are the same as the script?
* What elements in the movie scene are different than the script?
* Regarding the differences, put yourself in the mindset of the filmmakers and speculate: Why did they make the changes they did?
* How did the changes improve the scene?
* Alternatively are there elements in the script, not present in the movie, that are better than the final version of the scene?
* Note each camera shot in the movie version. Which of them does the script suggest via sluglines or scene description?
* How does the script convey a sense of the scene’s tone, feel, and pace through scene description and dialogue?
* What ‘magic’ exists in the movie that is not indicated in the words of the script? How do you suppose that magic emerged?
I’ll see you in comments for a discussion of this scene from Magnolia.
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
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