The Toughest Scene I Wrote: Bob Nelson (“Nebraska”)

Once again, Vulture does screenwriters a solid:

In this series, Vulture has been speaking to the screenwriters behind 2013′s most acclaimed movies about the scenes they found most difficult to crack. What pivotal sequences underwent the biggest transformations on their way from script to screen?

In this article, Bob Nelson talks about how writing one particular “scene that has the least dialogue was probably the hardest!”

Since it was my first screenplay, most of the scenes were tough to write, but if I had to pick one, it would be the walk through the old homestead, because there’s a balancing act between how much is said and unsaid. I rewrote the script a few times and I rewrote that little sequence way more than you might think, just trying to get it right.

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A lot of movies will just reveal everything to you and tell you exactly why everyone behaves as they do, and then there are some movies that try to hide everything and make you guess at it. I kind of favor something in between, a little bit of a reveal that comes slowly as the movie goes along. That’s probably why I ended up writing this scene so many times, because I was trying to get you started wondering, “Who is this guy, and why is he behaving this way?”

For the rest of the article, go here.

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