Wanted! Volunteers for Script Scene-By-Scene Breakdowns!
Reading scripts. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of this aspect of learning the craft. To that end, we resurrected a script read and analysis series in 2015. I’d call it a success. As of today, we have 50 scripts GITS readers have analyzed and 26 scene-by-scene breakdowns.
This has not only served as a great learning exercise for participants, the archives of these script analyses and breakdowns represent a significant resource for writers from here on out.
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
With the influx of over 30 movie scripts from 2015 recently made available to the public including notable ones such as Ex Machina, Inside Out, Steve Jobs, Straight Outta Compton, and Trainwreck, I am soliciting volunteers to read one of these stellar scripts and do a scene-by-scene breakdown to be used as the foundation of our bi-weekly script read series next year.
There are also over 100 movie scripts from the last 5 years which we have yet to feature in this series, so those are fair game as well.
Beyond your name being noted here, my thanks, and some creative juju, hopefully you will learn something about story structure and develop another skill set which is super helpful in learning and practicing the craft.
The latest volunteers:
Beasts of No Nation — Jacob Holmes-Brown
Bridge of Spies — Scott Guinn
Carol — Jillienne Bee
Celeste and Jesse Forever — Ryan Canty
Diary of a Teenage Girl — Cynthia
Ex Machina — Nick Norman-Butler
Frozen — Doc Kane
Inside Out — Katha
Legend — Olivia
Leviathan — Piotr Ryczko
Locke — Megaen Kelly
Macbeth — Trung
Man Up — Kristy Brooks
Monsters University — Liz Correal
Mud — Kevin
Pawn Sacrifice — Michael Waters
Steve Jobs — Angie Soliman
Straight Outta Compton — Timm Higgins
The End of the Tour — Steve F
The Iron Lady — Leslie
The Way Way Back — The Deuce
Trainwreck — Joni B
Wreck It Ralph — Kenny Crowe
To read examples of scene-by-scene breakdowns, go here.
Circling back to where we started, reading scripts is hugely important. Analyzing them even more so. If you want to work in Hollywood as a writer, you need to develop your critical analytical skills. This is one way to do that.
So seize this opportunity and join in the conversation! Make it a commitment to read more scripts in 2016!
UPDATE: I love the GITS community! Put out a request. Boom! You respond! Many, many thanks. And trust me, those of you who do a scene-by-scene breakdown will definitely benefit from the process. You really learn something about a story when you do a breakdown.
In terms of a due date, since I’d like to hit the ground running in 2016 and begin the bi-weekly series on January 4th, if at least some of you can get a breakdown to me by December 31, that would be great.
Again thanks and a quick reminder that each of your breakdowns will go into the archives, and that will serve as a terrific resource for writers as long as this blog remains active (read: forever).
Onward!
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