Can I ask how do you analyze a script?

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  • Can I ask how do you analyze a script?

    Hello,
    Can I ask how do you analyse a script?

    I have over 400 scripts on my PC to read but I'm having a hard time trying to "analyse" them. You see, so many bloggers and websites recommend reading scripts, but they don't offer a framework or checklist or step-by-step guide to use to get the most out of doing this.

    Sure, I can "read" each script for the story, but what do I look out for? What am I supposed to be noticing? How can I apply it to the scripts I am currently writing?

    It would be so easy if a screenplay website would actually provide a guide like an PDF file showing the comments made on a script or a checklist.

    Am I making any sense? Please help!



    Matthew Prince
    I post too much.

  • #2
    Re: Can I ask how do you analyse a script?

    Originally posted by MPrince View Post
    ...I have over 400 scripts on my PC...
    Holy crap! Sorry, first thing I thought was that they were your own scripts you'd written...

    Originally posted by MPrince View Post
    Hello,
    Can I ask how do you analyse a script?...
    I think it's a great question. What sites out there show you how to do this, from FADE IN to FADE OUT? Without shelling out $250 for it.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Can I ask how do you analyse a script?

      Originally posted by MPrince View Post
      Hello,
      Can I ask how do you analyse a script?

      I have over 400 scripts on my PC to read but I'm having a hard time trying to "analyse" them. You see, so many bloggers and websites recommend reading scripts, but they don't offer a framework or checklist or step-by-step guide to use to get the most out of doing this.

      Sure, I can "read" each script for the story, but what do I look out for? What am I supposed to be noticing? How can I apply it to the scripts I am currently writing?

      It would be so easy if a screenplay website would actually provide a guide like an PDF file showing the comments made on a script or a checklist.

      Am I making any sense? Please help!



      Matthew Prince
      I think this would be a good start.
      The best way out is always through. - Robert Frost

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Can I ask how do you analyse a script?

        The best way to understand how to read scripts is to read them. No, really. That sounds flip, but I mean it -- just dive in, feet first. You'll get the hang of it.

        Once you're reading a lot of scripts (try for a script every two days, if not a script every day), you'll start to get a feel for what you like and what you don't. If you really want to take it seriously, take an unproduced script by an established writer and write a one or two page synopsis of it. This will give you a sense of story flow and beats and how to think about summarizing scenes and character arcs. It doesn't have to be perfect -- think of it like a book report, where you write a half a page summarizing each act. Notice how the writer keeps your attention (or doesn't, as the case may be). How they put scenes one on top of another, how they transition between thoughts, how they keep scenes going.

        Take a favorite script that's pretty straightforward (like, uh, not a Tony Gilroy script) and write down a tiny descriptor of every scene and note what page it starts on. How long is each scene? How many scenes are there? Differentiate between establishing scenes and actual, meaty scenes. The meaty ones are the ones you're interested in. If this is a set-piece kind of script, where do those set pieces fall? If it's a horror movie, count each haunting or each murder or each whatever and note their frequency. Keep an eye out for major structural moments - the end of the first act, the middle of the script, the end of the second act. Do things start going wrong for the main character after the midpoint? Is there an especially awful thing that happens around page 75? Do things start to look up around page 90? Read any screenwriting book and look to see if you can apply that book's structure philosophy to the scripts you read.

        Pro writers often set up bits and then pay them off later on in the script. It might be a line that's said by a character early on that then is repeated later, with greater meaning. Or a character might say off-handedly, "But I would never swim in the ocean!" on page 6 and then, sure enough, on page 68, he's gotta jump into the ocean in order to escape the bad guys. The really good writers do this without you noticing. But if you're studying, it's your job to notice. Watch out for these moments and try to understand which ones work for you and which ones don't.

        Look for dialogue you like. What is it about it that draws you to it? Is it super naturalistic? Is it particularly stylized? Do these people sound as smart and cool as we all wish we were? Would that work well in the kind of scripts you write?

        In dialogue, look out for subtext. People don't talk about what they're really talking about. No one ever says, "I'm really mad at you!" They say, "I finished the cookies."

        Read a lot of scripts in the genre you write (but not only in your genre). Look for scenes similar to things you might do. Lots of shooting in your stories? Look for how writers talk about guns, look for how they describe shoot-outs, action, how they build tension, how they tell you what's going on on the screen. Find descriptions you like and write them down in a notebook. Keep track of them. Is it the white space that you really dig? Is it the density? Do you like knowing exactly everything that's going on, or are you more a fan of the suggestive, poetic stuff?

        That's only a partial discussion, but it's a place to start. In short: read a lot. Think about what you read. Apply what you learn to your own scripts.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Can I ask how do you analyze a script?

          I often get requests from people asking how to write coverage, which I think this question is sort of related to. Here, at least, is an example of a synopsis I wrote for 3:10 to Yuma's script, taken from my coverage. This was for the December 16, 2005 draft by Brandt & Haas (hi, Derek!) with revisions by the inestimably great Stuart Beattie.

          You'll notice I start a new paragraph for each act.

          ****
          1884, Arizona desert. DAN and his boys WILLIAM and MARK tend to their cattle. They witness a brutal shootout between a Pinkerton stagecoach and bandits led by CHARLIE PRINCE and WADE. The bandits kill most but leave MCELROY alive and take the money inside -- lots of money. When a couple of bandits try to escape with some cash, Wade kills them. Worst of all, the bandits have Dan's cattle, and he rides down to ask for them back. Wade takes their horses but promises to let the cattle go aways out. Dan and his boys take in McElroy and return to mom ALICE. Alice hates the place. Dan hopes when the railroad comes, it'll bring law and order. Wade and his bandits ride into town, celebrate. Dan tells MARSHAL WEATHERS and DEPUTIES CRAWLEY and TUCKER and railroad man BUTTERFIELD about the gang. Wade hooks up with songstress/barmaid EMMA. Dan helps Marshal Weathers catch Wade at the saloon. DOC POTTER treats McElroy. The town is scared. Marshal Weathers asks for volunteers to help take Wade out of town. McElroy joins up. Dan does too, but asks for two hundred dollars. He needs the money to keep his cattle operation afloat.

          Marshal Weathers and his men head out with Wade in a prison wagon. Dan meets them. But they switch Wade out of the wagon and take him to Dan's house. Charlie Prince and the bandits think Wade is still in the wagon. McElroy, Doc Potter, and Deputy Tucker join Wade and Dan at his house. They all dine with the family. After waiting to make sure Wade's gang takes the bait, they head out. William sneaks out and follows in the night. He catches up to them but Dan won't let him continue. He still follows, though. They camp for the night. While Deputy Tucker is keeping watch, Wade strangles him, killing him. The others wake, beat Wade. Charlie Prince and the gang attack the prison wagon, killing Weathers and discovering that Wade isn't inside. They get Crawley to tell them Wade is being taken to Contention and put on the 3:10 train to Yuma. Meanwhile, Dan and the group decides to take a shortcut, but it's through Indian country. They come to a ravine, a miner's gondola is the only way across, but Wade isolates McElroy in the gondola and strangles him. William rushes up, comes to Dan's aid, they catch Wade. Head out. In a field, they're attacked by Indians. They have to give Wade a gun to help in the fight. Wade doesn't just help -- he kills all the Indians and saves them all. William is amazed, as are the rest. They approach a railroad camp where they observe the squalid conditions of the workers. When one of the workers recognizes Wade as having killed his brother, a gunfight breaks out and they have to escape. Doc Potter gets killed in the escape, though. Charlie Prince and the gang passes through the railroad camp. Wade, Dan, Butterfield, and William get to Contention. Turns out it's a hideous place. Maybe the railroad's arrival isn't a good thing. They've got two hours before the train comes. Wade offers Dan a fortune to let him go. Dan refuses. MARSHAL DOANE and deputies show up to help. William spots Charlie Prince and the gang approaching. Charlie Prince offers two hundred dollars to anyone who kills one of the people guarding Wade. Marshall Doane and his deputies leave. Butterfield elects to quit, too. No chance of putting Wade on that train. William and Butterfield try to convince Dan to quit too. Dan refuses. He's gonna do it by himself.

          William and Butterfield ride away. Dan prepares. William and Butterfield return, unable to turn their backs on Dan. Time comes. Dan drags Wade outside, they try to make it to the station. Dan kills as many as he can. They make it to the station but the train is late! Wade pleads with Dan -- it's useless, he's escaped from Yuma prison before, he'll be out in a week. Charlie Prince corners Dan and Wade. Wade orders Charlie not to shoot Dan, but he refuses and kills Dan while William can only watch. Wade kills Charlie and the rest of his gang. William has a shot on Wade but doesn't take it. Wade gives the money to William and boards the prison train for Yuma.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Can I ask how do you analyze a script?

            What's happening when we start the script? How do the characters get introduced? What do we know, and what don't we know yet? How and when are other kinds of information added? Are you interested or not, and if you are, what caught your interest?

            Are you left with unanswered questions? How did that happen? When do you find out the answer?

            How does the author keep from confusing you?

            When do you see the main character's problem? How is it introduced?
            How does the main character decide what to do?
            Do we keep following the main character? What about the bad guy?
            How often do they run into each other, and what happens?

            You have to watch for how the author controls the information you receive -- what is told when, what is held back until later. The author contols the information flow to make you feel certain things -- to care, to wonder, to hope the character achieves the goal, to worry it won't happen, to feel relieved when it does. The story flow also keeps you on track, pulls you through the main character's struggle to achieve the goal.
            Watch the ways that gets done in various scripts. There are similarities from one script to another but also differences. Noticing both will give you a better tool set for your own writing.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Can I ask how do you analyze a script?

              Originally posted by MPrince View Post
              Hello,
              Can I ask how do you analyse a script?

              I have over 400 scripts on my PC to read but I'm having a hard time trying to "analyse" them. You see, so many bloggers and websites recommend reading scripts, but they don't offer a framework or checklist or step-by-step guide to use to get the most out of doing this.

              Sure, I can "read" each script for the story, but what do I look out for? What am I supposed to be noticing? How can I apply it to the scripts I am currently writing?

              It would be so easy if a screenplay website would actually provide a guide like an PDF file showing the comments made on a script or a checklist.

              Am I making any sense? Please help!
              There are many different ways to analyze/evaluate a screenplay, which approach you take will depend on what your goal is, why are you analyzing screenplays?

              I assume you are doing this as part of an effort to learn the craft and if that's indeed the case then I'd think you'd want to distinguish between form and content and evaluate each separately.

              Form would involve the manner in which the writer executed their tale in the master scene spec script format, did they stick to conventional word smithing? Is the writing economic? Are there narrative paragraphs that exeed four lines? How's the white space versus dark, too much of one and not enough of another? Do scene captions make sense? Are transitions used appropriately? Do scenes contain decriptions of things the camera could not possibly see, e.g., things that are happening outside when your in an INT. or vice versa? Is the narrative written in present or present-progressive tense? Does the writer utlize energetic verbs and colorful descriptions? Is the narrative evocative? And so on ...

              Content would involve the screen tale and its telling. A read through would tell you much about how the writer managed to do their job, does it make sense? Does it grab your attention from the git go? Is it consistent? Are the events believable? Are the characters and what they do believable? Are they interesting? Do they exhibit arcs? Are the jokes funny? Is the horror really horrific, the terror really terrifying, the comedy realy funny, the drama really dramatic?

              Is the dialogue witty and snappy and believable with sufficent variation among the characters? Is there drama, suspense, anticipation? Does something big happen every ten pages or so? Does the writer exhibit good knowledge of his or her subject? Do things feel genuine? Does the writer's voice speak with authority? Does the story exhibit a discernable theme? Are act breaks well executed? Do we know where we are at all times or at least when we should? Does the story arc? Is it entertaining?

              Was everything resolved at the end? Does the script adhere to the conventions of its genre? Did the story work for you?

              And so on across a variety of other similar considerations.

              To do any of this you need an idea of what the writer's goals were, what they wanted their story to say.

              As a beginning screenwriter you need to learn both the form and the manner in which good screen tales are constructed and differentiating the form and the content when you analyze can help you do this. Also, you need some grasp of the fundamentals of genre and what the conventions of film genre are comprised of. That's a separate study in itself.

              Enjoy the work!

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Can I ask how do you analyze a script?

                Wow! Thanks for the response!

                Maybe I should have said that I was a beginner looking to learn from professional Hollywood scripts at the beginning.

                But keep posting!
                I post too much.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Can I ask how do you analyze a script?

                  Originally posted by MPrince View Post
                  Wow! Thanks for the response!

                  Maybe I should have said that I was a beginner looking to learn from professional Hollywood scripts at the beginning.

                  But keep posting!
                  Yes, but it wasn't too hard to figure this out.

                  Has anyone advised that you read/analyze/evaluate spec scripts and not shooting scripts or transcripts?

                  Some screenplays that are available on the web for downloading are indeed shooting scripts or transcripts, and you don't wanna be studying them. I'd suggest you go through those 400 screenplays you have and set aside any shooting scripts or transcripts you find among them.

                  Care should also be taken with screenplays written by directors who will be or did direct their production, such as anything by the Cohen brothers or James Cameron and others, for example. You can learn from these but should be advised that director-writers don't actually write specs in most cases. Compare for example the differences between "The Brigands of Rattleborge" and "True Grit" by the Cohen brothers (both available off the web).

                  Enjoy!

                  Comment


                  • #11
                    Re: Can I ask how do you analyze a script?

                    http://messageboard.donedealpro.com/...4&postcount=22

                    I'm not trying to be willfully dense here, but I have no idea what the difference is between spec, shooting and press format. I've written on a whole bunch of produced movies, even while they're shooting, and I've never altered my style of writing once. (The only difference I can think of is that shooting scripts have numbered scenes.)
                    http://messageboard.donedealpro.com/...5&postcount=37


                    A spec script is a script that you write without being hired first.

                    A shooting script is the draft that's being produced.

                    The two drafts can be identical. (Okay, almost identical - the scenes need to be numbered in a shooting script. Time in Final Draft to do that: ten seconds.)

                    If I have an idea for a movie, I can either sell it as a pitch or write it without selling it first. The one I wrote without selling is a "spec script." The two drafts would be identical in format and content.

                    So a newbie can't write a "shooting script" and try to sell it. No matter how he's written it, it is by definition a spec script until he sells it.
                    http://messageboard.donedealpro.com/...6&postcount=40


                    Shooting scripts don't have "all the camera directions."

                    A shooting script isn't a spec script where someone went through and called out all the shots.

                    Spec scripts and shooting scripts are written the same way.

                    Do you really want me to explain how a script is shot by a director, or are you just trying to fuck with me?

                    If you are just fucking with me, let me know, so I can save some time and not bother replying.

                    Quote:
                    btw, since you brought it up, why not numbers in a spec? In Final Draft it only takes eight seconds to turn them off. Is it because they are not needed and have nothing to do with the story?
                    They add nothing to the read. There's no reason to have them there.

                    Quote:
                    If a writer is writing the best "movie" why would the scenes be in any different order?
                    All scene numbers are is a shorthand way for the crew to know what scene people are referring to. Instead of saying "the fifth scene in the diner," they can say "scene 18."

                    They are purely a production concern. Which is why they aren't in non-shooting drafts.
                    If you really like it you can have the rights
                    It could make a million for you overnight

                    Comment


                    • #12
                      Re: Can I ask how do you analyze a script?

                      MPrince

                      If you are a beginner reading screenplays before you have studied the craft, inreality it will not help you, because you will not know if what you are reading isgood, bad or ugly.

                      Andyou almost certainly will not see what a producer saw when they read it for thefirst time, partly because your judgement will be effected by knowing about thefinished result, the movie, particularly if you have seen it.

                      Sureyou might enjoy sections of the script, you may even like the story but withoutknowing the basics of format, structure, character development, dialoguedelivery or continuity it is like a blind man standing in front of a Rembrandt,trying to appreciate his brush work.

                      Ifyou hope to learn how to write a script by reading what others have written youfirst have to know what you are looking for to be able to evaluate it.

                      Findingwhat works on paper doesn’t necessarily work on screen and visa versa so study filmsyou like then read the scripts for them.

                      But all of this means nothing if you don’t havean imaginative mind and that you will not find even with the most diligent studies.
                      Ron Aberdeen
                      http://www.ronaberdeen.com/
                      http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3609083/

                      Comment


                      • #13
                        Re: Can I ask how do you analyze a script?

                        http://thebitterscriptreader.blogspo...-get-read.html


                        Here are ways to NOT convince me:

                        [snip]

                        2) Have a shaky command of the English language. If you can't get through a query without mangling basic syntax and grammar, I'm not going to have much faith in your ability to make a 120 page read worth my while.
                        If you really like it you can have the rights
                        It could make a million for you overnight

                        Comment


                        • #14
                          Re: Can I ask how do you analyze a script?

                          When I was a reader, I was told to make sure to cover the following points in my coverage (usually in this order):

                          Premise
                          Characters
                          Dialogue
                          Story/Plot
                          Pace
                          Cinematic/Visuals
                          and occasionally Commercial Viability

                          I still find it a useful starting point for approaching the analysis of a script - or a film, for that matter. Of course, what makes for a good premise, for well-rounded characters, for snappy dialogue, etc... is up for debate.

                          Comment


                          • #15
                            Re: Can I ask how do you analyze a script?

                            Originally posted by AaronsSecretAlias View Post
                            When I was a reader, I was told to make sure to cover the following points in my coverage (usually in this order):

                            Premise
                            Characters
                            Dialogue
                            Story/Plot
                            Pace
                            Cinematic/Visuals
                            and occasionally Commercial Viability

                            I still find it a useful starting point for approaching the analysis of a script - or a film, for that matter. Of course, what makes for a good premise, for well-rounded characters, for snappy dialogue, etc... is up for debate.

                            It's interesting that, as a professional reader, you were not told to cover voice, style, format. This makes sense. Though voice, style and format may enchane the read, those elements have nothing to do with the story itself.

                            Or do they?

                            Comment

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