The Screenplay Club

E

Eximious

Well-known member
Greetings fellow DVX writers,

I've had some free time recently and have been reading a few screenplays a day. It quickly dawned on me that having a weekly "book club" for screenplays might be a good idea. Being part of a pool of participants analyzing and commentating not only forces each member to put in the effort, but also exposes each member to totally new viewpoints and ideas. Plus, screenwriters can never read enough scripts.

Each week a new thread could be posted with a downloadable script (from scriptorama or elsewhere). Then we read (or re-read) and discuss. Easy as pie.

So, who's in? I could post the first thread as early as tomorrow. I'll choose the first script and then we can rotate. If you have any scripts you'd like to add to the club's list, note them here.

:beer:
 
Great idea Eximious. I need to read more scripts than I usually get around to doing. Plus, it's basically free if we use online sources for downloading them. The only downside is that the online scripts will often times have some goofed up formatting. Of course, with programs like Final Draft and Celtx, formatting is the easiest aspect of screenwriting.

Here are some ideas for ones that I think would be: fun, educational, and popular with DVXUSERS.

DRAMA / THRILLER :furious3::violin::crybaby:
Apocalypse Now
All The President's Men
American Beauty
The Deer Hunter
Network
Goodfellas
The Godfather
Fatal Attraction
Seven
Wall Street
The Sixth Sense
Heat
The Silence of the Lambs
The Exorcist (could also go under horror, but I'm putting it here)
The French Connection
Saving Private Ryan
Witness
There Will Be Blood
Taxi Driver
LA Confidential
Slumdog Millionaire

COMEDY :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG):2vrolijk_08:
Ghostbusters
Back to the Future
Legally Blonde
Pleasantville
The Princess Bride
The Incredibles

HEI$T / CAPER :cool:
Sneakers
The Italian Job
Bound
Gone In 60 Seconds
Entrapment
Inside Man
Ocean's Eleven
The Score

ACTION / ADVENTURE :kali:
Gladiator
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Air Force One
The Bourne Trilogy
Jaws
Collateral
Die Hard
Lawrence of Arabia
Mad Max
The Road Warrior
Predator
Jurrasic Park

SCIENCE FICTION / FANTASY / HORROR:badputer::violent5::zombie_smiley:
Alien
Aliens
Children of Men
Jacob's Ladder
I Am Legend
The Mist
28 Days Later
Highlander
The Thing (John Carpenter's)
Star Trek (new JJ Abrams one)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
The Terminator
The Matrix
Blade Runner
Minority Report
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

I've tried to come up with a good variety of scripts for well known and successful films among the various genres. Some though, especially newer films like I Am Legend, for example, are on the list because that film went through many years of development, so why not see study a script that might have been overly rewritten? Maybe we can learn something about that when comparing it to others like Aliens, which was written very quickly and by one person.

Other films, like Blade Runner or The Thing were not initially successful at the box office, yet have become classics that have stood the test of time. Anyways, these are all just some that came to mind right away. I'm sure others will come up with a bunch of good suggestions as well.

Some scripts like The Matrix, Terminator, Exorcist, and Saving Private Ryan cross genres, so I put them in the category I thought was primarily the film's style and narrative goals.
 
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This is a good idea - how can we make it go forward, and what site tools are available to let us know when the topic has been updated?

Let me know.
 
wjm said:
This is a good idea - how can we make it go forward, and what site tools are available to let us know when the topic has been updated?

Let me know.
Click to expand...

I am totally in. Didn't read too carefully but as long as you give us a decent amount of time to read the specific script it would be great.
Looking forward to it, hopefully a good amount of people participate to get some interesting analysis from different points of view.
 
Wow, this thing is starting quick. Glad to see that it is getting going already.

A couple questions:

1) Is the purpose to just read the script and discuss it, or do you think we should watch the film after reading the script but before the discussion period? I've seen The Princess Bride, but its been awhile. I wonder if we'll gain more by discussing before watching, or by first reading and then watching so that we can discuss differences between the screenplay and the actual film. Or maybe it could be up to each individual whether they want to watch the film before the discussion begins?

2) How long do you think the discussion period should be? It seems to me that we would gain more insight if we did one script a week, to keep the momentum going. The more scripts, the more variations on the craft we will be exposed to and be able to talk about.

Anyways, looking forward to the discussions, and I hope my two comments above don't sound like I'm trying to tell you how to run the club. :thumbup:
 
Great questions and thanks for your list, Nektonic. I tried to borrow some of the fantastic formatting from your post! :beer:

1. I'd like to discuss the screenplay on its own terms, i.e. we don't think about the movie. So, if something is changed in the movie versus the screenplay, we can mention that, but we should judge the screenplay based on what's written on the page, not projected on the screen. If you want to direct or DP, I think watching the film after reading the screenplay is a great exercise. I've been doing that too and it's really interesting. However, just like a book club spends most of the time discussing the book (and not movie adaptations), I think we should focus on the screenplay too. There's just so much skill involved in the writing itself that might not translate directly to the screen.

2. One script a week seems like the best idea. I wrote in the other thread that I would post a new script next Monday. Honestly, I'm probably going to re-read The Princess Bride tonight, but I expect most of the discussion to happen Thursday-Sunday, when people have time away from their jobs to read and think.

I'm personally going to try to offer as much analysis as I can. Character arcs, structure, etc. Hopefully that will stimulate discussion if we have a slow start. It would be nice to build up a database of threads with script analysis, especially for new writers here who need examples of writing concepts in well-known movies (e.g. the three-act structure, etc.)

Looking forward to seeing you guys in the other thread. Here's a link in case you missed it:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=174481
 
Eximious said:
1. I'd like to discuss the screenplay on its own terms, i.e. we don't think about the movie. So, if something is changed in the movie versus the screenplay, we can mention that, but we should judge the screenplay based on what's written on the page, not projected on the screen. If you want to direct or DP, I think watching the film after reading the screenplay is a great exercise. I've been doing that too and it's really interesting. However, just like a book club spends most of the time discussing the book (and not movie adaptations), I think we should focus on the screenplay too. There's just so much skill involved in the writing itself that might not translate directly to the screen.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response Eximious. I think that is the best way since it will give everyone a choice as to how they would like to study each particular film/script. Plus, there will be some films we've all seen many times before anyways, so if we choose to view the film after reading it is not going to change our perception of the script as much as with some others. So it is read the script, then if we so choose we can watch the film, but just discuss the script here only. Works for me.
 
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