Time To Picture This

It’s the start of a new year and we got straight into the work in the Picture This! studio.

This first week has been an eye-opener on all the basic knowledge that I lack in regards to screenwriting. Doing the reading on ‘Description’ by Robert McKee and applying that knowledge to the script excerpt of Her (2013) by Spike Jonze allowed me to gain a better understanding of key elements that a good script should and shouldn’t have.

Prior to this class, I was already aware that you should avoid including camera directions in your screenplay. So having read the excerpt of Her was interesting as it had quite a few of these, such as, ‘close’, ‘hold’ and ‘cut to’. As McKee explains, having camera directions, as well as transitions, really takes away from the reader’s imagination. Personally, I really did start picturing how the film was being made and reading such notations took me away from the story a little bit. It was also repetitive in its use of ‘we’ and again, it took me aback as I felt as though as I was always with someone else when reading it alone.

However, it should be noted that Spike Jonze is best known for his work as a director, so I do understand why the above features were included in his screenplay. It was as if it was written for himself to read seeing as though he also directed and produced the film. This led to wonder if similar screenplays, that include directorial notations in camera and editing, are limiting directors who did not write the films, and how this affects their reading of the screenplay?

How much more interpretation is left for them to make if it’s already on the page?

But at the same time, if you’re like Jonze who directed the film that he wrote, can and/or how lenient can we be in including such features in the screenplay?

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