For a bit of extra work I decided to find a script of one of my favourite movies and compare that to the final product and see what kind of things I can pick up from that. I decided to look at Animal Kingdom by David Michod as I have analysed this film very closely.

One of the first things that I noticed is how much of the story is lacking in the script. Not that this is a bad thing, it just goes to show how much you can actually do with a script, and it doesn’t necessarily tie you down too much. It’s interesting how much story I could pick up from the movie that wasn’t exactly defined in the script.

Having said that, the script’s dialogue is extremely similar to how the actors performed them, in the way and mood that was set by the script. When I was reading the main character J’s dialogue it came with the exact same performance that was given in the final film. Not to say that the performance wasn’t anything but incredible, but you could really feel what the character was like during the dialogue of the script.

Obviously the big problem with this is I know the movie and I know it well. It’s a benefit to see the difference however having already seen it I was always drawn back to the visuals when reading the script. If I were to read a script of a movie that I haven’t seen before it might be a different story and I might find out a few different things from this experiment.

I shall therefore endeavour to find a movie that I haven’t seen before, find the script and read it first before I watch the movie, hopefully I will have some more revelations!