PB2 POST THREE

Reflection

My favourite task in this studio so far was reading Courtney Hunt’s screenplay, Frozen River, and then watching the film adaptation. This exercise felt very hands-on as I got to see first hand the behind-the-scenes work (the screenplay) and how it translated into the final product (the film).Reading the screenplay again whilst I watched the film at home meant I had the freedom to scribble notes here and there and discover where certain things had changed for the final product and then reflect on why I think it was done. The film was actually very different from how I pictured it visually, and lacked a lot of the colour grading, suspenseful score I imagined it to have.

World building:

From the clips we have watched in class and the readings and discussions, I take particular notice of elements of world building. The feature film adaptation of Frozen River did not take as much care in its creation of the cold, harsh environment its characters live in as the screenplay, however the interior rules were the same. Whilst reading the screenplay, I imagined the world as a vessel for theme, something that would continue to push the plot further, a lot like in the works of Annie Proulx. Proulx’s writing often frames the environment as a character (usually harsh and unforgiving) and really glues her pieces together. I often refer to the writings of Annie Proulx, a master creator of worlds in my opinion, and couldn’t help comparing her depictions in Close Range (excerpt below) to the screen writing of Courtney Hunt.

a. Annie Proulx, Close Range

“You stand there, braced. Cloud shadows race over the buff rock stacks as a projected film, casting a queasy, mottled ground rash. The air hisses and it is no local breeze but the great harsh sweep of wind from the turning of the earth. The wild country–indigo jags of mountain, grassy plain everlasting, tumbled stones like fallen cities, the flaring roll of sky–provokes a spiritual shudder. It is like a deep note that cannot be heard but is felt, it is like a claw in the gut.”

b. Courney Hunt, Frozen River

“Around her, the yard is littered with junk: a rusted ski lift chair, the front end of the Plymouth Duster and a SMILING DUCK Kiddie Ride”

Obviously Proulx is able to go into more detail as her writing is for a novel rather than a screenplay, but I find it interesting how the novel script describes how the environment feels while the screenplay describes how it looks. I hope to be able to take on some of Proulx’s vivid descriptive devices as well as Hunt’s practical depictions when it comes to writing my own screenplays, as I think it is vital to capture the essence of the world in the screenplay before it is handed to someone else to create. I believe a halfway point between the detail and the practicality of these two writers is a good place to start, and I look forward to using their styles in developing my own ideas.

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