Transition: Influences & Approach (Writer-Director statement)

Screenwriting

Influences and approach

The best way to learn how to write a script is to read screenplays, because from this it can be seen how other writers whose films have been made handle, tone, exposition, dialogue, character etc. (Rogan, s.d).
Thus, when writing my own script, I found that it was useful to watch/read similar scenes, since these could help me improve my own.
For example, when outlining my own screenplay, I looked at the structures of Jackie and Erin Brockovich. Looking at Erin Brokovich's structure gave me 11 stages that I could break my own story down into:

• "The Setup" - introduction for the audience to the world and characters of the story
• "The Opportunity" - this motivates change in the story, leading the character to:
• "The New Situation" - motivated by the inciting incident of the story (for example, Erin's car accident and lost case) - the character thinks this new situation could solve their conflict
• "The Change of Plans" - after seeing that the new situation didn't solve their conflict, the character's change of plans establishes their intention
• "Progress" - the character works to realise their intention, despite the conflict they may face
• "The Point of No Return" - the character takes a risk which means they have to see their intention through
• Raising the stakes - the character's intention becomes harder to obtain
• "The Major Setback" - the character seems destined to never reach their intention
• "The Final Push" - this forces the character to take drastic action to obtain their intention
• Climax - the character deals with the greatest obstacle/conflict of the story
• "The Aftermath" - how the character has changed because of the story - their "new life"
• Nonetheless, these stages don't have to be stuck to when writing a screenplay

(Hauge, 2014).

Overall, I found that these stages helped me work out my character's intention better since they gave me a vague idea of where the story could go.

Therefore, I wrote the setup part of the screenplay for this project, establishing what I wanted to achieve within these scenes by thinking about who Cathryn, the main character, is and how the audience could be introduced to the world of the story through her perspective:

Cathryn is a dissatisfied investment banker who is pushed around by her boss but decides to give the world a hero once she witnesses a fatal crime – she uses drawing as a coping mechanism.

Thus, since it can be seen that Cathryn's defining attribute is that she is a dissatisfied investment banker, I decided to open the screenplay with a scene in her office, using jump cuts to emphasise how much work she does, and how she works long hours.

These jump cuts were able to condense the passing of time, only showing the most important moments of Cathryn's day, those when she was on the phone, therefore they could establish her as a business woman to the audience, inspired by how Nora Ephron uses jump cuts in Sleepless in Seattle to condense time so the audience only see the most important parts of the character's search.

However, to further establish the world around Cathryn, and her reaction to it, I used the opening scene to show how the crowds in the city don't seem too bothered about the crime that occurs there, implying they could be used to it, as well as having Cathryn pull her blind down when she hears sirens, implying she finds work more important and doesn't want to deal with the rest of the world.

To further this, I decided to make one of Cathryn's co-workers, Jade, her opposite, in the sense that she is curious about what is going on. Thus, this meant that I could further establish the amount of crime which happens in the story world by having them use this dialogue as a "weapon" against each other, creating conflict rather than just exposition (Rogan, 2018:54).

However, I also found that another way characters can talk around the subject they are really talking about, or want to talk about, is through referencing other texts, as is done in The Avengers movies. For example, in Avengers: Infinity War, Iron Man insults one of Thanos' minions by telling him, "That means get lost, Squidward!", a reference to SpongeBob SquarePants (AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR "Get Lost Squidward!" Movie Clip (2018) Marvel HD, 2018).

By doing this, characters can say what they want to - that Iron Man thinks the minion is ugly - without directly stating it.

I decided to try this within this scene in Cathryn's office, by having the characters reference The Wizard of Oz to show how they think Donna is 'evil' and has them all enslaved, as well as how Cathryn thinks Jade is inexperienced.

Looking at the structure of Jackie, it can be seen that the setup builds to the inciting incident (the president's assassination), which then acts as the opportunity, leading to the new situation (Myers, 2017). However, Erin Brockovich uses the inciting incident of her car accident as part of the setup (Hauge, 2014).

Thus, I decided to use the inciting incident as part of the setup also because of how it can show Cathryn's personality, in similar way to how it does this in Erin Brockovich.

Having the inciting incident happen when Cathryn is running an errand for her boss shows how much of a pushover she is, and how she acts after the incident in consequence helps show how her boss expects a lot of her.

Nonetheless, to emphasise how Cathryn's boss treats all of her employees, I took inspiration from the scene in The Devil Wears Prada which first introduces the boss of the fashion magazine the characters work at by intercutting the boss arriving with the employees sorting the office and themselves as they prepare to work for the day.

Yet, to distinguish Cathryn from the rest of her colleagues, it can be seen that she leads them by how she supervises this transformation, and seems to help a lot of them with work.

Showing this after the inciting incident of the crime helped me to show how the inciting incident creates a shift in Cathryn's life. To show this visibly I took inspiration from Jackie, with the blood on Cathryn's shirt, since this, along with the ruined dry cleaning and dirt on her trousers, serves to signify the psychological impact the incident has had on her, and foreshadow how this will affect her at work.
This also helped me to maintain the "emotional flow" of the screenplay (Hunter-Johnson, 2015:53), thus Cathryn's shock at the incident is carried into the next scene, shown by how she struggles to concentrate on her work, despite wanting to use this to forget about the incident.

Nonetheless, when creating the character of Cathryn's boss, although she is the villain/antagonist of the film thus she has a certain agenda (to not fail at running the bank by pushing her employees to be the best), and more power, and also confidence than Cathryn, I decided to make it so that she never yells (Rogan, 2013), similar to the villainous boss in The Devil Wears Prada. Creating a villain like this means that there is potential for the audience to also understand and relate to them, just like they do the hero, heightening the conflict (Winfield-Sublett, 2014:228).

In order to then set up the opportunity which could occur in consequence of the inciting incident, I decided to introduce a new character, Monica, since Cathryn's intention is to give the world a hero, thus I thought that she could maybe wonder what could have happened if she had hit one of the muggers, creating an opportunity out of this by introducing the possibility that Monica could train her (a trope of superhero movies).

I also thought that Cathryn would to be looking for some way to get over the incident, and would therefore turn to someone who she thinks would understand. This is why I decided to make Monica a cop, since she knows the incident and can give Cathryn details about it, as well as advice about what to do.

Despite this, I decided to have Cathryn not write down the incident, because of how she reacted to the similarities she saw between her and the mugger she grabbed hold of. This was then able to set up and lead into how she uses drawing as a coping mechanism instead, using the sounds of Monica boxing which calm Cathryn to foreshadow Cathryn getting the idea that Monica could train her.

Overall, using the structures of Jackie and Erin Brokovich as influences which could help with my own taught me that to create a good plot events need happen in consequence of each other (Lannom, 2019a).

Directing

Camera approach and influences

For our film, we decided to create an overtonal montage. This type of montage involves metric montage - cutting to create a tempo - rhythmic montage - cutting to create a rhythm (sometimes to music) - and tonal montage - cutting shots together to create an overall mood or reflect a certain emotion (Hess, 2017). 

Thus, when planning the shots I wanted to film, I kept in mind how these could work in the edit to create a rhythm, tempo and mood to create a overtonal montage.

Due to this, I mainly wanted the montage to have a kinetic style, influenced by other montages such as that from the TV series Forever, as well from Spiderman and Spiderman:Into the Spiderverse.

Thus, I choose to begin the montage with a push-in to establish this kinetic style to the audience, but also to bring them into the sequence. This sequence of shots (A), was mainly inspired by Nancy Meyers' style, and how she pushes in on her character's expressions to emphasise their emotion, as well as uses point of view shots to put the audience in their place.

 Fig. 1 Netflix: The Holiday (2006)

 Fig. 2 Netflix: The Holiday (2006) 

Fig. 3 Netflix: The Holiday (2006)

For example, Meyers does this during The Holiday to highlight how important the moment when one of the characters sees the girl they like with another man is, and how this affects their emotions - (see fig. 1, 2 & 3).
Therefore, I decided to do this when the audience first see Cathryn drawing to emphasise its importance to her, and portray how happy it makes her in comparison to her job.
Nancy Meyers also partly inspired the kinetic style of our montage, since one of her directing trademarks is to use pans and tilts to reveal information to the audience, such as during the opening sequence of The Intern when she tilts down to reveal the scene of the park, and pans to find Robert DeNiro's character - (see fig. 4, 5 & 6).

Fig. 4 YouTube: The Intern - Opening Scene (2017)

 Fig. 5 YouTube: The Intern - Opening Scene (2017)

Fig. 6 YouTube: The Intern - Opening Scene (2017)

Because of how this can hide information from the audience before revealing it, I decided to use this when Cathryn draws under the table whilst at the client meeting, to reveal to the audience the extent of her boredom, whilst also establishing why she was at the bar in the first place by showing the client.
This also served to show the shift in importance by shifting the audience's attention - they first see the client as the focus, the most important part of the shot, until the client disappears from view completely to focus on Cathryn and her drawing, much as Cathryn's own attention is changing from focusing on her job to getting lost in her drawing.

To further this kinetic style, I also decided to use follow shots when Cathryn entered the bar, also inspired by Nancy Meyers, since this can help the audience focus on the character.
We also decided to add whip pans in pre-production, since they "can transition through time and space" (Lannom, 2019b), and thus could add to the kinetic style of the montage. This was inspired by a montage from Ant-Man, during which whip pans are used to transition smoothly between scenes which would otherwise make jump cuts - (see fig. 7, 8 & 9).

Fig. 7 YouTube: Luis Storytelling About Tip | Ant-Man (2015) Movie Clip (2018)

Fig. 8 YouTube: Luis Storytelling About Tip | Ant-Man (2015) Movie Clip (2018)

Fig. 9 YouTube: Luis Storytelling About Tip | Ant-Man (2015) Movie Clip (2018)

Nonetheless, to break up the kinetic style of the montage so it didn't get too jarring for the audience, I took inspiration from how Sofia Coppola often covers whole scenes using only one master shot for the scene when Cathryn was first on the phone to her boss to create a sense of detachment.
I aimed to do this to show that, although it seems important to her now, Cathryn's job isn't the focus of the montage, since she will eventually transition to focus more on being a graphic novelist.
To create this detachment, I took inspiration from Nora Ephron's shots outside of windows/doorways to show how trapped Cathryn is by framing her within the doorframe (see fig. 10). Sofia Coppola also does similar using car windows to box her characters in the frame (see fig. 11).

Fig. 10 YouTube: Julie & Julia #2 Movie CLIP - Another Meltdown (2011)

Fig. 11 Lost in Translation (2003)

To further emphasise how Cathryn is trapped by her job, I decided to use jump cuts inspired by the montage at the beginning of Forever to highlight the repetition of the constant client meetings her job require she attend (see fig. 12, 13 & 14).

 Fig. 12 Amazon: Forever (2018)

 Fig. 13 Amazon: Forever (2018)

Fig. 14 Amazon: Forever (2018)

This also influenced me to show the progression of Cathryn's boredom through the actress's expressions. Thus, it can be seen that as the montage goes on Cathryn gets more worn, until this culminates to the last shot.

When staging the conversation between Cathryn and Mattie, I decided to frame them both in single shots since they disagree and thus are on different sides, inspired by Nora Ephron and how she uses singles to control how the audience see her character's relationships.
For the drawings, I decided to use pans and push ins to keep the style of the montage coherent by carrying on the kinetic style established at the beginning.
Watching montages from other superhero movies also helped with this since the pan to reveal the monster drawing was inspired by the montage in Spiderman. Within this montage, the director (Sam Raimi) uses pans to focus the audience on the most important information - (see fig. 15 & 16).

 Fig. 15 YouTube: Spider-Man (2002) - Costume Montage (2017)

Fig. 16 YouTube: Spider-Man (2002) - Costume Montage (2017)

Using this for the monster's introduction helped me to show the audience that this was the most important drawing that they needed to focus on to understand the narrative in this moment.
We had to cut the push in from the final film because we found that the DSLR we filmed on couldn't push in and stay in focus at the same time.

We also cut an overhead shot which we had filmed on the DSLR since it was shaky, which was influenced by Nora Ephron.
However, the close-up profile shot of Cathryn in the bar showed the same emotion as this shot would have done, since I included it initially to emphasise how bored and tired Cathryn was.
Nonetheless, I decided to film this close-up from profile rather than straight on, since it has already been established that she is bored and tired, but the framing, which completely cuts the client out of the frame can act to reinforce this through its focus only on Cathryn.
This framing was inspired by a shot from Ocean's Eight (directed by Gary Ross) - (see fig. 17) - as well as the way Sofia Coppola uses framing to hide her character's emotions from the audience (see fig. 18).

Fig. 17 YouTube: OCEAN'S 8 - Official Main Trailer (2018)

Fig. 18 Lost in Translation (2003)

Thus, this reinforced that Cathryn's job wasn't the most important part of the montage, especially at this stage once the comic book style begins to take over, since it detaches the audience from her emotions.

Therefore, some of these shots later in the montage involved special effects, thus their framing/movement needed to be able to accommodate these. For example, I decided to use a pull out for the shot with the speech bubbles, since there needed to be enough room for them in the frame, as well as keep the drawings and medium 3/4 for the comic book effect stationary so that effects could be added in without being disrupted by movement.
Nonetheless, I decided to frame both drawings at a dutch angle, because of how this can portray fear and danger, since these drawings signify the height of Cathryn's conflict between her job and her drawing.
To show the culmination of Cathryn's exhaustion at the end of the montage, I decided to use an extreme close-up of her eyes to emphasise this. This was inspired by how Patty Jenkins uses close-up shots to highlight battle and power in Wonder Woman - (see fig. 19) - as well as how it is used for the same effect in Spiderman:Into the Spiderverse (see fig. 20) since this sums up the effect the conflict between Cathryn's two lives is having on her.

Fig. 19 YouTube: Wonder Woman (2017) - Saving Veld Scene (7/10) (2018)

Fig. 20 YouTube: Spider-Man Into The Spiderverse 'What's Up Danger Song' Movie Clip (2018)

Overall, I aimed for my directing style during this montage to:

• Emphasise emotion
• Use framing to show how the character feels/what they think
• Use POV shots to allow the audience to take the character's place
• Have a kinetic style to focus the audience and highlight the important parts of the narrative by revealing and hiding information
• Show the transformation the main character goes through

List of Illustrations

Figure 1. The Holiday (2006) [Netflix webpage] At: https://www.netflix.com/search?q=the%20holiday&jbv=70045854&jbp=0&jbr=0 (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 2. The Holiday (2006) [Netflix webpage] At: https://www.netflix.com/search?q=the%20holiday&jbv=70045854&jbp=0&jbr=0 (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 3. The Holiday (2006) [Netflix webpage] At: https://www.netflix.com/search?q=the%20holiday&jbv=70045854&jbp=0&jbr=0 (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 4. The Intern - Opening Scene (2017) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=610AKnyp1RE&list=PLc9QYgv46S0PGGPtQTJAXNWYRHDbjh5pd&index=6&t=0s (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 5. The Intern - Opening Scene (2017) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=610AKnyp1RE&list=PLc9QYgv46S0PGGPtQTJAXNWYRHDbjh5pd&index=6&t=0s (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 6. The Intern - Opening Scene (2017) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=610AKnyp1RE&list=PLc9QYgv46S0PGGPtQTJAXNWYRHDbjh5pd&index=6&t=0s (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 7. Luis Storytelling About Tip | Ant-Man (2015) Movie Clip (2018) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_PmY8prw7M&list=PLc9QYgv46S0PGGPtQTJAXNWYRHDbjh5pd&index=31&t=0s (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 8. Luis Storytelling About Tip | Ant-Man (2015) Movie Clip (2018) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_PmY8prw7M&list=PLc9QYgv46S0PGGPtQTJAXNWYRHDbjh5pd&index=31&t=0s (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 9. Luis Storytelling About Tip | Ant-Man (2015) Movie Clip (2018) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_PmY8prw7M&list=PLc9QYgv46S0PGGPtQTJAXNWYRHDbjh5pd&index=31&t=0s (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 10. Julie & Julia #2 Movie CLIP - Another Meltdown (2011) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aURe7hHL-Dw&list=PLc9QYgv46S0PGGPtQTJAXNWYRHDbjh5pd&index=10 (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 11. Lost in Translation (2003) Directed by Coppola, S. [DVD] Japan: Focus Features.

Figure 12. Forever (2018) [Amazon webpage] At: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B07FSXNDDD/ref=atv_hm_hom_1_c_pbwan_3_1 (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 13. Forever (2018) [Amazon webpage] At: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B07FSXNDDD/ref=atv_hm_hom_1_c_pbwan_3_1 (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 14. Forever (2018) [Amazon webpage] At: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B07FSXNDDD/ref=atv_hm_hom_1_c_pbwan_3_1 (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 15. Spider-Man (2002) - Costume Montage (2017) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjB--c7WYFk&list=PLc9QYgv46S0PGGPtQTJAXNWYRHDbjh5pd&index=5&t=0s (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 16. Spider-Man (2002) - Costume Montage (2017) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjB--c7WYFk&list=PLc9QYgv46S0PGGPtQTJAXNWYRHDbjh5pd&index=5&t=0s (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 17. OCEAN'S 8 - Official Main Trailer (2018) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5LoVcVsiSQ (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 18. Lost in Translation (2003) Directed by Coppola, S. [DVD] Japan: Focus Features.

Figure 19. Wonder Woman (2017) - Saving Veld Scene (7/10) (2018) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2k_kuU84ro (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Figure 20. Spider-Man Into The Spiderverse 'What's Up Danger Song' Movie Clip (2018) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-euUGPQZoHw&list=PLc9QYgv46S0PGGPtQTJAXNWYRHDbjh5pd&index=19&t=1s (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

References

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR "Get Lost Squidward!" Movie Clip (2018) Marvel HD (2018) [user-generated content online] Creat. JoBlo Superheroes 12 July 18. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1EVDlFjEKo&list=PLc9QYgv46S0PGGPtQTJAXNWYRHDbjh5pd&index=30&t=0s  (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Hauge, M. (2014) 'STORY STRUCTURE: The 5 Key Turning Points of All Successful Screenplays' In: Story Mastery. [online] At: https://www.storymastery.com/story/screenplay-structure-five-key-turning-points-successful-scripts/ (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Hess, J. (2017) 'Sergei Eisenstein and the Theory of Montage' In: Filmmaker IQ. [online] At: https://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/sergei-eisenstein-theory-montage/ (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Lannom, S. (2019a) 'What is a Plot? Types of Plot, Definitions, and Examples' In: Studio Binder. [online] At: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-plot/?utm_campaign=Weekly_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid&utm_term=what-is-plot-types-of-plot&utm_content=what-is-plot-types-of-plot#Plot-Basics (Accessed on 14 May 2019)

Lannom, S. (2019b) 'Whip Pans, Swish Pans, and The Whip Shot Effect' In: Studio Binder. [online] At: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/swish-pan-whip-pan-definition-film/?utm_campaign=Weekly_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid&utm_term=whip-pans-sendgrid&utm_content=whip-pans-sendgrid#Whip-pan-basics (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Myers, S. (2017) 'Script Analysis: "Jackie" - Part 1: Scene By Scene Breakdown' In: Go Into The Story. [online] At: https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/script-analysis-jackie-part-1-scene-by-scene-breakdown-985aa7670489 (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Rogan, M. (s.d) '7 Classic Movie Scripts Every Screenwriter Should Read' In: Script Bully. [online] At: https://scriptbully.com/movie-scripts/ (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Rogan, M. (2013) 'How to Write a Movie Villain That Doesn't Totally Suck' In: Script Bully. [online] At: https://scriptbully.com/how-to-write-a-movie/  (Accessed on 12 May 2019)

Rogan, M. (2018) How to Write a Script With Dialogue That Doesn't Suck. USA: Script Bully Press.

Winfield-Sublett, S. (2014) Screenwriting for Neurotics: A Beginner's Guide to Writing a Feature-Length Screenplay from Start to Finish. Iowa: University of Iowa Press.