May 28 2010

More Director’s Hour Prep

My Director’s Hour went on as scheduled on the evening of Monday, May 24th.

I’d done a lot of work on the scene on Sunday and early on Monday, trying to mine the scene for more of…something. I felt like I wasn’t quite as connected to this scene as I was with The Dead Zone (I’d previously directed a scene from The Dead Zone for a similarly-formatted special event workshop at DnA). So I took another look at my Directing Actors book and that helped me to ask myself some questions:

What is this film about?
Not getting stuck in regret. Rediscovering love. Reconnecting with who you are. Having dreams and that feeling that your whole life is ahead of you.

What is Peggy Sue fighting for?
To get back to her real life.

What is Richard fighting for?
Respect.

I wrote down the transformation that the characters go through. It’s the transformations that interest me.

I wrote down a question I had about the scene: Does running away from the truck prove that Peggy Sue’s not dead?

I wrote down what Judith Weston calls the emotional event, even though I had already written it down a few days before, but this time I worded it differently. I’m noticing how valuable it is to rethink or restate character objectives, throughlines, etc. because as I work on it my interpretations can change.

As I was writing, something sparked my interest: Richard becoming Peggy Sue’s savior. I already knew that she went to him for help and that he wanted to help her, but emotionally speaking, I hadn’t fully considered what it might mean for him. Richard was striving for respect and found it by becoming the one who Peggy Sue depended on to save her.

The fact that he doesn’t ultimately save her (in the movie version anyway…the screenplay I found had a different ending) doesn’t matter to this scene.

It’s easy to focus on the main character, but taking a deeper look at the supporting characters’ point of view is incredibly helpful when analyzing a scene.

Took another look at my 3 beats and decided that I would lengthen the first beat for the purposes or the workshop. I wrote down ideas for how to approach each beat, and felt the scene becoming fuller, more engaging, more dynamic. That feeling/vision for the scene is what I was looking for, so I kept it with me as I wrote down my Plan of Attack and later in the workshop.

By Sharifa • Director's Hour, DnA, Movies, Script Analysis • 2 • Tags: ,