Teach Them *SCRIPTS*
Can you name what famous film this script passage is from?
No, it’s a not a trick question.
500 Days of Summer?
Good guess…
And you probably knew that because it’s become somewhat of an indie cult classic since its release in 2009.
True, it’s not like, the most highbrow film ever made. Yes, it gets a little airy-fairy, especially when Tom starts dancing in Central Park.
But it’s also wildly funny. And deep; In a way that seems to speak perfectly to us, as we are right here, right now.
Maybe that’s because it is us. We’ve all been Tom and Summer, at one end of love or the other.
But in this moment, I don’t much care about the film you know and love.
I care about the film script you have never read.
That’s because ‘500 Days of Summer’ happens to be one of the greatest scripts I’ve ever read (note: there are A LOT of great scripts… not here to rank, just thank).
The script, written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, surprises you in ways the film never does. How? I’m going to give you the cheapo answer: Read it for yourself and find out… . It’s a quick read, deliciously funny, and available online completely FREE. Just as are a shit ton of other award-winning film scripts.
For instance, Google ‘Chinatown script’ (another amazingly good film script) and BAM, it’s there at your fingertips, ready to read, for free, over your morning cup of coffee (because yes, you can actually finish an entire script in ONE sitting).
Most people have no idea these scripts are out there.
But of course, why would they?
Most people will never even come across a film script.
Why would they?
Film scripts aren’t meant for reading like books, or poetry, or magazines are.
We’re told you need a degree to understand a film script.
English departments don’t even bother teaching them. You need another kind of degree for that: film school.
Or so, this is what we’ve collectively told ourselves as twenty-first century intellectuals.
Somehow, somewhere we’ve decided that film scripts are a different kind of reading. More like your how-to guide to building your very own rocket ship. Of course, why open it if you don’t actually plan on building one yourself?
Which begs the question: why?
In schools, we teach Sartre and Shakespeare. Playwrights. Is there something inherently more worthy in theatrical prose? Is there something more poetic about texts with the stamp ‘classics’? Do you need to be dated in order to be accepted?
The questions go on…
It’s more puzzling still because a large chuck of modern day writers are script writers. They are plotting and creating worlds ultimately meant for visual consumption, true. But a large chunk of those writers will eventually ditch their scripts for books. Because, “no one will ever read a film script”. And every author (no matter the medium) wants to be read.
I am one of those. A recent convert, in fact.
Writing 250 pages just so at the very least a handful of people will read your story, rather than a grand total of none who would dare pick up a 90-page script? It’s a no-brainer.
That is at least, as long as we continue to deem one form more worthy than the other.
When I think of an insanely talented author like Charlie Kaufman (‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, ‘Adaptation,’, ‘Anomalisa’) a little part of me dies thinking most people will never have poured over his words like they would have a Philip Roth.
And no, seeing the movie isn’t substitute for reading. Because the brilliance of film scripts often outshines the very things they were made for. Much as it’s true for books, film scripts are often better than the movie itself.
And maybe more importantly than that: film scripts are entirely different than the movie itself. For one, the written word versus the visual image; they cannot be compared or ranked. Both serve a purpose in our imaginations and fantasies as digesters of story.
For two, film scripts are also entirely different than books and beautifully so. They are more fluid. More dynamic. More visual. More active.
For this reason, film scripts deserve their own place in the everyday.
Because good writing isn’t bound to history, genre, or function. You can find it as easily on a napkin, in a Penguin Classic, ancient stone, or toilet cubicle.
Because films are as relevant and pivotal (if not more so) to the fabric of society as books, theatre, and music.
Because modern day writers aspire to writing scripts and think and dream in film prose.
So here’s my take: teach film scripts.
Read film scripts.
You will laugh, you will cry, and you will discover a whole new art to telling stories.
