Unit 19: Learning Aim B

Movies:

No Country for Old Men.

The Breakfast Club

Television:

Barry

It’s always sunny

Game:

Grim Fandango

Metro 2033

(Links to all mentioned media will be put at the end of this nice little task)

No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men is a movie adaptation of a book by the same name. I will not assess how well this script does at adapting the book.

We will assess how well it guides the making of the movie.

No Country for Old Men is a movie about a country(no). It is a movie about a Sherriff that stumbles upon a good sum of money.

It is a movie about a psychopath that is unleashed upon that sheriff, and that may or may not represent the everlasting cycle of chaos in our universe.

It is a movie where Woody Harrelson dresses up in a real nice suit.

It is a movie that I thought was set in the 60s, but it turns out it’s set in the 80s, which I find weird for some reason.

lucky coin, analysis time

rainy day

FADE IN:

EXT. MOUNTAINS - NIGHT

Snow is falling in a gusting wind. The voice of an old man:

VOICE OVER

I was sheriff of this county when I was twenty-five. Hard to believe. Grandfather was a lawman. Father too. Me and him was sheriff at the same time, him in Plano and me here. I think he was pretty proud of that. I know I was.

EXT. WEST TEXAS LANDSCAPE - DAWN/DAY

We dissolve to another West Texas landscape. Sun is rising.

VOICE OVER

Some of the old-time sheriffs never even wore a gun. A lot of folks find that hard to believe. Jim Scarborough never carried one. That's the younger Jim. Gaston Boykins wouldn't wear one. Up in Comanche County.

ANNOTATIONS:

Transition: Tells us how we’re supposed to edit and transition into a scene.

This is mostly for the editors.

Scene Heading: This tells us the location of the scene, and the time it takes place in.

This helps the crew set up the scene, but more specifically helps the camera crew and the lighting crew as they will be this will help understand what type of scenery to shoot in, and what lighting is gonna be used.

Voice Over (Extensions): This is an extension that pertains to dialogue, telling us how the dialogue is meant to be portrayed.

This helps the actors, editors, director(s), and sound engineers as they are the ones dealing with dialogue whether it’s in saying, recording, or layering it.

*Every part of a script helps a director, and by proxy most of the crew.

We also have the Dialogue and Action lines.

WHAT DOES THIS TYPE OF SCRIPT SEQUENCING DO?

The script helps the narrative as it is laid out and detailed enough to paint a clear picture of it. The immense dialogue, and the vast ocean of action lines detailing specific scenes help evoke the imagination, and ignite the action of the scene in your head as a reader.

Some of this may be the fact that the script is based off of a book (made by a very demented author), but a lot of it is done by The Coen Brothers who wrote the script, and helped bring to LIFE and to film the tension and intenseness of the story told.

The script is filled with long monologues, detailed action scenes, intense interactions, and a confrontation of the underlying subtext and themes, pulled forth by the characters, in many ways.

All of this, and the psychological elements of it, and the gore, pushes this story towards appealing to an older, adult audience.

this is the part where I tell you the conclusion, and list off stuff to evaluate what I just wrote down.

The script is structured and formatted in a straight-forward way, allowing it to flow nicely. It highlights important aspects that will be useful in production, and it generally is enjoyable to read, which isn’t the case for most scripts.

(This last bit may’ve been just because I enjoyed the movie itself, but still)

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is a tv show adaptation of the creators’ demented chaotic imagination.

The show is about the place where the sun never sets, Philadelphia.

It satirizes people, and it clearly depicts the characters’ actions as demented and deplorable, though for some, the characters’ actions hit a little too close to home, and they end up relating to them and taking their side. Weird.

conspiracy theory time

ACT TWO

FADE IN:

INT. PADDY’S PUB – NEXT DAY – D/2

Dennis rummages through his many boxes of stuff. Dee watches with anger/envy and looks through her trinkets. There’s a long line of masking tape dividing them.

DENNIS

Over the line. You’re over the line.

DEE

I’m not over the line. I’m on the line.

DENNIS

On the line is over the line. Stay on your side. She steps fully over on to Dennis’ side.

DEE

This side, this side here? Is this your side? Dennis picks up a large, ornate lamp.

DENNIS

Oh, look what I have. This is the lamp that Dad bought you in China. I must’ve gotten this in your room.

DEE

Give it to me. It’s mine.

DENNIS

Oh, yeah, sure. Lemme put it on your side.

Dennis SMASHES it on the ground, on her side.

DEE

Dennis! Fine, fine, okay...

Dee retrieves an old, STUFFED ELEPHANT from a box.

DENNIS

Mr. Tibbs?

ANNOTATION:

The Acts: Used often in tv show scripts, as the switch from act to act could be put in place of where ad breaks may be.

This is used also to show a major switch in scenes.

Used by everybody involved, but especially the director and editors.

Transition: Tells us how we’re supposed to edit and transition into a scene.

This is mostly for the editors.

Scene Heading: Tells us if the scene takes place inside or outside, where it takes place, and what time it takes place.

Note the use of “D/2” here.

This is used if a story happens over the course of multiple days (and nights “N/2”) as it helps keep track of the plot.

We also have Dialogue and Action lines.

We also have certain words that have been CAPITALIZED in the script. Capitalizations on actions like SMASHES emphasizes the action done, and guides the actors in that scene.

STUFFED ELEPHANT is capitalized as it is an important prop.

This helps the prop department, and sometimes highlights the importance of the prop to the story.

COLD OPEN

TITLE: 2:30 am

TITLE: On a Monday

TITLE: Philadelphia, PA

A lot of sitcoms and comedy shows have what is called a COLD OPEN, which is a scene that coldly starts off the episode, before showing credits, and usually having a comedic moment, or setting up the conflict of the episode. Sometimes it doesn’t have to do with the rest of the episode and is just used to show us a look into the characters’ lives.

The Title here not only works as a set up for the location and time, but it also is referring to text that will pop up on the screen.

This helps the editors.

SEQUENCE:

A thing to note about It’s Always Sunny is that a lot of the show is improvised on the spot. The cast feels comfortable going wild and rolling free of scene specifics and it’s constrains, withing the wider narrative of the episode.

The script is simple enough, and open ended enough to let the actors do their thing.

How does it apple?

The script is concise, simple, and constructed in a way that appeals to a certain type of humor found in audiences.

I find this question weird as most of the appeal comes from the content of the narrative and story, not the script itself, with few exceptions.

Evolution . o 0 0 D P

The script is straightforward and simple enough for a tv show, while having the necessary elements to ensure an easy flow in production.

The script is also open ended enough to improvise over, and appeals to adult audiences with a liking to vulgar humor.

Good show (the game of games episode is the best).

awake

Grim Fandango

Grim Fandango. Funny bones. Good music.

It’s a point and click puzzle game.

Note:

We will be analysing a Game Design Document which includes a variety of game concepts outside of narrative-only ones.

smoke break

A page of a book

Description automatically generated

We first get a quick list of characters (NPCS and enemies) with their in-game name written out first, then a quick description of who, and what they are, and what they may do.

This is useful for writers, sketch artists, and even casting directors, as they may rely on this sheet to search for voices that matche the characters.

This is a layout for the map of the location in game, and what characters are in each section of it.

This is useful to the game designers, coders, and people who model the environment of the game world.

This page scripts the intro sequence where we get acquainted to the protagonist, and get a rough idea of the story.

It is not laid out in other scrip formats like Screenplays, but rather it’s written more like a book.

There is a rough sketch of the characters included.

This is useful for the writers, model designers, voice actors, and animators when making the intro cut-scene.

A page of a book with text and images

Description automatically generated Here we see a description of two of the puzzles from the game.

This is done by setting up the problem we have to solve, and then providing the solution to it under.

This is useful to the game designers, writers, object modelers, and coder.

We also get a drawing of a very sharply dressed undead skeleton.

A diagram of a building

Description automatically generated

Here we get details of the puzzle system structure, difficulty, and other details pertaining to puzzles.

We see how puzzles flow in succession to and after each other, and we get descriptions for certain aspects of puzzles, such as their linearity, their completion order, or what questline or main objective they happen within.

You can tell by the way this is written they were having fun with it.

We also get a nice piece of artwork that I love.

As this is a GDD file for the game the narrative isn’t the focus compared to the gameplay and mechanics.

It still does a good job of telling us parts of the plot, since the puzzles and their solutions are a part of it.

You can see the audiences that are being appealed to (puzzle/point and click enthusiasts, and people who love afterlife aesthetics, and Latin swing jazz) with the way the puzzles are set up here, and the way the characters, story, and style is portrayed here.

This document is rough in the best of ways. Filled with silly jokes, random footnotes, a hair on one of the pages even.

The GDD helps showcase the approach taken to gameplay, which helps appeal to audiences, as the people working on it have a clear vision.

evaluation, but with silly skeletons:

This document effectively communicates how the game is supposed to play out. This makes the production of the game flow more smoothly.

With a lot of love being put into just this document, I think it’s safe to say this is a really nice “script” for a really nice game.

Mortis; final evaluation

We find that a lot of sectors use similar formatting systems.

Centred dialogue, action lines to the left, and similar ways for telling a story, etc...

Movies used a more detailed script, while episodic tv shows use less detail heavy scripts, with the exception of shows like Breaking bad that would have a more detailed script.

Video games relied on GDDs and Game Bibles more than independent scripts, as gameplay mechanics are video games’ defining feature, and it needs to be handled and formatted in a different way.

I found the script for Grim Fandango the least effective here, as it doesn’t detail as much parts of the game than a screenplay would to a movie.

It was still a nice script.

It’s Always Sunny’s script was effective in understanding the direction of the episode, but leaving space for improve.

The most effective script by far was No Country For Old Men; the script was detailed and concise, helping guide production and creating a great final product.

All in all, scripts are helpful in setting a path to the finish goal. But since each sector has a different end goal, they will all have disparities and differences in the script formats and systems they use.