TODAY'S NUGGET: Mona Lisa Smile (2003) - A Hard CUT TO: Transition That Works

[Quick Summary: When an art teacher arrives for a one year stint at Wellesley, an all women's university, she challenges her students to think differently.]

In my own scripts, I am often afraid the reader will not understand, so I over-explain with a lot of slug lines.

Thus, it was refreshing to see a script that uses the hard CUT TO: with very little explanation, and it is still clear what is happening.

Why does this work here? 

I think perhaps because there's still a unity of character.  Here, the CUT TO: is essentially a pivot for the viewer - same character, different setting.

For example, in the scene below:
- Katherine is showing her first art class slides and debating what is good art.
- This is followed by a hard CUT TO: Katherine considering a room for rent.
- Note the unbroken flow from professional Katherine to private Katherine.
- Note also that the writers understand how to translate cinematic language on the screen versus written language on the page. ON THE SCREEN: Nancy speaks --> we see the room.  ON THE PAGE:  CUT TO: -->  Nancy's line  --> "pull back to" --> the slug line. 

INT. CLASSROOM (CONTINUOUS)

...CLICK! She startles them with ANOTHER SLIDE. A STUNNING, HANDSOME MAN WITH LONG GOLDEN RINGLETS.

KATHERINE (CONT'D): Albrecht Durer, Self-Portrait, late fiftheenth century.

JOAN: Where does this fit in?

KATHERINE: It doesn't. He's so dreamy I just like to look at him.

And the girls burst out laughing led by Giselle. Katherine is thrilled. Betty is fuming.

                                                                           CUT TO:

NANCY: Don't you just love Chintz?

Pull back to reveal that we are:

INT. VICTORIA HOUSE - BEDROOM - TWILIGHT

An explosion of floral patterns on every surface. Katherine stands, holding the real estate section of the WELLESLEY NEWS.

NANCY: And look.

She pulls back the floral bedcover to reveal matching floral sheets.

KATHERINE: They match.

NANCY: Sweet, right?

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I'd never really considered the hard CUT TO: could be used with unity of character.

Mona Lisa Smile (2003)(4/2/02, 2nd draft)
by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal

TODAY'S NUGGET: Confessions of a Nervous Man (1953; Live TV) - Cinematic Transitions Useful on Live Narrative TV

[Quick Summary: While waiting for opening night reviews, a playwright relives his angst getting his play ("The Seven Year Itch") to the stage.]

Though I don't usually read tv scripts, I made an exception for this one because:
1) it's written by renowned playwright and screenwriter George Axelrod,* and
2) it was for live tv (an episode of the "Studio One" show).

Given that it was for live tv, I was impressed that this script used so many cinematic techniques, particularly in the transitions.

For example, in the scene below:
- Camera movement (dissolves) and stage cues (music, sound) indicate the story was moving to a dream sequence.
- Though the script says "dream sequence," it's actually more of a fantasy sequence of the Author character's fears.
- Notice how "tight head shot" to slow dissolve is the equivalent of going into someone's mind space.

MAN: Relax, baby -- you got a smash -- a smash -- all you got to worry about is what to do with the money...

THE MAN MOVES ON...

AUTHOR (muttering again):  Atkinson....Kerr...Chapman...the critics are sitting there...destroying me..right now...

THE CAMERA HAS MOVED IN TO A TIGHT HEAD SHOT.

SOUND: RAPID TYPING FROM THREE TYPEWRITERS FADES IN

THE MUSIC BECOMES DREAM...OR RATHER NIGHTMARE IN QUALITY.

SLOW DISSOLVE TO:

THREE DESKS WITH THREE TYPEWRITERS BEHIND WHICH SIT THREE FIENDS. EACH DESK HAS A NAME PLATE: ATKINSON...KERR...AND CHAPMAN....

THE FIENDS ARE TYPING FURIOUSLY AND GIVING OUT WITH DREADFUL GHOULISH LAUGHTER AS THEY SPEAK.

ATKINSON: Tedious....

KERR: Dreary and uninspired....

CHAPMAN:  Sets Broadway back fifty years....

ALL THREE LAUGH GHOULISHLY TOGETHER

ATKINSON: Contrived, unoriginal and tasteless..

KERR: Left this reviewer with a distinct feeling of nausea....

CHAPMAN:  Stamp out this ugly thing!

ALL LAUGH AND TYPE FURIOUSLY. THE LAUGHTER MINGLES WITH THE MUSIC AS WE DISSOLVE TO:

TIGHT CLOSE SHOT OF THE AUTHOR'S ANGUISHED FACE. HE STRUGGLES TO PULL HIMSELF TOGETHER. HE DRINKS A LITTLE OF HIS DRINK.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: This script showed me how much can still be done on live tv with just transitions, and without editorial cuts or special effects.

"Studio One: "Confessions of a Nervous Man" (1953)
by George Axelrod

*The Seven Year Itch, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Manchurian Candidate.

TODAY'S NUGGET: Cutthroat Island (1994) - Effective Onomatopoeia in an Action Sequence ("JING! JING!")

[Quick Summary: A thief is rescued by a female pirate in order to help her locate two other pieces of a treasure map.]

BAD NEWS: I feel that this script starts off strong, with great, promising characters, but then it becomes a bit predictable at the end.

GOOD NEWS: The action sequences surprised me! They're so visceral and alive.  

It was so unusual how the writers captured the sound and motion with onomatopoeia.  I felt like I was with the characters in the middle of the fight.

For example, in the scene below:
- Morgan (female pirate) was insulted by Frenchman Toussant.
- Her suitor, Lord Ainslie, challenged Toussant to a duel.
- Later, Morgan asks Toussant to cancel the duel.  If he does not, she will fight him.
- Toussant won't back down, so Morgan shoots off the tip of his ear.
- Note how the onomatopoeia (JING! JING!) reads and sounds exactly like the clashing, and how it  especially convinces you that you're a participant.

EXT. SEBASTIAN'S ISLAND

...She starts for her horse. Toussant grabs one of the rapiers that's been stuck point first into the sand in front of the Second

TOUSSANT: I say you missed.

Morgan stops, her back to him, and waits.

TOUSSANT (continuing): This duel is not over. 

Resolutely, Morgan turns, walks over and pulls the other rapier out of the sand, slashes it, once, twice, through the air to get a sense of its heft. When she's ready, she takes off her hat and, shaking her hair loose, assumes the "en garde" position in front of Toussant.

MORGAN: We don't have to do this.

TOUSSANT: I can accept nothing less.

JING!..., JING!..., JING!, JING!, JING!, JING! They feel each other out. Toussant is fabulous. But Morgan is his equal. JING!, JING!, JING!...JING!, JING!, JING! SLASH! Woussant winces. Morgan has drawn first blood. JING!, JING!, JING! Toussant attacks. SLASH! Morgan cuts him again. JING!, JING!, JING!, JING! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! Roussant puts three slices int he front of Morgan's shirt. Blood wells from the cuts under two of them As she moves, we can almost see her breasts. JING!, JING!, JING! Circling around each other, they edge out onto a flat, rocky point.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I liked how the right onomatopoeia gets the reader into the journey faster, which is half battle for a writer.

Cutthroat Island (1994)(dated 4/12/94)
by Robert King and Marc Norman
Story by Michael Frost Beckner & James Gorman and Bruce A. Evans & Raynold Gideon

TODAY'S NUGGET: Oklahoma Crude (1973) - Primal Ferocity of a Single-Minded, No Excuses Female Lead

[Quick Summary: When a big oil company harasses a woman who owns a small oil field, her only allies are her estranged father and a stranger.]

Before he co-wrote (and won the Oscar for) Shakespeare in Love (1998), Marc Norman wrote this script with an unapologetic, ambitious female lead.* 

It may sound trite, but I've read a lot of single-minded male characters, undistracted by ideas of balancing work and family, but not female ones.

What is interesting about Lena is her sheer force of will.  This is her fight and she's willing to die for it.**  Why do I believe that? Why am I curious to follow her?

I think it's because her stubbornness, the stuff of legends, leads her to wild places.  

For example, in an early scene below:
- We see how hard bitten Lena has become.
- Her absentee dad Cleon comes to her plot of oil field.  This is their first contact and he tries to offer help.
- Notice how her motive is all about survival. She doesn't even waste a syllable on him.
- Also note: There were no slug lines (INT./EXT.) in this script.  Rather, it was broken into chapters.  The one below is titled, "LENA'S FATHER SHOWS UP."

His eyes rove her -- land on her folded hands. He smiles faintly, and gingerly lays his hand on top of hers.

CLEON (CONT'D): Look...

Lena recoils, snatches up the rifle.

LENA: Stay back.
CLEON (CONT'D): Look at your hand. It's the same as mine.

He tries to get her to compare them.

CLEON (CONT'D): Look at it -- you got my hand. (desperate) Damn it, Lena -- I come to help you. LENA: Me and my oil land!
CLEON: No -- to help you. To help you hold out, if that's what you want.

Lena looks up at him and chuckles bitterly.

LENA: Can you use a rifle?

Cleon makes a sort-of gesture.

LENA (angry): Handle a derrick, maybe? Can you drill a hole?
CLEON: I can learn..!
LENA: Just get out of here!
CLEON: No!
LENA (shouting): What the hell good are you?
CLEON: I'm your pa, Lena!    
LENA: So? You gonna read me nursery rhymes?

She stands, turns her back on him, and starts up the hill.

CLEON: Lena! You can't do it all by yourself.

She spins, raging.

LENA: Just fuck off
CLEON: Don't do this...    
LENA: I mean it!

Cleon falls to his knees in prayer.

CLEON: I can't, Lena...
LENA (exploding): Get out of here, you...scumbag son-of a bitch!

Cleon's mouth drops open. Lena fires, wildly, from the hip -- hit hat flies off.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I don't see female characters like this in more modern scripts.  There's something refreshing about a character who is this focused on the present, and not worried with "having it all."

Oklahoma Crude (1973)
by Marc Norman

 *It was played by actress Faye Dunaway (after Bonnie and Clyde, but before Chinatown).

**As an aside, she was not "likeable", and I was fine with it. I liked that this script took such a big swing on a female character.