TODAY'S NUGGET: Reality Bites (1994) - How to Keep Momentum Rising in a Rom-Com During Dreaded Act II

[Quick Summary: After college, a Gen X documentary filmmaker and her friends face the reality of juggling the realities of love, work, and family.]

The most romantic thing about this script is that it's not all about the romance.  It's also ABOUT something, i.e., the importance of dreams.

The protagonist, Lelaina, hopes to become a documentary filmmaker after college. She constantly videotapes her friends. She gets a job at a tv station and gets fired. 

There are two very different men.  Both were oddly supportive and unsupportive:

- Troy, an old college friend who reads and thinks about philosophy.  He has no direction in life and works at the Gap store. He tried to make her laugh.

- Michael, a new VP at In Your Face TV, who meets Lelaina and sees she has ideas.  He tries to help in his own way (scene below) but has his own dreams too.

What made Act II interesting to me (and keeps momentum rising) was how the writer captured the see-saw, give-and-take of relating, as in the scene below:
- Lelaina has just been fired and Michael spend the night together.
- She shows him her film about her friends, a work-in-progress.
- Michael likes it for the wrong reasons and wants to take it to New York to show executives.
- Lelaina is not so sure it's a good idea.
- Michael also wants to take her to New York to meet his dad. He offers to pay for her ticket.
- She is flattered, but wants to pay her own way and turns down the money.
- Notice that Lelaina is trying to protect her dream and Michael doesn't quite get it. Michael has his dreams too, but Lelaina is not where he is.
- Also notice they're being open and vulnerable, but they're simply not aligned.

INT. HOTEL SUITE - MORNING

...MICHAEL (almost frustrated): What is it? --Is it that, I mean, is Troy gonna get pissed off that you're actually doing something fun and not being all like miserable with him or--

LELAINA (very irritated): What are you talking about? My God, this has totally zero to do with--I mean, Troy doesn't have anything to do with anything at all, Jesus Christ.

MICHAEL: "Jesus Christ." Okay. Alright, I was just... (sighs) I probably shouldn't even try to give you this. [He's vulnerable enough to admit he misread her. He tries to repair the situation.]

Michael hands her the cassette he made. 

MICHAEL: I don't know, this whole thing has just been--I haven't made anyone a tape since I don't even know when, when I was seventeen and acne and here I am, twenty-six. I just, I never met anyone like you before. [Again, he's vulnerable and lets her into his emotions. I really want to like this guy at this point.]

Genuinely touched by the gesture, she kisses him softly. [This is a moment of connection when she acknowledges his gift and bid for attention.]

MICHAEL: It's got KISS and I don't know why, but I stuck the Hershey's jingle on there: (sings) Nothin' like the face of a kid eating a Hershey's bar, nothing like it you'll...

She reaches out and gently touches his face, charmed.

LELAINA (soft): --Michael, I love this. But I just can't go, okay? I just can't do it. I'm sorry.  [I can't fault her because it costs her something to be this honest.]

MICHAEL: Alright, forget it. I just though it would be fun and funny and you and me, that's all.  [He's really trying but it's not what she needs right now.]

He starts out, hurt. She looks over and sees that snow is still on the TV. She turns the set off and follows him.  [They're both trying to connect, but clearly they're not on the same page.]

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I liked that the couple veered widely in emotions, even in the same scene, because I could never predict where the scene would go

Reality Bites (1994)(12/5/92 draft)
by Helen Childress

TODAY'S NUGGET: The Jazz Singer (1980) - Bad Film, Good Script; When A Nice Couple Listens, But Does Not Hear

[Quick Summary: Against his father's wishes, a young cantor leaves his synagogue to take the shot to be a pop singer.]

This film, starring Neil Diamond (yes, you read that right), is a remake of the first talking film from 1927 film with Al Jolson.

Apparently it wasn't a hit with critics. ex. Roger Ebert's one star review which cites serious miscasting and shifting the story to the present time.

Yes, the story is somewhat unbelievable, but I thought the script was an absorbing read and I couldn't wait to turn the page.

A few reasons were:
- The characters' points of view - especially what they wanted - were very clear.
- I could see arguments for both sides.
- Very important: I felt the consequences of the decisions.
- Neither Jess or his wife Rivka is the bad guy. Both sides are listening, but not hearing each other.
- They are beginning to discover how far apart their goals are, and that conflict can't be resolved by staying together.

For example, in the scene below between Jess and Rivka:
- Jess has gone to Los Angeles. A big time rock star wants to perform Jess' song.
- Jess disagrees with the star and gets fired.
- Molly is the record label's artist relations manager.
- Molly has single-handedly been helping Jess get noticed.
- Rivka is Jess' wife who has stayed back home.
- I really liked that Rivka empathizes with Jess' feelings ("you go all the way out there..."), but also makes her stance clear without nagging ("you can bring it home as a souvenir").
- Jess also expresses his wishes to sing for audiences ("Maybe something'll happen....it sounds like a real record").
- Neither party is hearing the other person's underlying needs.

INT. SYNAGOGUE SOCIAL HALL - DAY

...RIVKA: Hello?

INTERCUT WITH: 

JESS ON PHONE

JESS: Hello from Hollywood.
RIVKA: Well, hello, stranger.
JESS: I'm sorry I couldn't call. You won't believe what's going on. I got fired.
RIVKA (genuinely sorry): Oh, Jess. I'm sorry. I really am.
JESS: No, no, it'll be okay.
RIVKA:  Some okay. You go all the way out there to turn around and come home.
JESS: I'm not coming home.
RIVKA:What?
JESS (quickly): I mean not right away. I moved in with Bubba. I'm staying the two weeks. Maybe something'll happen.
RIVKA:  Something did. You got fired.
JESS (good-naturedly): Yeah...but at least I got a pretty good demo out of it.
RIVKA:What's a demo?
JESS: Well, I sang at the Lennox session and they made a cassette out of it. You play it for agents, producers...it sounds like a real record.
RIVKA: Good. You can bring it home for a souvenir.
JESS: How's papa?
RIVKA: Counting the days. You want me to get him?

Molly drives up and honks her horn for him.

JESS (sees Molly) No, uh, look - I got to go now. Molly has an appointment to play my Demo for one of the biggest booking agents in town. I'll call you over the weekend. Bye.

He hangs up. 

ANGLE ON RIVKA

looking at the dead receiver.

RIVKA: Who's Molly?

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I really liked how real the dialogue felt.

Both sides of the conversation are figuring out, "Oh, our real goals are actually far apart," in real time, so they assume things, forget to mention things, etc.

The Jazz Singer (1997)(3/13/80 revised)
by Stephen H. Foreman and Herbert Baker
Based on the play by Samson Raphaelson

TODAY'S NUGGET: Joe's Apartment (1996) - An Unpredictable Introduction of the Roach Allies (Yes, Literally Roaches)

[Quick Summary: Straight from college, naive Joe has to share run-down apartment with singing, dancing cockroaches in New York City.]

I stumbled across this script in my search for anything else by writer-director Paul Brickman (Risky Business (1983)), who keeps a rather low profile.

To me, Brickman adds a wild, unexpected inventiveness to what otherwise might be predictable satires.

For example, in this scene below:
- Joe lives in a badly run down apartment. 
- The landlord wants to sell the building, but Joe is one of the remaining tenants.
- He sends his nephews Boris and Vlad, to scare Joe.  They break into Joe's apartment in the middle of the night.
- Joe sits up in bed, scared.
- What was interesting was how Joe's unlikely allies were introduced.  At first, they appear to be a mysterious, even a potential threat.

INT/EXT: JOE'S APT. WINDOW - NIGHT

CLOSE
Joe's eyes. He's beside himself with fear. The Nephews throw stuff around. Joe's eyes react to an unseen WHISPER.

WHISPER: Psst! Pick this up!

JOE'S POV
A dirty flashlight rolls by itself across the floor under the curtain. Joe's hand grabs it. 

WHISPER: Point it at your face. When I saw "now" -- turn it on.

JOE (Bewildered): Who--

WHISPER: Ssshh!

Vlad and Boris stomp around the practically empty apartment. They turn their backs to the curtain, behind which Joe huddles. The curtain trembles.

BORIS: Where is he?!

Joe SNEEZES behind the curtain. Slowly, murderously, the criminals turn to face the curtain. Their faces twist into hideous smiles.

They step forward and RIP the curtain open.

                                        CUT ON SOUND TO:

WHISPER: NOW!

CLICK! Joe turns on the flashlight. TWO DOZEN OR MORE LIVE ROACHES CRAWL ACROSS HIS FACE.

REVERSE ANGLE
Boris and Vlad, in shock. They SCREAM. They turn to look at each other and SCREAM again.

ANGLE
The ceiling above Boris and Vlad. It's SWARMING with COCKROACHES. Stirring Military MUSIC.

ROACH LEADER (Barking out an order): Paratroop Maneuver Alpha!

ROACHES (In military-style unison): SIR. YES, SIR!

ROACH LEADER: BOMBS AWAY!

The Roaches PEEL OFF the ceiling in flawless fighter/bomber formation. 

A HUGE ROACH lands on Vlad's RIGHT HAND. Vlad gasps in shock.

Another HUGE ROACH lands on Vlad's LEFT HAND. Vlad gasps again.

The ROACH LEADER lands squarely on VLAD'S NOSE.

ROACH LEADER: Gimme a kiss, asshole.

VLAD emits a HIGH-PITCHED, GIRLY SCREAM.

Boris, trembling violently, backs off.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: What kept me engaged was that Joe's allies were the opposite of what I expected (sweet vs. threatening). 

The unpredictability kept the tension up: What would happen next?

Joe's Apartment (1996)(5/10/4; 3rd draft, 2nd revision, "Incorporating many valuable ideas and suggestions from Paul Brickman" [sic])
by Joe Payson
Adapted from a short by Joe Payson

TODAY'S NUGGET: The Fight For Life (1940) - Rare Glimpses at a Director's Intentions for the Music

[Quick Summary: After an intern witnesses death in the pregnancy ward, he goes to a clinic in the slums to learn more about preventing maternal morbidity.]

Why was this respected documentary* included as the last script in a book of feature films? I found the script rather dry, with a long, dry preface/memo.  

The latter was the writer/director's instructions to the composer regarding what music he needed written. 

The key was in re-reading the memo. The film is silent for about 2/3. The writer/director cut the remaining 1/3 to unwritten music, which was only in his head. 

Aha!  So this script and memo are rare glimpses into the working relationship between writer/director and composer!

Here is the director's comments about this memo:

This memorandum never was intended for publication, but I asked the authors [of this book] to include it because The Fight For Life was so much a musical picture the bare text seems meaningless without at least some mention of the score and how it was created, and because I felt it might help explain the technical construction of the picture. 

...reading it now I find it not only an awkward bit of writing, but is such a shorthand description of the intent of the whole story I can understand why, when he first read it, Louis [Gruenberg, the composer] went reeling home talking to himself.**

THIS IS WHAT THE DIRECTOR'S MEMO SAID:

LIFE: ...The minute the child is born, the baby's fluttering heart dominates the beat, so for this transition, except for any passage you may like: a trumpet cry; a crescendo- any device you may wish to use for the birth pain -- is merely a cue for a different beat.

Within half a minute the doctor discovers the woman is dying; -- again the film is directed and cut to a specific time -- the heart is pounding to hang on -- the dramatic change in the score is that suddenly the mother's heart again takes over -- the slower heart surges under the baby's heart beat, and instead of growing weaker, musically, the heart grows in volume, if slowing in tempo -- it goes -- Bang -- BANG -- BANG ----the baby's counterpoint sound to hold our intern until he walks into the corridor and starts for the street.

DEATH -- Approximate time -- three minutes.

THIS IS THE PART OF THE SCRIPT THE MEMO APPLIES TO:

- Dr. Leetons is the attending physician. Mr. O'Donnell is the intern.

In the DELIVERY ROOM...And lifting the edge of the drape covering the patient, [the intern Mr. O'Donnell] takes the fetal heart tones, the Writing Nurse timing him, looking up at the clock on the wall, as the second hand of the clock is seen revolving. 

Now the nurse taps O'Donnell on the back to stop him, and he straightens up.

WRITING NURSE (removing O'Donnell's ear pieces): Baby's heart beat a hundred and fifty.

Leetons is in a waiting position while the patient's face is again seen to be distorted with pain. He looks up, spreads his hands, and nods to the Anesthetist, who then puts a mask over the patient's face. The Scrub Nurse now hands him a clamp for the baby's cord, and Leetons puts the used instrument into a pan at his right. He is also given scissors and a belly band. (The baby's heart tones start up at 150, in counterpoint to the mother's at 100.)

And now the Floating Nurse is wheeling in the baby's table, and Leetons puts the baby in. The nurse covers it with a towel and wheels the table around. We see the baby being placed in the crib, a heat crib, and being straightened by the nurse's hands. 

Now the Anesthetist takes the mother's pulse. The Scrub Nurse and the Floating Nurse push the table extension in place, lift the patient's drapes, and straighten her out. While the Scrub Nurse walks to the sink with the instrument tray, the Floating Nurse carries a basin to the sink, and returns for a second pan, stepping around O'Donnell, who is looking toward the baby. Then Dr. Leetons walks to the patient's side and putting a hand under the sheet, feels her abdomen. (The baby's heart tones fade, while the heat beat of the mother starts to speed up.)

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I liked how the writer/director was very specific about his intentions for the tempo, thoughts on cues, time limits, etc. 

It sheds light on what is more, or less important to the director.

The Fight For Life (1940)
by Pare Lorentz
Adapted from the Maternal Welfare Chapters of The Fight For Life by Paul deKruif

*A bit of random trivia: Apparently, the author of the book refused to sell it to the studios, and offered it free to the U.S. Government. It was the last sponsored government film.

**This film gave composer Louis Gruenberg his first Oscar nomination for Best Original Score.