Blueprints: "Psycho"

The April Showers series is back at The Film Experience, here's Jorge on how the most famous shower scene in cinema histor was written on the page.

One thing about iconic cinema sequences is that back when the script is written, before the movie is shot, released and gains critical acclaim (sometimes before it is even developed), they are not conceived to be iconic. They are simply a piece in a puzzle; one more segment in a longer story. 

But sometimes sequences transcend. Sometimes they become essential pieces of the cinema mosaic. And few scenes have stood the test of time better than the shower scene in Psycho. It has been recreated countless times, spun hundreds of homages and parodies, and changed the way horror scenes are shot, and what audiences should expect of the genre. Let’s take a look at how it looked in the page, before it acquired icon status, when it was merely three pages of a script…

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Blueprints: "Moonrise Kingdom"

With the release of Isle of Dogs, Jorge looks into an earlier Wes Anderson film...

While Wes Anderson’s characteristic and by now immediately recognizable cinematic style evokes mainly the images of perfectly centered frames, bright-color palettes, and characters covered in quirks and oddities, not everything about him is visual. The patterns of speech from his characters are almost lyrical, and his stories are filled with strong undercurrents of nostalgia, melancholy, and growing pains. 

All of his worlds evoke a kind of diorama construction. Though the production design on most movies only happens just before principal photography, Anderson paints an image of what he wants his frames to look like right from the first pages of each script. Let’s take a look at a highly stylized (yes, even more than usual) sequence from Moonrise Kingdom too see how painstakingly meticulous the details are from the very start...

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Blueprints: Post-Oscar Stat Madness!

Here we are. The Oscars are over. After six months (this was a long season!) of never ending think pieces, desperate For Your Consideration ads, and prediction anxiety, we can finally take a breather.

So, before we’re ready to start doing it all over again (because, let’s be honest, despite everything, we love this), let’s decompress a little. And if you’re like me, there’s nothing better than a good list of stats and numbers to clear your mind.

As a pallet cleanser, and as a farewell to Oscar season for now, here’s are some statistics and data about the screenplay categories. Where we were before Sunday, where we are now. And how far we have yet to go.

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Blueprints: "Lady Bird"

Jorge's screenplay column hits its last Oscar mark for the season.

Lady Bird is less of a through-line narrative, as it is a collection of moments; a montage through the senior year of Christine “Lady bird” McPherson, and the small days and in-betweens that made it memorable. Through this collage, we are able to grasp at thematic links that run in her life, at the emotional truths she has to learn, and at the pain of watching her leave the nest.

No thread runs harder through the film than Lady Bird’s contentious relationship with her mother Marion. It’s no coincidence that the very first sequence of the film revolves around their dynamic. So let’s see how Greta Gerwig managed to infuse the emotional thesis of her film, as well as display years’ worth of a relationship in barely the first three pages of the script...

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Interview: Greta Gerwig on what kind of filmmaker she's going to be

by Nathaniel R 

Greta Gerwig directing the prom scene in Lady Bird. Look, she's even dressed for the occasion!The first time we spoke to Greta Gerwig in 2013 for Frances Ha it was over the phone. Her voice was so animated it felt like an in person interview. She was learning the accordion because of that seismically magical moment in the French film Holy Motors and revealing to me that she didn't think being an "actor-for-hire" in other people's work would be her path. Little did I know -- though perhaps she did -- that the exquisite Lady Bird was coming. In between she wrote and starred in Mistress America (2015) and gave what is arguably her best performance in Mike Mills 20th Century Women (2016). The rest is of course current celebration and future history: Lady Bird proved a mainstream breakthrough as a writer/director. It's up for five Oscars including two for Greta Gerwig herself as a writer and as a director.

This time, speaking in person, that familiar voice is just as lively but her laughter even more infectious. She radiates as much joy from talking art in real life as she often has creating it onscreen as a performer.

When I ask her her how the accordion is coming, she admits she's "rusty" and that it hasn't been a movie that inspired her lately but 'certain books' though she leaves them unnamed. Whatever feeds your soul as an artist, that's where you go.

on set directing Timothée and Saoire in Lady Bird (2017)

I reminder her about that comment about acting for others not being her path and she says "I know..." in a goofily apologetic way, like she always knew where she was heading but just hadn't told us.  Our interview is after the jump...

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