Step 1: Mastery of Drama and Supernatural
Topic · 1 minute
Chernobyl (Drama)
Craig Mazin had previously written on THE HANGOVER sequels, but with this HBO production, he shot to screenwriting stardom.
In the wake of CHERNOBYL’s success, Mazin secured work on the game adaptations for THE LAST OF US and (my personal favourite) BORDERLANDS.
CHERNOBYL shows that Mazin is enormously talented, but the games will be his ultimate test. Not many before him came out a winner.
Did you know…
Craig Mazin appears weekly on SCRIPTNOTES, “a podcast on screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters” co-hosted by John August.
Today we’re transcribing the first 2 minutes of CHERNOBYL, as you’re introduced to the main character (MC), named VALERY LEGASOV.
The music in the show is haunting. In this particular scene, it indicates impending doom. How do you write this without describing the music? Because including non-diegetic elements is frowned upon, remember.
The shots are carefully designed. How will you suggest the camera angles without resorting to direction off the page?
Camera angles and transitions are really the director’s job. Some screenwriting competitions will even mark writers down for including these.
On the other hand, in SCRIPTNOTES, Craig Mazin has railed against people who claim you can’t use camera direction. The fact that he only uses direction sparingly may be a hint at the fact that – perhaps – you should think before using it.
Black Swan (Supernatural)
The BLACK SWAN script is a class example of the fight between the Hero and the Shadow, here visualised as the white and the black swan.
To transcribe BLACK SWAN accurately, you would need to know about Tchaikovsky’s SWAN LAKE. For today’s exercise, it suffices that Natalie Portman dances the White Swan from the ballet, and the sinister man is THE DEMON ROTHBART. At some point, you’ll see him cast a spell.
Among the challenges you will face is the amount of detail used to describe the precise dance moves, versus the emotional impact of the moment on the character – and the audience.
From the POV of Nina – the M.C., who is not named in the script until the scene after this – Rothbart comes across as a supernatural being, not too dissimilar to the stick insect in PAN’S LABYRINTH.
In the film, you first see him as a man in a suit. But how to describe this?
Pay attention to the sound design. Will you include this detail in the description?
In his masterclass for the Immersion students, legendary Hollywood sound designer and multiple Oscar winner Randy Thomm recommends that writers should make such suggestions in the script, to give the director more options to work with.
How will you address all these challenges?
Did you know…
Natalie Portman will go through an almost identical fight between Hero and the Shadow in ANNIHILATION, written and directed by Alex Garland. The same writer-director created EX MACHINA, which features in a different part of this course.