Starting the Script-Writing Process

Brainstorming

As a part of an in-class assignment, I further developed my ideas for Listen's script and referenced the Back to the Future (1985) script. In my initial brainstorm during the first semester, I took a lot of inspiration from Jordan Peele's Us (2019).

The opening to Us (2019) is unique and adds to the experience of the overall film. Before the actual opening scene, the first few minutes of the movie begin with a shot of a TV set. Two clips play that heavily foreshadow future events. Alongside what’s playing on the television, the shelves around the TV hold items and books that give observant viewers insight into the film’s themes. I’d like to mimic this in my film opening and take inspiration from the productive use of props in the opening.

In late November, I had already compiled a long list of things I'd like to happen in the story as a whole, with a specific focus on what I'd like to include in my film opening. These ideas and the plot were based on my own interests and media I consumed, such as Us (2019).

Because I had already done this detailed brainstorming in November and December, I largely already knew what I wanted to do for my script. Here's some of the ideas behind the opening that I wrote about (based on my earlier brainstorming):

1. My film opening itself acts as a set-up for the rest of the film. In the film opening, the main character, Samentha, is hurriedly preparing for an interview. The dialogue and images in the opening serve as foreshadowing on the themes of the film and background on the character. Although it is not including in the opening, Samentha’s rush in the beginning results in her overlooking important information and suffering the consequences later in the film.

2. The main character of Listen is a 20-year-old college sophomore, Samentha. She attends a globally renowned university where she double majors in Psychology and Computer Science. Samentha struggles with the double life she must live in order to succeed; she must balance living as an underprivileged individual while performing as an elite who’s able to compete with her peers.

3. Some of the thoughts behind the film that inspired the theme and plot were the U.S. sharecropping system, redlining, the U.S. racial wealth gap, the Haitian restavek system, Afro-pessimissm, and intersectional radical feminism. The film will unveil some of these constructs from the frame and point-of-view of some of the concepts mentioned and act as inspiration for character interrelations, intrarelations, and more. Some characters in the film will be living from the point-of-view of marginalized groups living amongst the aristocracy (Samentha) while others will be patricians who operated with limited lenses (Élodie aka Ellie).

4. All the characters in the film are educated and thus do not speak super plainly. However, different dialects may be used (AAVE and Standard American English, chiefly) as the characters code-switch in different environments. Obviously, each character’s specific quirks and speech patterns will set them apart from one another to reflect their age, background, and position. The slang and casual speech of the elite students at Samentha’s school will sound different than her own.

5. If there is music in my film opening, it will be open-sourced. Any music in the opening will be passive, not acting as a means inandofitself to do storytelling but instead a tool to develop the mood of the scene. The sounds will be smooth and mellow, as opposed to jarring or loud, so as to keep the focus on the actions. Non-music sounds in the film opening will help establish mise-en-scene and make the environment seem like it’s more than just what’s on-screen.

6. I’d like the visuals in my film first two minutes to be somewhat of a spectacle. The coloring of the opening, chiefly, will be responsible for this. I would like the coloring to create feeling and contribute positively to the scene’s overall cinematography, creating a color scheme for the film’s aesthetics.

The Script

Because of this detailed understanding of what I'd like to do, last week I was able to write a first draft for my opening's script. I changed some details to accommodate reality and my capabilities as a student, but overall kept the same plan. I used the Back to the Future (1985) script provided to me in class as reference. The formatting isn't perfect but I think it suits my uses (as a juvenile filmmaker who is the writer, director, editor, and actor). Here it is: