To make it even more challenging, it’s a three-hander: Michael, Mark and Jamie & Charlie. narrator, and the splicing of scenes, to name a few. So this screenplay is filled with pyrotechnic dazzle: characters breaking the fourth wall and addressing the camera, celebrity cameos explaining CDOs and the like, the use of a minor character as V.O. Obviously, in a nonfiction book, the author has plenty of time to explain complex concepts like collateralized debt obligations, let dozens of characters speak, perhaps only as character witnesses (people who knew Mark Baum in the past, for instance.) In a screenplay, all this has to be made entertaining, moving, exciting. It’s adapted from the nonfiction book by Michael Lewis.
The Big Short, winner for best adapted screenplay in 2015, is an incredibly ambitious work. Screenplay by Charles Randolph & Adam McKay, based on a book by Michael Lewis You may download the script for The Big Short here. * A scene-by-scene breakdown creates a foundation for even deeper analysis of the story. * By doing this, we consciously explore the structure of the narrative. * We pare down the story to its most constituent parts: Scenes. Admittedly this is subjective and there is no right or wrong, the point is simply to break down the script into a series of parts which you then can use dig into the script’s structure and themes.
Here I am looking not just for individual scenes per se, but a scene or set of scenes that comprise one event or a continuous piece of action. It is precisely what it sounds like: A list of all the scenes in the script accompanied by a brief description of the events that transpire.įor purposes of this exercise, I have a slightly different take on scene.
Here is my take on this exercise from a previous series of posts - How To Read A Screenplay:Īfter a first pass, it’s time to crack open the script for a deeper analysis and you can do that by creating a scene-by-scene breakdown.
Today: A scene-by-scene breakdown of the movie script The Big Short. The focus of this weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting.