Blog Assignment #1 A Boy's Life

Simply put, my experience reading A Boy's Life was a pleasant one. This was not the first time I have read a screenplay, nevertheless it was still a learning experience. Before when reading screenplays, I've felt like I was getting way too much information way too fast, thus making the core of the story cloudy and lost. This was not the case with A Boy's Life. I never once felt like I was being overwhelmed with directions, heading or action. To my surprise this particular screenplay felt more like reading a story than a highly specialized and technical assemblage of ideas with camera directions. In regard to the directions and notes about scenes and blocking, I felt that the writer's use of direction in her screenplay was not at all over the top. Instead I felt that many of her directions were imperative to telling the story she wanted to tell. I believe that every shot she listed played an important role in terms of structure and more important to this movie, character development. Even from the very beginning, I saw a distinct film coming together, and at times I am please to say that I felt I was watching it as a part of the audience.

         I understand that this was not intended to be prose. Flowery language and verbose descriptions of locations are not necessary in a screenplay, that’s what the director is for. As for whether or not screenplays are intended to be read by non-professionals, I believe they are not. Screenplays are indeed technical and are written so that the story being told can be transferred onto film, the medium for which the story is indeed indented to be experienced.

Discussion Questions:

1. "Script analysis is, in a way, a misnomer, because it has less to do with analyzing and more to do with connection..." What sorts of connections did you make with the characters or situations in A Boy's Life if any?

2. When Weston discusses how a director and actor should go about a problem with realizing the script, she writes "the goal is to find the choice that solves the scene. Some ideas for choices don't work." Can you think of any scenes in A Boy's Life where a director and an actor might come into conflict over how to transfer the words of the screenplay into real emotionally compelling acting?

3. "Deconstructing the material makes you respect and trust it more." Are there any scenes in A Boys Life, or any film for that matter, that you found more meaningful after deconstructing the obvious?