Blog #4

Each of the screenplays we have read in class differs completely from each other. One way I like to look at it is by comparing screenplays to novels. Different writers bring their own ideas and styles to the table when writing screenplays much like writing novels. The difference being that you don’t have to be as narrative in a screenplay. The key word here is have. This is where the difference between “The Apartment”, “A Boy’s Life”, and “Adaptation”. The 3 writers all choose to enact there methods in different ways, and you can almost sense who the writer is as a person, just by his method of writing. Adaptation’s script was very unique, and completely different than the other two. The script was incredibly fun to read and its use of characterization advanced the script into the next level. The script that we are reading is the script that Charlie Kaufman is struggling to write in the movie. It’s a fun perspective and completely different than the ordinary-but-good script, “The Apartment”. Although the script itself is long, much longer then “The Apartment”, it is very entertaining. In the end with most scripts, the director is the last interpreter. The director has the author’s voice, and it is his/her responsibility to interpret the writer’s script into their own vision. So I ask the question, how important is it how a script is written? And the answer for me is yes. The impression that a script reader gets when he first reads a screenplay is crucial and essential.

-Scott Polcyn

Discussion Questions

1.)Is the script for Adaptation groundbreaking? Does Kaufman deliver a truly original script?

2.)Is Adaptation almost exactly what happened in real life or did the Kaufman's plan out the script?