Blog #5 Sex, Lies & Videotapes

When looking at this scene through McKee's analytical tactics it is pretty simple picking out the turning points, the driving force, and beats. The scene opens up with John talking about how he remembered Graham, revealing bits of Graham's back-story, and setting up the scene.  Ann and Graham are both a bit shy at this point, with the majority of the conversation being forced by John, making it apparent that he is the driving force of the scene, asking questions that are simply answered by either Graham or Ann. The first beat is when Graham changes the subject matter from him to the food, at which point John jumps back in to insult Ann's cooking. Another beat, Graham, sensing conflict, changes the subject matter again, and it seems like he might indeed be the driving force of the scene. Upon hearing that Graham was prying earlier, John takes up the opportunity to once again join in with, and seems to sneer when he finds out about Graham's and Ann's earlier conversation. Another beat is introduced when Ann is describing her sister, and John decides to bring Graham's ex, Elizabeth, in. This also serves as the turning point, because the John has started to make a casual dinner a personal issue with Graham. He is sort of throwing it in Graham's face to see how he reacts, knowing that it is a sore subject matter. When Graham sits in silence, Ann steps up and changes the topic once again, another beat. Ann makes a suggestion, and John immediately takes it upon himself to turn down what she said. This scene shows a lot about the personality of John, because not only does he appear to be the driving force, but he also continuously takes it upon himself to put down both Ann and Graham, attempting to make them feel worse about themselves in order to feel better about himself. While there are some moments where it seems like Graham and John are battling it out to be the stronger driving force, John seems to always find a way to trump Graham.

Question Response:

Q) What do you think would be the possible drawbacks of over-analyzing a scene? Is that possible?

A) I think it is very possible to over analyze a scene. Sometimes people try to look too deeply into something, and over analyze everything in an attempt to find a hidden message that possibly wasn't even there in the first place, that is causes them to miss the actual much simpler answer or message. Not everything is hidden under the surface, some things are put right out there, but are ignored when put under a microscope.

Discussion Questions:

1) The roles of voice overs have been discussed before, but how do you think the voice overs in Sex, Lies, & Videotapes turned out? Were they effective, necessary?

2) Do you think that at the end of the screenplay everything was tied up sufficiently, or that it could have been a couple of pages longer to tie up all the loose ends?

-Zachary Linville