Blog #5

While McKee's method of scene analysis is more methodical, Weston's approach is more of a literary analysis of the characters, their motivations, their thoughts, their likes and their dislikes. The easier approach is McKee's, but it's not necessarily the better one. 

Using McKee's approach, I analyzed the same scene in 'Sex, Lies, and Videotape' as Weston. John I believe is driving the scene because although at times Graham directs questioning at Ann, John redirects his attention to another topic. John has a motivation to find out things about Graham, whereas Ann already talked intimately with him earlier. In my opinion, Graham is the antagonist of the scene. He opposes John, and they have a sort of back and forth chemistry of conversation. The opening value of the scene is comical. John is joking with Graham about his past charades and his clothes that he is wearing on this day. The beats reveal a back and forth between all three of the characters. John and Ann never seem to interact, whereas Graham floats between a conversation with John and Ann. On the flip side, the scene ends on more of a devious note. John is possibly planning to sleep with Cynthia in his and Ann's bed, and Graham and Ann have intentions of their own. There is a curiosity and devious value to the end of the scene. 

I find that McKee's method seems to be more systematic and holds back a lot at picking apart the scene, the characters, the dialogue, and the subtext.  Weston's method is more free form with conjuring up one's own ideas of motivations, likes, dislikes, feelings, and all of the emotions of the individual characters of the scene. Although some conclusions may seem outlandish, they lead you into a mind frame of good analysis. In conclusion, they both offer valid solutions for analyzing a scene and reading into the subtext. Used in combination, they both provide viable methods for developing better scenes for your movie.

Discussion Questions:

1.) Is it better to be systematic about analyzing a scene in a screenplay, such as McKee's approach, or to be slightly more freeform like Weston?

2.) Is studying the beats of a scene the most important part of script analysis?

-Drew Barontini