Why Every Screenplay Needs Subtext for Everything

A single image can express deep meaning, speak to the story's theme and communicate a character's inner emotions more powerfully and eloquently than words.

This is how subtext works. It's not just for dialogue. I find it really helpful to 'watch' my characters in a situation, and then wait. Wait for them to tell me what to write. It can be speech, of course, but very often I find that one simple image can express what my character is feeling without having to tell the audience.

Nuanced development of a character often means letting your visual storytelling powers take over.

That wonderful scene in La Dolce Vita at the Trevi Fountain - look how eloquent that visual subtext communicates everything we need to understand and most importantly, feel the characters' emotions.

The BAFTAS - The King's Speech has 14 Nominations. True Grit has 8

The BAFTAS 2011 List of Nominations is out.
The King's Speech has a whopping fourteen including Best Original Screenplay, Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Editing.

The Coens' True Grit got zero nominations at the Golden Globes, but they're on the BAFTA list for eight including Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematographer (the Coens' regular, Roger Deakins, Best Actor (Jeff Bridges) and Best Actress (Hailee Steinfeld)

I always find it interesting to compare the current nominees of screen awards with the winners of the previous years.

You can compare this year's BAFTA nominations with the winners from 2010 and 2009
here. Click on BAFTAS on the left hand menu:

http://www.unique-screenwriting.com

What do think of the Screenplay Nominees?

Best original screenplay

Black Swan - Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin

The Fighter - Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson

Inception - Christopher Nolan

The Kids are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg

The King's Speech - David Seidler

Best adapted screenplay

127 Hours - Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel

The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin

Toy Story 3 - Michael Arndt

True Grit - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

How the Coen Brothers Write Their Scripts

In an interview on the WGA site, Ethan and Joel Coen are uncharacteristically fulsome in their answers about their latest filmTrue Grit and offer some fascinating insights into how they write their scripts.

If anyone has to be convinced of my repeated plea for screenwriters to stop worrying about the '3-Act structure' or building a ready-made template for their story, the Coens have done a very persuasive job for me.

They don't set out with a clear outline and then squeeze everything in. Joel says:
'It’s much more the case that there’s a discussion about what comes next extending a certain way into the script that often gets batted about verbally and then just gets written as opposed to writing it all down with one subset of A, B, C, D, and E, you know? It’s like, "Okay, this will happen, and it will lead to this, and then we don’t know what."'

Ethan agreed: 'That’s true. It’s kinda mushy. We don’t do an outline in terms of mapping out the whole thing but then, on the other hand, we don’t exactly write scene A and then stop and say, "Ok, what’s scene B?"

Joel: Yeah, it might be, "Ok, this will happen and lead to this and this and then we get here, and we’ll figure it out." If we’re writing scene B, we have some clear idea of what scene C might be and a slightly fuzzier idea of what D might be and a vague idea of what the ramifications of that might be – or maybe not. It just kind of falls off into darkness.'

True inspiration for all screenwriters!

Read the full interview with the Coens by Dylan Callaghan at http://www.wga.org/

The King's Speech Ending

**SPOILERS ALERT!**
Was anyone else bothered by the last few shots of The King's Speech?

I found it sentimentalizing and trite. It wasn't necessary to cut from Colin Firth's (Bertie) face to Geoffrey Rush's (Lionel) face twice. And why on earth were we left with Lionel on the screen at the very end? This was Bertie's story.

I have to confess that I have an in-built 'punching the emotion too much' detector when I watch a film. And though Colin Firth himself never struck an inauthentic note, there were moments in the film where the director imposed a sentimentalizing dollop of syrup. These were in such stark contrast to the powerful restraint and emotional truth of Firth's performance that they felt doubly jarring.

But it's that ending which almost ruined the watching experience for me. If only they'd just left us with a close-up of Firth's admirably restrained expression.

Golden Globes - One Day To Go! Here's Full List of Nominations

Tomorrow, Sunday 16 January, we'll know who's won the Golden Globe Awards for 2011.

Who do you think deserves Best Screenplay? The King's Speech and Social Network are hot favourites.
Here's the List:


Screenplay: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, 127 Hours; Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right; Christopher Nolan, Inception; David Seidler, The King's Speech; Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Drama: Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The King's Speech, The Social Network

Director: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan; David Fincher, The Social Network; Tom Hooper, The King's Speech; Christopher Nolan, Inception; David O Russell, The Fighter

Musical or Comedy: Alice in Wonderland, Burlesque, The Kids Are All Right, Red, The Tourist

Actor, Drama: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network; Colin Firth, The King's Speech; James Franco, 127 Hours; Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine; Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter

Actress, Drama: Halle Berry, Frankie and Alice; Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole; Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone; Natalie Portman, Black Swan; Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter; Michael Douglas, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; Andrew Garfield, The Social Network; Jeremy Renner, The Town; Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech

Actor, Musical or Comedy: Johnny Depp, Alice in Wonderland; Johnny Depp, The Tourist; Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version; Jake Gyllenhaal, Love and Other Drugs; Kevin Spacey, Casino Jack

Actress, Musical or Comedy: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right; Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right; Anne Hathaway, Love & Other Drugs; Angelina Jolie, The Tourist; Emma Stone, Easy A

Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter; Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech; Mila Kunis, Black Swan; Amy Adams, The Fighter; Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Foreign Language: Biutiful, The Concert, The Edge, I Am Love, In a Better World

Animated Film: Toy Story 3, The Illusionist, How to Train Your Dragon, Despicable Me, Tangled

Screenplay: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, 127 Hours; Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right; Christopher Nolan, Inception; David Seidler, The King's Speech; Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

Original Score: Alexandre Desplat, The King's Speech; Danny Elfman, Alice in Wonderland; A.R. Rahman, 127 Hours; Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, The Social Network; Hans Zimmer, Inception

Original Song: "Bound to You" (written by Samuel Dixon, Christina Aguilera, Sia Furler), Burlesque; "Coming Home" (written by Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey, Troy Verges), Country Strong; "I See the Light" (written by Alan Menken, Glenn Slater), Tangled; "There's a Place for Us" (written by Carrie Underwood, David Hodges, Hillary Lindsey), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me," (written by Diane Warren), Burlesque

The King's Speech Wins Critics' Choice Best Original Screenplay

What do you think of the screenwriters' Critics' Choice Awards? David Seidler has won the Best Original Screenplay for The King's Speech and Aaron Sorkin Best Adapted Screenplay for The Social Network.

Both screenplays were pretty good, and Colin Firth certainly deserved his win for Best Actor.

Check out the full list here and make up your own predictions for the Oscars.

Best Original Screenplay: David Seidler (The King's Speech)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)


Best Picture: The Social Network

Best Actor: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)

Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Best Young Actor/Actress: Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)

Best Acting Ensemble: The Fighter

Best Director: David Fincher(The Social Network)

Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister (Inception)


Best Art Direction: Guy Hendrix Dyas (Inception)

Best Visual Effects: Inception

Best Sound: Inception

Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3

Best Action Movie: Inception

Best Comedy: Easy A

Best Picture Made For Television: The Pacific

Best Foreign Language Film: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Best Documentary Feature: Waiting For Superman

Best Song: If I Rise (127 Hours)

Best Score: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network)

The Joel Siegel Award: Matt Damon

The Music+Film Award: Quentin Tarantino

My Screenwriting Book is finished!

I have now completed my screenwriting book on how to write screenplays of originality and cinematic passion. I'll be doing a countdown to publication so please check back on this blog for that.

In the meantime, have a look at my in-depth articles on my Unique Screenwriting website:
http://www.unique-screenwriting.com