When reading a script or watching a film, you can think about how it works to create certain effects. I will examine the opening of the film The Blind Side. I have used the film rather than the sceenplay. There are also specific benefits which can be gained from doing the following exercise using a screenplay, to develop ideas about how to lay out words in screenplay format to achieve certain effects.
Pick a screenplay or film and ask yourself:
How does it begin?
What mood does the first image create?
Is there sound? And what kind? How does this contribute to the opening's mood?
The Blind Side begins with a blank (black) screen. The voice of Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) begins:
“There’s a moment of orderly silence before a football play begins.”Visuals come up - television coverage of football players on the field preparing for a play, as the voiceover continues.
The moment of ‘visual silence’ provided by the blank screen resonates with the moment of orderly silence described in the voiceover and the visuals onscreen.
“The players are in position. Linemen are frozen. And anything is possible.”The ref blows the whistle.
“Then, like a traffic accident, stuff begins to randomly collide. From the snap of the ball to the snap of the first bone is closer to four seconds than five.”This conveys that football can be a hard and dangerous game.
The play starts and the players are piled on the ground in seconds. The visuals rewind, with an accompanying rewind-whirl sound.
The play begins again, this time pausing a number of times for commentary to be provided.
“One Mississippi. Joe Theismann, the Redskins quarterback, takes a snap and hands off to his running back.”If you play the game skillfully, you can outmanouver opposition to your goals.
“Two Mississippi. It’s a trick play. A flea flicker. Running back tosses the ball back to the quarterback.”
“Three Mississippi. Up to now, the play’s been defined by what the quarterback sees. It’s about to be defined by what he doesn’t.”
“Four Mississippi. March Taylor is the best defensive player in the NFL, and has been since he stepped onto the field as a rookie. He will also change the game of football as we know it.”
Joe Theissman gets taken down by a tackle from behind.
But it can be difficult to do it on your own without someone having your back.
“Joe Theissman will never play another game of football. Now, y’all ‘d guess that the highest paid player on an NFL team would be the quarterback, and you’d be right. But what you probably don’t know is that more often than not the second highest paid player, thanks to March Taylor is the left tackle. Because, as every housewife knows, the first checque you write is for the mortgage but the second is for the insurance. And the left tackle’s job is to protect the quarterback from what he can’t see coming; to protect his blind side.”This sets up a major theme of the film, in which the game of football is a metaphor for ‘the game of life.’ The mood set up by this beginning is one of striving to overcome obstacles and working together to give people the chance to reach their full potential.
Like a left tackle, Leigh Anne is tough and, by watching Michael’s back and allowing him to become part of her family, she stops him from being taken out of the game of life by falling victim to the dangers of his environment. Reciprocally, Michael does the same for Leigh Anne by protecting her to an extent from the dangers she poses to her own happiness and full engagement in life.
An expanded Cinema and Fiction article on The Blind Side can be found here.
If you would like to read further details from Pauline accompanying this exercise, or you would like to try other screenwriting exercises by Pauline before I put my go up on Cinema and Fiction, join up for free at www.talentville.com and find Pauline's lessons in the 'Lessons from the Experts' section.
