Brick - Script Study

Film: Brick

Screenplay by: Rian Johnson

Let’s talk about white space. In the industry, “white space” is a term used for when a reader looks at your script and sees more emptiness on the page than they do text. Traditionally, having this gives your script a clean, uncluttered aesthetic that convinces the reader that your story is told with confidence, focus and precision even before they read the first letter of the first word of the first page. My opinion is that this archaic thinking is a remnant of the traditional audiovisual entertainment world of Hollywood, not necessarily cinema. I believe that these rules roots are built to teach writers about script economy which is fair, but we’ll get to that later.

“In the past 20 years, as we all know, the movie business has changed on all fronts. But the most ominous change has happened stealthily and under cover of night: the gradual but steady elimination of risk. Many films today are perfect products manufactured for immediate consumption. Many of them are well made by teams of talented individuals. All the same, they lack something essential to cinema: the unifying vision of an individual artist. Because, of course, the individual artist is the riskiest factor of all.”

-Scorsese

The thing is, Scorsese is not wrong. You see, there are some entertainment companies like A24, who have broken through the mold and are fighting back with powerful films by writer-directors. Companies like A24 have revolutionized the landscape of filmmaking. They’ve committed themselves to amplify the voices of rising visionaries, upending industry norms, and championing films that disrupt mindless consumption. Today, no matter whom you make your movie with, the fact is that the screens in most multiplexes are crowded with franchise pictures. And that’s a problem. We’ve lost touch with good cinema and the scripts that make the movies so unique. 

I personally believe that the best movies are made by writer-directors because it’s their film, themes, character, plot, and vision through and through. Are you going to tell me Quentin Tarantino must have white space or his script is trash? Or that Rian Johnson who wrote and directed the award-winning movie Brick has to conform to a few producer’s ideologies of what a pretty script looks like? No. As a writer-director, you want to convey your entire vision on that page.

Perhaps your script is thicker than the norm, maybe you added more descriptions to load your script with character thoughts to create a greater impact for in the arcs which may in turn help guide the actor in understanding who they are playing. Or maybe you need a long monologue to break up the pacing of the quicker scenes that proceeded it and express the heart of your film through that monologue. Or maybe you want to color the action lines so that the readability is more immersive which will help sell your script better. And then there is the taboo “camera directions” which often time take up a few lines on a page. But if a director is going to make the film, isn’t it intelligent to add the key camera movements to your script that will enhance the storytelling? Of course. 

Camera directions show the reader that the writer has a solid understanding of the film when the shots amplify and complement the story. Hollywood treats writers like they exist solely on the peripherally on the industry, their only task to pump out clean white pages devoid of cinematic knowledge. Well, guess what, writers understand scripts, stories, and how their words translate into final images on-screen better than anyone in the industry. So to disallow them from executing their creative ideas on paper seems foolish, doesn’t it? It seems like that would be handicapping the vision and plot of the writer. If the dramatic moment would best be conveyed and externalized with a TOP SHOT, then fuck, add it to the script. I’ve been lucky enough to develop all of my scripts closely with the director, so adding these camera directions often make their job at visualizing the film easier and make the creative process more unified from conception to execution. It shows that the screenwriter has a very strong grasp on the fact that all their words will be translated to the screen where there’s a whole other economy of screen-time the director has to respect. 

The two ingredients that make the heart of a good film are great writing and great directing. Whether you have amateurs or pros on screen the script is what makes the story gripping, and if you have no talent for the direction the way you portray that script on camera will drastically affect how the audience takes to it. These two key elements are vital in creating a great film, some lucky people have both of these skills up their sleeves, but not nearly as many as you think. So go ahead inject your passion into your 12-point Courier if you have the talent for both.

A good script is a good script regardless of its visual aesthetic. Hell, it’s not like it’s the finished product, it’s the guideline to the film’s production that involves nearly every department. Writers understand that more than any other medium, screenplays are all about the narrative economy. You have to tell your story as concisely and visually as possible without exaggeration or hyperbole, every word counts. Don’t use two when one will do. Get in late and our early. Be sparing with your adverbs and adjectives. Of course, you shouldn’t tell readers any more than what they need to know, but sometimes getting your film funded means having a script that’s engaging and enveloping, the same way a novel is. I agree that you have to scale back the minutia so that only what is absolutely critical to the story remains, however, we know these rules because we’re screenwriters. If the story is good, you won’t even notice time passing as you read so what does it matter what the script physically looks like? 

Sure, a killer appearance is the first thing we see and may make the difference between a commitment of five seconds and a commitment of fifty years. However, ultimately it’s what’s underneath that counts. Like Pablo Picasso said best “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” And this is something that the industry overlooks in the writer’s world. We know the rules. Let us break them and create the best films we can. So go ahead and make your story the way you want, just remember that if some pages are jam-packed with text, you better make sure it’s for the best.