I don’t get too much of a chance to indulge in reading screenplays, if indulge is even the right term. Next to actually writing, reading screenplays is one of the best things I find that helps me with my own writing.
Anyway, I’ve got a bunch of screenplays saved on my devices (phone, Kindle, laptop) so that I can read when I get the chance
The script I just finished reading is the shooting script of the academy award nominated Mr Smith Goes to Washington, from 1939.
At 182 pages plus the cover, it’s a long script, but not a long read, as there is some rapid fire dialogue that bloats the page count.
The main difference I noticed between this seventy-year old script and modern ones is that there were no slug lines.
That’s right, none.
Not a one.
Instead, locations were indicated by FULL CAPS in the scene description. It was a little odd at first, and it did mean it would be harder to skim and follow the story as easily.
It is worth noting that this was the shooting script, so the numbers down the side helped clarify when the scene changed. I don’t know if a spec script from this era would have slug lines or not. Perhaps a mini-research assignment would be to investigate a history of the slug line; when they were first used, and what scripts they were first used for, specs or shooting scripts.
Characters were not written in full caps the first time we met them (nor in subsequent times).
Most everything else seemed the same, or very similar. Dialogue was the same formatting
The writing is economical, visual, visceral and humorous.The protagonist, an endearing, naive young senator, is a character you want to see win. I don’t know if the part was specifically written for the young James Stewart, but it suits him to a tee.
The antagonists are not moustache twirling villains, but human beings who have their own agendas, and who can sometimes see the immorality of their actions, but are none-the-less trapped into doing what they see as unavoidable, even if it brings them into opposition with their own conscience.
It’s a great script, and well worth the read, even if it is from a bygone era.