Master Screenplay Sequences: The Ultimate Guide To Making Screenwriting Structure That Much Easier by Alex Bloom

Author:Alex Bloom [Bloom, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: screenplay structure, screenplay sequences, screenwriting, screenwriting book, screenwriting structure, How to structure a screenplay, screenwriting help, script reader pro, master screenplay sequences
Publisher: Script Reader Pro
Published: 2016-01-26T18:30:00+00:00

7. DRAMA BREAKDOWN

The Virgin Suicides

Full of atmosphere and with a great soundtrack, The Virgin Suicides is a remarkably assured coming-of-age-drama and first feature from writer/director Sophia Coppola.

In a classic drama convention, the film explores the power struggle that occurs between the young and a rigid, unsympathetic social order: five blonde teenage girls sheltered from the world by their authoritarian parents in a Michigan suburb during the 1970s.

Witnessing their gradual descent are four local boys who become obsessed with the girls but never quite manage to figure them out. The film starts with a major change in the lives of the Lisbon’s and, indeed, the neighborhood boys: Cecilia’s suicide attempt which is a foreshadowing of the tragedy to come.

First, though, there is cause for optimism when Cecilia’s suicide attempt causes a positive reaction from the parents at the end of Sequence A, and they are allowed more freedom. However, with Cecilia's suicide at the end of Sequence B and Act One, the Lisbon’s world is thrown out of control and the conditions are set for the girls’ demise.

Lux soon takes over the film’s focus as she embarks on a brief relationship with local heartthrob Trip Fontaine. The “Innermost Cave” (antagonist’s lair) at the Midpoint is Trip’s car in which the two frustrated lovers enjoy a passionate kiss. By entering his world, Lux knocks over the first domino that will culminate in all the girls’ suicides.

The Gain section in Sequence E revolves around Trip and his friends taking the Lisbon girls to the school dance, but by the end of the next sequence Lux has missed curfew incurring the wrath of her mother.

Total lockdown dominates the rest of the girls’ short lives and they leave the world — their neighborhood, parents and the boys — with an elusive mystery no-one will ever solve.

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES (1999)

Screenplay by Sofia Coppola/ Based on the Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides

ACT ONE

Sequence A – The Lisbon girls are allowed more freedom (- / +)

I

Scenes of quiet suburbia. A tree is posted by a worker with a sign for removal.

In a bathtub, Cecilia lies in her own blood. (inciting incident / screenplay inciting incident)

Mrs. Lisbon and curious neighbors watch as she’s taken away in an ambulance. (call to action)

In hospital, Cecilia tells the doctor “what does he know?” — he’s never been a 13-year-old girl. (negative big event)

II

Super: Michigan. 25 Years Ago.

A narrator describes how as teenagers they tried to put the pieces together about the Lisbon girls. The four boys — Chase, Parkie, Kevin, Tim — watch the Lisbon’s arrive home with their five daughters: Cecilia, Lux, Bonnie, Mary and Therese. (midpoint)

The boys listen to a story from Paul Baldino about how he found Cecilia after her suicide attempt.

Neighbors gossip about Cecilia.

The boys say another love struck kid, Dominic, was to blame. Dominic watches Diana play tennis. When she left town he jumped off the roof of his relative’s house.

A psychiatrist shows Cecilia some images.

He tells the Lisbons her act was a cry for help and says she needs a social outlet outside of school.

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