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  • Hi, I’m Michael. This is Lessons from the Screenplay.

  • When I was a kid I watched Independence Day a LOT. Over and over again, second only to

  • Star Wars.

  • So when I decided to revisit it as an adult who’s spent his life studying filmmaking,

  • I was worried it wouldn’t hold up.

  • But reading the screenplay I was pleasantly surprised to find it was actually as compelling

  • as everand kind of made me feel like a kid again.

  • So today I want to talk about why that is. Why is Independence Day so memorable when

  • most other disaster movies are completely forgettable?

  • How is Independence Day so good twenty years later?

  • Epic Antagonist

  • The first thing I noticed while reading the screenplay was how epic the aliens felteven

  • in text form.

  • "AN ENORMOUS SHADOW creeps toward us blotting out the horizon, a loud RUMBLE is heard.

  • Suddenly we are covered in DARKNESS as the SHADOW engulfs us. Only the lonely image of

  • our EARTH hangs in the air, until a huge silhouette OBJECT suddenly blocks our view."

  • Awesome.

  • But making an antagonist epic doesn’t automatically make them compellingthey need to have

  • character beyond being huge.

  • Independence Day does this by embracing the idea that less is more, and has the confidence

  • to let things move slowly.

  • Let’s look at this simple scene:

  • "Drifting away from us the old Russian satellite becomes smaller and smaller. We PAN with it

  • as we SEE it’s on a collision course with something huge.

  • Suddenly the satellite EXPLODES on IMPACT with the much larger object that dwarfs the

  • puny piece of hardware. As huge as it is, we get the feeling weve only seen a portion

  • of the total.

  • Instead of showing the whole alien craft, the screenwriters wrote a scene that implies

  • its size by comparison.

  • This engages the audience, makes them lean in and wonderhow big is this thing?”

  • Way more interesting than a wide shot.

  • In some ways the movie is more like a monster thrillerlike Jaws on a huge scale.

  • It has a slow, ominous build. We don’t even really see a full alien craft until page twenty-six,

  • and their attack doesn’t begin until page forty-eight.

  • This allows the screenwriters to focus on establishing the characters, which is important.

  • Because in Independence Day

  • The Action is About The Characters

  • There are three main protagonists in Independence Day.

  • David, President Whitmore, Captain Steven Hiller.

  • And many, many other characters that the audience comes to know in one way or another.

  • In total, there are twenty characters of significance in Independence Day, and we meet seventeen

  • of them in the first twenty-four pages of the script.

  • That's a lot of characters to get know very quickly.

  • So how do the screenwriters accomplishthis?

  • Let’s examine the introduction of Jeff Goldblum’s character

  • To see how the writers deliver information quickly.

  • First of all, visually were shown that he’s in New York.

  • He’s playing chess and taking it very seriouslywhich implies he’s an intelligent, patient

  • person.

  • He criticizes his father for using styrofoamsuggesting that he cares about the planet.

  • Then:

  • Here, one character is telling another character something they already know just so the audience

  • can hear it. This is often considered lazy exposition.

  • But, in this case it’s simultaneously revealing the dynamic between them.

  • There's a quick bit about cigars

  • which sets up this line:

  • And finally

  • which sets up this line:

  • Also this line:

  • That is a lot of work done in a page and a half of script.

  • In this way the screenwriters are able to efficiently introduce all the characters.

  • So by the time the attack finally begins

  • The people in harm’s way are people we care about.

  • Even when it’s just this guy, who gets to be namedAlexin the script and has

  • one out-of-focus line earlier in the movie

  • "Excuse me, Mr. President. They're starting."

  • writing each action scene from a character perspective makes this sequence about more

  • than just a building blowing up

  • it makes it about the aliens killing humans.

  • But good action doesn’t simply involve the characters, it dramatically affects them.

  • Which brings me to my final topic:

  • Be Mean to Your Characters

  • Many inexperienced writers are too nice to their protagonists.

  • Theyre afraid to make them truly suffer and struggle, so they end up with boring characters

  • and dry stories.

  • Independence Day is mean to its characters.

  • The alien attacks have consequences. People die.

  • They affect the characters and change their trajectories.

  • The action matters.

  • Out of the twenty characters in the movie, six of them are dead by the end.

  • At least, I think Dr. Okun is dead

  • But then he showed up in the trailer for the sequel

  • But it’s definitely not ambiguous in the script

  • so… I don’t know.

  • David loses his boss.

  • Steve loses his best friend.

  • And President Whitmoreoh man, President Whitmore.

  • I didn’t realize this when I first saw the moviemaybe because I was tenbut

  • also because it’s more clear in the script.

  • Independence Day is largely a movie about a man having to shoulder an unthinkable responsibility

  • and failing over and over.

  • Whitmore is introduced as a weak president

  • "Whitmore seems less like the President and more like the orphan child Oliver

  • asking, 'Please sir, I'd like some more.'"

  • His deputy chief of staff disrespects him

  • "We may need to upgrade to DEFCON 3."

  • "Absolutely. General, contact NORAD. You tell them we've upgraded to DEFCON 3."

  • He makes decisions that cost millions of lives

  • "We'll advise people not to panic. The best idea right now is to stay in their homes."

  • He nukes his own country for nothing

  • "Target remains."

  • And loses the love of his life

  • "Is mommy sleeping now?"

  • "Yeah."

  • Anyway, my point is: Independence Day works so well because we empathize with the characters,

  • There are casualties along the way as they struggle against a powerful opponent.

  • The characters who survive attacks do so by narrowly out-thinking their

  • opponent. Beating the aliens is not going to be easy.

  • To be clear, this is not to say that Independence Day is not without coincidence, cheesiness

  • or bad dialogue. There’s a fair amount of that.

  • But the deeper, structural writingthe characters, their struggle, their sacrifices

  • is on point, and creates a truly exciting experienceeven to this day.

  • "Hello boys...I'm back!"

  • Thanks for watching.

  • If you have a suggestion for a screenplay I should analyze in the future, leave a comment

  • below. And if you enjoyed this video, please be sure to like it and subscribe!

  • So many typos!

  • Really?! In THE speech?!

  • "You're really starting to make us look bad."

Hi, I’m Michael. This is Lessons from the Screenplay.

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獨立日--是什麼讓它如此偉大? (Independence Day — What Makes it So Great)

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    blue 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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