Second, the judicious use of the molestation victims, three primary ones, obviously impacted by the abuse, but each with a somewhat different psychological voice in response to the crimes. First, there is the case itself which as it grows in scope becomes more and more monstrous in nature. The interesting thing is how the story manages to sustain our interest and it does that in several ways. The pace of the story is a slow burn with an incremental building of tension and stakes, and again I think this is a conscious choice to underscore the nature of the actual investigation itself, old school journalism at work, breaking down a story piece by laborious piece. The narrative cross-cuts between these characters as they participate in the investigation, using Robby to bounce back and forth between his more administrative type of function interfacing with Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) and going out into the field to call in favors, even partner up with Sacha to confront Macliesh (Billy Crudup). There are several subplots, each centering on a key character, all directly involving the journalists, most notably Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), and Walter ‘Robby’ Robinson (Michael Keaton). It keeps the ‘spotlight’ on the case itself, no fancy editorial sleights of hand to distract from it.It reinforces the step-by-step process of the journalistic investigation as the reporters diligently worked the case.I can see two reasons for taking this simplistic approach to the narrative: Everything subsequent to that takes place in a total linear fashion. There is the prologue set in 1974, which sets into motion the ‘authority winks at crime’ dynamic which is central to the story, then jump forward to 2001. The plot to Spotlight is just about as straight-ahead as you can get in a contemporary movie. If you have seen Spotlight, I invite you to join me in breaking down and analyzing the movie. Monday: General Comments Tuesday: Plot Wednesday: Characters Thursday: Themes Friday: Dialogue Saturday: Takeawaysįor those of you who have not seen the movie, do not click MORE as we will be trafficking in major spoilers. This week’s movie: Spotlight which won the 2016 Academy Award for Best Picture, written by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy. Decisions get made in Hollywood in large part depending upon how movies perform, so watching movies as they come out puts you in the same head space as reps, producers, execs, and buyers. Let me add this: It’s important to see movies as they get released so that you stay on top of the business. If you immerse yourself in the world of film, it’s like a Gestalt experience where you begin to grasp intuitively scene composition, story structure, character functions, dialogue and subtext, transitions and pacing, and so on. Moreover people who work in the movie business constantly reference existing movies when discussing stories you write it’s a shorthand way of getting across what they mean or envision.īut most importantly, you need to watch movies in order to ‘get’ how movie stories work. Every movie you see is a potential reference point for your writing, everything from story concepts you generate to characters you develop to scenes you construct. To be a good screenwriter, you need to have a broad exposure to the world of film. Here are my reflections from that post about the importance of watching movies: Why? To quote the writing mantra I coined over 5 years ago: Watch movies. Another in our bi-weekly series in which we analyze movies currently in release.
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