30 Days of Screenplays, Day 4: “Spring Breakers”
Why 30 screenplays in 30 days?
Why 30 screenplays in 30 days?
Because whether you are a novice just starting to learn the craft of screenwriting or someone who has been writing for many years, you should be reading scripts.
There is a certain type of knowledge and understanding about screenwriting you can only get from reading scripts, giving you an innate sense of pace, feel, tone, style, how to approach writing scenes, how create flow, and so forth.
We did 30 Days of Screenplays in 2013 and you can access each of those posts and discussions here. This time, we’re trying something different: I invited thirty Go Into The Story followers to read one script each and provide a guest post about it.
Today’s guest columnist: Dakota Proctor.
Title: Spring Breakers. You may read the screenplay here.
Year: 2012
Writing Credits: Harmony Korine
IMDB rating: 5.3
IMDB plot summary: Four college girls hold up a restaurant in order to fund their spring break vacation. While partying/drinking/taking drugs they are arrested only to be bailed out by a drug and arms dealer.
Tagline: Wish You Were Here
Analysis: The script is almost devoid of dialogue and is only about 70 pages. I haven’t read that many scripts however, I do know that this script is somewhat unconventional, knowing Harmony Korine’s work. So what is the script saying about the subject matter, girls on spring break.
If we look at women’s place in social settings throughout history, they have often occupied the passive role. Women were prizes to be won by men. This idea of the role of the woman as a support for a man translates in to film quite often. Women are stuck until men free them. The literal image of the princess locked in the tower waiting for the man to rescue her comes to mind and is very fitting.
Thus, it doesn’t seem like a stretch to link passivity with silence. Korine paints a very sexual picture, yet none of the characters actually voice their want of sex. The scene early on where Brit writes “I want Penis” on a piece of paper is a externalization of this unspoken want. She is silenced during class and thus must voice her desires without using her voice.
Women are also on the side of the visual. Acting within our social structure, women are often judged on their appearance. Visuals, especially on the page, can be ascribed much more meaning than dialogue can. And, even the dialogue takes on a surreal appearance at times, with phrases becoming motifs that repeat over and over again.
So, Korine has written a feminine movie. All of the rules Korine imposes on the film (silence over sound, implicit versus explicit) set up a story where we see the true power of a woman who doesn’t go against social constraints, and instead inverts them. The two Spring Breakers left at the end of the film have been able to suppress the explicit dangers of what they are doing. Neither of them have literally “bled” yet. The script notes that the thugs in Archie’s house are surprised by the look of the girls. They don’t fight like Alien, with words, and bravado. They fight with an unseen power. A power on the side of the feminine, implicit, and silent.
Most Memorable Dialogue: Considering there is very little dialogue, I’d like to redefine dialogue as how spoken voice-over talks back and forth with the visual side. All the girls talk to unseen parents or grandparents throughout the film. In the end, after Candy and Brit have killed all of Archie’s gang, they do a visual victory lap, eating ice pops and driving a Ferrari. Yet during this piece, they both call their parents, telling them how they want to be better.
The visuals are very different than the feel good messages they leave their parents. The beach is abandoned. Empty shopping carts are turned over. There is garbage everywhere. The phone calls are strange. How did murder and robbery teach them to be good? They suffered no consequences for their actions.
The only way to understand this is to link it to an earlier clip where a girl says how when sex and drugs are done in excess it becomes spiritual. Perhaps these girls had an awakening. But not an awakening where they change. An awakening into simply being able to take part in more pleasure. With the beaches ravaged and sucked dry, the girls are ready to come home and shackle themselves back into the restraint of the world with knowledge of how to be a “good person.” They learned literally how to be “good” not in the sense of good and evil, but in the sense of good as efficient, which speaks much more to the questions my generation face, which is to say, “how do I have a good time?”
Most Memorable Moments: The moment outside by the piano is an interesting look at how Korine plays with gender roles. Alien sings a song previously recorded by Britney Spears, a woman. The girls dance around with ski masks in bikinis, thus being only seen for their body parts, something generally ascribed to women. Yet they also hold guns, violence, usually linked to men. I think linking their implied sex appeal with the physical guns shows the actual power of the girls. Alien singing to them was their request, albeit a non-violent one, yet one could see how easily they could over-power him if he did not do as they say.
What Did I Learn About Screenwriting From Reading This Script: Like anything, screenwriting seems to be about learning the rules and then breaking them in a way to tell the story you want to tell. Korine seems to have wanted to leave room for analysis and I am so glad he did. Sometimes, less is more. The movie translates very well from script to screen. Considering he directed as well as wrote, it makes sense that he deviates somewhat from the script, and instead used the script to lay out the film.
Thanks, Dakota! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!
To see all of this year’s 30 Days of Screenplays: Vol. 2, go here.