Go Into The Story Resource: Movie Script Scene-By-Scene Breakdowns

Go Into The Story followers are contributing breakdowns of contemporary screenplays to an ongoing script analysis series.

On May 16, 2021, Go Into The Story turns 13 years old — you can read the very first blog post here. I led with this paragraph:

Welcome to Go Into The Story! Right now, it’s nothing but a humble, threadbare blog, but I hope it will evolve into an active resource for aspiring screenwriters, as well as a community for anyone interested in storytelling and the creative life.

And evolve it did! To the point where it was recently named “Best of the Best” Scriptwriting Website in the 20th Annual Writer’s Digest Best Websites for Writers list.

To celebrate 13 years of blogging about screenwriting, writing, Hollywood, movies, TV, and the creative life, each day in May, I’m going to feature a piece of Go Into The Story trivia, plus a writing resource you can find in the site’s archives. This is not an exercise in self-congratulations so much as I figured readers could use some tips about how to best use the site. With — to date — over 100 archive topics, there is a LOT of content here. Hopefully, these posts for the next 31 days will clue in more recent followers and remind long-time readers about resources you can use to facilitate deepening your understanding of the writing craft.

Today’s trivia: For years, I ran six posts per day according to this schedule: 6AM, 10AM, Noon, 2PM, 4PM, 6PM. That final post was the day’s ‘biggie’ because when I was on Blogger, then WordPress, the articles were laid out in a vertical line, so the last post stayed up top for 12 hours.

Then I switched to Medium which, as you can see, offers a lot more variety. As a result, I made a few changes to post schedules. First, I cut back to 5 per day. Ironically, site traffic went up. The cynic in me wonders if I cut back to zero posts whether the numbers of visitors would skyrocket!

A second change is I schedule the posts to go live at these times: 6AM, 6:30AM, 7:00AM, 7:30AM, 8:00AM. Grouping the posts together enables me to schedule my tweets in one fell swoop in the AM, so I get that done and don’t have to tend to Twitter any further.

Speaking of Twitter, @GoIntoTheStory currently has 68,297 followers. Not Taylor Swift, but not bad for a screenwriter, teacher, and blogger.

Today’s Go Into The Story resource: Movie Script Scene-By-Scene Breakdowns.

A great way to analyze screenplay structure is by studying a script’s scene-by-scene breakdown. Here are links to 102 posts which include downloadable PDFs of each breakdown.

12 Years a Slave1917A Beautiful Day in the NeighborhoodA Monster CallsA Quiet PlaceAeronauts, TheAfter the WeddingAll is LostAmerican HustleAntebellumArgoArrivalArtist, TheBarney’s VersionBeasts of No NationBeginnersBelleBig EyesBig Short, TheBig Sick, TheBirdman: Or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)BlacKkKlansmanBoyhoodCeleste & Jesse ForeverCocoCrazy Rich AsiansDallas Buyers ClubDestroyerEighth GradeEnd of the Tour, TheEnough SaidEx MachinaEye in the SkyThe Farewell
The FavouriteFirst CowFirst ManFlightFord v Ferrari
FrankenweenieGet OutGone GirlGood Dinosaur, TheGrand Budapest Hotel, TheGravityGreen BookHannaHell or High WaterHoney BoyHustlersI, TonyaI’m Your WomanImitation Game, TheIncredibles, TheInvitation, TheJackieJojo RabbitJokerKnives OutLa La LandLeviathanLighthouse, The
Lincoln
Little Women
LoganLone SurvivorLooperLovingMan UpMidsommarMiles AheadMinariMonsters UniversityMoonrise KingdomMudboundMy Big Fat Greek Wedding 2NebraskaNightcrawlerNomadlandParasitePalm SpringsPrisonersPromising Young Woman
RocketmanRomaShort Term 12Silence of the Lambs, TheSocial Network, TheSound of MetalSpider-Man: Into the Spider-VerseStan & OllieStill AliceThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, MissouriToy Story 4TrainwreckThe Trial of the Chicago 7
UsViceWavesWhiplashWolf of Wall Street, TheZootopia

For extended analysis of each of these movie scripts, go here.

Each day this month, I want to take the opportunity to thank you for supporting Go Into The Story. I’d love to hear from you in RESPONSES. When did you start following the blog? What are your favorite features? And as always, if you have any suggestions, feel free to suggest away.