Great Scene: “Magnolia”

The ‘frog storm’ near the end of Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 movie.

This is actually more of a great sequence: The frog storm near the end of Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie Magnolia (1999). Written and directed by Anderson, it is a complex movie with multiple storylines, so here is a plot overview from IMDb:

24 hours in L.A.; it’s raining cats and dogs. Two parallel and intercut stories dramatize men about to die: both are estranged from a grown child, both want to make contact, and neither child wants anything to do with dad. Earl Partridge’s son is a charismatic misogynist; Jimmy Gator’s daughter is a cokehead and waif. A mild and caring nurse intercedes for Earl, reaching the son; a prayerful and upright beat cop meets the daughter, is attracted to her, and leads her toward a new calm. Meanwhile, guilt consumes Earl’s young wife, while two whiz kids, one grown and a loser and the other young and pressured, face their situations.

This sequence features the “upright beat cop” Officer Kurring (John C. Reilly), “Jimmy Gator’s daughter” Claudia (Melora Walters), Earl (Jason Robards and “charismatic misogynist” son Frank (Tom Cruise), Earl’s male nurse Phil (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall), Linda (Julianne Moore) on life-support in an ambulance, Rose Gator (Melinda Dillon) driving in her car, Donnie (William Macy) climbing the side of a building, Stanley (Jeremy Blackman) and Worm (Orlando Jones) — and frogs. A sequence of biblical proportions.

Two things.

• First, this is a great example of cross cutting, moving quickly from one storyline to another to another to another, back and forth in continuous time. It adds to the chaotic nature of what’s happening, allowing us to experience the same event from several different perspectives.
• Second, obviously Anderson used specific camera shots — and lots of them — to put down onto paper how he ‘saw’ the movie in his mind. But we all know that in a selling script (a spec script we write to sell, as distinguished from a shooting script), the shift has been dramatically away from using camera shots. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t achieve a similar effect by not using directing lingo. For example, what if we take this:

INT. JIM KURRING’S CAR — THAT MOMENT Sequence J

Jim Kurring drives a few more feet….slows down…then starts 
 to make a u-turn to go back to the store….

JIM’S POV — MOVING — THROUGH THE WINDHSIELD.
 The car starts to turn 180 degrees……as soon as it is headed
 going back the opposite direction….

……..CRACK……..

From the sky, out of the blue, a large GREEN FROG lands on Jim Kurring’s
 windhsield.

CU — Jim Kurring. Scared shitless.

POV — Another GREEN FROG slams on the HOOD OF THE CAR.

CU — Brake. Jim’s foot SLAMS ON THE BRAKE.

And write it like this:

INT. JIM KURRING’S CAR — THAT MOMENT Sequence J

Jim Kurring drives a few more feet….slows down…then starts
to make a u-turn to go back to the store….

The car starts to turn 180 degrees……as soon as it is headed
going back the opposite direction….

……..CRACK……..

From the sky, out of the blue — a large GREEN FROG lands on Jim Kurring’s
windhsield.

JIM KURRING

Scared shitless —

ANOTHER GREEN FROG

slams on the HOOD OF THE CAR —

JIM’S FOOT

jams on the brakes —

Use secondary slugs to ‘direct’ the camera.

Magnolia is a terrific movie and this sequence ties all the storylines together.

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