Scene Description Spotlight: “Ed Wood”

A period piece. A bio-pic of an enigmatic character. A drama with absurd comic elements. The 1994 movie Ed Wood is all of these — and more.

As a result, it is critically important for the movie’s screenwriters Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski to communicate the story’s tone as quickly and efficiently as possible directly from FADE IN. Here is what they wrote:

Criswell’s monologue plays a key part in setting the story’s tone, but what of the scene description:

• The opening paragraph with its numerous references to paradigmatic horror movie elements — “HAUNTED MANSION PARLOR… spooky shrouded parlor… storm rages… THUNDER roars… lightning flashes… lies an oak coffin” — immediately conveys to the reader that the story has a campy aspect to it.
• After Criswell’s side, there is a contrast in the next two paragraphs — between “lightning… clouds… torrential rain” (typical horror story stuff) and “teeny, grungy playhouse… cracked marquee” (humble, even pathetic) — putting into play the story’s comic and dramatic elements.
• Finally, the introductory description of the story’s Protagonist Ed Wood. There is this line:

Larger-than-life charismatic, confident, Errol Flynn-style
handsome, Ed is a human magnet.

A Protagonist drawn very much in the tradition of a classical hero. Followed by this line:

He’s a classically flawed optimist: Sweet and well-intentioned, 
yet doomed by his demons within.

Not only a contrast (again), but also a key insight into the essence of the character. Thus in 1-page, the script introduces the time period, the story’s Protagonist, and equally as important the movie’s drama-mixed-with-comedy tone.

Here is the opening sequence in Ed Wood.

You may recognize the actor portraying Criswell. It’s Jeffrey Jones who played the principal in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off…

Emperor Joseph II in Amadeus…

And Charles in Beetlejuice.

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