Screenwriting 101: Bryan Woods

“With A Quiet Place, we weren’t comfortable writing the script until we knew that the theme was going to be about communication. We liked how that paralleled the idea of a world and a story that’s scary because the characters can’t talk and they can’t make noise. We didn’t feel good about the story until we were like, ‘OK, we are comfortable with this theme.’ One of the interesting things about theme is that you can start off with one thing in your head, and then the ultimate movie teaches you what it’s really about. While I think that theme of communication that we started with is very much prevalent in the finished film, I think another theme emerged, which is the theme of, what would you do to protect your children and how hard is it to protect your children? I think that theme is maybe an obvious one that we didn’t intellectualize but comes through very boldly in the finished film. I think that’s the best way to do it. I think you should be thinking about making sure your story has layers and that it can resonate on a deeper level.”

— Bryan Woods

From Go Into The Story interview, May 5, 2018