Script Analysis: “CODA” — Part 1: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

A week-long analysis of this movie which was a big hit at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Download. Read. Discuss.

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this bi-weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:

Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
Tuesday: Plot
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Dialogue
Saturday: Takeaways

Today: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown.

Here is my take on this exercise from a previous series of posts — How To Read A Screenplay:

After a first pass, it’s time to crack open the script for a deeper analysis and you can do that by creating a scene-by-scene breakdown. It is precisely what it sounds like: A list of all the scenes in the script accompanied by a brief description of the events that transpire.

For purposes of this exercise, I have a slightly different take on scene. Here I am looking not just for individual scenes per se, but a scene or set of scenes that comprise one event or a continuous piece of action. Admittedly this is subjective and there is no right or wrong, the point is simply to break down the script into a series of parts which you then can use dig into the script’s structure and themes.

The value of this exercise:

• We pare down the story to its most constituent parts: Scenes.
• By doing this, we consciously explore the structure of the narrative.
• A scene-by-scene breakdown creates a foundation for even deeper analysis of the story.

This week: CODA (2021). You may download the screenplay here.

Screenplay by Sian Heder, based on a motion picture by Victoria Bedos & Stanislas Carré de Malberg & Éric Lartigau & Thomas Bidegain

Plot summary: As a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family’s fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music by wanting to go to Berklee College of Music and her fear of abandoning her parents.

CODA
Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
By Laura Bolton
GoIntoTheStory.com

Pg.1–3: Angela Rose boat. The radio asks ,“Are you guys coming in?” Ruby can hear but the rest of the family is deaf. On the Salado fishing wharf — the Quotas are restrictive, limiting the money the fishermen can make. A solution- “I keep saying, let’s sell our own fish.”

Pg.4–6: Ruby bikes to school. She chose the Choir.

Pg.7–10: Ruby translates for her parents at the doctor but when it’s jock itch, she distorts the doctor’s info by saying her parents have to avoid sex forever instead of two weeks. Dinner.

Pg.10–12: Choir. Ruby is called upon by the choir teacher, Bernardo and Ruby run out of the room, embarrassed.

Pg.13: Ruby doesn’t want to watch her parents fight about money so she closes her eyes.

Pg.13–14: Feds are going to have fishermen to have a person on the boat for 800 bucks a day.

Pg.14–16: Bernardo’s meditating and Ruby talks to him about why she ran out of the room- because she has been made fun of in the past for her voice being ugly.

Pg.16–18: Jackie wants Ruby to call their grandma but Ruby’s with her friend Gertie, who thinks Leo’s hot. Gertie wants to date Leo but Ruby doesn’t want that. Ruby shows her how to sign. Gertie wants to sign to Leo that he’s hot but Ruby taught her to sign that she has herpes. Gertie leaves not knowing what she signed.

Pg.19–22: Bernardo wants the choir to sing better so he gets ruby to sing by calling her up to front and getting her to do little dog exercise. She sings with clarity and miles and the teacher smiles. Bernardo chooses Ruby and Miles to sing a duet together and gives them the music.

Pg.23: Leo’s sells fish. Ruby negotiates. Frank smokes a joint. Ruby and Leo fight but they want to sell fish.

Pg.24–28: Choir sings and has fun. Afterwards, Bernardo wants to hear the duet but it sounds like Ruby and Miles didn’t practice. Not together. Bernardo asks Ruby what her plans are after high school. He offers to help her weekends and evenings in order to prepare her audition for Berklee. She doesn’t know what that is. She has no plans but to work for her family. Ruby tells her family she joined the choir but Jackie thinks it’s because of rebellion against what she herself can’t do.

Pg.29–31: Leo wants to open a business but Frank thinks the other fishermen don’t like them because they are deaf. Leo says yes to Brady’s offer of going for a beer. Leo can’t lip read at the bar. He tunes out. A guy spills beer on him. Leo starts to fight but Frank stops them. Leo sit

at the bar to drink his troubles away but he sees Gertie, who gives him her number and they text and flirt. Leo and Gertie make out in the closet.

Pg.32–37: Miles comes home with Ruby but she’s self-conscious that her place is a dump. Miles’s parents support his music but they suck the fun out of it. Miles and Ruby practice but are interrupted by Jackie and Frank having sex. Frankie and Jackie talk in the living room with Ruby but it seems like Ruby is the parent. But her parents want to know what Miles’ intentions are and suggest he use a condom. When they ask if Ruby is having sex, Miles leaves and ruby is embarrassed. Gertie tries to calm Ruby down about Miles until kids in the cafeteria mime sex noises at her and it’s clear Miles told kids at school what happened when he was over at her house. Miles runs after her to say that he didn’t tell everyone he told Jay because he thought it was funny. Ruby cries in the hallway.

Pg.38–39: Bernardo tries to get Ruby to release her voice but it’s tight so he gets her to make ugly noises and it works.

Pg.40–44: Frank gets Ruby to translate that he’s frustrated and wants to sell his fish and offers to give the fishermen double of their pay check but he didn’t think it through and afterwards the family wonders how that will work. Frank wants to expand to the other families but Jackie calls them ‘hearing bitches’ and thinks they want nothing to do with her. She says they have their hearing community, who, ruby says see her once a month. Jackie thinks they can’t talk to the people who hear. Ruby gets up at 3 am to fish. On the boat she studies her music. She sells fish off the boat and recruits a few fishermen to the program. Bernardo goes over the sheet music with Ruby. Jackie signs the paperwork to a warehouse. Ruby practices with Bernardo. Jackie cleans out the warehouse while Ruby Looks at her paperwork. Jackie feels the distance between them.

Pg.45–48: Miles passes Ruby on the way out from Bernardo’s and he tries to talk to Ruby but she won’t. Bernardo calls her late. Bernardo claps while Ruby plays. Misha, Bernardo’s son, plays nearby. Frank stencils a fresh catch sign on the wall of their new business space. Leo and Gertie make out. Ruby sees them and is disgusted. A few ladies laugh while they work, but Jackie can’t hear them and feels left out. Ruby is on the phone and doing more than she expected. Bernardo is on the floor with Ruby doing breathing exercises but she falls asleep.

Bernardo opens the door to find Ruby late for practice again and he threatens to stop helping her if she keeps wasting his time. Miles tells Ruby that her family seems great and he is troubled. Ruby still doesn’t have time for him.

Pg.48–54: The fishermen’s wives tell jokes and Jackie feels left out. Ruby heads out to practice but a reporter comes who does a story on the family. Ruby stays so misses practice with Bernardo because he doesn’t let her in. Bernardo plays music and Ruby talks to him. He accuses her of not being serious and she explains that she’s never done anything without her family before. The family watches hockey and Ruby explains her plans to try to go to College. They say they need her there. She says singing is what she loves. Jackie and Frank discuss Ruby and how she’s not a baby.

Pg.54–60: Miles texts Ruby at 3am asking how he can make it up to her. Leo and Frank get ready to fish with no ruby, when Jackie- the observer shows up to come on board with them. Jackie speaks but Leo and Frank ignore her, which she’s used to Ruby takes Miles swimming and they jump off a big cliff. Joanne finds out Frank and Leo are deaf and makes a phone call. Miles and Ruby jump off a bigger cliff. The radio — no one picks up on the boat and officers come- Joanne explains Frank and Leo are deaf and it seems she called the authorities. Miles kisses Ruby.

Pg.60–65: Jackie and Frank argue when Ruby returns. Ruby finds out what happens. They are ordered to pay a fine and Ruby asks when the family can go back to fishing. They are told a hearing individual has to be on board at all times.

Over dinner Ruby volunteers to stay and help the family. Jackie and Frank are happy but Leo pushes back. Leo storms off. Jackie comes to Ruby with a dress she bought for her. They talk and Jackie explains how she worried they wouldn’t connect if Ruby could hear in a family of deaf people. Leo finds Ruby and encourages her to go to the audition.

Pg.65–71: Ruby sings at her high school concert but she watched her family sign to each other in the audience. From the audience perspective we hear only silence. Afterwards. Bernardo meets Ruby’s parents. Frank goes to get some air but Ruby follows him and he asks her to sing. She does and he puts his hands on her throat to feel the vibrations. Ruby texts Bernardo to say she’s coming to the audition.

Pg.71–77: The Rossi family piles in the car to all go with Ruby but when they get there, they aren’t allowed to go in. Only Ruby. Ruby is a half hour late and Bernardo comes back to play with her. She is nervous but Bernardo messed up so she can start again. She starts to loosen up and signs to her family in the audience who have snuck in.

Pg. 77–80: Frank has a new deckhand. Ruby gets accepted to Berklee. Miles and Ruby jump off the cliff. Frank speaks to Ruby in his voice but Ruby signs back “I’ll love you forever” to her family as they drive away, leaving her at school.

A trailer for the movie:

Writing Exercise: I encourage you to read the script, but short of that, if you’ve seen the movie, go through this scene-by-scene breakdown. What stands out to you about it from a structural standpoint?

Major kudos to Laura Bolton for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown , go here.

I am looking for volunteers to read a script and provide a scene-by-scene breakdown for it to be used as part of our weekly series. What do you get out from it? Beyond your name being noted here, my personal thanks, and some creative juju sent your way, hopefully you will learn something about story structure and develop another skill set which is super helpful in learning and practicing the craft.

This is a great tradition and provides a major benefit to the online screenwriting community.

Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis Series

Movie Script Scene-By-Scene Breakdowns

Our updated list of volunteers:

Laura Bolton / CODA
Ryan Canty / Encounter
Martina Cook / Belfast
Karen Dantas / Annette
Jaime Dunkle / Mass
Amy Falkofske / The Mitchells vs. The Machines
Lisa Gomez / tick, tick… BOOM!
Shari Hazlett / Being the Ricardos
Jodi Lustig / The Tomorrow War
Florencia Manovil / The Lost Daughter
Terry Melia / Dune

Here are the other 2021 movie scripts available for you to read and break down:

The Boss Baby: Family Business
The Card Counter
C’mon C’mon
Cyrano
Don’t Look Up
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
Encanto
The Harder They Fall
A Hero
The Humans
Jockey
Last Night in Soho
Nine Days
Nightmare Alley
No Time to Die
Passing
Raya and the Last Dragon
Red Rocket
Respect
Spencer
Spirit Untamed
Stillwater
Swan Song
The Tender Bar
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story

Thanks to the folks who have already sent me their breakdowns. This will enable us to continue our annual bi-weekly script read and analysis series.

Now is YOUR chance to contribute to this most worthy cause and provide an additional resource for the online screenwriting community.

Even if you do not participate in the analysis, discussion, or write up a scene-by-scene breakdown, I strongly encourage you to read these scripts.

So seize this opportunity and join in the conversation!

I hope to see you in the RESPONSE section about this week’s script: CODA.

Volunteers, when you finish, email your breakdown to me at (GITSblog@gmail.com) as a Word or Pages doc.

Thanks, folks. Who’s next?