Script To Screen: “Boyhood”

The beautiful denouement of the 2014 movie Boyhood, written and directed by Richard Linklater.

Setup: After a 12 year journey from childhood to college, Mason treks to the wilderness with some newfound friends and reflects on life.

The scripted version of the scene:

Here is the movie version of the scene:

It is line by line, beat for beat the same. The one grace note the script doesn’t hit which the movie does is the very last image: Mason breaking the fourth wall as his gaze shifts to look directly at the camera. My guess is it happened spontaneously on the set, one of several takes, a surprise. My additional guess is Linklater chose this take because it was a nod to the entire 12-year process of making the movie almost as if a documentary.

The exchange between Mason and Nicole speaks to the heart of the movie, each passing year in Mason’s life a ‘moment,’ each scene a ‘moment.’

It reminds me of a quote which I’ve always loved from author Anne Beattie: “People forget years and remember moments.”

I think that is so true. It’s a great takeaway for screenwriters. Focus on the moments in your stories, the tiny particles of your plot in which characters connect in some way.

Let those moments “seize” you as you write your stories.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

For more articles in the Script To Screen series, go here.