Script To Screen: “The Kids Are All Right”
A scene from the 2010 movie The Kids Are All Right, written by Lisa Cholodenko, who also directed, and Stuart Blumberg.
A scene from the 2010 movie The Kids Are All Right, written by Lisa Cholodenko, who also directed, and Stuart Blumberg.
IMDb Plot Summary: Two children conceived by artificial insemination bring their father into their family life.
Laser’s mothers are curious about what’s going on with their son. They are in for a shock.
NIC
Okay, that's enough! Laser, your
mom and I have a sense there's some
other stuff going on in your life
and we just want to be let in. LASER
What do you mean? JULES
Are you having a relationship with
someone? NIC
You could tell us, honey. We'd
understand and support you. Laser looks confused. How did they find out about Paul? LASER
I just met him once. Nic and Jules share a worried look. NIC
What do you mean once? JULES
Did he find you on-line?! LASER
What?! NIC
Who did you meet once? LASER
Paul! I met him with Joni. NIC
Who's Paul?! JULES
Why was Joni there?! LASER
She set it up. NIC
Forget the set-up! Who is Paul?!! LASER
Our sperm donor.
Jules and Nic go white. LASER (CONT'D)
Wait, did you guys think I was
gay?!
Here is the scene from the movie:
When I write a scene, I ask a series of questions, one of them being, “What is the point of the scene?” Here, the point is to reveal that Laser has met with Paul, his sperm donor father. That provides the answer to another question: “What type of scene is it?” I would look at this as a Revelation Scene which is why the writers structured it to build to the revelation.
Remember: Read Scripts! It’s one major key to learning the craft of screenwriting.
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, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
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