The next Go Into The Story Reading and Analysis Script: “Coco”

Read the script for the hit animated comedy and analyze it next week.

In 2015, I launched an initiative at Go Into The Story: A script read and analysis series. As a result, there are 65 movie scripts GITS readers have analyzed. Moreover, volunteers wrote up scene-by-scene breakdowns for most of the scripts to serve as a foundation for our week-long discussion. To date, we have 57 scene-by-scene breakdowns.

This initiative is in keeping with two of the guiding principles I had in mind when I created this blog in May 2008:

• To motivate writers to read scripts and analyze them as a key part of how they ought to go about learning the craft.
• To create a free, online educational resource for anyone interested in screenwriting and movies.

Our next featured 2017 movie script: Coco, screenplay by Adrian Molina & Matthew Aldrich, original story by Lee Unkrich & Jason Katz & Matthew Aldrich & Adrian Molina. We begin Monday, January 29th!

To date, Coco has won 52 awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, and been nominated for 49 other awards including two Oscars: Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature. The move has grossed over $657 million in worldwide box office revenue.

Why has this movie been such a success? What writing lessons can we glean from it? Those are key questions we will be considering in our reading and analysis of the Coco script.

Our daily schedule next week:

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

You may download the script for Coco here.

With the ongoing release of 2017 movie scripts as part of the studios annual For Your Consideration campaigns, I am soliciting volunteers to read one of these scripts and do a scene-by-scene breakdown.

As proof of the importance of reading scripts / watching movies and burrowing into their underlying structure, check out this video clip with screenwriter Kristen ‘Kiwi’ Smith who co-wrote such hits as 10 Things I Hate About You and Legally Blonde.

For those folks who volunteer to write a scene-by-scene breakdown, beyond your name being noted here, my thanks, and your own personal dose of creative juju, you will learn something about story structure and further develop this important skill set.

To download PDFs of the scene-by-scene breakdowns we have aggregated to date, go here.

Here is our current list of literary heroes and heroines who have volunteered to do a 2017 movie script scene-by-scene breakdown:

Battle of the Sexes / Helmanon Omaande
Beauty and the Beast / Anomalia Sablayrolles
The Big Sick / Andrew Lightfoot
Brad’s Status / Brandy Barber
Coco / Caliann Lum
Darkest Hour / Adam McKenzie
Downsizing / Héloïse Chung
Get Out / David Joyner
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 / Will King
I, Tonya / Niki Leydecker
Lady Bird / Sridhar Reddy
Logan / Stephen Williams
Lost City of Z / Richard Koman
The Man Who Invented Christmas / Michelle Carter
Mudbound / Mark Furney
Okja / Vincent Eggleston
The Shape of Water / Mokhtar Djawadi 
Thor: Ragnarok / Gina Gomez
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri / Halil Akgündüz
Victoria & Abdul / Joni Brainerd

Bold = Turned in scene-by-scene breakdown

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

Let’s not forget about what YOU can learn in the process. When Nikki Leydecker emailed me her scene-by-scene breakdown for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, she wrote this:

I have done breakdown’s before, but by beats via the Save The Cat method. That method and this method are great for learning story structure. However I found that this version of a script breakdown gave me more insight into the story. I was able to find the storylines easily and the central theme of the script. Breaking down all the scenes provided a clear indicator of what worked and what didn’t. I would find set ups and payoffs, and some set ups that didn’t pay off to anything at all. Another benefit I found was that it was great warm up exercise for my own writing. Instead of a writing prompt, reading a script and writing a few scenes out quickly moved my brain in writing mode. It was a lengthy process, but an enjoyable one. I am going to take this experience and use it again for my own work. It will help tremendously with the rewrite process because I will be able to spot the strengths and weaknesses in the story.

It’s a win-win. Plus you get public accolades from me and a hearty dose of creative juju. Go here to to see the entire roster of 2017 movie scripts now available for download. Cross reference the list with those above already with volunteers, determine which ones are still available, then write a RESPONSE to this post and claim your script to read and break down. To see examples of scene-by-scene breakdowns, go here.

IF YOU HAVE VOLUNTEERED, PLEASE SEND ME YOUR SCENE-BY-SCENE BREAKDOWN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!

Finally, allow me to use the words of one of Hollywood’s hottest screenwriters to bludgeon you over the head with the value of reading scripts. From an interview I conducted with Jon Spaihts, his response to my final question: What advice would you offer to aspiring screenwriters about learning the craft and breaking into Hollywood?

Read the script and then watch the movie. Watch the movie and then read the script. Watch the movie with the script in your lap. Study the parts. You have to see through the surfaces. Being a fan is insufficient. Break it down. That means slowing it down and looking at it through a series of different lenses.

Once you’ve begun to do that, you can see what the parts of a screenplay and the parts of a movie do.

First thing Jon said: Read scripts.

We’re going to do that every other week in 2018 combined with a week-long analysis of each script. People who volunteer to do a scene-by-scene breakdown provide an important aspect of that process.

See you Monday, January 29th as we dive into the second of our 2018 script reading series with our week-long analysis of Coco.