Abstract
notion: Love
Author
function: Scriptwriter
CUT TO:
INT.
ANNA’S BEDROOM
Anna
is sitting on her bed leaning against the headboard and Sophie is on her
stomach on the bed. Both are reading a magazine.
ANNA
Sophie, have you ever been in love? Like for real.
SOPHIE
Well, I thought I was in love with Adam, but I guess
not..
ANNA
I know it didn’t work out with you guys, but that
doesn’t mean it wasn’t love, does it?
SOPHIE
I dunno.. I guess I don’t really know what love is,
and then how will I know if I have experienced it?
Both
girls drop their magazines and stares in silence for a while
ANNA
That’s true. But I think love is not so easily
defined.
SOPHIE
What do you mean?
ANNA
I think love is many things. It’s the butterflies in
your stomach, when you see or think about the one you’re in love with. It’s the
warm and safe feeling you get, when you think about your family. It’s the
happiness you feel when you are with your best friends, and the feeling of joy
you get from your pets..
SOPHIE
Wow, that’s really deep..
ANNA
Yeah..
SOPHIE
Well, when you put it that way, I know that I have definitely
experienced love.
The
girls look at each other and smile.
ANNA
Me too..
END SCENE
I
chose to write as a scriptwriter, because I thought it would be a fun challenge.
I also really liked the fact that I could then play around with a different
kind of format. By writing part of a screenplay, the text portrays a
conversation between two people and a consequence of that is the informal
language with slang and contractions. Had I chosen another function, this might
not have been appropriate. The text is written from an objective point of
view, which shows both sides of the conversation between the two girls, but had
the text had an omniscient narrator, the author would be able to express the
girls’ thoughts and feelings explicitly instead of implicitly through conversation.
I liked the script and the fact that it is two girls talking about love - I imagine they are teenagers. At first I thought that it was a bit too much with their deep thoughts on love, because it seemed a bit unrealistic that someone would have so much insight on what is going on in their own head, when it comes to love, however, then Sophie says: "Wow, that's really deep" and that was a really nice touch I think :-)
ReplyDeleteI really like the format of this, because it makes it more visual and it creates mental images of the room and the girls. I find it very interesting how such a simple scene can create such vivid mental images. The two girls realize something important and deep, while you still keep them acting like teenagers :) This works really well.
ReplyDeleteThat was a nice and tender scene, where we see the characters grow before our eyes. Good script-writing skills!
ReplyDeleteThe reflection part is a little less convincing, as several prose genres easily can contain much dialogue. But what you achieved with only using dialogue is the strength of the dramatic types of text.