BEHINDWOODS CELEBRITY COLUMN

The screenplay of the gritty rural-based Tamizh film ‘Subramaniapuram’ was released in book form last week in English for a larger audience to experience the nuances of the conception and execution of the now-turned classic. While I couldn’t get hold of a copy yet when I tried at a famous book store in Chennai, I stumbled upon another printed edition of ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ with its screenplay, anecdotes, working stills and many other interesting facets of the film compiled together that almost soaked my browsing time for awhile. Writer/director Quentin Tarantino was in the news recently for shelving his ‘Hateful Eight’ project when the script got leaked online by one of the six people whom he trusted with in roping for that production and decided to publish the screenplay officially instead of making it into a movie.

Reading screenplays is no longer just reserved for those involved in the filmmaking process. There’s a chunk of eager audience out there who are intrigued by the writer’s imagination of the characters, plot and description of every scene of a movie they so loved watching. It gives the reader a whole new experience of revisiting the story without being influenced or distracted by other factors of a finished film like music, light, camera angles, tonality, background score, the bias towards your favourite artists etc. It’s a draft of the writer’s thoughts transferred in extensive detailing that comes as close as possible to what gets filmed eventually. There could be minor variations in the final shot and edited cut from what has been written owing to certain logistics, prop availability, weather change or value addition that the cast and crew bring to the table while filming. But largely, it serves as a blueprint to what the film will turn out to be and helps the entire team in understanding the project and the writer’s characterization scene by scene.If you sweat it out on the screenwriting well enough, you’re already half way home. As Tarantino said, “If it works on the page, it sure can work on the big screen”.

A chef is likely to have read a lot of recipes before creating his signature dish. A novelist is likely to have read umpteen number of novels before he wrote his own. But a film buff doesn’t get to access the screenplay of a film before he catches the movie at a theatre. So in an effort to make you experience what it is like to watch a scene after reading the screenplay as conceived by the writer, I’m going to borrow five minutes of your time and Tarantino’s much available screenplay of ‘Django Unchained’ to just make you experience the joy of reading a screenplay and seeing it translate onto the screen. While some of you would’ve watched the movie in its entirety, indulge me this one time and see what it is like to go from paper to film in one of the most captivating scenes written by Tarantino until I connect with you next fortnight. Happy reading and watching the scene thereafter.

EXT – STABLE - DAY

DJANGO

John Brittle!

Big John breaks his whip stride, looks up, and in a discarded full length broken mirror from the big house, laying abandoned against the stable wall, he sees DJANGO dressed in his powder blue satin Little Lord Flauntleroy outfit, surrounded by his pack of little French Bulldogs.

LITTLE JODY on her knees, tied to the dead tree stump, looks up sees the same thing in the mirror.

LITTLE RAJ looks to his left at the sounds of the voice.

BIG JOHN turns towards Django, who he still doesn’t recognize.

DJANGO just stares back.

BIG JOHN’s smile disappears. He recognizes Django. So does Roger.

 

LITTLE RAJ

Django?

Django crosses toward Big John raising up his arm like he’s going to shake his hand…

DJANGO

Remember me?

… Django extends his arm, and Dr. Schultz’s Derringer arm contraption, POPS THE TINY GUN into his hand, and he FIRES a tiny bullet smack dab into BIG JOHN’S MERCILESS HEART.

BIG JOHN FACE

Goes into shock… he falls to his knees… he looks up… clutching his heart… at Django.

DJANGO

I like the way you die, boy.

Big John hears it… then tips over dead.

LITTLE JODY can’t believe what she’s just seen.

Four other slaves who just happen to be walking in the background, see it.

LITTLE RAJ is stunned… then comes to his senses, fumbling for the gun he wears on his hip, but since he’s no gunman, in his haste, he gets it out of his holster, but drops it on the ground.

It goes off… BANG.

SHOOTING himself in the foot, he HOPS UP AND DOWN in pain.

The Bulldogs scatter at the sound of the BANG.

DJANGO picks Big John’s WHIP off the ground, and begins WHIPPING Little Raj across the face and chest. MORE SLAVES gather.

DJANGO WHIPS HIM ON THE GROUND, then throws the whip to the ground, picks Roger’s pistol off the ground, and empties it (FIVE SHOTS) into Roger. To say the slaves are flabbergasted is an understatement.

Dr. Schultz rides his horse up quickly, rifle in his hand. He sees Django, and the two dead bodies.

 

DR. SCHULTZ

                             Who are they?
 

DJANGO

That’s John Brittle and that’s his little brother Raj.

 

DR. SCHULTZ

Where’s Ellis?

DJANGO

He’s the one hightailin’ it across the field right now
 

Ellis Brittle riding his horse full out through the cotton field trying to make an escape. SCHULTZ’S Winchester goes to his eye, he follows the rider with his rifle barrel.
 

DR. SCHULTZ

Are you sure that’s him?
 

Ellis gets further away…
 

DJANGO

Yes!

DR. SCHULTZ

Are you positive?

Ellis gets further away…

DJANGO

I dunno

DR. SCHULTZ

You don’t know if you’re positive?
 

Ellis gets further away…

DJANGO

I don’t know what, positive, means
 

DR. SCHULTZ

It means you’re sure.
 

DJANGO

Yes.
 

DR. SCHULTZ

Yes, what?
 

DJANGO

Yes I’m sure that’s Ellis Brittle
 

BAM!
 

The link of the above scene that translated from paper to film minus the absentee French Bulldogs that were originally planned, Little Raj not shooting his own leg, the extra line of Django before he shoots Little Raj and also the reaction of Django when the scene ends seems to have been shot spontaneously while filming it. Take a look

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O34Vf50sPQ