MOVIES

Writers reveal scenes that made their scripts

A single image or narrative moment can be the key that unlocks the story. Writers describe how it happens.

By Lisa Rosen, Special to The Times

December 12, 2007

FOR some, it happens years before the script has been started. For others, it follows weeks of ignoring a blank screen and a producer's frantic calls. An idea for a scene, or even a line comes up and something ineffable clicks into place, like a tumbler on a lock, setting the story free.

We asked a few writers to discuss a scene that helped them bring their films into focus. Their responses -- over the next three pages -- cover some film moments in such depth that a simple spoiler alert isn't sufficient. Caution: There may be one or two sentences in the following story that don't give away key plot points.

Tony Gilroy,

"Michael Clayton"

In his film about a law firm "fixer" up against forces he can't control, a scene halfway through the movie imparts background and plot, and sets up the thriller aspect to follow.

"It's the scene where Michael goes to his boss' Upper East Side town house to ask him for money. I remember it was a very critical scene to write because, just from a utilitarian standpoint, it has some real important plot aspects to it. It's at the moment when Michael Clayton realizes that this is not something casual -- the stakes are really raised for him, he has to take this very, very seriously. It's a huge scene in terms of the back story as well; it really gives me a chance to blow back through their history in a really efficient, unsentimental, sneaky way. You're going through the movie up to that point trying to figure out where the power lies and how much of a hole Michael Clayton is in, and this scene drops the floor out from under him completely. It's the scene where you find out exactly how he feels about his job, and his past, all the things that he squandered, where he sits on the food chain in the law firm, and that's the next level.

"The third part of it, which is the part that goes unnoticed, is that this is not a movie star scene, in any way shape or form. . . . This is not a cool scene, this is a scene about a guy coming in almost as a child; It's 'I could have been a contender' in a way. He's so bereft . . . he's so clinging to the idea that he could go back to court -- 'I was good at it.' It's such a weak [moment] for his character, and he ends up just so emasculated by it. I think that's what's so fascinating."

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