Blueprints: "Scream"

In this Halloween edition of Blueprints, Jorge Molina looks at one of the most iconic opening sequences in horror film history. Do not hang up...

Creating and building tension is one of the most important things a successful horror movie has to accomplish. It’s done, among other tools, through a combination of music, camera angles, and juxtaposition of light and shadow; that is to say, it’s done almost entirely audio-visually.

But every successful horror movie was first a successful horror script.  How does a writer project escalating tension, that dreadful atmosphere so vital in horror, in the page, with nothing but words as a weapon? Let’s take a look at our favorite scary movie to find out.

 

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Blueprints: "Mean Girls"

Hi everyone, Jorge here. Welcome to the first installment of Blueprints, a new weekly series where we'll discuss the relationship between the pages of a script and the finalized cinematic products. To start things off, an audience-favorite and one of the most quotable films of all time.

 

Tina Fey’s cult-classic satire on teenage girlhood, cliques, and cheese fries has quickly become an indispensable presence inside the ranks of Most Quotable Films lists. Behind-the-scenes recognition has fallen more on the writer than on director Mark Waters (brother of Heathers’ helmer Daniel Waters; for those keeping tabs on your clique movies). Almost every single line has become a chant for people to drop on each other, so much that Quote-Along screenings of the film have become widely popular.

But what is it about Mean Girls that made it not only memorable, but practically irresistible to mouth along to?

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