Lost in Translation Screenplay.

[cstroman]

I had been looking for this screenplay online for a while. Now it's available (thanks Joblo!).

I've read it and if you take the name "coppola" of the front of it and post it here or on Triggerstreet, the thing would be flamed to high heaven.

Maybe I'm missing something, but some of the worst most amateurish things you can do in writing a screenplay are all over it (internalizing, writing unfilmables, and on the nose written comedy, complete mis-use of "cut to", etc.).

If I am missing why this should have won an Oscar for best screenplay, please show me because if this is the best screenplay from last year, then most of the amateurs who write screenplays are fucking geniuses.

[The Postmaster General]

Originally posted by cstroman
If I am missing why this should have won an Oscar for best screenplay, please show me...

Each November, an election campaign commences that rivals, at least in Hollywood, the passions and sometimes the excesses of the quadrennial race for the nation's presidency.

It's the race for an Academy Award nomination.

These days, because of the Academy's successful efforts over the years to eliminate splashy gimmicks and gifts, the race consists principally of attempts by studios, independent distributors and publicists to make sure that each of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 5,816 voting members sees their film.

It means special screenings for Academy members, free admission to commercial runs of a film and the mailing of video cassettes.

The Academy aggressively monitors Award campaigning, and has issued regulations that limit company mailings to those items that "actually assist the members in their efforts to assess the artistic and technical merits of a film," according to Academy Executive Administrator Ric Robertson. "And we seem to have had a tremendous impact in the areas we'd hoped to affect."

Nomination ballots are mailed by the Academy in January, and members will have two weeks to return their secret ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the professional services firm formerly known as Price Waterhouse.

Secrecy is strictly maintained by PricewaterhouseCoopers; the results of nomination balloting will be revealed at 5:30 a.m. during the last week of January at a press-jammed Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Final ballots will be mailed early in February and members will have two weeks to return them. After ballots are tabulated, only two partners of PricewaterhouseCoopers will know the results until the famous envelopes are opened on stage during the Awards Presentation in February.

Because the Academy numbers among its members the most gifted and skilled artists and craftsmen in the motion picture world, its Award stands alone as an indication of what top filmmakers feel are the year's top achievements.

Regular awards are presented for outstanding individual or collective efforts of the year in up to 25 categories.

Up to five nominations are made in most categories, with balloting for these nominations restricted to members of the Academy branch concerned; directors, for instance, are the only nominators for Achievement in Directing. Nominations for awards in the foreign language and documentary categories are made by large committees of members drawn from all branches. Best Picture nominations and final winners in most categories are determined by vote of the entire membership.

In addition to the regular annual awards conferred by vote of the membership, the Board of Governors is empowered to vote Scientific and Technical Awards, Honorary Awards, Special Achievement Awards and other special honors. Chief among these is the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, a bronze bust of Thalberg, which is given to "a creative producer who has been responsible for a consistently high quality of motion picture pro-duction." It is considered the highest accolade a producer can receive.

The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an Oscar statuette, is given to "an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry." The Gordon E. Sawyer Award, also an Oscar statuette, is given to "an individual in the motion picture industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry." The Thalberg, Hersholt and Sawyer Awards are not necessarily given annually; each is awarded only when, in the opinion of the Board of Governors, there is a thoroughly deserving recipient.

The Scientific and Technical Awards are made by the Board of Governors acting upon recommendations from a committee consisting of some of the world's most eminent cinema scientists and technicians, to recognize outstanding innovations in filmmaking equipment and tech-nique. These innovations must prove themselves over time, not in con-nection with one particular motion picture.

Honorary Awards may be given for outstanding achievements not otherwise recognized within the category structure of the Academy Awards. They may be given for exceptional distinction in the making of motion pictures or for outstanding service to the Academy. They have been awarded, for example, to Walt Disney for the creation of Mickey Mouse, to Yakima Canutt for achievements as a stunt man and to director Akira Kurosawa for making movies that have inspired audiences around the world.

Special Achievement Awards, conferred by the Board of Governors, may be given for an achievement which makes an exceptional contribution to the motion picture for which it was created, but for which there is no annual award category. They've been given, for example, to Benjamin Burtt Jr. for the creation of the alien, creature and robot voices in "Star Wars" (1977) and to John Lasseter for his leadership of the Pixar team that created the first feature-length computer-animated film, "Toy Story" (1995).



SOURCE - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (http://www.oscars.org/academyawards/voting01.html)

[Neesh]

Originally posted by cstroman
I've read it and if you take the name "coppola" of the front of it and post it here or on Triggerstreet, the thing would be flamed to high heaven.

Maybe I'm missing something, but some of the worst most amateurish things you can do in writing a screenplay are all over it (internalizing, writing unfilmables, and on the nose written comedy, complete mis-use of "cut to", etc.).


First of all, that was a great movie. But about your points regarding errors and such... that just goes to show you that there really are no RULES when writing screenplays (guidelines, sure) .... its all about the STORY anyways. If I write a great story in crayon on the back of a bunch of napkins, then yay me.
Lastly, I wouldnt use the Academy Awards as a benchmark for anything..... like Sean Penn said, "There is no 'best'".

[Duke Nukem]

Oh my gosh, this is so simple...okay, you can't always tell a good movie because of its script. It's all a matter of the delivery of that script by the actors, sets, and all that stuff. "Lost in Translation" does not have as much dialogue as most movies. The camera simply just follows, and yes, "cuts to" the characters around. It was done in an artistic fashion to show, or develop, the characters. Live with it. LiT is not your typical movie. It is very different in the way it directs itself at the characters and locations. It is is far from mainstream and goes a more original root. That's why it won best original screenplay: because the delivery of the screenplay was very effecting than most other movies, or all of the movies, that came out that year. That's your answer.

[Tweek]

Well he didn't like the script and didn't understand why it won a few awards for the WRITING.
i've never seen the movie..
so i can't say.

[cstroman]

That's why it won best original screenplay: because the delivery of the screenplay was very effecting than most other movies, or all of the movies, that came out that year. That's your answer.

Ah so yes the screenplay sucked but the movie was good, so lets rob the deserving writer who actually wrote a better screenplay and since we aren't going to give LiT the "Best Picture" award, we'll take the award from the deserving writer and give it to "LiT" instead as a "boobie prize".

Sorry, there are rules regarding how to write a screenplay. BASIC rules like "Cut To" or "Fade to" is used to cut between scenes, NOT to change camera views within the same scenes. Also you don't use multiple scene headings within the same scenes.

This does all of that.

She even admitted the screenplay was lacking (she even admits that it was only like 60+ pages so she purposely made sentences into paragraphs in action descriptions to make it longer)

Sorry, I respect your opinions with regard to the movie, but without the name "Coppola" on it, it would have never even been made.

[JCPhoenix]

cstroman - i really disagree with that. maybe it's frowned upon not to have "cut to" and "fade" but it's absolutely ridiculous to say that just because a screenplay doesn't follow the guidelines it's not worthy of recognition.

format shouldn't matter to the voters - it should be the content that counts. why would a voter nitpick over small rules like that?

that said, i do somewhat agree with you in that I found Lost in Translation to be overall quite lacking. I loved her earlier film Virgin Suicides but Lost in Translation just seemed pointless and pretentious to me even though I found the performances terrific. (Sort of like PT Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love which seemed random just for the sake of being random to me...whereas I love two of his earlier films Boogie Nights and magnolia.

[Mr. Fred Krueger]

Sorry, there are rules regarding how to write a screenplay. BASIC rules like "Cut To" or "Fade to" is used to cut between scenes, NOT to change camera views within the same scenes. Also you don't use multiple scene headings within the same scenes.

Talk about picky.

There are guidelines, my friend, and that's it. No real RULES. The screenplay was obviously good enough to get financing, and I don't think the name "Coppola" had as much to do with it as you think it did.

[Tweek]

Sophia has said that without Bill Murray she would have gotten a lot less money.

So without the name Murray it wouldn't have gotten made.