What can we learn from Sofia Coppola's on-the-page skills over her career?

Following the success of the Tips from Tarantino episode, we have again decided to look at three different scripts from over the course of a long screenwriting career from a single writer to see what we can learn. Our beloved patreons not only selected Sofia Coppola as said writer, but also selected the scripts to analyse: LOST IN TRANSLATION, THE BLING RING and THE BEGUILED.

Stu and Chas are joined by repeat Draft Zero offender Melanie Killingsworth and are surprised to find that Coppola does not often write the tone or experience of her films into her scripts (given how specific her tone is and how unique the experiences of her films are). Instead, we are treated to a masterclass in writing character performance on the page - actor catnip, if you will - as well as Coppola's insightful use of white space.

You can also watch the complete live stream on YouTube.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND.

Audio quotations used for educational purposes only. Timestamps indicated below. Chapter markers included in the mp3.

Thanks to Chris Walker for editing this episode, and to Carissa Lee for reading the script excerpts.

RUNNING ORDER

00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:12 - Sofia Coppola & Writing to Direct
00:13:49 - Lost in Translation
00:54:07 - The Bling Ring
01:18:24 - The Beguiled
01:34:53 - Wrap Up & Key Learnings
01:45:28 - Backmatter: Cultural Portray in Lost in Translation

EPISODE LINKS

FOLLOW: Melanie Killingsworth – @mehlsbells on twitter
WATCH: Lost In Translation
READ: http://dailyscript.com/scripts/lost_in_translation.pdf
WATCH: The Bling Ring
READ: https://raindance.org/scripts/The%20Bling%20Ring.pdf
WATCH: The Beguiled
READ: https://www.scriptslug.com/assets/uploads/scripts/the-beguiled-2017.pdf
READ: DZ-76 Sofia Coppola Collated Scripts
READ: Hit film gets lost in racism row
READ: Latent racism 'Lost in Translation'

RELATED EPISODES

DZ-13: True that - Tips from Tarantino
DZ-60: Unfilmables 1 - Engaging imagination
DZ-16: Masters of Whitespace

This episode brought to you by ScriptUp - https://www.scriptupstudio.com - use promo code DZ10 to get 10% off.

Many thanks to all our patrons but particularly to Randy, Bjorn, Jack, Khrob, and Sandra. They're good humans.

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DZ-76: Spotlight on Sofia Coppola

Draft Zero: a screenwriting podcast