FLMC 2335 / Screenwriting

Fall ‘18
​Class 6: Thursday​ 9/13/18

“The Innovative MOONLIGHT”

Tully Notes

ACT ONE: “Little (12/13)”

- pg. 1 “kind of day where phosphorous fumes wave above the asphalt.”
- pg. 1/2 Barry first introduces the crackhead without caps in different forms (zombie,
haggard looking man) before getting to his real name: AZU.
- pg. 3 Sounds — “SOUND of footsteps,” “POUNDING.”
- pg. 5 “OMITTED” - This is when you cut a scene during pre-production but you don’t
want to renumber the entire script in order to maintain consistency between
departments.
- pg. 6 “And on the stereo, the same song bridged from the previous scene, something
old school but slowed (like Al Green’s ​Let’s Stay Together)​ chopped and screwed.”
Reminder: BJ knew he was directing this! But notice how he didn’t definitively say it had
to be the Al Green song; he was just helping readers to catch the vibe. (I do want to
compare this written scene to the finished film!)
- pg. 7 A good example of when to use “INT/EXT.” (even though the car’s outside, if
characters are in it and you want the reader to be inside it as well, it’s INT.)
- pg. 8/9 Does Juan watch Little sleep/does he sleepover in finished film???
- pg. 10
“Paula looking past her son, past this man, thoughts drifting off. From the looks of her,
just a hardworking single mother in over her head.
Juan’s gaze lingering over her, clearly seeing the same and yet... just a bit more.”
- pg. 12 All around great writing.
- pg. 13 Again, BJ takes the approach of waiting until we know that this is Kevin before
officially introducing him as KEVIN.
- pg. 15 WATCH THIS SCENE FOR SURE:
“This is anthropology, anatomical vignettes, the struggle of these two boys isolated to
the simple, incomplete movements of partially glimpsed bodies.
These are children. Sexuality is absent these images and yet, the hints of something
sensual, fleeting in its appearances; Kevin's cheek wedged close to Little's neck, blades
of grass sticking to their skin.”
- pg. 15 “Kevin, looking back at Little, looking down at him lying there, Little fully
returning his gaze, these fourteen pages the first time he’s looked at anyone thus.”
- pg. 16 “It’s movie magic…”
- pg. 17/18 Swimming scene. I know that they were running out of time when they had
to shoot this scene so pretty sure they decided to capture what was most
important—the visual gestures of Juan letting go and letting Little swim.
- pg. 20 ‘In moonlight,’ she say, ‘black boys look blue.’
- pg. 21 New character, I would definitely either give this character a name or
UNFAMILIAR MAN or something.
- pg. 24 Kevin looking while Little has exposed himself—I don’t recall this happening in
finished film—maybe BJ felt like he was telegraphing things too much here! As opposed
to the first wrestling scene in the grass, which really rode the line perfectly.
- pg. 24 BJ used a detail from his own life here—heating water on the stove to use in
the bath—a shining example of “personal” but not “autobiographical”
- pg. 31 - pretty sure the Little/Paula scene after her showdown with Juan employs the
staring-into-camera technique.
- pg. 31 “What’s a faggot?” scene transitions from sobering gravity to humor with the
“Not unless…” and “Juan looking to Teresa; Teresa motioning him to quit while he's
ahead.” This entire scene reads as powerfully on the page as it plays in the finished
film.
ACT TWO: “Chiron” (16)
- pg. 42 “I ain’t seen her since the funeral.” First official clue that Juan hadn’t simply split
but is dead.
- pg. 45 My memory is that Terrell doesn’t bring up AIDS when mocking Chiron in class.
- pg. 52 “These are waters they’ve never charted, the culmination of invitations they’ve
been sending since day one.”
- pg. 55 Chiron getting home; Paula buggin’ out - How did they express this visually?
- pg. 57/58 Description of school is quite illuminating but BJ is definitely telling and not
showing here (contrast it with the scene in finished film)
- pg. 60 in script Principal Williams is male; in movie female.
- pg. 61 - Is scene 62 (Chiron/Paula w/ water in kitchen after he submerges his face in
water) in the finished film? I don’t think so, and it makes more sense to lose it and
simply go from the submerging to the beat down scene.
ACT THREE: “Black” (late-20s)
- pg. 64 - “faucet running in the sink” - more water
- pg. 80 “Black scanning this room, his view of the place a clue for us: this is definitely
the same diner we saw Kevin working in during the earlier phone call.”
- pg. 81 “As he approaches, he looks right at Black, ​right at us…​”
- pg. 83 I don’t recall the girl customers playing as large a role in finished film (their
leaving is only emphasized by the sound of the door and the realization that Kevin and
Black are closer to being alone).
- pg. 98 Ending - In script Little heads out into ocean...
This script, and the final film, plays almost as much like classical music piece as it does
a work of narrative cinema:
TOUCH: in Act I, it’s an “innocent” physical connection (wrestling kids); in Act II,
its erotic, explosive; in Act III, it’s a meal cooked and a head on a shoulder.
WATER: Act I: Little boiling water to make a bath; Act II: Chiron soaking his
beaten-up face in ice. Act III: Submerging himself again, this time presumably to cool
off.