593 - The Ref with Richard LaGravenese
Scriptnotes Podcast
John August
4.8 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2023
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Writer and director Richard LaGravenese joins Craig for an in-depth analysis of his 1994 comedy classic screenplay, THE REF. Together, Craig and Richard dig into the rules of farce, making hyper-verbal characters work, and the difference between a main character and a protagonist.
We also discuss how to write compelling monologues, engineering a character’s catharsis, and why coffee really is better with cake.
In our bonus segment for premium members, Craig and Richard discuss why it’s often so hard for men to make – and keep – close friends.
Links:
- The Ref on YouTube, Amazon and IMDb
- Richard LaGravenese on IMDb
- The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry
- The Ref’s Opening Scene
- Puzzled Pint’s Code Sheet
- Levain Bakery
- Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
- Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
- Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
- Craig Mazin on Instagram
- John August on Twitter
- John on Instagram
- John on Mastodon
- Outro by Matt Davis (send us yours!)
- Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.
Email us at [email protected]
You can download the episode here.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi folks, this upcoming episode does feature some not-t language. |
| 0:04.6 | So if you are in the car with children, put the ear muffs on or wait to play this when you're at home. |
| 0:11.5 | Hello, my name is Craig Mason. |
| 0:14.9 | And this is ScriptNuts, a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. |
| 0:20.4 | This is the 590 third episode of ScriptNuts, which is upsetting. |
| 0:26.6 | John is not with me today, also upsetting, but to counteract that today in the show, we have one of the best screenwriters, |
| 0:33.7 | simply of all time. |
| 0:35.4 | And also one of the nicest people in Hollywood, which I agree is a low bar if that's what you were thinking, |
| 0:40.5 | but he would be a nice guy pretty much anywhere. |
| 0:43.2 | We welcome Richard aka Richie as I call him Richard Lagrovaneis. |
| 0:47.6 | Welcome to ScriptNuts. |
| 0:49.7 | Thank you Craig. |
| 0:50.5 | This is great. |
| 0:52.2 | It's good to see you too. |
| 0:53.2 | We are looking at each other over Zoom, Richie and I have known each other for many, many years. |
| 0:57.5 | I have been a fan of his for many more years than I've known him. |
| 1:01.6 | I'm going to run down a short list of some of the movies that he's written so that you can go ahead and drop your jaw like I do when I look at it all together like this. |
| 1:10.7 | The Fisher King, the Bridges of Madison County, the Mirror has two faces, the Horse Whisperer, beloved behind the candle, Laura. |
| 1:19.6 | These are all like remarkable, highly acclaimed films. |
| 1:25.1 | And yet we're not going to be talking about any of those today. |
| 1:29.7 | Or are we going to be talking about the seven other movies that Richie has directed. |
| 1:32.7 | What we are going to be talking about today is one of my favorite movies of all time. |
... |
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