Recently I read an article on how Martin Scorsese tapped into the deep and painful subtext of Paul Schrader's screenplay for TAXI DRIVER and conveyed that subtext to the screen. The article focused on only once short scene (and really just one shot) but that is more than enough to understand the idea of how subtext can be pulled from a screenplay and put on the screen to powerful effect. I thought it worth sharing.
The article: https://scriptmag.com/features/from-script-to-screen-shooting-the-subtex...
The scene: https://youtu.be/d9iLQ7g_jDk?feature=shared
I could just as easily posted this in the screenwriting lounge but I felt it's more about the filmmaker translating the screenplay to screen, though screenwriters should always be writing with subtext in mind.
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Tucker Teague hi Tucker, this is a great share. Do you think subtext is what reveals itself after we’ve finished writing, or perhaps in conversation with a director? Or is it something you plan before you put pen to paper or finger to keyboard? For some seem to believe in a kind of mystical power that reveals itself and the subtext to us before we write!
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Geoff Hall when the script says: "Travis holds the receiver in his hand. The other party has hung up." I think that's loaded with subtext. I am not sure, however, that most writers are always thinking specifically about text/subtext. I think it mostly comes intuitively. In this case, Schrader shifts from Travis speaking to a visual that says so much. Scorsese picks up on this and takes it even further. In that sense, the writer and director together create the fullness of the subtext that we have in the film. However, I do think writers can "plan" subtext by taking the main problem of the protagonist and pushing it through a metaphor (to basically quote Schrader). And really, what one is doing there is, in the end, trusting the audience to supply much of the richness of the subtext.
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My directing “subtext moment.” I’ve written and directed 20+ shorts. I’ve found many times that after a few takes it hits me and I tell the actor, “This time don’t say the line….just think it.” What I wrote was really the subtext of the moment but written as dialogue. On set with a good actor it becomes clear.
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Jim McQuaid that makes a lot of sense. I think good directors often get the idea from the text and then translate it into images, removing the text in a sense. And audiences love the feelings of filling it in and figuring it out.
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Very cool! Thanks for sharing Tucker Teague!
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@Jim Yes good actors on set or I find even table reads serve up answers whether to use dialogue or subtext. A facial expression too can be priceless.
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Tucker Teague yes, indeed Tucker. After 100 years of cinema, the audience has all the tools it needs to read not just body language, but cinematic language. It gets the cues!
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Thanks Tucker Teague - Subtext or lack of subtext is notes I've gotten from script readers. It's still a head scratcher for me as to what needs to be written vs what it becomes when shooting.
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Xochi Blymyer I would think that a writer could, at least, work subtext into a screenplay at the level of metaphor. For example, to use TAXI DRIVER, the big metaphor is the yellow cab coursing through the streets at night represents in some way the loneliness of Travis Bickle. In that way the writer doesn't have to say Travis is a lonely, isolated individual in the midst of a bustling city. Rather the taxi does that and it's associated with Travis. At the smaller level a writer could trying to find ways to use less wordy exposition or descriptions of emotion and convey that info via a visual of some action. But I also think a lot of it falls on the director in the translation from page to screen.
Apologies for my long-winded response. I'm just thinking out loud.
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No, I love that response Tucker Teague . I like the yellow taxi example. Although I also agree, maybe cause all my years on set, that between the director and cast, they translate more than is on the page. Thanks for the conversation.
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Here's a little moment about subtext from one of my favorite films, BARCELONA (1994): https://youtu.be/kIbg7oiXECE?si=_ZdHTyAtsoLQ1ni2
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Thanks for sharing, Tucker Teague. It's incredible how Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro were able to stretch that short scene into the filmed scene.
The article says, "what is the subtext of the scene, and then, how do I go about shooting it?" That's a great idea for directors! And screenwriters and actors!
Something I've noticed by writing scripts, reading scripts, and watching movies is subtext isn't just in dialogue. Subtext can be in props, shots, colors, etc. Symbolism. Like the article says, "And Scorsese puts us there. He is filming the subtext of the scene... In a perfectly conceived film, every shot should be a metaphor that conveys the subtext of the written scene."