An excerpt from my script review for Being the Ricardos which will be available 12/27/21:
1.) Marketability of the Idea
This script clocked in at 193 pages (mostly due to some unusual formatting) and there’s only one reason I read it.
Aaron Sorkin.
I’m not a huge fan of the MasterClass stuff, because I feel like there’s one for anything and everything nowadays, but when there was a commercial on YouTube for one with Aaron Sorkin, that just might be worth it.
(For the record it still wasn’t enough for me to sign up.)
There’s one thing this guy does well, and that’s dialogue.
You want to study someone who knows what the fuck he’s doing in terms of dialogue in screenplays, this is your guy.
West Wing. The Newsroom. Steve Jobs. Oh fuck, Trial of the Chicago 7, which I almost forgot about.
And now, Being the Ricardos.
Should you emulate everything he does for every genre in filmmaking? Absolutely not.
I have no clue where you’re at in terms of your screenwriting career. Maybe you’ve sold something, maybe you just typed “fade out” on your very first screenplay at a local Starbucks.
Wherever you are, one thing I’ll urge you to do though is compare your dialogue to Mr. Sorkin’s.
(And yes he does deserve the respect of “mister” when we refer to him for screenwriting purposes.)
When you read, notice how you flow through it naturally.
See how he implements the notion of “what’s the most interesting way your character can convey information” often at a higher level compared to other writers.
There’s a reason he’s a bankable commodity.
As we proceed into 2022, and inevitably want to jump back into screenwriting, let’s all focus on things that work.
Being the Ricardos Box Office Reception
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