Few filmmakers explore the American psyche with the same ferocious empathy as Paul Thomas Anderson. His movies always contain a cast of dreamers, hustlers, lost souls, and would-be prophets, all navigating the vast landscapes of California and beyond.Today, I wanted to take a look at his screenplays and pick apart what we can learn from them. As always, these are for educational and research purposes only.Let's dive in. Lessons From PTA's Writing In a PTA screenplay, the plot doesn't happen to the characters; the plot is the characters. He builds his stories from the inside out, starting with deeply flawed individuals defined by their powerful, often contradictory, needs. From there, you can see him build out the world and introduce people to push our heroes ot their brink, and put them in situations where their flaws come out alongside their strengths, as they try to reconcile them both. Reading these screenplays and seeing how he makes this work on paper is an invaluable lesson. They are ones I keep going back to to see how he shows emotion and development on screen and what draws actors to be part of his films. Paul Thomas Anderson Screenplays Hard Eight (1996)Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson – Read the screenplay!Boogie Nights (1997)Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson – Read the screenplay!Magnolia (1999)Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson – Read the screenplay!Punch-Drunk Love (2002)Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson – Read the screenplay!There Will Be Blood (2007)Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson – Read the screenplay!The Master (2012)Screenplay...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday