Viewing with a purpose

Scriptless

Hi, I'm trying to find films specifically by directors who sometimes shoot without using conventional scripts like Hong Sang-soo, who I've read likes to shoot from a detailed treatment.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul's films (I think) and some of Wong Kar-Wai's stuff are also examples of the types of films I'm looking for.

Any suggestions would be extremely helpful. Thanks.

Re:Scriptless

tokyorama:

Hi, I'm trying to find films specifically by directors who sometimes shoot without using conventional scripts like Hong Sang-soo, who I've read likes to shoot from a detailed treatment.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul's films (I think) and some of Wong Kar-Wai's stuff are also examples of the types of films I'm looking for.

Any suggestions would be extremely helpful. Thanks.

Would you include mostly improvised comedies?  I think most of Christopher Guest's films probably have some kind of basic scenarios laid out ahead of time, but most of the action and dialogue are improvised I believe.

Re:Scriptless

tokyorama:

Hi, I'm trying to find films specifically by directors who sometimes shoot without using conventional scripts like Hong Sang-soo, who I've read likes to shoot from a detailed treatment.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul's films (I think) and some of Wong Kar-Wai's stuff are also examples of the types of films I'm looking for.

Any suggestions would be extremely helpful. Thanks.

Much of John Cassavetes' ouvre is highly improvised. I think he started films with a rough shooting script, but he insisted on his talented casts producing a more natural dialogue. Opening Night  and Faces are just two of the more blatant examples of this that I can think of.  

Re:Scriptless

Jymkata:

Much of John Cassavetes' ouvre is highly improvised. I think he started films with a rough shooting script, but he insisted on his talented casts producing a more natural dialogue. Opening Night  and Faces are just two of the more blatant examples of this that I can think of.  

Oh yeah I don't know how I forgot about him.

The same may be true of a few of Robert Altman's movies or certain portions of some of his movies.  Although probably not to the extent of Cassavetes.

Re:Scriptless

Dallas Observer: Since your films are assembled from a collection of notes, are you surprised by the way they come together at the end? Or are you so aware of it as you're putting it together that when it's done, you go, "Oh, this is what I always intended anyway?"

Jim Jarmusch: "Well, I build into the whole process a kind of intuitive acceptance of its own organic nature, whereas most directors will get a script written by someone else, and then they start rehearsing that script, which has been OK'd by the executive producers or whatever. They're basically following that map pretty carefully. And what I do is, my script is only a blueprint: It shows the shape of the house, but it doesn't tell you what the interior colors look like or where the furniture goes or even where all the windows might be. So I do have a structure that I'm trying to build to the plan. But I'm also -- and I'm trying to learn this more and more -- I'm very open to things that might change. Like I've never used a storyboard, because I like to be thinking on my feet...I try to be open to things, changing and adapting, and this goes through all the way to the end of the editing process."

Re:Scriptless

Thanks. These are all great suggestions. Cassavetes is especially helpful .

I should have specified too that I'm hunting for films that not only use improvised dialog but might also have improvised structures, films that are more concerned with tone or character than necessarily clinging to a three act structure.

When I first started trying to put a group  of "scriptless" movies  together Claire Denis came to mind because her films seem to have a very lyrical style. I read though that she does shoot using  scripts.

I guess it's tough to say exactly what counts and what doesn't since it can be difficult to to tell what was improvised and what seems like it was improvised without having specific knowledge about the the conditions under which a particular film was made.

anyway, thanks again for the help.

Re:Scriptless

tokyorama:

I should have specified too that I'm hunting for films that not only use improvised dialog but might also have improvised structures, films that are more concerned with tone or character than necessarily clinging to a three act structure.

Improvising the structure is so uncommon in narrative film it's really hard for me to think of anyone.  I'll be interested to check out those filmmakers you mentioned earlier.  Any suggestions on where to start?

Re:Scriptless

I'm completely clueless about this genre although I remember seeing Wong Kar-Wai's name whilst adding the Toronto International Film Festival's list of films to our database, and his Ashes of Time: Redux was in there.

My first question would be, is this type of film placed in a specific genre? And what is the name of this genre? Otherwise is there a group of directors who specialize this sort of filmmaking other than the few who have been mentioned?

I really enjoy improv, such as whose line is it anyway, and I saw this group called Mission: Improvable once (Risselada might know them) who I really enjoyed. The dynamic and original art that springs from such activities can be very fun, and probably very moving. It can also suck pretty bad as well. I imagine there are a lot of takes for each scene.

It would be great to compile some lists that are titled by the director's name of films that fall in this "scriptless" film genre.

Re:Scriptless

rjsprague:

and I saw this group called Mission: Improvable once (Risselada might know them) who I really enjoyed.

Yes, I have heard of them, but have never seen them.  I'm pretty sure they are based out of Chicago like so much improv, but I think they mostly tour around.  From what I've heard they are pretty profitable.  I'm not sure if they do short form or long form, but for some reason my impression was that they do mostly short form.

Re:Scriptless

tokyorama:

Thanks. These are all great suggestions. Cassavetes is especially helpful .

I should have specified too that I'm hunting for films that not only use improvised dialog but might also have improvised structures, films that are more concerned with tone or character than necessarily clinging to a three act structure.

I think that Akira Kurosawa's Dreams may fall into this category, but I'm not positive. I know that instead of storyboarding the movie, he created a painting for each story and worked off of that. I'm not sure if he had an actual script or not. Supposedly each of the movie's segments were based off of what he could remember from different dreams.