The other day there was a post mentioning the bass Mark Ruffalo used in the movie "Begin Again." I love that movie, but I always question why it was edited the way it was, jumping back and forth in time. This evening it happened to be on cable, so I watched the copy I have in my library. I then decided that I'm going to re-cut it in chronological order and see how it plays.
Before I retired, I was in show business in Hollywood from 1970 to 2002, from TV usher to production assistant to union set dresser and assistant prop master. Also, in the mid 1980s after working on "Witness" and encouraged by the director Peter Weir, I took three years of screenwriting classes at the Hollywood branch of the American Film Institute, learning how scripts are put together, which made me realize why I liked certain movies and not others.
I was also a photographer in between production jobs, and now the staff photographer for the Los Angeles Lawyers Philharmonic. With that, I dabble in videography as well, editing on my MacStudio and Final Cut Pro.
I did the re-cut this evening and was pleasantly surprised how well "Begin Again" worked in chronological order. A good screenplay hits milestones at specific times, at 30 minutes, the end of the first act, an event happens that moves the story. At 60 minutes, in the middle of the second act, the two main characters have an emotional encounter. At 90 minutes, the start of the third act, an event that moves the story to it's conclusion. In chronological order,"Begin Again" hits all those milestones perfectly.
The first change I made was in act one, meeting Mark Ruffalo first and his dilemma, intercut with Keira Knightly and Adam Levine coming to New York, and her meeting old friend James Cordon. Then to Keira realizing Adam cheated and left him, to James Cordon taking her in, then getting her up in a bar to sing an open mic where a half drunk Mark Ruffalo is intrigued by her and fantasizes the instruments behind her playing an arrangement. The end of act one is him offering to sign her.
The other change was re-doing the order of getting the musicians and rehearsing. After the Jaguar recording studio scene, Mark introduces the violin and cello siblings, then goes to the pianist, then cut to just them rehearsing, then going to Cee Lo Green, getting a bass player and drummer, then cut to all of them rehearsing.
I honestly don't understand why they put it out of order, I don't see that it did anything useful to the telling the story.
Before I retired, I was in show business in Hollywood from 1970 to 2002, from TV usher to production assistant to union set dresser and assistant prop master. Also, in the mid 1980s after working on "Witness" and encouraged by the director Peter Weir, I took three years of screenwriting classes at the Hollywood branch of the American Film Institute, learning how scripts are put together, which made me realize why I liked certain movies and not others.
I was also a photographer in between production jobs, and now the staff photographer for the Los Angeles Lawyers Philharmonic. With that, I dabble in videography as well, editing on my MacStudio and Final Cut Pro.
I did the re-cut this evening and was pleasantly surprised how well "Begin Again" worked in chronological order. A good screenplay hits milestones at specific times, at 30 minutes, the end of the first act, an event happens that moves the story. At 60 minutes, in the middle of the second act, the two main characters have an emotional encounter. At 90 minutes, the start of the third act, an event that moves the story to it's conclusion. In chronological order,"Begin Again" hits all those milestones perfectly.
The first change I made was in act one, meeting Mark Ruffalo first and his dilemma, intercut with Keira Knightly and Adam Levine coming to New York, and her meeting old friend James Cordon. Then to Keira realizing Adam cheated and left him, to James Cordon taking her in, then getting her up in a bar to sing an open mic where a half drunk Mark Ruffalo is intrigued by her and fantasizes the instruments behind her playing an arrangement. The end of act one is him offering to sign her.
The other change was re-doing the order of getting the musicians and rehearsing. After the Jaguar recording studio scene, Mark introduces the violin and cello siblings, then goes to the pianist, then cut to just them rehearsing, then going to Cee Lo Green, getting a bass player and drummer, then cut to all of them rehearsing.
I honestly don't understand why they put it out of order, I don't see that it did anything useful to the telling the story.
Last edited:
