hi I'm Michael this is lessons from the
screenplay pure thoughtful
science-fiction is never just about
aliens or other worlds or exciting
visions of the future
at its core hard sci-fi is about
humanity our hopes and fears principles
and behaviors the short story by Ted
Chang story of your life is a great
example of exactly this kind of science
fiction but in order to bring its
essence into the cinematic realm
screenwriter Eric Heiser had make
several changes to the original story
and even Men director Denny Villeneuve
and editor Joe Walker had to further
tweak the narrative to bring it to life
so today I want to look at the changes
made during the adaptation of the short
story to examine how experimentation in
the editing process inspired some
creative ways to solve common problems
and see how a story about characters
trying to understand an alien species
was designed to let us further
understand ourselves let's take a look
at a rival story of your life by Ted
Chang was published in November of 1998
it's a moving mixture of discussions
about science and determinism and the
love and loss of a child but there were
three key elements that needed to be
altered for the story to work as a
screenplay the first I want to talk
about is perspective the short story is
narrated by Louise on the night her
child is conceived she alternates
between memories of her past with the
aliens and memories of her future with
her daughter in order to create a more
conventional character arc for the
protagonist screenwriter Eric Heiser
decided to reframe the story rather than
being told by Louise who can already
look both backward and forward at her
life arrival follows Louise as she
discovers the gift of the alien language
instead of having the flash-forwards
being constant throughout the story
they're introduced at the beginning and
then sprinkled throughout the rest of
the film as Louise learns more of the
alien language doing this brings the
audience further into Louise's
perspective when she begins seeing
flashes of her and her daughter we
perceive them as memories just as she
does and it's not until she learns that
these are visions of the future that we
understand this as well choosing this
perspective for the film ensures a
steady flow of reveals for both Louise
and the audience
the second alteration made to the short
story has to do with conflict and
tension in the short story the aliens
never actually land on Earth instead
they send down 112 looking glasses which
acted as two-way communication devices
presumably with the ships in orbit this
would not make for very compelling
scenes as Erich has ever said I can't
haven't been a year in a room skyping
with some some aliens this is not a it's
not a film and the first major change
that I pitched to him and that we
brought to it was they show up at our
door I'd like to take a moment to give a
shout out to the QA with jeff goldsmith
it's a fantastic podcast where you
interview screenwriters and this audio
is from one of his interviews the link
is in the description below you should
definitely check it out anyway
changing the short story so that the
aliens actually come down to the planet
and the characters can interact with
them face to face had a huge impact on
the inherent tension of the story
suddenly there's an immediate threat why
are they here are they dangerous
despite the interactions with the aliens
ultimately being safe their mere
presence motivates most of the conflict
in the film there is public hysteria a
few soldiers attempt to destroy the ship
and world leaders treat the arrival as
an act of aggression having the aliens
land on earth created the tension and
conflict necessary to sustain a feature
film the last alteration I want to
discuss involves the manner in which
Hanna
Louise's daughter dies in the short
story Hanna dies at the age of 25 and a
rock-climbing accident but in the
screenplay
Hanna dies from an incurable disease and
at a much younger age during her
adolescence so why make these changes
the first reason has to do with film
being a visual medium part of it was we
needed to make sure the child didn't get
old enough that we'd have to age up the
actress playing Louise because that gave
away they gave away everything if it was
obvious from the beginning that the
flashbacks were actually flash forwards
then there would be no reveal at the end
of the film the second reason has to do
with making sure the protagonists
choices matter in the short story
Louise's character arc is to realize
that the universe is deterministic and
she must learn to embrace the inevitable
and I was a bit rebellious about that
I'm like I don't like that and I said I
think it's more profound for me if she
has a choice if she has free will and
can change her future and yet she
chooses to have him Louise has to be
able to change the future in order for
her to choose to have Hanna and for this
choice to have meaning Hanna can't die
from something preventable like a
rock-climbing accident because Louise
would just stop her from rock-climbing
so by changing the story so that Hanna
dies from a disease Louise's character
is able to choose the love of her child
knowing full well the loss that will
come as a result of it all of these
alterations made during the adaptation
process highlight the importance of
screenwriting basics being engaged in
the protagonists journey of discovery
the need for immediate conflict
intention and emotional impact through
choice but in the case of arrival the
writing process didn't stop with the
screenplay
there are many key differences between
the script and the final film as Eric
Heisler says you know the third version
of the movie is always found
editing the editing process for arrival
lasted for six months and reading the
screenplay it's obvious that many scenes
are missing or were condensed or we're
tweaked to create the final film
for example halfway through the film
there's a three minute montage that is
strictly focused on telling the audience
information about the aliens here are
some of the many things we don't know
about him taught in the screenplay
however all this information is spread
out across several themes and various
story threads there's a scene in which
they learn how the hepta pods think and
write this scene was removed from the
film and the information added as
voiceover and the montage their written
language has no forward or backward
direction linguist Calder's non-linear
orthography in the script louise uses an
analogy to explain this to colonel weber
but in the film this becomes another
voiceover line imagine you wanted to
write a sentence using two hands
starting from either side you would have
to know each word you want to use as
well as how much space that it would
occupy and a scene was removed where and
draws a picture of the aliens and names
them again this dialogue was transferred
to the montage narration Greek up to
seventh odd foods seven seed deployed
this shows that sometimes it's better to
get all the exposition out at once if
it's otherwise holding back your story
another example of creative editing
falls into the category of a happy
accident in the screenplay there is a
story thread that involves Colonel lever
worrying about Louise's mental state it
gets to the point where he temporarily
takes her off the project
and assigns Ian to take over this
sequence was removed from the final film
again for pacing reasons but as the
editor explains we took it out and then
we realize as an essential piece of
information in there concerning the
sapir-whorf theory this is the theory
which posits that learning a different
language rewires how your brain thinks
which is critical information for
understanding what is happening to
Louise so rather than remove the scene
they started experimenting with ways of
aggressively trimming and in doing so
stumbled onto an interest
jump cat we just flashed together some
sections of it and for example the first
cut was for me into here in a really
ugly jump card I mean something so
overtly wrong his head is down said his
up and he's talking and then suddenly
that gave us an idea that we could tell
the same a different way they altered
the scene to be about the psychological
toll the job is having on Luiz by
turning it into a dream the lines
involving her being taken off the
project who were removed and a new
ending was created with a surprising
reveal sure is are you dreaming in your
language rather than her response being
directed at Colonel Weber how do you do
I don't they used visual effects to
replace him with a heavy pot I think
that that makes me unfit to do this job
I think this shows the importance of
experimentation of not being afraid to
shuffle your scenes around just to see
what ideas come from the quote unquote
wrong way to do something
all in all a lot of the script for
arrival was cut altered or rearranged to
create the final film and this was done
to keep the focus on Louise and her
characters during this is important
because it's largely through her and her
struggles that the film explores what it
means to be human one of the things that
I love about science fiction when it's
done well is that it's an introspective
genre as Ted Chang writer of a short
story says to me science fiction is not
about special effects or diet battles
between the forces of good and evil
science fiction is about using
speculative scenarios as a lens to
examine the human condition so how does
a rival accomplish this how does it
become a lens through which to examine
the human condition one way is through
the design of its scenario the very
premise of the film involves scientists
studying why an alien species is the way
it is and by asking the question how and
why do have two pods think nonlinearly
the film is implicitly asking how and
why do humans think linearly
by having the hepta pod written language
BC Messiah graphic it conveys meaning it
doesn't represent sound it begs the
question how come our written language
does represent sound when we study and
other in an open objective way we're
simultaneously studying ourselves a
rival also examines humanity through the
motivations of the protagonists and
antagonists Louise's expertise and
linguistics has taught her the
importance of patience trust and
communication and every choice she makes
is in pursuit of these values but every
conflict she encounters is a
manifestation of impatient kind of juju
hada speak been read that got to take
longer or fear of these people most of
them don't even have guns or silence
gotta go down on radio silence do it we
received a message from the heck damnit
we need to be talking to each other I
want to talk to them find out what it
means and the justifications made by the
antagonists are all referencing human
behavior we have to consider the idea
that our visitors are prodding us to
fight among ourselves until only one
fraction prevails
there's no evidences sure there is just
grab a history book they're afraid of
the aliens because I know what humanity
is capable of the hepta pods make no
acts of aggression whatsoever all the
conflict comes from us examining how a
rival was adapted from book to screen
reveals a lot about the medium of film
it exposes the elements of storytelling
we expect when we sit down to watch a
movie and it demonstrates how a story
that on the surface is about trying to
communicate with an alien species can
actually be about how we communicate
with each other as shown by humanity's
various reactions to their arrival
hey guys Michael here hope you enjoyed
the video I know a lot of you have been
asking for arrival and it was one of my
favorite films of last year's so I was
more than happy to do this one this
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