Working as a Script Writer

SPOTLIGHT

By:Alicia Rivera, Sara Barro,Adrián Montaño and Gabriela Rey.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

3

SUMMARY

3

FILM ANALYSIS

4

ANALYSIS OF THE CHARACTERS

8

Sacha Pfeiffer

8

Marty Baron

9

Michael Rezendes

11

Walter Robinson

11

POSTER

12

TRAILER

13

CONVERSATION

13

CONCLUSION

15

BIBLIOGRAPHY

16

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INTRODUCTION This project is about analyzing a film and working as a scriptwriter. This project has two parts. The first part consists in an individual analysis of the movie that we have chosen previously.

In this part, we wrote about the sinopsis, techniques that are in the movie (the light, music,setting‌) and finally, each one had to go in depth in a specific character.

In the second part, we had to analyze the poster, trailer and to write a short conversation

among the characters, finally we will have to represent this

conversation.

We are doing this project during the third term in the English class. This project is useful, because we learn how to understand in more detail the movie and learn how the role of every character is played in the development of the story.

SUMMARY This movie starts when in 2002 in Boston, a new boss came to the Boston Globe .

When he arrived at the new office, he drew his attention to the Spotlight team.

At

first

they

were

working around a new article about the police, but some reporters were not totally committed.

So, when Marty (the new boss) proposed to demand the church (to open some documents, about a case of sexual abuse by one priest, that the church had concealed he thought that Spotlight had to write about that.

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Then, when Spotlight started the investigation, they discovered the black side of the church.

FILM ANALYSIS Every day in the news, we hear about sexual abuses to children by the church.

But we didn't realize the importance of the problem, until a few people of Boston Globe decided that they needed to demonstrate people how children are suffering and they wanted to encourage people to talk, because everybody knew some things about the problem but decided to be quiet and look the other way, maybe they did it because they were scared or maybe because they won something with this activity.

These few reporters of Boston Globe (Spotlight Team) won a Pulitzer and they were lauded by everyone, but with the price passage of time some people forgot the problem and new generations appeared and those generations didn't know anything about Spotlight.

So,Thomas McCarthy and Josh Singer decided to make it more visible with a film and they finished, in 2013, the script of this movie.

Thomas explained that his intention was to demonstrate the power of journalism, not to attack the church, but nobody wanted to produced it, because they didn't want to expose the church in a movie.

Finally they could

start the

filming of the movie with all the cast and the director, all the real Spotlight team and the boss of the Boston Globe were involved, actually there are some photos in which the actors posed with the real people that were represented in the movie.

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The director was Thomas Joseph McCarthy, for the cast they chose movie stars like Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, etc. for major characters.

The film was first released in 2015 and it was lauded by most of the critics, they thought that the writers had expressed the idea with respect and they didn't talk only about the catholic church because they talked a lot about the power of journalism, like for example the critics in FilmAffinity by Luis MartĂ­nez (El Mundo) or A. O. Scott (The New York Times) . But not all the critics were good, some newspapers thought that the film was a little slowly, for example the critic in FilmAffinity by Quim Casas (El PeriĂłdico) .

In fact the movie won two prices (like the real story), one Oscar for the best movie and other Oscar for the best original script.

After watching this movie, we searched for other movies like this and we could find other movies about journalism, but no more talking about sexual abuses. We wish that maybe one day someone could make a film like this or even better, because it was a film that left us shocked and with our heart sank.

The theme is very marked in the setting and in the expression of the characters.

At the beginning the expression of the characters is like a normal day in a normal job, but then when they start to investigate and they discover all the things that had been hidden for years, you can really feel the pain and the anxiety in their faces, because they are seeing all the terrible things and because their job is to transmit the people the truth, but for a long time they had been taking part in the activities that the church were doing because

they

were

not

telling the people the truth.

This fact transformed the characters attitude, at first they

weren't excited but

then their job

consumes

their time.

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We think that this movie is about more social justice and not about emotions. We think this because in some way they are doing justice with all these children (most of the times boys, but they do it with girls too) of secondary neighborhoods that their childhood has destroyed because some priests have decided to abuse them.

For us, the idea that this movie treats can be applied to our normal life. The idea of not being in silence when we see some injustice and if we talk and expose what is actually happening we can destroy the bad organization that is

causing only

pain.

About the structure of this movie, it is chronologically ordered Although the theme is very clear and they talk about the same theme all the time, there's (for us) some different narrative threads.For example,the film treats the relationship between Sacha and her grandmother, because her grandmother is very loyal to

the church and Sacha

has

fight

to

against

herself

between her grandmother's faith and the reality behind the catholic church .

Other example is the fight that the boss of Spotlight has with all his friends, because they try to convince him that he has to give up the idea of the project.

In our opinion this movie has a lot of high points

where the story

changes

completely, but we think that one makes the difference. This moment is the climax and it reveals a big secret that has been hidden for a long time.

This climax (for us) is when Sacha took an important decision . We think that this moment was treated in a very intimate way and all the set and the reaction of all the characters made this scene more important and shocking.

Then the ending of the movie is really impressive because first it is an open final, but then they put a text that explains what really happened then.

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To make it even shocking and to really understand the impact of the story, after explaining how the real story was, they reveal some secrets that make the story even more shocking .

This story is not only

told from one perspective, they use all the characters’

perspective and they transmit us their individual emotions and how they are adapting themselves to the new circumstances. But, it isn't an authorial voice, so they make it more realistic and they capture the harsh reality in one film.

Even though in the film there is one main theme, we can see the characters’ own life. So, we can see how they are dealing with all the problems and the stress while they are living their lives, we can see how they

react when they discover an

important fact that affects them or their family, friends‌ Although the film exposes terrible facts about the catholic church , we think that they are only telling facts and they aren't making a way to follow because they are telling the truth, things that you can easily be found searching in Google, then you can interpret these facts and decide who commited a sin.

In this movie there isn't any humoristic scene, but we can find humor in some parts of the story. For example a journalist of Spotlight found out that some injustice was happening near his house. This revelation is important and humoristic, because the actor reacts (at the end) in a very special way and this moment fits very well at the end of the movie because it reduces, in some way, all the tension that the spectator accumulated during all the movie.

But apart from this moment, we found an irony in the movie.This irony is about the real relationship between the priest and the children that were abused by him The actors are really close to the audience and they get this effect because of their actions and reactions. For example there's one character that obtains the hate of all the audience with his actions and his secrets.

This movie takes place in 2002, in the city of Boston. When the audience starts watching the movie, they can situate the film in a very short time because

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when at the beginning of the movie they explain the year and the city in which the movie takes place.

Also, during the movie they make

different references to the city of Boston. To

situate it better they talk about The Boston Globe and they name different places of the actual city of Boston.

At first the audience could think that a children park is great near a church, but when this scene appears in the movie you see it with other eyes. The setting and all the references to the church made the spectator feel “sick” in specific moments. All the set and the references create a mood that make the spectator feel uncomfortable in some cases and this helps to the audience to set up the relationship between the church and the problem. While you are watching the movie you assume that the religion is very important in that part of USSA, you don’t assume this because they are telling it all the time, you assume this because in all the city there is religious iconography and all the characters were catholic, have or had any relationship with the catholic church or in that moment they were believers.

Other important point of this story is the music. This music only appears in specific moments, the music and silence are very important in the movie, because they mark the high points and the times of pain, for example the music makes more agile the times of investigation and searching. But the silence makes sadder the times of revelations.

The music only uses instruments and it doesn’t use a voice at any time. In some cases the music

uses violins or maybe a piano. But every time that the actors

speak, the music is very lower so the actors can speak normally.

Most of the times the actors speak normally, but when they want to make an interview to anyone they use to speak fast. Other interesting thing is that when the actors feel pain or they are angry, they express this mood with their voices. When they are angry they raise a note in

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their voices and when they feel pain their voices sound depressed.

Finally, to close the section that is only about all the movie, we think that if this movie has to be in one section (in our opinion) this section would be the drama, because in all the move you can’t see action and things like that and (of course) this isn't a humoristic movie.

​ ANALYSIS OF THE CHARACTERS Sacha Pfeiffer The character that we will describe is Sacha Pfeiffer, the only woman in the Spotlight team. When she is in the newspaper and she is investigating, the light is dark. When she is at home talking about the cases of sexual abuses, the light is dark too. When they talk about the sexual abuses, the light is always dark.

When she

is

at the office or she is

interviewing someone, she wears dark trousers

and

a

blazer.

She

isn’t

discriminated in the office. The newspaper guys

value her work and she has the

same importance as men. We learn about her thoughts when she talks with her workmates, with her actions when she goes with her grandmother to the church, etc. She expresses her ideas in a calm way, and in this form we can understand her ideas at the first time. She always knows what she wants to do. We know how her personality is when she talks with the victims and she is understanding with them. She is persistent because all the time she continuous with the investigation in spite of the difficulties. She is lovely because of the way that she treats her grandmother. Sacha’s character is represented in a realistic way, because there are a lot of people like her, who are

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worried about the justice, comprehensive, lovely...The character is presented with her words and her actions and this is important to know her personality, her thoughts‌ We can judge her, because in the movie we know facts that permit us to judge her with arguments. She is consistent because we have a lot of things to talk about her and she is believable, because the character always shows how she is and she never lies. She is sincere. We think that at the beginning she had an idea about the priests and at the end she had another idea.

Marty Baron About the character of the movie, we are going to write about the character of Marty Baron.

First, when the film starts this character doesn't appear, but the rest of characters talk about him, because he is the new boss and everybody wants to know him. The first time this character appears is in a restaurant and the director emphasises his face and he gives to the character a lot of light. When the character appears in the rest of the movie, he gets less light.

Other thing that stands out in the character is his clothes. Every time, in the movie, the character is wearing a suit or formal clothes. We think that the director decided to use this types of clothes to mark the personality of this character.

By the clothes we can assume that the style of this character is sober and elegant.

We can assume too that he doesn't use things with a lot of color or very extravagant.

This character is located in a situation of power over the rest of the characters.We can see that, at first, the rest of characters treat him with a little of fear (because he

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wants to change something on the journal and the people don't want to lose their jobs) but then when they see all the good things he wants to do all the people treat him with more affection and they don't treat him as if he was crazy.

If we analyze his actions, we can see that every time he feels safe when he does anything . Also, every time that he thinks that something is the best option, the rest of people tell him that he is wrong he fights to the end to win and to do the correct thing from his point of view.

Other thing that describes the character is that when he wants to say something, he says it without beating around the bush. He says it, even if you don’t want to listen to it, even if you had been working hard and he thinks that that moment isn't the right one to make it public, he will say that to you.

In his actions we can see that he doesn't want to be another boss, he wants to make the difference.

We can see too that other opinions don't affect him and his determination will be always the same.

He has a strong personality, even so, he knows how to control his emotions when he is talking with some priest that committed abuses or when he is in some charity events of the church All the ideas of the movie are very well expressed by the actions of this character.

He is the first that reports all these abuses and he knows all the power of journalism, because he knows that if he does it public he will have more power to destroy the priests that have committed abuse.

All these actions describe him as a patient person and as a good thinker.

For us, this character is described as a realistic character, because he acts as a normal person would do in his position. At first we can see him as if he were a little disoriented and like a fish out of water. We can see how he wants to make changes but he doesn't want to impose a job to anyone, because he wants to find a place for him in his new job. These reactions are very normal in anyone that goes to a new job or, for example, to a new school and these actions describes very well all the reality of being the “new “.

We think that the way the character is described in the movie is important in the succession of the facts inside the movie. Because without all his patience all the

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Spotlight team wouldn't discover anything, and for example if other boss was in his position he or she wouldn't choose the hard way to report all these cases, even they know that all the abuses and all the pain that the abuses are causing in children.

Sometimes, all the decision that he takes could give you a wrong description and sometimes you could even judge their decision because in some parts of the movie his ideas can be extravagant and sometimes they seem to act the wrong way. But when he explains his decision and you can see the effect, you finally see why he did what he did.

But, we think that this character is not consistent because during the movie we don't know what he is going to do next and we don't know what he is thinking about in any time of the movie.

On the other hand, we think that this character is believable because normally the people don't have a marked personality and when you are talking with someone you don't even know his or her next step. So, we think that he is believable because the people are normally mysterious and you don't really know everything about a person.

Finally, we think that the character has not change during all the movie. Maybe, he adapts to the new circumstances but nothing more. This character reminds us in some way a person that has a task (that was to keep safe all the children of Boston ) and when he finally does it he goes to other side to make the task in other place.

Michael Rezendes We are describing Mike Rezendes: This character, by his appearance, seems a responsible person with his work. In his work he is very serious and hardworking, he never has enough always wants to get more of the same.

He is usually dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and pants. ​As an accessory he ​carries a

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briefcase where he transports the material of his profession, journalist.

The director places this character more or less like the rest of his group. But this character is a tall man, strong build, not very fat or very thin and a young man of about 40 years ​old​ (more or less).

This character is deduced more by what he does than by he says in the movie.

The ideas that the character can express for his character are for example that you see that he has a difficult job because he is usually seen with a serious face, tired every time he has to do something in the film about his work.

It is represented realistically.

He is a consistent character, because in the film he doesn't stop moving.

Yes, he is believable.

The character has not changed since the beginning of his narrative as he is always dedicated to doing the same from the beginning to the end of the film.

Walter Robinson Robinson is the leader of the newspaper section, Spotlight.

He

has

his

own

office

separated from the other three reporters.

He

is

sensible,

patient, and good at his job.

Sometimes

he

may

seem

lonely.

Robby is an ​old man, who looks over 60 years old. He is thin, short, and with not much white hair. He usually dresses in a classic and formal way, always wearing a shirt.

In our opinion this is a close character who teaches us to be courageous and to know how to face different situations. Although he is a reserved person, he always let us see that he has very clear ideas.

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We think that Robby is a realistic character, because he ​reflects what a good journalist would do in this situation. He is a consistent and totally credible character.

There’s not a big change in his personality throughout the film, however, as the investigation progresses, he becomes involved in a personal way.

For us he is one of the most important characters in the film, because he is who directs all the investigation.

POSTER With this poster we know that the movie is about journalism.

We

can

know

this

in

consequence of seeing the bottom of the poster that is represented as the floor. This “floor”

is

a

part

of

a

newspaper.

The other theme that we can know

with

something church,

this

poster

related

to

the

in

the

because

is

background of the floor we can read the word “church”.

Other important point of this poster, is the man in the middle of the newspaper. This man seems to be one of the cast of the movie and he can be related to the newspaper because he is wearing a suit and a bag as he is going to the office. For this reason, we can suppose that the setting of the film is an office.

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This poster has also an important message that is “read between the lies”. With this quote we suppose that the message of the film is related to an important uncover lie related to the church.

All the poster, except the name of the film, the date of the first release and the quote, is in black and white.

The name, quote and date of the first release are in red to stand out the important elements and to focus the attention of the viewers.

The images of the cast play a crucial role in the poster, because it gives you an important information about the film.To make the viewers focus on the photos, which are the principal point of the poster, for that reason they are at the top and with a bigger size. For example the title is smaller than them.

The balance between the images and the text is unequal, because the images have more visual importance than the text.

We can intuit what the film gender is by reason of the contrast between black and white that is a usual resource in the poster of drama movies.

TRAILER This trailer exposes the principal shots of the film. First, we can see an introduction to all the lives of the journalists before they started to write about the case and how the new boss arrived to Boston. The music in these scenes is relaxed and mysterious. But, when the movie shows the scenes about the lawyers and the victims, the music is epic, fast, hard…

These scenes were selected, because the trailer creates an impact in the feelings of the people, for the reason it shows the theme of the movie. For instance, the scene of the children’s chorus of the church after one of the journalist exposed the abuses that had been committed by some priests of Boston and the Archidiocesis covered the case.

For us, the trailer isn't correct, because it shows all the important things of the movie, the plots and secrets. Although it tells a complete summary of the movie, it causes interest to see the film and to know more about the story behind. It tells the perspective -that the movie is narrated.

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CONVERSATION https://youtu.be/WPYCtQQN1is

-Garabedian: This city, these people... making the rest of us feel like we don't belong. But they're no better than us. Look at how they treat their children. Mark my words, Mr. Rezendes. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.

-Robinson: I don’t remember this city that way. For me it was always a very homely and familiar place.

-Garabedian: Maybe you had more luck than me.

-Rezendes: There’s something mysterious in your words. Are you hiding something?

-Garabedian: How can you say that? I'm sorry, but the interview is finished.

-Sacha: We are sorry, we don’t want to offend you. Calm down and we will continue.

-Garabedian: We don't have anymore to talk. Please, leave the room or I will call the security.

-Rezendes: I don’t have a good childhood.If there’s something you want to tell us and that is related to the cases of abuses, please tell us. We just want to help.

-Robinson: you don't have to be embarrassed. Here there is something you are worried about and you don't want to tell us.

-Sacha: We are here to help you and the victims that you are the defensor. We are here to do justice .

-Garabedian: I don't feel shame Mr. Robinson, I feel hate.

-Mark: We are fighting for the same. We can help you to end all the hate you feel.

-Robinson: Everything you tell us will be confidential.

-Garabedian: When I was a child, I didn’t live in the best economic situation and I received a lot of help from the church. One day, when I was visiting the priest, I had the same bad luck as these children. Nobody believed me and no one of this city protected me.

-Mark:Is that the reason why now you protect the children? To avoid your situation?

-Sacha: But what exactly happened to you?

-Garabedian: He touched me in parts that a 10 years old boy could not understand.

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He did things to me that no child should suffer. That is why I became a lawyer, so that no child had as bad luck as I had.

-Robison: Wait a minute please. Spotlight team come here please. *(All Spotlight team go out*) -Robinson: We have to publish this. We have to reveal it if we want to uncover the lies, we have to put it in the article.

-Sachs: Do you think he will allow us?

-Rezendes: We can try to convince him. The testimony of a lawyer would have more credibility. So people would take it more seriously and also if there were more victims they could know who to resort to. (*Go inside again*) -Sacha: We want to make you a suggestion. We think it will be a good idea to introduce your story in our article.

-Rezendes: We could do justice to you and to thousands of families who are devastated by the abuse of the Church.

-Robinson: We think that it will be a crucial testimony in our article. What do you think?

-Garbedian: It is the first time I tell anyone this information about my past. It has been a great effort for me. If you think this would help someone, do it.

-Sachs: Are you sure that you want to share this with the world?

-Garabedian: I want to make justice and to stop this. (*Black screen*) -Rezendes: We need to know what happened that day‌

CONCLUSION With this project, we learned how to analyze different characters and their emotions, also we discovered how to see sentiments through the actions and not only by the things they say.

When we started to analyze the poster and trailer, we found out that the elements were selected to achieve a specific function and not only to make it nicer.

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For us, the worst part was the individual work, because we usually watch different movies but we aren’t used to see the small details, so when we watched the movie it was difficult to watch it and write down the details.

However, the best part was to examine the poster by the reason of we learned in the last project how to analyse images and in this project was easier. Also, in this part we can share thoughts between us and discuss, so we could add more ideas to that part.

Finally, with the conversation that we wrote, we developed our imagination and our capacity to put ourselves in other character (discover how they think, their emotions,...)

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BIBLIOGRAPHY 20 anécdotas y secretos de rodaje de Spotlight, Sensacine, http://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-222271/secretos/​ [Accessed 26/04/2019] Críticas de Spotlight, Filmaffinity, ​https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/reviews/1/384270.html​ [Accessed 26/04/2019] Ficha Spotlight,Filmaffinity, https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film384270.html​ [Accessed 26/04/2019] Lago, Loly “Movie quotes.”Virtual Classroom, http://cort.as/-JDm2​[Accessed 4/06/2019] Lago, Loly “ Project on movies.”Virtual Classroom, http://cort.as/-JDmG​[Accessed 4/06/2019] Lago, Loly “Working as a Script Writer. Individual Work.” Virtual Classroom, http://cort.as/-JDlm​[Accessed 4/06/2019] Lago, Loly “Working as a Script Writer. Group work.”Virtual Classroom, http://cort.as/-J62Q​[Accessed 4/06/2019] Spotlight,Filmaffinity , https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/pro-reviews.php?movie-id=384270​[Accessed 26/04/2019] Spotlight Poster,Movie poster, https://eu.movieposter.com/poster/MPW-102981/Spotlight.html​[Accessed 23/05/2019] Spotlight Trailer 1 (2015), Movieclips Coming soon , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwdCIpbTN5g​[Accessed 24/05/2019] Takayanagi, Masanobu “Fotos de Spotlight”,eCartelera, https://www.ecartelera.com/peliculas/spotlight/fotos/​[Accessed 5/06/2019] Takayanagi, Masanobu “Spotlight”,Fotogramas, https://www.fotogramas.es/peliculas-criticas/a11505064/spotlight/​[Accessed 5/06/2019] Takayanagi, Masanobu “Spotlight, ¿El periodismo para qué?”, Kaja Negra, http://kajanegra.com/spotlight-el-periodismo-para-que/​[Accessed 5/06/2019]

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