“Saturday Night” | Scene Structure

Hello, my name is Jason Reitman. I'm the co-writer and director of “Saturday Night.” “Okay, let's see if we can pull off one of these skits.'' “Sketch! Davey, please.'' What we're looking at here is a scene very early in the movie. The characters on the left and right are introduced. And what we really wanted from the beginning was a fully immersive experience. You are watching a 90 minute movie in real time. That's 90 minutes into the first episode of “Saturday Night Live.” The final line, which was decided from the beginning, was, “Live broadcast from New York, Saturday night.” “What's your problem?'' “What's going on, Dan?'' “I'm a little stuck.'' And we also see rehearsal sketches by John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, and Garrett Morris. And we wanted the audience to experience what it's like to be there at the moment when things are happening, a roller coaster ride of pure adrenaline. And at first you go through the normal steps of trying to figure out blocking and camera work. And by the end, it's clear that it's a complete disaster, one of the many things that will keep you in suspense as you watch this movie. To do this, all the background actors had to go through a boot camp where they learned how to work, including cable lighting and sound, and create a living set where all the actors were miked. day. “I'm the president of Trojan Home Security.” “I broke into your home tonight to explain to you and your family what's going on…” (LOUD CRASH) BOOM! Lightboom leaves. And this refers to what is actually happening, that the loan kept requesting more and more lights. It was tough because he had never been on TV before. None of the cast members on that show had ever appeared on a TV show before. In order to create this kind of chaos on screen, we realized that we really needed to choreograph this movie like a dance movie. I had to set up a giant whiteboard like a football coach and write a play for all the extras, background actors, and staff so everyone knew where they were. We were given this huge stage to cause chaos every day. And what continues to boggle my mind is that Lorne Michaels does this every Saturday. “I'm not like that, guys. It was kind of exciting. Maybe I'm just lucky.”