Space and timing
Home Alone (1990)
How Home Alone Prepares the Audience for Kevin’s Traps
See how the screenplay introduces the house and its objects before Kevin uses them to defend himself.
- path
- 5 scenes
- time
- 20 min
OVERBLACK GUIDED STUDIES
Study scenes alongside filmmaker commentary
Each guided study brings together screenplay scenes, reading questions, filmmaker commentary, and information about the finished film.
- studies
- 8
- exact scenes
- 52
- archives
- 3
HOW TO STUDY
Read. Notice. Connect.
- 01Read the scene
Open the cited screenplay scene.
- 02Examine the writing
Use the reading question to examine what changes in the scene and why.
- 03Explore the production
Read filmmaker commentary and explore the film’s credits and release information.
AVAILABLE NOW
Choose a guided study
Showing all 8 studies
Mystery and meaning
Citizen Kane (1941)
How Citizen Kane Makes One Word Fail to Explain a Life
See how an investigation can deliver its answer while refusing to reduce a contradictory person to one clue.
- path
- 6 scenes
- time
- 25 min
Status and access
GoodFellas (1990)
How GoodFellas Shows Status Through Access
See how entrances, greetings, shortcuts, and waiting show Henry’s social status.
- path
- 6 scenes
- time
- 25 min
Institutions and identity
RoboCop (1987)
How RoboCop Shows Murphy Resisting Corporate Control
See how OCP controls Murphy through programming, and how his memories and final use of his name establish his surviving identity.
- path
- 6 scenes
- time
- 25 min
Memory and intimacy
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
How Eternal Sunshine Makes Forgetting Reveal a Relationship
See how revisiting memories in reverse order changes Joel’s understanding of the relationship he wanted to erase.
- path
- 7 scenes
- time
- 30 min
Threat rules and agency
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
How A Nightmare on Elm Street Makes Sleep Dangerous
See how a threat becomes frightening by obeying exact rules, then how Nancy converts those rules into a way to fight back.
- path
- 7 scenes
- time
- 30 min
Framing and preservation
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
How The Grand Budapest Hotel Preserves Gustave’s Memory
See how successive narrators preserve Gustave’s habits and the memory of the hotel after its earlier way of life disappears.
- path
- 8 scenes
- time
- 35 min
Observation and leverage
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
How The Silence of the Lambs Makes Looking a Form of Power
See how Clarice survives being watched by learning what every observer wants, then converting their attention into evidence and action.
- path
- 7 scenes
- time
- 30 min