I am writing a Christmas story, and I'm stuck on the Christmas Dinner.  I have the two main characters, plus her parents, her grandparents, her sister, and her kids.  I find that either it becomes too talky, or it becomes very difficult to frame.  The whole scene seems like a nightmare to film.  

Are there any screenplays out there that I can read that show how to do scenes like this?

I'm thinking about cutting the scene, but I want to give it another stab.

tweak

Just don't show the whole dinner.  Show them eating dessert and everyone as they're just gathering around the table.


Phil

Not sure if you're looking to have the entire scene go on at the table or not, but I have an entire Sunday Dinner that jumps between rooms over the course of 10 pages in the link below if it will help.

http://www.simplyscripts.com/scripts/TheOddsofLove.pdf

The scene(s) is pages 43-53, and encompasses the guests arrival, the dinner itself, and their leaving.

I think Phil has it pretty spot on.  What's that old adage - enter a scene late and leave early?

I have a dinner scene I wrote once.  It's a short one, granted but I did have to juggle a number of characters.

Pages 10 - 12

http://www.simplyscripts.com/scripts/Milk.doc

Cheaper by the Dozen seems a safe choice for insanity. Yours, Mine, and Ours is another. Both are older movies with marginal remakes, but they have huge family casts with busy, busy scenes. Yours, Mine, and Ours has a family of the parents and (count 'em) eighteen children.

There are a wealth of movies with dinner party scenes, though, from the very good to the very bad. A few off the top of my head (and this doesn't reflect a movie preference, mind you, just a couple films with large dinner parties) are Monster In Law, Walk Like a Man, and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, but the list could go on forever.

My thought would be to write the scene that needs to be written and worry about logistics later. A scene should exist for a specific reason, so get it written so the reason is crystal clear. From there, you can whittle and edit it to whatever you need it to be.

As a final note, these scenes are very talky, usually occur near a turning point, and are used to build the characters of those other than the main characters. This is where we find out about Aunt whoever's whatever.

Thanks.  I'm reading Christmas Vacation tonight.

tweak

Check out the script for GOSFORD PARK.

I'm not sure if its available online, though.

Quoted from ABennettWriter Check out the script for GOSFORD PARK. I'm not sure if its available online, though.

I'm planning on order some scripts soon, but let me watch GOSFORD PARK first.

I read the first act of Christmas Vacation, and it was a fun read.  I will read act two later.

tweak