What filmmaking techniques does Everybody Wants Some!! use?

CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Everybody Wants Some!! (2016): Ensemble Characterization Without Backstory, The Party as Transgression, Pop Music Needle Drop, Autobiographical Distance and Era-Coded Visual Grammar.

Who directed Everybody Wants Some!!?

Richard Linklater directed Everybody Wants Some!!, released in 2016. CineCode also covers Dazed and Confused (1993), Before Sunrise (1995), The School of Rock (2003), Before Sunset (2004), A Scanner Darkly (2006), Bernie (2012).

What films are similar to Everybody Wants Some!!?

Films that share techniques with Everybody Wants Some!! include Dazed and Confused (1993), La Dolce Vita (1960), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), The Rules of the Game (1939).

Comedy

Everybody Wants Some!!

Richard Linklater, 2016

In fall 1980, college freshman Jake moves into an off-campus house with his baseball teammates just before the semester starts. They drink, chase women and wander through disco, country and punk scenes. Look at how Linklater builds a whole film out of hanging out, and how it feels like a memory of being 18.

3 Narrative 1 Sound 1 Cinematography

At a glance

Everybody Wants Some!! is a 2016 comedy film directed by Richard Linklater. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (3 narrative, 1 sound and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Dazed and Confused uses several of the same techniques.

Narrative

Ensemble Characterization Without Backstory

Introducing a large cast only through what they say and do in the present. There are no flashbacks or explained histories, yet each character feels distinct.

How this film uses it

The film introduces a house full of ballplayers, including Finnegan, Roper, Dale, Plummer and Beuter, and never explains where any of them came from. You get each one from how they talk and what they try on a given night. By the end you know them anyway.

Where to see it

The team meeting: The coach introduces the new players and sets two rules, no alcohol in the house and no women upstairs.

Narrative

The Party as Transgression

Using a party or celebration as the place where normal rules are dropped and characters show who they really are. Afterwards, order often comes back down hard.

How this film uses it

The coach's two rules are broken almost at once. The team's house party and the performing arts students' costume party both let people drop their usual masks. Jake's teammates step into a room they assumed they would hate and loosen up.

Where to see it

The Oz costume party: Jake takes his teammates to a performing arts party, where they feel out of place at first and then enjoy themselves.

Sound

Pop Music Needle Drop

Playing an existing popular song at a precise moment in the film. The song's lyrics, era and associations add irony, period feel or emotion that an original score could not.

How this film uses it

The team hops from one music world to another in a single night. They visit a disco, a western-themed bar and a punk show, and each room has its own songs and attitude. The songs tell you the period and show how these athletes act in unfamiliar crowds.

Where to see it

The punk concert: Jake meets a high school teammate who has embraced punk, and with Jake's encouragement the team goes to the show.

Narrative

Autobiographical Distance

Drawing on the filmmaker's own life but keeping it at arm's length, often through a fictional stand-in. The result is precise and unsentimental, and it can question how memory flatters us.

How this film uses it

Linklater based the film on his own years playing baseball at Sam Houston State University. He puts that memory through Jake, a fictional freshman, and treats it with affection and a bit of teasing. Nothing is made bigger or sadder than it was.

Where to see it

The first day of class: Jake and Plummer settle in as a history professor writes "Frontiers are where you find them" on the board, and both fall asleep.

Cinematography

Era-Coded Visual Grammar

Changing the color, film texture and camera style for each time period, and using the fashion and architecture of the day. Every era gets its own distinct feel.

How this film uses it

The film is set in fall 1980, and the costumes, haircuts and music place you there in every shot. You can tell when you are in the disco, the country bar or the punk club by what everyone is wearing and doing.

Where to see it

The night out: The team starts at a local disco, where Jay's arrogant remarks provoke a brawl, then changes clothes and heads to a western-themed bar.

Questions

Everybody Wants Some!!: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does Everybody Wants Some!! use?: CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Everybody Wants Some!! (2016): Ensemble Characterization Without Backstory, The Party as Transgression, Pop Music Needle Drop, Autobiographical Distance and Era-Coded Visual Grammar.
Who directed Everybody Wants Some!!?: Richard Linklater directed Everybody Wants Some!!, released in 2016. CineCode also covers Dazed and Confused (1993), Before Sunrise (1995), The School of Rock (2003), Before Sunset (2004), A Scanner Darkly (2006), Bernie (2012).
What films are similar to Everybody Wants Some!!?: Films that share techniques with Everybody Wants Some!! include Dazed and Confused (1993), La Dolce Vita (1960), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), The Rules of the Game (1939).

Side by side