How to Read a Movie Script While It Is Streaming
If you’ve ever wondered how a movie script translates to what you see on screen, including how much of an actor’s dialogue was improvised or pre-written, do I have a browser extension. I just stumbled upon this the other day, and it’s just what I need to add a little extra twist to my quarantined Netflix spree.
A free Chrome extension called ScreenplaySubs does only one thing, but it does it well: it combines the Netflix movie you’re watching with a real-life movie script, highlighting words and scenes as you walk through them during the movie. In other words, if you love watching movies with subtitles turned on – you “read” the movie your way, as many people do – you will definitely love this extension .
Once you’ve installed it, click its icon to go to the list of movies supported by the extension – its only weakness. ScreenplaySubs says it updates the list of supported movies every week. It’s too early to tell if this means you’ll only be getting a handful of films that will run with the expansion every week, or if ScreenplaySubs plans to keep adding films to the ever-expanding archive. I suspect the first thing that is the only downside to this extension: limited choice. Right now, for example, here’s what you can look at:
There is nothing wrong with this list. Actually, I would watch most of the films on it – Zodiac? Yes! – but it makes me a little wary of the longevity of ScreenplaySubs. If after a week or two there is a series of failures, I can see people completely forget about this extension. Thanks to the quarantine at least, I can barely remember half of the items on my daily to-do list, let alone the extensions I have installed in my browser .
In any case, I will stop thinking. ScreenplaySubs is completely free to use, which is what I love, and you can even watch demos of how it works with different movies if you want to test it out before installing. This expansion won’t shake your world, but it will make your movie solo evenings a lot more interesting, especially if you’re getting bored of watching your favorite movie for the third time this week.