THE NICK CARRAWAY PROBLEM
I just read the Hannibal pilot, available here, and then watched it (streaming on Amazon). It was written by Bryan Fuller, based on characters created by Thomas Harris, and it reminded me of The Nick Carraway problem, because Fuller and Harris don’t have it. Psychopaths are interesting, in a clinical way, because they look like…
Read moreTHE OTHER KIND OF PROTAG
Sorry. Every gif is Tom Hiddleston for some reason. Not every single story is driven by overcoming the protag’s serious personality problem to effect/fail to effect a change. Those are mostly about Indiana Jones, though. So. Yes. It is true. Don’t kill yourself trying to drive your swashbuckler with a flaw. But give that protag…
Read more10 Filmmaking Myths: Busted
10 Filmmaking Myths: Busted thisoldbitch: One night when I was about 7 years old I caught my mum sliding a quarter under my pillow. I had just lost a tooth and having caught my mum red-handed I had to d I agree with most of these. Here is the business end of your script.
Read moreUNIVERSAL MESSAGES
Universal messages are the comfort food of film language. They are the reason you will do better with a story about love fixing all your problems than a bully beating you to death for standing up to them. A lot of writers discuss this issue as a moral quandary about selling out. It isn’t. Casablanca succeeds…
Read more11 Steps to Write a Scene
via johnaugust.com
Read moreFree Film Class taught by Jeanine Basinger
Free Film Class taught by Jeanine Basinger lifeascaty: If you’re a fan of Joss Whedon then you’ll probably want to check this out. If you’re not a fan of Joss Whedon, you should still check this out. (Jeanine Basinger taught Joss Whedon while he was at Wesleyan University. You can read more about their continued…
Read moreIT’S GENRE, NOT DEEP STORY
Genre is the best place for deep story and huge themes. That’s what sci-fi is actually for. Ask Octavia Butler. Action, horror, comedy…those are all playgrounds for big story. Bourne is about individual identity and free will. The whole Marvel universe oozes deep story. The Exorcist is about rejecting evil, Groundhog Day is about becoming…
Read moreTHE PROTAG’S FLAW IS…NARCISSISM
Don’t paste on flaws to satisfy conditions of the plot. If the flaw is narcissism or untrustworthiness or cowardice, then that is what the story is about. All of the elements in the story treat the question of the flaw, which is the writer’s angle on the theme. It’s not something you tack on.
Read more5 STAR ESCALATION
Escalation keeps the story interesting. An individual escalation really works when it is set up as the thing we hope doesn’t ever happen. Then when it happens, we know the most shit has just hit the biggest fan. Rinse, then repeat until the end of act two.
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