It's All a Fantasy
28/Apr/11 08:37 Filed in: The Method
The main reason people go to movies is to lose themselves in another world. So the obvious question to ask is does your story give an audience a chance to fantasize about another world? Read More...
More is Less
24/Apr/11 18:39 Filed in: The Method
In many bad movies, there’s a tendency to throw everything at the viewer and hope that by some miracle something will work. It won’t and here are some reasons why. Read More...
The Wisdom of Roald Dahl
21/Apr/11 08:42 Filed in: The Method
One of the best ways to study story structure is to read children’s stories. Not only are they entertaining in themselves, but they let you clearly see the structure of the story and what makes them so appealing in the first place. Read More...
The Non-Changing Hero
19/Apr/11 17:46 Filed in: The Method
In a typical story, the hero starts off with a character flaw, learns to overcome it, and then lives happily ever after. However in rare instances, the hero doesn’t change at all and remains the same from start to finish. Read More...
The Villain, Hero, and Mentor Goals The Villain, Hero, and Mentor Goals The Goals of the Villain, Hero, and Mentor
18/Apr/11 09:02 Filed in: The Method
The three most important characters are your villain, hero, and mentor. All three of these characters need to have goals of their own and the combination of these goals helps create a complete story. Read More...
The Mentor
17/Apr/11 19:10 Filed in: The Method
The mentor is the character who helps your hero learn how to defeat the villain. Typically the mentor has a painful history that he or she needs to confront and overcome, and this process of striving for this goal gives the mentor the chance to teach the hero. Read More...
Trick Endings
16/Apr/11 20:19 Filed in: The Method
In the literary world, O. Henry specialized in writing short stories that had a trick ending. While effective, these trick endings soon became predictable and overshadowed the story itself until people simply read a story to look for the trick ending. Trick endings are something to use sparingly when it makes sense. Read More...
It's Not the Idea; It's the Execution
15/Apr/11 19:26 Filed in: The Method
Novice screenwriters are always terrified that someone might steal their idea. Let them. Ideas are cheap and easy, and it doesn’t matter how good your idea is if your screenplay totally sucks. Read More...
The Emotional Point of View
14/Apr/11 11:22 Filed in: The Method
In a bad movie, the hero seems like a cardboard puppet that the audience doesn’t really care about. Here’s how you can avoid this problem of making your hero more likable to your audience. Read More...
Write From Your Life
13/Apr/11 14:51 Filed in: The Method
To put excitement and passion into your screenplay, write about yourself. You don’t need to make your screenplay autobiographical. Just make it a fantasy with you as the star. Read More...
Ensemble Pictures
12/Apr/11 22:22 Filed in: The Method
The simplest story focuses on a single character, such as Luke in “Star Wars.” A more complicated movie focuses on multiple characters, which is also called an ensemble. In an ensemble movie, multiple characters have nearly equal roles.
Read More...
Read More...
Tell Your Story
11/Apr/11 14:04 Filed in: The Method
When people hear a story from somewhere else and retell that story, they often embellish the story to make it more dramatic and interesting. You can use this same technique to punch up your screenplay. Read More...
Exceptions to the Rule
08/Apr/11 20:00 Filed in: The Method
There are always exceptions to every rule. While it’s possible to tell a great story without consciously following any rules, chances are good that you’ll wind up following the basic structure of a story anyway. When watching any movie, look for both the exceptions and the norm. Read More...
Unity of Subplots in "Ghostbusters"
07/Apr/11 19:56 Filed in: The Method
The original “Ghostbusters” film is considered one of the funniest movies ever made. By watching this comedy classic, you can recognize how it unifies its multiple subplots. Read More...
Revealing Exposition
04/Apr/11 07:58 Filed in: The Method
In the old days, stage plays used to open with an obligatory scene where a maid and a butler are setting a dining room and telling each other about the main characters and what they want. Then the maid and butler disappear, never to be seen again. Provide information this way in a movie and your audience will fall asleep. Read More...
Bad Dialogue
02/Apr/11 20:59 Filed in: The Method
One of my favorite bad movies of the past year is “The Last Airbender,” and one of the reasons why I love to hate this movie is because of the incredibly inept dialogue the characters speak. If you want to avoid these same mistakes, take care that your dialogue isn’t too direct. Read More...
