Insight is the audience's reward for paying attention To tell story is to make a promise - to share different aspects of life. Insights 3/14: Turning points, the two emotions, duality, subtexts:Ī turning point: effect is surprise, increased curiosity, insight and new direction. You're free to break convention, but only to put something more important in its place But unless subplot compliments main plot, it will tear the story down the middle A subplot can be a variation on a theme, or resonate the main idea - or complicates the main plot. Like the Amish/cop romance in Witness, for example. If for example character is almost always getting killed, no impact anymore.ĭon't make every scene a powerhouse climax, to avoid repetitionĪ subplot can elevate a boring film into an interesting one. Problem with too many acts is that you need more standout scenes, which can be hard without resorting to clichés - and it reduces or waters down the impact of climaxes and gets boring. The cure of one problem is the cause of others. īut don't have too many acts (like an extreme of 5 or 8, like in Raiders of the Lost Ark ). Middle act (often act 2) should be the longest. A two hour film needs at least three major reversals. The longer the story- more need for more turning points or acts. Insights 2/14: Story, act length, subplots: Scripts can fail either because there is meaningless conflict, or not enough meaningful and honestly expressed conflict.ĭesign simple but complex stories - don't hopscotch through time, space and people. To be alive is to be on seemingly perpetual conflict. Conflict is to storytelling what sound is to music. Nothing moves forward in a story except through conflict. If two characters react the same to something, either collapse the two into one, or ditch one Make every character's reaction to something different and distinct. Insights 1/14: Audience, reaction, conflict:Īudience already knows what's going to happen, broadly - so fine writing puts less emphasis on what happens and more emphasis on reactions, and on whom it happens, why and how it happens, and insight gained - p177Īvoid pace killers - as in, a character doing a fully expected action, such as walking into a house I may have added a couple off-piste examples, like talking about Breaking Bad, which the book doesn't refer to - as I hadn't seen all the films the author mentioned.I've divided the sections fairly arbitrarily, to add white space.I've largely missed out the first few chapters, as I didn't get much out of them.These notes are summarised for clarity, so don't contain many direct quotes.While reading, I took some notes directly from the book, and thought I'd share them in the hope of adding value. I recently finished Robert McKee's Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. No Sale of Copyrighted Material or Sharing of Confidential Materialĭon't just create, document - paraphrased from Gary Vaynerchuk Posts Made by ( u/deleted) Accounts are Subject to Removal Observe Dedicated Weekly Threads for Loglines, Memes, Etc Provide Descriptive/Informative Titles for Posts Screenplays MUST be properly formatted/Do not post your film without the screenplay. No Contest, Coverage or Service AdvertisingĬomplaints About Paid Feedback Must Include Script and Evaluations No Socks, Trolls or Shitposting, Spam or Off-Topic Postsĭon't post personal blogs, personal websites, or unapproved self-promotion. WIKI: FAQS & FORMATTING INFO AND RESOURCESĭo not personally attack fellow redditors respect privacy, be encouraging, use your manners.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |