Screenwriting Lecture - Key Points Overview

Introduction by Eric Edson

• Eric Edson: Screenwriting professor at CSUN.
• Emphasizes importance of creativity and emotional depth in students.
• Highlights difference in background yet similarity in internal passion and compulsiveness.
• Introduction of guests: Karen and David, creators of YouTube channel 'Film Courage'.
  • 'Film Courage' has over 200,000 subscribers.
  • They are creating a contemporary library of creative insights into film and TV.

Understanding Screenwriting and MFA Importance

• MFA in Screenwriting is a terminal degree, allowing graduates to teach at colleges and universities worldwide.
• Encourage students to observe diverse teaching methods.
• Highlight the need to save handouts and notes for future teaching opportunities.

Course Objectives and Focus

• Journey through screen story structure: for novices and professionals.
• Primarily focus on mainstream commercial Hollywood films that achieved worldwide success.
• Importance of structure in storytelling: learning from 'Oedipus Rex' by Sophocles.
  • The human brain craves structure and meaning in stories.

Essentials of a Screen Story

• Key Elements:
  • Sympathetic, active hero.
  • Physical, visible, high-stakes goal.
  • Powerful adversary creating conflict.
• Importance of having a well-outlined plot.
• Starting with the ending in mind to avoid getting lost in the story.
• 'Stunning Surprise' moments to propel acts (end of Act 1 and Act 2).

Detailed Analysis of Stunning Surprises

• Stunning Surprise 1 at the end of Act 1: Shocks the hero, shifts the story direction.
  • Example: Shrek becomes 'champion' and gets a specific quest.
  • Example: Vincent reveals himself as an assassin in 'Collateral'.
• Stunning Surprise 2 at the end of Act 2: Biggest reversal, the hero's darkest hour.
  • Examples: 'The Matrix' (Neo getting shot), 'Erin Brockovich' (finding the smoking gun).

Hero Goal Sequences and Their Significance

• Concept of Hero Goal Sequences:
  • Units of change consisting of 3-7 pages.
  • Hero pursues a short-term goal, discovers 'fresh news', which leads to the next goal.
• Act 1 has exactly 6 hero goal sequences.
• Act 2 divided into two halves, each with 6 hero goal sequences; midpoint sequence falls within Hero Goal Sequence 12.
• Act 3 contains 2-5 Hero Goal Sequences.

Examples of Hero Goal Sequences

• Examples of Hero Goal Sequences:
  • 'Gravity': Dr. Ryan Stone's transitions from working in space to dealing with space debris and survival.
  • Demonstration of the standard structure.
• Emphasizing the importance of well-structured, changing plots for fulfilling audience experience.

Conclusion and Practical Application

• Act structure paradigms ensure continuous hero activity, avoiding sagging stories.
• Use paradigm for analyzing old, unsuccessful scripts to identify flaws.
• Final note on 21 Hero Goal Sequences as a reliable model for emotionally resonant screenplays.

Questions & Break Time

• Invite for questions and informal discussion post-break.