by the end of this video you're going to have the majority of the save the Cat book basically in your back pocket to refer back to whenever you want this video has been years in the making so the only thing I ask is that you please hit that like button for me it's the only form of payment I'm requesting after my years of hard work on these so please give it a like now let's get started [Music] so main character who is going through this internal conflict goes up against this antagonistic Force by the end of this video we're going to be answering two questions what is a log line and how do we create one now this video is going to be jam-packed with a ton of examples so you're going to want to stick around to the end so back in the day a log line was something that producers put on scripts for them to determine if they're going to read it or not a log line is a one to two sentence attention grabber for your film and it's meant to signal to your audience rather or not it's a story that they're interested in so yes your log line will inform your audience what your film is about and also if your log line is doing its job correctly they should want to see more the log line gives viewers an instant understanding of your story genre and informs them what's at stake now this log line gives audiences a sense of how complicated or simplistic accomplishing set goal will be if you can help it hopefully you constructed your log line well before you started writing your story why because constructing a log line first is going to keep your story on track it's going to keep it honed in on that main character's goal the moment you start bringing Dragon aliens into the fold you can look at your log line and say hey did my log line allude to any dragon aliens being in this story The Log lines should be used to redirect your story just in case you start going into deep uncharted waters we should use it to develop our stories into what it's actually supposed to be now let's say we're done with post-production the film's done in this stage of the game your log line is a marketing tool and the log line is extremely important when it comes to marketing your film because it's one of those first things that your potential audience members will see before they decide to choose your film your log line as well as your trailer is going to help potential viewers decide whether they should choose your title or your competitors it gets them interested so they can push to buy rent or watch option on their remotes now we're going to break down the Essential Elements your log line must have to be compelling first thing you've got to have in your log line is an adjective deserve first thing you've got to have in your log line is an adjective describing your protagonist who are they in your story is their occupation crucial to the film is where they're from Paramount to the story a middle-aged Chinese immigrant who a geek who is surviving life a young FBI Cadet a sullen 10 year old girl a group of U.S soldiers on his journey to 10 000 subscribers a lonely like button but seriously hit the like button if you can now those are just a few examples of what you could begin your log line with now that we've identified and described our main character or hers the second thing that has to be in your log line is the goal of your main character think about what your main character is trying to accomplish how hard is accomplishing set goal going to be because a great log line gives your audience an idea of how difficult accomplishing a set goal will be think about it as the destination your MC should get to by the end now this external goal should reflect your main character's internal conflict in some way shape or form let's take this log line from Leaving Las Vegas for instance a Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his alcoholism dot dot dot did you catch it lost everything because of his alcoholism right the alcoholism alludes to some internal conflict that the main character is having so let's take it a step further really quickly there are five triggers that usually cause internal conflict one desire or something your main character wants to need something your character or someone associate with your main character requires for survival three Duty some obligation that character feels is right or necessary for fear or a strong worry that drives that character five expectation or something that your main character feels obligated to do now when a character experiences two or more of these triggers at a given time your character has internal conflict causing your characters to feel fear doubt confusion or distress now let's take this log line for instance created by a slam dance reader for one of my scripts a Police Executive combats a powerful gang antagonist we'll get to that in a sec while looking for one of her missing foster children looking for one of her missing foster children is my MC's primary goal now the internal conflict isn't necessarily spelled out but it's alluded to because I've got all five of those triggers wrapped up in one problem no mother desires to have a missing child they need to protect them it's their Duty they fear their loss and they expect to be the one to keep them safe now the next part of your log line has got to be the biggest obstacle your MC encounters so main character who is going through this internal conflict goes up against this antagonistic force or a main character who is doing this main goal or desire comes into conflict with this antagonistic Force One thing that you've got to remember is that your main character's goal should tie into his or her central conflict which if you don't know what essential conflict is I've made videos on videos on what that is so please check it out if you haven't already now according to the late Blake Snyder your log line will have a sense of irony in it or I like to think of it as that thing that makes your story look that much more interesting because you're going to have a main character who is this way come up against something that he or she completely opposes it's the thing that's the complete opposite of what he or she stands for or is trying to do and we know that we as Indie filmmakers have got to be a bit more strategic with our marketing tools because we have limited resources and irony could be that missing piece that helps your title compete with a bigger title quick example of irony a teenage operative who struggles to pull his family away from a life of violence is pitted against train Killers so there is a sense of irony me about this right you're trying to pull your family away from violence yet you're being pitted against train Killers so it just goes to show you that there's going to be conflict upon conflict here and that's what people find interesting the audience is like hmm so he's trying to get his family away from violence but he's an operative a spy so dangerous life there and he's pitted against strain Killers a middle-aged Chinese immigrant is swept into an insane Adventure in which she alone can save existence by exploring other universes and connecting with the lives she could have led notice that the central conflict is really nicely baked in there and you'll see that it's common amongst small Indie features because they're trying to be noticed as opposed to Big you know Chris Nolan tentpoles Leaving Las Vegas log line a Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his alcoholism arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death there he meets and forms in an easy relationship and non-interference packed with a prostitute during her family's move to the suburbs a sullen 10 year old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods witches and Spirits a world where humans are changed into beasts a young FBI Cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer a Madman who skins his victims now this whole log line is guilt-ridden with irony here you want to catch a killer by Consulting a killer a controversial true crime writer finds a box of Super 8 home movies in his new home revealing that a murder case he is currently researching could be the work of an unknown serial killer whose Legacy dates back to the 1960s one for light year huge underrated movie by the way I enjoyed this movie like a lot it's basically Interstellar but animated don't know why a lot of people didn't enjoy it anyway while spending years attempting to return home maroon Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear encounters an army of Ruthless robots commanded by Zerg who are attempting to steal his fuel source monster in the house Golden Fleece out of the bottle dude with a problem Rites of Passage buddy love why done it the full triumphant institutionalized and my personal favorite superhero Now Blake Snyder mentions in his very controversial book save the cat a full-fledged knowledge of hundreds of movies is required if there is any hope of you actually bringing your film to Market he cites the Merit of being able to learn from other films if you're like no Allen my film is unlike anything you've ever seen well I'm sorry it's been done before but you are going to do yours differently because by the end of this video you will know exactly what genres came together in order to form your work of art additionally we all know that there is a primal desire required in our story in order to get our audience interested because we've all read writing screenplays that sell by Michael Hague or we've watched this video right here defining your movie genre also helps you recall what your film's Primal desire is so again when you're writing your feature films or your shorts it's incredibly crucial to recognize the kind of movie you're making so that you don't risk Reinventing the wheel and creating cliches in order to recognize what's been done you've got to remember what's been done hey everybody all Northern here giving you filmmaking tips and tricks and today we are going to talk about the 10 types of film that can be made to more easily help you define your film genre help you identify your film's Primal design desire and research how films like yours would perform at the box office if it were made today so if you're ready to get started please smash that like button smash it because you know I got the juice okay but seriously I have tons of great content in addition to this video right here so please smash that like button it really helps me out one key in differentiating which movie is which lies in how the film's setup sends our main characters down their Journey so what does films like saw it Conjuring his house Jurassic world underwater and Sinister have in common well there's a monster or an entity after all of your main characters in a confined space with the film it it's Dairy [Music] The Conjuring a house for his house it's his house Jurassic world it's the theme park and for underwater it's the underground space station it's Primal desire for the most part is to not get eaten by the monster even in films when police officers are trying to catch the killer as seen in Saul so what are the rules of this genre and you don't understand my film has no rules I don't do rules no but hear me out if you want to break the rules it's best to know what the rules are and why they exist at least give me that so first rule our protagonists are trapped in a confined space it could be a town your dreams or even the whole world see how I broke the rule there the idea behind this rule is simply that no matter where your main characters go they can't escape they're not safe second rule the main character had to have done something to either create the monster or be get into the monsters crosshairs they committed some kind of a sin or treacherous deed sinister the only reason why Allison Oswald is in the boogeyman's crosshairs is because he is seeking fame and fortune that's what makes Sinister so good that's what makes it so effective because it understands these rules and it connects these rules to the film's central conflict which is where we get the film's controlling idea and these Concepts Elevate the film by teaching the audience A Life Lesson that gives the film significant impact that we can choose to utilize in our everyday lives so remember yes you can break the rules but it's important to know why the rules exist to begin with use them bend them to your will in order to give your movie a fresh take on the genre because the possibilities are endless foreign so you may think that films like Shrek Lord of the Rings are We There Yet in Casino Royale are completely different movies well you'd be wrong actually they're kind of the same other than Pokey you never play your hand you play the man across from you when you're good at reading people yes I am which is why I've been able to detect an undercurrent sarcasm in your voice golden fleece Snyder referred to this kind of film as a road trip movie you have only one choice the ring must be destroyed it must be taken deep into mordorant cast back into the fiery Chasm from whence it came in this film our hero sets out on a perilous journey in order to find something or do something but then our hero winds up discovering something about himself that he never knew before the people incidents and all of the chaos that emerges from all the film's plot points ultimately results in the hero growing and becoming a better or a worse version of themselves the theme of all golden fleece movies is internal growth and how the film's events affect our heroes beliefs so the hero must learn new things about himself through the film's story events and this is ultimately what makes your story work your job as a filmmaker is to make each and every milestone in the film significant in your hero's progression as a human being the main thing that makes your film great is how various events in your film made your character change in the degree by which they've changed from the beginning to the end now I'm going to challenge you in the comments please write in the comments what you believe separates Great films in this genre such as Casino Royale and good films in this genre like Are We There Yet next up out of the bottle why ten thousand years will give you such a crick in the neck so what do you think Aladdin Cinderella Bruce Almighty and Freaky Friday have in common yeah exactly they're the same movie this is known as the classic what if tale so if your story ever asked the question what if or I wish I had this and boom it appears then uh odds are your film is out of the bottle wish fulfillment wait to be exact and snare on the wishing for more wishes that's it no substitutions exchange is a refund so we've got a likable protagonist who comes into contact with a magical creature or entity or object and then grants the character any wish he wants or fundamentally Alters the way they live their lives this is mine those aren't mine that's definitely not mine what is Aladdin and Cinderella have in common well in both stories Our Hero's environments suppress Our Hero's deepest desires and by the end they both realize something that being themselves is ultimately going to get them what they actually want that being themselves is ultimately the way to go and that magic isn't everything to sum it up your films events should teach the protagonist that their perspective is distorted they're currently going about life incorrectly in the events in your story will put them on the right track the protagonist must grow in order to survive and it's only then that he or she gets what they really want so maybe their outlook on themselves is incorrect maybe their Viewpoint On The World At Large is incorrect but by the end of the film The Audience should leave with a little dude with a problem I mean four thousand dollars just drove off it's how are you the ordinary gonna handle something extraordinary now the huge audience appeal behind this film genre lies in the fact that we all consider ourselves to be pretty ordinary pretty normal and the problem that the characters usually face in this genre is death just be sure your problem relates to death in some way shape or form here because that's a primal problem the problem must be Primal which means your problem threatens your character's access to life shelter food clothes and education but education isn't Primal or just just just roll with it please for the sake of this video so we as the audience automatically sympathize with that main character which makes these Tales very effective in this kind of film an ordinary guy or gal is exposed to an extraordinary problem the bigger the obstacle the more heroic your main character must become in order to conquer that obstacle and the common theme running throughout this entire genre is the main character utilizing his individuality in order to beat the bad guy or overcome the obstacle Rites of Passage I dated this girl for a while and she was really a nasty freak she just loved to get down with sex all the time she was like any time of day she was like yeah let's go I'm so nasty Mean Girls Boyhood Bridge to Terabithia when you create a film where the major plot points surround the theme of someone transitioning from one stage of their life into another stage of Life odds are your film is Rites of Passage God I love your bracelet where did you get it oh my mom made it for me adorable although these kinds of films aren't everyone's cup of tea these stories about growing pains resonate with a lot of individuals because we've all been through them and those are some pretty painful memories to recall typically the pain and torment of this film comes from the outside and attacks the character's life in some way shape or form so the outside force of Life boom attacks the main character often times the monster in this film kind of creeps up on the main character and the film is a slow revelation of what that monster is foreign [Music] and it's only by going through this Dreadful painful experience that our hero comes up with a solution to his conflicts so typically these are films where your character is having a rough go at it at high school dealing with family turmoil a divorce a midlife crisis and even dealing with the end of their first love um foreign [Music] usually the hero must realize that there are aspects of his life he can't control in aspects of his life he can't it's only after this realization and some growth that our character can find his version of Happiness buddy love discretionary Revelation no no he just gave her a passion one simple question you gave me all the information that's what you wanted what some films in this genre include Finding Nemo Step Brothers Lethal Weapon elf E.T there's a lot of films in this genre so Blake believes that the dawn of this genre came into play when the main character didn't have anyone to talk to or bounce ideas off of or debate with when life gets you down you know what you got to do I don't want to know what you got to do just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming swimming swimming what do we do we swim swim this works because stories of me and my best friend will always resonate with audiences all buddy movies are just love stories in Disguise and love stories are just buddy movies in disguise with the potential for sex the rules for these kinds of films are simple at first the Buddies hate each other and your film's adventure makes them realize they actually need each other think about it if you start your story and your characters like each other then where exactly is the story dynamic between your two characters gonna go don't say something in the next 10 minutes [Music] now you know you can break this rule but it's important to understand why this rule is in place it's to start your film at a zero state so that by the end of your film you have a hero state with respect to your story your two characters are incomplete halves of a whole now normally our All Is Lost moment in this film is a variation of their friendship or their relationship being destroyed or dismantled in some way and if you don't know what an All Is Lost moment is watch this video right here and then come on back it's all about story structure I also put a link to that video as well in the description below anyway buddy love right so typically the main character is one way and it takes some quiet guidance by the body in order to force a positive change in the main character and it's because of this change that the main character can then fulfill his mission and bring the film to its climactic end why done it Knives Out Citizen Kane murder on the Orient Express and even mind Hunter there all films and the why done it genre this film genre is All About uncovering the deepest darkest parts of the human mind yes it's all about who conducted the murder but great films are about why that murder took place to begin with and why that person did that deed in excruciating detail so this genre is not about the hero changing it's about discovering something new about human nature that we didn't initially think was possible it's about peeling back the layers of a human heart and discovering what separates the good eggs from the bad all right oh come on I'm going to say this just to you No cameras no courtroom just you because you know it's true we allowed you into our home we let you watch our Granddad we welcomed you into our family and now you think you can steal it from us you think I'm not gonna fight to protect my home the reason why the crime was committed is oftentimes dark and unexpected the big draw behind this film lies in the fact that we as the audience members become detectives but it's not only our job to discover who committed the crime before it's actually revealed on screen it's ultimately our job to discover what the driving force behind why evil occurred in this film to begin with so when we're writing it's important for us to ask what separates the just from the immoral what are you subconsciously trying to teach the audience through the crime that's being committed the triumphant fool foreign Black Knight Austin Powers Pink Panther and Pirates of the Caribbean Snyder mentions on the outside he's just a village idiot but further examination reveals him to be the wisest Among Us now this story genre follows little men stupid men silly men foolish men who dare to triumph over a bigger more powerful bad guy now these films are often satirical and make fun of the traditional structures that we often take too seriously and abide by on a day-to-day basis in order for this film to work we need an underdog who everyone in society views as inept and ill-equipped to do their job and an established person or Institute for that person to attack now this person can oftentimes have a companion who is in on the joke and can't really believe that the fool is actually overcoming what he's overcoming institutionalized now did you ever dream that there is a relationship between jungle book The Godfather and The Lion King now I gotta be honest with you this genre is perhaps the most complex to interpret and comprehend thus far this genre tells the story of people who are a part of groups institutions and families and expose the problems people have living within the confines of these groups this genre honors the society's Norms highlights their issues and showcases it for all to see [Music] thank you oftentimes our hero in this genre grapples with their identity and their place in that particular group loyalty to the group in many cases can threaten your hero's morals identity mental health and even their life and this is all about the pros and cons of putting the needs of the group ahead of ourselves I just needed to get out on my own live my own life and I did and it's great we've really needed you at home no one needs me yes we do you're the king oh we've been through this I'm not the King Scar is Simba he let the hyenas take over the pride lands what everything's destroyed there's no food no water simmer if you don't do something soon everyone will starve I can't go back why you wouldn't understand what would I under no no no it doesn't matter Hakuna Matata what Hakuna Matata it's something I learned out here look sometimes bad things happen and there's nothing you can do about it so why worry because it's your responsibility no life in the society is oftentimes complex which is why the story is oftentimes told from the perspective of the newcomer so that crucial Exposition can be told and delivered through that newcomer to the audience to tell us how the world works and why the world operates this way exists together in a delicate balance as king you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures from The Crawling ant to the leaping antelope but Dad don't we eat the antelope yes Simba but let me explain when we die our bodies become the grass the antelope eat the grass and so we are all connected remember the main source of conflict in this genre comes from your protagonist's inability to fit in within the confines of this society and grappling with his identity with respect to this group superhero or set up in the Oval Office and of course a photo op of you kicking his ass Texas being more of a checker state and there's a dinner tonight after the reception of the Russian chess club in Georgetown a lot of prominent dissidents belong so we've prepared a list of talking points it's a big deal now this final genre needs no introduction this is the exact opposite of the genre dued with a problem and follows the life of an extraordinary person living in an Ordinary World now it's imperative that we give this extraordinary person very human qualities and also that we give him or her human characteristics that we can empathize with if we do that then we are building a bridge from the film straight into the hearts of our audience the superhero genre goes far beyond Superman Spider-Man or Batman now the genre is certainly about superheroes but this film is also about human superheroes who struggle with the mediocre world around them films in this genre are typically about being different in a world that is so ordinary and finding your place in that Ordinary World now this film must stress the pain that goes hand in hand with having these abilities in this Ordinary World rather it's suffering the consequences of loneliness isolation anguish being misunderstood or just plain old not fitting in he must endure some kind of human struggle you've got to stress sympathy for our hero in order for your film to be a Smash Hit and the same goes for all sequels as well you're about to learn how to create a protagonist your audience can identify with how to improve your existing log lines giving your film Primal stakes and why you should start learning about archetypes one of the biggest mysteries to crack when it comes down to creating our protagonist and antagonists is just figuring out who they are this guy a person who wrote This Book his father used to tell him tell me about a guy who the who is our way in whether it's a 200 million dollar action epic or Geico commercial the who gives our audience someone to identify with and that someone doesn't even have to be human we need someone or something to experience our ideas so that our audience knows what we're trying to say our heroes are our audience stand-ins that resonate for our target market and serves the goals and needs of our story and of course we start this process by creating our log lines any good log line gives us someone to identify with as well as a big problem that you've got to Grapple with in any good log line there will be a few specific adjectives involved so let's recap what our log line needs to be compelling an adjective to describe the hero an adjective to describe the bad guy or antagonistic force and a compelling goal that we can all identify with as human beings so we know that our stories has to have at least one or two main people we can focus our attention on identify with and want to root for and someone who can carry the movie's theme so for me personally I don't come up with the characters first I come up with the big story concept first that gets me excited that gets me out of the bed in the morning and I shove the characters in after then afterwards I realized that I started to morph these characters into people who they need to be to make my story work better and you know what turns out I was on the right track we've got to remember from a structure perspective that the who should serve the story concept first now I know what you're thinking you're like Alan no characters serve themselves well that's also true in every scene that you write characters will function and act in a way that serves themselves that gets them what they want they have to let me repeat that they must function in a way that serves themselves now I know we've got to make characters that serve themselves but remember our jobs as screenwriters is to tie that character's wants needs and desires into that story concept so that overall our character does serve the needs of our story so confusing let me break it down let's take Ariel from Little Mermaid for instance this story concept is all about the trials and tribulations of a young lady growing up spreading her wings and eventually leaving the nest it's clear that Ariel wants to experience all of the joys and Pleasures that comes from living on land why because it's new it's exciting it's fun and it's not what she's used to and now all Ariel really needs is an anchor for her to really sink her teeth into a physical manifestation of all the joys and Pleasures that come from living on land and experiencing something new something that makes Ariel's desire strong enough to defy her father make a deal with the devil and put her beautiful voice on the line you guessed it that anchor is a man the prince now remember what I said we need someone or something to experience our ideas so that our audience knows what we're trying to say see I was right but for the sake of this story this man is a physical manifestation of everything that Ariel wants out of life right now and in the end hopefully the audience realizes that Ariel's needs wants and desires are indeed tied to that overall story concept I described earlier please leave a comment below if it does or doesn't make sense so with that new knowledge under our belts think about who my character has to be to maximize the validity of my story our story should mean the most to our emcee so for our feature films we want our hero to be the person who really needs those lessons that our story has to offer Snyder argues to really make our story Concepts work we have to play with our characters to give our hero the most conflict the longest journey and the most Primal goal to amp up our idea for Maximum Impact the prince works so well as a physical manifestation for everything Ariel wants and needs in the story because we all want to find love and he is a physical manifestation of that love he acts as the story's Primal urge the anchor so remember once we've got our hero the motivation for how they move and operate has got to be a basic one what does your hero want in any commercial film our hero has got to have urges tied to survival Hunger sex protection of others or fear of death something extremely basic these Primal desires gives our hero real Stakes we'll realize that once we make our characters desires Primal and put that in the Forefront of our stories that we're really creating some compelling conflict there across the spider verse has Miles Morales struggling to strike a balance between fighting crime focusing on his future and showing up for his family but when miles discovers his Nemesis will kill his father in two days he fights whoever stands in his way all the way up to the end showing us what truly mattered to him all along even though he struggled showing up for them throughout the film now imagine if miles already made himself available for his family put crime fighting on pause was on on time to every family function in every school meeting one this would take away all the great conflict we have in this story and more importantly it would undervalue what miles was forced to learn in the climax it's a more effective movie because he didn't show up when he was supposed to so let's pretend we're riding the second draft of across the spider verse for a second right in the second draft the writers definitely knew what story they were telling and in the rewriting process they may have made him late to all of those family functions instead of being on time these small little tweaks amplify the validity of this story another example of how an idea can easily be ruined by overdeveloped characters or the wrong characters alright so now that we know this we can go back into our log lines and change our heroes into someone who makes our story work best Snyder explains that we must create Heroes who offer the most conflict in that situation have the longest way to go emotionally and are the most graphically pleasing and remember Snyder focused a lot on marketability in his scripts right so he thought that we should really focus on Heroes that our audience would enjoy seeing on screen additionally to learn a little bit more about the heroes in our story it would really do us some good to really know about the kind of hero we are creating and know where that kind of hero came from Believe It or Not Our Heroes come from a long line of other Heroes that is just like the one you were creating and this is where our conversation about archetypes comes into play if we analyze Heroes and Other Stories with similar arcs and similar demographics it pretty much matches up with our hero we'll see what's been done before to them and then we can find new and innovative ways to Spruce these people up he doesn't want us riding with a particular actor in mind he wants us to really understand the long lineage of Heroes RMC descended from Snyder says like knowing the history of certain story types knowing the long line of ancestors your characters descend from is a must your job your simple task is to forget the Stars concentrate on the archetypes and strive to make them new so ultimately Snyder tells us to create a story about a guy or girl who we can identify with we can learn from we have a compelling reason to follow we believe deserves to win and has Stakes that are Primal and ring true for you opening image themes stated setup Catalyst resisting change debate end of act one end of debate break into Act 2 B story diving in foreshadowing midpoint trouble first half of efforts turn on characters All Is Lost Dark Knight of the Soul break into act 3 Revelation finale resolution final image by the end of this video you are going to have a clear understanding of how to properly structure your screenplay using pen and paper or a computer you'll learn how you can apply this to your screenplay screenwriting structure is the single most important element when it comes to writing a successful feature film over the years Blake Snyder's beat sheet has become the foundation for commercial contemporary Cinema he asserts that in order for our screenplay to be a commercial success it must have a structural order of operations that dives deeper into the Contemporary 3x structure this system revolutionized the way filmmakers and enthusiasts viewed feature films in Hollywood this is a filmmaking tool that is meant to work hand in hand with your film treatment in order for you to fully flesh out your screenplay it's Hollywood's secret weapon the beat sheet if you're excited to learn or relearn the beat sheet just give this video a like and let's get started story beat one opening image this beat will be found on page one the purpose of this beat is to establish the tone mood style and establish the stakes of your film to inform the audience of the kind of film they're about to watch this basically lets your audience know what they're in for this gives the screenwriter the opportunity to establish who the characters are before the events in your story change them forever and force them to become better or worse versions of themselves the matching beat for the opening image is the final image at the end of the film and since the protagonist of your story will inevitably change by the powerful events in your story the opening image and your final image should be opposites Snyder calls them your film's bookends now we know that good stories have well-rounded character arcs we also know that a character Arc is the result of their Journey giving us a character's personal growth or mental emotional decline or deterioration these two beats are a way to make clear to your audio how your characters have changed as a result of their Journey your opening can also give your audience hints into the act 3 story Revelation as you can see here in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar and in The Prestige story beat 2 theme stated the theme or thematic premise is the omnipresent invisible current driving your entire story the theme of your film will be mentioned discussed or alluded to around the first four to five percent of your screenplay someone usually not the main character will pose a question or make a statement usually to the main character that is the theme of the movie one of the greatest trip even for your daughter it won't be obvious it'll be conversational an offhand remark that the main character doesn't quite get at the moment but which will have far-reaching and meaningful impact later Snyder refers to this as the Thematic premise this is the argument posed by the screenwriter the pros and cons of living a particular kind of life or pursuing a specific goal the passion for perfecting their shows transforms two magicians into dangerous entities who gives more love to their magic tricks and rivalry than they give to their family at its core they're placing their career above their family so Christopher Nolan's cinematic master class is a metaphor about what will happen if you deem your career more valuable than your family Obsession turns you into a completely different person don't know you don't know theme is a human condition lesson that the filmmaker is trying to teach it ties all of the sequences into a unified film The Emotional intellectual or spiritual issue at the core of your story it is the Invisible Thread that gives your story weight if you do not have a well fleshed out theme or thematic premise in your first draft according to both Snyder and Robert McKee it's all right odds are you don't have the whole picture until you've actually undergone all of the sequences in your story because according to them you may not have it yet and I've also realized it with myself as I'm writing the first draft of my story I'm not quite crystal clear on what the theme may be yet but by the second draft I can hone it in and make some rewrites in order to make this abundantly clear to my audience story beat 3 the setup this is the first 10 to 12 pages of your screenplay and the objective is to grip your audience and shake them up you need to grab your audience or you risk losing their attention this is is where you set up the main players in your story and establish the stakes in your film so that by the first 10 minutes you've already met or referenced all of the main players in your story players also should exhibit behaviors or characteristics that needs to be addressed later on you're showing the audience why your hero needs to change in order to achieve his goal what's missing in the life of your hero here we see the world before The Adventure Starts or as Snyder calls it the thesis the Calm before the storm because of the events that follow in your story did not occur your characters would not change story Beat 4 catalyst this speech should occur around page 12 or page 20 or 21 if you're Christopher Nolan but you really don't want it to occur after page 12 because according to Snyder your story will drag so we've set up our story we've set up our characters and characteristics and faults that they may have we've set up our dominoes and now it's time to knock them down this is the point in your story where your MC is completely destabilized by an event that causes a fundamental change in the way that their lives operate in other words this is where something tremendous happens in your MC's life an earth-shattering event that shoves your MC straight into their perilous Journey story beat 5 resisting change debate so the debate is going to be how your MC thinks that he's going to move forward and get closer to his outer goal and it should be in some way shape or form tied into your film's thematic premise here your MC outwardly explores or debates the wrong way of going about solving his problem he swears up and down that the steps that he's about to take is going to lead him to his success but he'd be wrong he's going about life incorrectly because he has the wrong idea about how to fix his problem since he hasn't endured the hardships that the rest of your story has in store the MC still doesn't have a true grasp on how he should achieve his goal and that's because at this point your MC might not be sure what his actual true goal is this can also be an internal debate that has large-scale implications that will be brought to the surface later in your screenplay quick tip in a story where your character Will Survive or overcome the MC will generally take steps in the right direction overall but the idea is that they're simply going about it the wrong way as long as your MC's actions align with your film's thematic premise you'll survive conquer and dominate whereas in a tragedy your MC will progressively take steps in the wrong direction that directly opposes the Thematic premise of your film until his actions eventually lead to his inevitable death story beat 6 end of act 1 end of debate here the MC makes a definitive Choice he makes a decision to go about solving life's issues depending on your screenplay the MC will take a step in the right direction that brings him to the next beat of the film so yes what he came up with may be a partial solution to his problem but he doesn't have the full answer yet the MC discovers a false solution that drives a wedge between him and his true goal that's why you need the rest of your story for him to make some course Corrections the more drastic those course Corrections the better your screenplay story beat 7 break into act 2. this is where you dive head first into your upside down World you've established in Act One the MC must take a definitive step into this beat he cannot be lured wandered or tricked into it no the MC finds this New Path and begins to embark on or execute the plans that they set in motion at the very end of act 1. the purpose of this beat is to truly identify what your MC really needs in order to win and be successful at life and identify your MC's faults to your audience and if faults or any ticks this may ultimately be a portion of what is holding your main character back if your thematic premise was pretty subtle please feel free to revisit it here through the lens of your main character give him a thematic premise checkup see how your MC's doing put an obstacle in the protagonist's way and see how he responds they still holding on to the same habits all right I'm out in public everybody else loves it why you like this Alfred I had a terrible ordeal today or are they moving and operating differently now fella would just put a rug there sit down give me that even 300 that's a standard freelance fee Tara page one run that photo instead deadline Spider-Man hero or Menace exclusive Daily Bugle photos Menace he was protecting that armored Atticus you take the pictures I'll make up the headlines okay all right is that okay with you yes sir how they respond will greatly influence how intensely you're able to beat them up later it'll decide whether they just need a gentle push forward or an earthquake I like earthquakes just keep this in mind and this goes for all of your story beats moving forward the more you set up the more you will have to pay off later story beat 8 B story This Is The Love Story what are you doing for a job how much you the essential break required from the intense a story now don't get me wrong each and every element in this beat sheet was created in order to push your main character forward so that he's able to figure out what he has to do in order to accomplish his goal even though the Beast story is here to give us a little break from the a story the B story should have the pure essence of our theme This Love Story provides an open forum for you to discuss the theme of the film openly our protagonist will draw his strength from the characters Concepts and lessons that he's learned from characters in the B story to help push him into act three and eventually achieve victory in the end according to Snyder we may visit characters who are the upside down versions of those characters who inhibit the world of act one story beat 9 diving in fun and games here we arrive at the reason why you're writing your screenplay to begin with here is the heart of your screenplay have fun with this portion guys you should be exhilarated to write this section this is the essence of your movie poster this is also where most of the moments in your film trailer will come from this is the reason why audiences all around the world are going to think your film is awesome foreign this is the heart of your movie here we take a break from the heavy Stakes of the movie and showcase intriguing elements about your film here we see what your film's big idea is all about story beat 10 foreshadowing this is a portion of your diving in section that occurs at the very tail end of it this is where the main character begins to realize that he may have a deep-rooted issue that may be preventing him from achieving what he wants he organically begins to actively work towards becoming better here is your MC's first real attempt to fight back against his central conflict now this section may not be long it may be just a second depending on how your story is structured but unfortunately your MC is still trying to figure out how he should go about life correctly he in fact took a huge step towards the right direction or a huge step towards the wrong direction if it's a tragedy think about as you're MC trying to cover up his injuries with a Band-Aid when in fact he needs surgery because of this the protagonist's attempt to solve core issues with his main supporting characters awkwardly fails is it yours why well then you should keep it Roman in my room in your apartment I gave it up why I'm going away where this gives the audience a glimpse of what life could be like if the MC lived up to his true potential [Music] story beat 11 midpoint buckle up ladies and gentlemen because according to Snyder the midpoint until you're All Is Lost section are the most difficult portions of your screenplay at the midpoint we have a peak in our story this is where the writer raises the stakes fun and games are over this is where your protagonist will experience His Highest positive emotional High where the hero seemingly Peaks though it is a false Peak bad guys may be temporarily defeated or the protagonist will experience his lowest emotional low when the world collapses around them though it is a false collapse the matching beat to the midpoint is All Is Lost the rule is it's never as good as it seems to be at the midpoint and it's never as bad as it seems to be at the All Is Lost this is their relationship with one another story beat 12. first half of efforts turn on characters bad guys close in doubt jealousy anguish shame and internal Discord begins to erupt around our main characters meanwhile the antagonists of our story band together and planned their merciless Onslaught on our main characters they bring in the big guns in other words they strike the MC and the MC's allies when they're at their weakest the forces that are aligned against the hero internal and external tighten their grip and choke out RMC and his allies and when The protagonist's Descent feels like it can't get any worse it does story beat 13 All Is Lost remember when I mentioned in the break into Act 2 Section how the protagonist responds to an obstacle prompted by the Thematic premise will decide how intensely you must beat down your character later well this is where you do it so now think about what you like to do in order to break down your main character got it good now multiply that by four what is the worst possible thing that could happen to your main character yeah pick that this must reinforce how important your thematic premise is to your main character while keeping him alive if you're trying to kill your main character don't do it just yet death is most certainly involved in this be here it's All Is Lost is synonymous with death so the protagonist's best friend family member or character who your protagonist just can't live without is brutally murdered or something like that now it doesn't have to be a literal murder if your film is a light-hearted comedy or your film's tone wouldn't work very well with that kind of Darkness if you have one of these kinds of stories then the point here would be to elude or strongly suggest the death of something the death of a relationship the death of an ideal the death of something this is meant to represent to the audience that the MC's old way of thinking is dead [Applause] where am I gone first Snyder calls it the whiff of death story beat 14 The Dark Knight of the Soul here is the moment that you really need your audience to truly feel what your MC is feeling because this answers the question how does your character experiencing this moment feel about what just occurred it can last a few seconds or even 10 minutes this is your main character's deepest darkest moment externalized really put this moment on display for your audience he's hopeless clueless wasted beaten down buried and burned but then he'll Rise Up From the Ashes and your MC will emerge reborn afresh which brings your protagonist to your act 3 Revelation the MC's deepest darkest moments leads him to this aha moment the solution to his problems thanks to the characters found in the B story thanks to all of the conversations discussing the heart of the movie thanks to every single painful loss the external story a story and the internal story B story Collide the synthesis of act 1 and act 2 gives your MC this startling Revelation he's dug down deep and found this solution now all he has to do is apply what he's learned in the grand finale Snyder the classic Fusion of A and B is the hero getting the clue from the girl B story that makes him realize how to solve both beating the bad guys and winning the heart of his beloved an idea to solve the problem has emerged synthesis story beat 16. finale resolution this is where the Lessons Learned in act 1 and in Act 2 are applied the a story and the B story end in Triumph for our hero or the hero is defeated the original source of the problem is typically dispatched though for this new world order to exist this must be done in an emotionally satisfying manner your audience must certainly feel something here laughs misery misery misery that's what you've chosen the best endings will be somewhat of a hybrid Melancholy mix of a super emotional high and an extreme low as this feeling mimics many of real life's finales don't tell Harry storybeat 17 final image this will be the opposite of your opening image and be proof to your audience needed that tells them that change has occurred now I'm going to answer one final question for you and it's called an act break what's an act break we've got one after act one and another one right after act two some ACT breaks are more obvious than other act breaks but an act break is simply the moment where we exit the old world in the previous act and enter the new world in the next ACT breaks smoothly transitions our audience to the next phase of our story save the cat the Pope in the pool double mumbo jumbo laying pipe black vet AKA too much marzipan watch out for that glacier the Covenant of the Ark keep the press out when Blake Snyder was alive he wrote this game-changing book called save the cat and listen rather not you like his techniques or his structure methods or his controversial statements in his book his filmmaking structure techniques are taught all around the country so it's time we learned about what Blake described as the eight immutable laws of screenplay physics save the cat yeah this is the law that states as soon as we meet the main character we have to see him or her in action doing something that allows the audience to empathize with him the MC should do something that gets the audience to side with him we meet him we like him because he or her did something to get us on their side now listen this doesn't necessarily have to be a good thing this could be a very bad thing he's probably doing something scary something clever or he's just kicking somebody's behind listen when writing it's very important to get the audience in sync with our main character and this is how you do it saving the cat is capturing the audience's attention with the MC this is part of the reason why we care about him or her now if you'd like to learn more about specific ways to save the cat please take a look at this video right here and that's all about how you can get your audience to empathize with your main character AKA save the cat the Pope in the pool so every great story with any amount of depth requires some amount of exposition so Exposition is back story or details about the plot that is essential for the audience to know if the audience is going to move forward and enjoy the rest of the story so that they can actually understand what happens next but the problem many of us writers face is burying the expositions so deep in our stories that our audience finds it difficult to distinguish Exposition for main story now I agree with Blake Snyder Exposition is probably the worst part of any complex movie and this is exactly why Modern Masters of Storytelling mask their Exposition with Innovative imagery what we've got to do is distract our audience while delivering expositions so that they're not quite picking up on the fact that we're actually giving them Exposition while we're giving them Exposition so Snyder describes the scenario where representatives are visiting the pope at the Vatican where the Vatican pool and the pope is wearing a bathing suit and the idea is the pope is swimming back and forth as Exposition unfolds so truthfully in this scenario right the audience is probably thinking wait the pope is not wearing Pope clothes he's swimming gonna pull right now and before the audience realizes they're being fed Exposition the scene is over he describes this Exposition burying technique as Pope in the pool so you're simply giving your audience something else substantial to chew on while delivering your Exposition and before the audience realizes you're feeding them an exposition sandwich boom you're out of the scene double mumbo jumbo this ties directly into the audience suspension of disbelief concept so there's only but so much an audience member is going to be able to handle in a movie so as a writer we're not trying to overwhelm the audience or give them more than they can handle now Snyder believed that audience members will only accept one piece of magic per movie broadly we shouldn't be seeing ghosts and vampires in the same movie unless you create a well-established set of rules that governs this universe like in JK Rowling's Harry Potter series J.R.R tolkien's works and comic book films and remember this is just a rule that can be broken if done properly like in everything everywhere once but the reason why this film works so well is because the entire film is centered around one concise controlling idea be kind trust me the Daniels knew this rule existed which is why they were able to work around it and get about seven Oscars but odds are if the majority of us try to break this rule without properly knowing what we're doing then we're just going to end up with more sharknados laying pipe yep that's the rule so when we are setting up our story or establishing our premise we are going about a process Blake Snyder called laying pipe on the beat sheet this is everything that happens in our story leading up to the Catalyst but unfortunately we can only lay pipe for so long before our audience members get bored now Lane pipe provides I swear I did not come up with a sword laying pipe provides the stepping stones for our audience members to understand the setup of our story but laying too much pipe only serves to lessen the overall quality of the story and lowers the overall quality of the movie going experience we want to get to our stories hook in about 15 to 25 minutes max Blake Snyder said your story's got too much explaining if you can't do it in 15 or 25 minutes or less now this is the problem with laying too much pipe so by needing so much backstory to understand the whole story the entire story as a result begins to torque out of shape so Snyder warns us please set up your stories in 25 minutes or less emphasis on the less part black vet AKA too much marzipan now this is a play off of double mumbo jumbo the title arcs back to Albert Brooks SNL parodies he did in the 1970s the elbow take and today they're working on the spit tank made so famous by Danny Thomas on Make Room for Daddy a fake promo he did on SNL was called black vet and he was a war vet and a veterinarian in other words this screenwriting mistake occurs when we try to roll up too many great ideas all into one to try to maximize the relevance of our idea or eating too much marzipan so we've got to keep in mind as writers that a little goes a long way when it comes to extracting the central core ideas behind a small little concept take a look at Paranormal Activity alien 10 Cloverfield Lane saw more does not always mean better simple is better we don't want to get too caught up in harvesting all the seeds of all of our story ideas all into one story mutating it into one work and hoping it's a masterpiece oftentimes less is more one great concept at a time please watch out for that Glacier now this is when danger is approaching your protagonist this at a snail's pace they're coming very slowly like one inch per year that is how unthreatening your life-threatening event is now of course slow dangers and great movies happen all the time but even if your danger May lie somewhere in the background creeping up on our heroes we've got to remember to keep our danger present Stakes must be present for all of the characters we care about consequences of our eminent threat has got to be known Straight Out The Gate the Covenant of the Ark now this screenwriting law states that every character must change throughout the course of the entire story now the characters who usually don't end up changing much are the bad guys why because they usually end up falling on a spike filled with their own fruitless ideals philosophies and stuck in their old immutable ways Arc is a term that means the change that occurs to any character from the beginning through the middle and to the end of each character's Journey now we should be able to chart the growth and change our character undergoes through throughout the course of the movie because in our films the plot points are so integral to the character's growth so life-changing for everyone involved that even you the audience changes as a result it affects every person in its orbit so if your story is worth telling it must be vitally important to everyone involved our setups and payoffs for each of our characters must be carefully tracked from beginning to end so don't worry this is a task that we usually say for our rewrites and this change in all characters occurs in some really really good movies and it usually improves rewatchability so before you sit down and write or rewrite notate how each character is going to Arc by charting their internal and external Journeys from start to finish on the beat sheet write down the physical and emotional Milestones your characters must complete in order to Arc remember broadly good guys are those willing to accept change as a positive force bad guys are those who refuse change who will curl up in their own juice is unable to move out of the rut that their lives represent to succeed in life is to be able to transform real change occurs when at the end of the film there is a fundamental alteration of their internal philosophies about how they live their lives don't know if we have any anime fans in the building but like what happened to Aaron in season four of Attack on Titan keep the press out now this is a lesson that Snyder learned from Steven Spielberg himself unless your story truly requires media outlets in the news to really tell your story Spielberg advises Snyder to keep the press out let's take ET for instance Spielberg discovered that the reality of the ET premise would be destroyed if the Press was involved but by keeping the alien a secret among the family in the block the magic experienced by ET was able to stay alive in other words the magic stayed ground it in real with respect to the story when you bring the Press into the at story we'd effectively be striking the same chord as breaking the fourth wall all of the joy the alien brought to life in this story would be gone dead fine you're like Alan my story needs the news in it okay all right whenever you add the press in think about this what does the Press bring to your overall premise and what does the Press have to do with the core values of your entire story now unless you're dealing with a Gone Girl kind of story where public perception was key to how the story functioned then keep the press out or at least bring the press in with care if you'd like to have the press in your story just think about this what does Nightcrawler and Gone Girl have in common well the press is directly tied into the main character's perception of themselves she wants the public to view her as this heroic victim in Jake Gyllenhaal's character's mission was to use the power of the press in order to build his Muse Empire in both cases the Press is directly tied to each character's central conflict or it was a huge part of their outer motivation the hero leads talking the plot making the bad guy better turn turn turn the emotional color wheel Hi how are you I'm fine [Music] take a step back a limp and an eye patch is its Primal congratulations you finished writing your script that's awesome hope it's not too long so the biggest things that separates the newbies from the Vets are the way we go about our rewriting processes if your new new odds are there is no rewriting processes you're liking my film is incredible I use the beat sheet of Dan Harmon story circles in there there's nothing wrong with my story wow odds are you're wrong so in this video I'm going to walk you through the nine Corrections Blake Snyder recommends that we make in our screenplays if you're excited to learn give this video a like and let's get started the hero leads did you hear that the Future kid don't hurt me do it again now this is a problem that I've had with the scripts that I've written in the past and it is the classic case of the inactive hero so our hero is kind of being dragged along this journey circumstances are being presented to him or her but the problem is our hero isn't the core reason why we are being taken on this journey to begin with so our hero is going to come across as unmotivated and his desires and his goal is going to come off as vague he never seeks Clues they're just kind of given to him he has no clear goals or Ambitions he just kinda exists and he doesn't know why now if this describes your hero fix it stat your hero must be proactive if he's not he's not a hero that driving force behind why your hero moves must be clear to your audience now here's a few questions Snyder presents to us in case our hero needs more is your hero's goal clearly stated in the setup so what your hero wants should be obvious to the audience so make sure his goals are spoken aloud and restated in actions and in Word throughout the story do clues of what to do next just come to your hero or does he or she actively seek them out so if opportunities or solutions to your hero's problems just kind of emerge out of the blue or come too easily to our hero then something's wrong every great story doesn't just have a random ex machina your hero cannot be handed his Destiny he's got to work for it every step of the way is your hero passive or active if he's passive that's a problem so everything the hero does has to emerge from his or her burning desire this desire is backed up by proactive Relentless actions he takes towards achieving his goal now this helps the audience feel how urgent accomplishing said goals are urgency and proactive thinking are clear signs that our hero is active we've got to feel Our Heroes need to cross that Finish Line do other characters tell your hero what to do or does your hero tell them now the hero knows the answers to the important questions and others around him look to him for answers not the other way around now obviously when it comes to his fatal flaw or central conflict he's blind but generally if you see a lot of question marks swirling around the MC's dialogue there's a larger problem now I know we often give our heroes a pass when it comes to Exposition but generally the hero leads talking the plot well you are junior high school wrestling champ well you were the number one police detective on the force how are you doing since your father passed he was the o203 junior high Tennis champion apparently during the third year award ceremony he announced that he was hanging up his racket and I guess he hasn't played competitively since I get it you want the audience to know some backstory throw some photos up on the wall because this kind of dialogue is bad do not resort to your characters speaking plot or Exposition it's easy it's cheap and it is a simple way to deliver Exposition but this is by far the least effective in eliciting a strong emotion in our audience and ultimately will not step operate our story from the pack Snyder warns us that this is guaranteed to have your script thrown across the room by the reader I know what you're thinking Alan there's no way I can tell them what backstory and Exposition I have going on I know it's difficult but this is our job as excellent storytellers it's our jobs as creatives to craft beautiful poignant solutions to these problems and as we work on solving these issues we begin to refine and polish our screenwriting abilities we've got to keep in mind that characters do not serve you they serve themselves they've got to walk into a scene with their words their goals and their objectives in mind not yours you reveal what they want their goals dreams Ambitions hopes and fears by not only what they say but how they say it as well good dialogue tells us more about what's going on in the subtext than on its surface if you only knew how little I know about the things that matter what things that matter you know what things subtle is better and talking the plot is not subtle at all it's Overkill so bear in mind the age-old storytelling Axiom show don't tell now this problem in particular plagues the African-American screenwriting Community we must fix this imagine trying to convey an issue with a marriage and you always have a noisy girl talking to a girlfriend saying girl you know he can't keep it in his pants I know he tried but we don't need to show her talking to a girlfriend we don't need to see a boring counseling session imagine how much you can communicate to your audience just by showing a man and his wife walking down the street a beautiful woman with curves walk by where does the Man's eyes go glued to that woman just staring at the Curvy Girl with his wife right beside him now remember your audience is a lot more perceptive than you think now the audience is going to know immediately that there's trouble in Paradise right character is revealed by action taken not by words spoken and in a good movie information doesn't come out in dialogue it comes out out in the actions we're watching play out on screen and instead of backstory and Exposition you should be focusing on what's happening in your story right now rather than focusing on what happened before the story started make the bad guy better why because your main character is proactive he's great he's awesome he's amazing so your antagonist has to be the reflection of what your hero is except with No Boundaries the bad guys should be more effective at achieving his goals because he doesn't have any limitations or altruistic code or sense of morality prohibiting him from getting done what he has to get done he's generally willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants the good guy has this box he has to work within the bad guy is just like your good guy except he has no box oh boy oh my ah and I thought my jokes were bad we've got to make the bad guys so good at what he does that we as writers should be puzzled as to how the good guy is going to get out of the bad guys clutches if we as writers get writer's block at the point where the bad guys fortifying his forces and you're thinking how in the world is a good guy going to win how is he gonna get out of this one it's generally a good thing we really want to be puzzled at that point as writers because if we are puzzled as the story's architect odds are your audience is going to be puzzled and this creates a lot of excitement and Intrigue in our audience now we can reverse engineer in our stories and work backwards to plant seeds and our stories in Acts 1 and 2 things that the good guy may have missed that will eventually lead our good guy to success in act three Assuming he's been paying attention we cannot protect our good guy from dangers and challenges we've got to get used to throwing more at our hero than he can handle because that's how he or she grows he needs an antagonist whose ability to surpass his own typically in a classic good guy AI versus bad guy film the hero and the villain are two halves of the same person they have much more in common than you think but they usually have opposing goals and perspectives on the world in many great movies the protagonist and the antagonists are light and dark calves of the same person typically the good guy has things to lose like a family like friends there are jobs that makes it more difficult for them to triumph over the antagonist in most cases the antagonist doesn't care what they lose or who they lose and they're willing to sacrifice whoever they need to achieve their goals the good guys wouldn't dare sacrificing loved ones to get what they want so generally protagonists have limitations and boundaries with respect to how they go about getting what they want which makes accomplishing their goals infinitely harder than the bad guys turn turn turn we want to be sure that as our film progresses it doesn't simply float forward the plot should Spin and intensify as it moves forward it's the difference between simple velocity and acceleration our first draft May consist of the plot just move forward but in our rewrites we must go forward faster and with more complexity as we reach the story's climax if all you've got is a Chase but nothing about the chase is provoking what's going on behind the audience's eyeballs that's not good your audience is just watching stuff happen at this point but nothing about the chase is compelling or engaging Snyder says we don't just want kinetic eye candy with no Forward Motion it's a Chase with no Stakes they go here they go there but I don't care I don't know what or why I'm watching this story moves forward but there is no turn turn turn more must be revealed every step of the plot about your characters as we go forward you've got to show how the activity of your plot is affecting your character's ability to make choices you've got to show flaws reveal treacheries and fears of Our Heroes you expose hidden powers and untapped potential our hero possesses I'm paraphrasing but Snyder says something like show us facets about our characters that truly Dazzle us like a diamond glistening in the light so a plot doesn't simply move forward it accelerates and reveals secrets with enthusiasm and Charisma the emotional color wheel [Music] foreign I see this mistake made in new filmmaker's works all the time in our rewrites we got to be sure we're taking our audience through as many emotions as the tone of our film genre permits we want our audience to experience as much emotions as possible that's what storytelling is all about you want the audience feeling like a used wash rag by the end their emotions have been rung out they've laughed they've cried they've been aroused they've been scared they felt anger regret frustration anxiety typically the more nuanced and specific the emotion you're able to clearly convey the better the idea is to effectively simulate in our audience what it feels like to live we've created a dream state where life and its emotions are recreated in a safe environment Rachel we really just wanted to see how he was doing yeah chemotherapy it really sucks great what the hell bro don't say it suck dumbass that's kind of suck yeah but I mean you got to do what you got to do yeah I guess like I said I see this mistake in emerging filmmakers works all the time yes I understand that your character is sad but you've got to take the extra step to synchronize your character with your audience and when you're dealing with an extremely powerful emotion such as grief or sadness we've got to see how that character was before he got stuck in grief to begin with now if someone dies early in your story you better show why the loss of this character meant so much to your MC before you just kill them all don't just assume that just because you killed off your main character's son or daughter that the audience is automatically supposed to feel just like the main character as if you're just commanding your audience to care it doesn't work like that what emotion did this character bring to your emcee Happiness joy peace great now instead of showing generic memories or experiences you start with an extremely important specific memory that solidifies that character's significance in your MC's life in the story so you show why they're important before you kill them off before you even introduce the concept of them dying you show that to your audience first then you kill them if your script feels one note emotionally go back and flesh out your story using all the emotions on the emotional color wheel you're writing a love story where's the lust scene where's your frustration scene where's your arousal scene where's your scary scene and if you don't have these take a scene that's just funny or dramatic and try to play it for one of the missing colors on the emotional color wheel take a look at what emotions are missing in your screenplay and pick one of the missing emotions take those scenes use the same action the same positive negative charge the same conflict and result but play it for lust instead of laughs jealousy instead of dramatic Conflict by varying the emotions you use you create a much more fulfilling cinematic experience for everyone involved Hi how are you oh I'm fine this flat dialogue I'm guilty of this as well even in the second draft of my feature line Thriller it's still in there this boring flat dialogue is a waste of space and awaits your audience's time flat dialogue is the kind of dialogue that anyone can say it's not specific or perfectly aligned with any one character engaging characters talk differently than you and I they've got a unique way of saying the most mundane things hey get off Kevin out of the room hang up the phone and make me why don't you which raises them above the norm a character's dialogue is the opportunity to reveal what that character wants and who that person really is it's our opportunity to reveal character how someone talks is character and can highlight a character's past inner demons and his overall outlook on life every time a character speaks is your chance to show that it feels personal when you chat up every other guy at the game except me when you stay late for a drink with JT but never have you visited his Oscar I think it's bolted on the hood of his car it's noticeable when you go out of your way to demonstrate that you have no interest in me you did the same thing to Dean all your characters should not speak the same they should all have a unique voice which means you can run your script through this classic dialogue test cover up the names of the people speaking now can you tell who's speaking just by looking at the words on the page if you cannot tell what characters speaking just by looking at their dialogue this is bad gotta be Rewritten so one extreme technique Snyder recommends if this is a problem in your script is giving each character some kind of a verbal tick that you don't have to be this drastic in your screenplay by any means but the overall idea behind this is that you're giving each character a unique verbal identifier so that you can tell who is speaking just by reading their dialogue Snyder says this makes your characters richer tape a step back so this here this is a mistake that happens to everyone even professional writers working in Hollywood this is when at the very beginning of the script your hero is already who he or she needs to be by the end of the film let's say he didn't need the journey he didn't need the plot to undergo change he was effectively the same person at the beginning that he was at the end and to fix this problem at the very beginning of your movie you've got to take your main character a step back psychologically emotionally mentally physically so that the journey means something generally you want to get into the habit of taking your main character back a step with each rewrite you've got to take your main character as far back as humanly possible to increase the significance of your plot this ensures that your plot exists to develop your MC kind many of us know where our heroes are going to end up so often times you place our heroes Minds at the end of the story psychologically but he's just at the beginning we're saving RMC the torment of growth we as writers want our MC to succeed so badly that we show the audience a fully developed human being at the beginning and this person is so developed that this undervalues the relevance of our story we've got to show our characters bumps in the road because showing these bumps makes the payoff at the end that much sweeter these characters need to grow by getting slapped in the mouth punched in the face needed the nuts knocked in the head so many times that they realize that oh but there's something that I'm not doing right here I'm not supposed to be doing this I'm supposed to be doing that and they start doing that if I think and move like this then I won't get punched in the mouth and slapped in the face as much and I can also accomplish my goals don't get so caught up in the end result that you deny us as the audience the adventure of that beautiful growth show the audience everything all the change all the growth all the development all the action of the heroes Journey a limp and an eye patch okay so sometimes we've done all the things to make our script incredible right we have perfect structure the plot is on point it intensifies and explodes after the midpoint dialogue is Snappy story is solid growth is there but something is missing in your script that you just can't put your finger on there seem to be too many minor characters in your script who you may need to get rid of and or combine it's kind of hard to tell these characters apart even though the dialogue is Snappy and specific and unique well Snyder argues that your characters might be missing a limp and an eye patch this confusion occurs when you haven't given the audience a hook to hang their hats on for each vital character in the story in Kill Bill we've got Uma Thurman's iconic yellow and black jumpsuit yes every character has to have a unique way of speaking but also a unique physical identifier something physically memorable that will stick in the minds of the readers that our audience will eventually be watching on screen this is a visual cue or an ongoing visual reminder which makes remembering who each character is a lot easier Snyder says a limited eye patch may seem like a silly way to attach traits to characters to make sure we remember them but it works so if you find yourself with one or several unidentifiable characters who are getting lost in the shuffle try giving them a limp and an eye patch is it Primal so this is where Blake Snyder and Michael Hague the person who wrote This Book certainly agree does your plot hinge on Primal drives like survival Hunger sex protection of loved ones or fear of death at the root of anyone's goal in a commercial film must be something this basic even if on the surface it's something else no matter what your story is about by making your characters desire more Primal that plot is grounded in a reality that everyone can relate to Snyder says suddenly it's not about stock Brokers it's about human beings trying to survive these Primal desires are perceived as a biological need the Primal desires at the root of most horror films such as Paranormal Activity it smile is don't get killed AKA survive at the core of many dramas Thrillers and action films no matter how sophisticated the plot it must be about something that resonates at a caveman level to be loved to survive to protect family to exact revenge in your rewrites tie your main characters wants and needs to these Primal desire years you should be all good if you're a filmmaker you should grab a clover key to screw your camera plate onto your camera haven't seen my film yet don't worry I'll post a link in the description below interested in learning from me one-on-one shoot me an email at alanprofilm gmail.com it's always a pleasure talking to you guys until next time peace