You get the idea from screenwriting teachers like John Truby and Chris Soth that script writing is essentially a left-brain activity—one requiring extensive pre-planning. For Truby, it’s a 22 step method. For Soth, it’s eight. Even Syd Field’s method requires the author to know, at the outset, the beginning, the end and two plot points.
All these methods represent an extreme left-brain approach to writing—one...
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silky:
Enjoyed reading this ! Nice ❤️❤️❤️
hecklongtree:
Glad you enjoyed my essay!
What makes a story compelling? What makes a book or screenplay one you can't put down? Or a DVD one you have to watch all the way through, as opposed to one you can easily stop at any point in the movie?
As I see it, storytelling, in whatever medium, is about raising questions, and good storytelling is about providing satisfactory answers. In a mystery,...
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The "objective correlative” is a concept I came across somewhere in my readings—don’t ask me where. Loosely, it’s the external manifestation of a particular emotion. Seeing as cinema is concerned largely with externals, that is, visuals, I thought the concept would have great applicability to film. Thinking I had hit upon an important and highly original insight, I performed an internet search to see what,...
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user0616220901:
Oh my oh my oh my, please watch "A pervert's guide to cinema" by Slavoj Zizek <3 <3 <3 You might love it as much as I do!! ;)
hecklongtree:
I saw it. Love his interpretations of movies, though I don't always understand what he's saying.
In “The Dramatist’s Toolkit,” Jeffrey Sweet discusses different ways to structure a play. One is to structure a play around a character. The character structured play tracks the protagonist as he or she achieves, or fails to achieve, an objective. Another method is to structure a play around an event. In a courtroom drama the event is a trial. The play tracks the course of...
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cybele:
You've caught me towards the end of my time here (my membership expires in January), and I don't "blog" much, but thanks for the "request-to-follow" -- or whatever the hell we're calling it now -- all the same. :) (And as far as the types of stories that most interest ME, I am solidly in the character-structured camp.)
hecklongtree:
That's all right, Cybele. Not sure if I'm renewing my subscription, either, when it expires in February.
Observations on Starting a Script
You get the idea from screenwriting teachers like John Truby and Chris Soth that script writing is essentially a left-brain activity, one requiring extensive pre-planning. For Truby, it's a 22 step method. For Soth, it's eight. Even Syd Field's method requires the author to know, at the outset, the beginning, the end and two plot points.
All these methods represent...
Read More
You get the idea from screenwriting teachers like John Truby and Chris Soth that script writing is essentially a left-brain activity, one requiring extensive pre-planning. For Truby, it's a 22 step method. For Soth, it's eight. Even Syd Field's method requires the author to know, at the outset, the beginning, the end and two plot points.
All these methods represent...
Read More
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
vianca:
I agree, the way it was written really helps with the connection. I always find myself immediately re reading it; truly one of the most fantastic and fascinating tales!
hecklongtree:
I finally finished "Dracula." Bram Stoker's characters are so different from the way they've been portrayed in the movies, especially Van Helsing, though I could definitely understand why no one tried to replicate his way of speaking. The audience would probably need subtitles to understand him.
Obama defeated Romney. I, for one, am relieved.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
suzika:
Thank you hun 
allay:
So happy Birthday to you! <3
Whenever I read or see a play or screenplay I like, I try to figure out what it is that makes the script work. Neil Simon is one of my favorites and, while his best plays all have their own special virtues, there is one feature that occurs over and over again. It's something I call the Sword of Damocles.
Swords of Damocles are events...
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Swords of Damocles are events...
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stmrllrkttnfrmr:
So basically what you're saying is, the protagonist has to dodge the Sword of Damocles a few times before they can get to the MacGuffin.
I think Jimmy Page said it well when describing his guitar solo from "Stairway to Heaven". The notes unfold like waves crashing against a wall, loosen as the tension releases, and build like an orgasm. So that when he kicks on his distortion pedal, it's an explosion of sound.
It can be tricky transferring high concept abstractions into writing, and then projecting them onto a screen.
What kind of stories are you working on?
I think Jimmy Page said it well when describing his guitar solo from "Stairway to Heaven". The notes unfold like waves crashing against a wall, loosen as the tension releases, and build like an orgasm. So that when he kicks on his distortion pedal, it's an explosion of sound.
It can be tricky transferring high concept abstractions into writing, and then projecting them onto a screen.
What kind of stories are you working on?
hecklongtree:
I've written a comedy screenplay and thriller. The comedy didn't have enough plot and the thriller had too much. I hope that, with my next project, I'll be able to find a happy medium.
Happy birthday, Thomas Wolfe, wherever you are!
Top 10 Legendary Screenwriters
Craig Mazin, screenwriter and correspondent for AskMen.com, recently compiled his Top 10 list of "legendary" Hollywood screenwriters. His choices were:
1. Billy Wilder
2. Ernest Lehman
3. Oliver Stone
4. Woody Allen
5. Ben Hecht
6. Francis Ford Coppola
7. David Mamet
8. Paul Schrader
9. William Goldman
10. Robert Benton.
Here are a couple of my favorites who didn't make...
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Craig Mazin, screenwriter and correspondent for AskMen.com, recently compiled his Top 10 list of "legendary" Hollywood screenwriters. His choices were:
1. Billy Wilder
2. Ernest Lehman
3. Oliver Stone
4. Woody Allen
5. Ben Hecht
6. Francis Ford Coppola
7. David Mamet
8. Paul Schrader
9. William Goldman
10. Robert Benton.
Here are a couple of my favorites who didn't make...
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VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
livion:
Thanks for the post. Unfortunately I won't make anyone's top list. At the moment I'm a freelance whore 
I am writing for any website that will take my work. I am not complaining, it is constant.
I am writing for any website that will take my work. I am not complaining, it is constant.
chniki:
Thank you so much for the support love!
Must a movie protagonist be likable?
That a protagonist should be likable is one of the shibboleths of modern Hollywood. In "Save the Cat" ( a popular screenwriting primer) Blake Snyder actually advocated writing an introductory scene where the main character saves a cat or performs some other good deed.
Of course, Jack Nicholson does throw a dog down a laundry chute at the beginning...
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That a protagonist should be likable is one of the shibboleths of modern Hollywood. In "Save the Cat" ( a popular screenwriting primer) Blake Snyder actually advocated writing an introductory scene where the main character saves a cat or performs some other good deed.
Of course, Jack Nicholson does throw a dog down a laundry chute at the beginning...
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VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
ritavonneurosis:
We are both fine right now!! thanks!!
ritavonneurosis:
Time has past, and I feel better now! But I'll try again to do some rolling tomorrow, so...
In a previous blog examining "Anatomy of Story:22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller," I noted author John Truby's rejection of Syd Field's widely adopted schematic approach, which prescribes placing plot points and act breaks at or near specific page numbers, as part of a screenplay's three act structure. I further noted that Truby's key concept is the "designing principle," the original way of organizing...
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VIEW 11 of 11 COMMENTS
ritavonneurosis:
Thanks! Yeah, I feel a lot better!
ritavonneurosis:
^Yeah, I knew it, I did some searchs on Wikipedia about this movie...
Could you please tell me how to write a salable screenplay? I'm reading John Truby's "The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller," and I can tell you right now it's going to be no help at all. Did I mention there are 22 steps? Besides the 22 steps, there's an algebraic formula: W + A = C, where W=weakness, A=action and...
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VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
avenall:
glad you enjoyed them
plymne:
Thank you for your lovely comment on my set <3