Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Structure: Shawshank Redemption

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A structural overview of The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994). It was nominated for seven Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Morgan Freeman), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Sound – but it failed to win a single Oscar. This film has an interesting structure because of its unusual … Read more

Structure: Terminator 2

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A structural overview of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (J. Cameron, 1991). Terminator 2 offers amazing entertainment, with groundbreaking visual effects and unexpected character layers. Just like he did five years earlier with Aliens, co-writer/director James Cameron delivered an exceptionally satisfying sequel. ACT ONE Sequence A: Two Terminators 00.00 Girl on swings, idyllic ‘silence before the … Read more

Structure: Ghost World

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A cult comic, two charismatic teen actresses, an inspired director and a sparse score. Six pages of a comic book were turned into one of the coolest movies of the decade. A structural overview of Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World (2001). Because the plot points are often quite subtle, structurally this film seems a bit fluid and the protagonist’s … Read more

Inciting Incident: Planting the Bomb

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Keeping the audience interested throughout the ‘setup’ is a major challenge as professional readers won’t last until the Inciting Incident if the first ten or twelve pages don’t deliver. The ‘setup’ is often a complete sequence in which we see the ‘Ordinary World’, the protagonist’s ‘normal life’, an area of the story that by its … Read more

Structure: Michael Clayton

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A structural overview of Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy, 2007) in 8 Sequences. When I watched the film during its theatrical release, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Because of the relatively low budget (an estimated USD$25m) for its production values, Tony Gilroy was able to make some brave non-commercial decisions with his screen story. This didn’t go … Read more