Story. Screenplay. Sale.
The craft of telling a story starts with structure skills.
THE POWER OF NOW has brought a bit of Zen to the masses. Author Tolle is touring the world to spread the word and save our spiritual lives. Zen may be the key to your well-being; it is the enemy of cinema. Get your audience into the ‘now’ and your movie is dead. Storytelling for … Read more
In a Q&A for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, Michael Arndt made the point that “happy endings are really underrated”. It got me thinking. What’s wrong with a Hollywood ending? If you have a truly well-written story, why would a happy ending diminish its value? Why is it that writers believe happy endings are a cheap Hollywood … Read more
Struggling with a passive protagonist? Let’s look into what causes this passivity. Remember, a hero is not ‘active’ because he is always running, fighting, arguing etc. A hero is not ‘passive’ because he is never doing any of those, either. by Karel Segers Here is a list of points that in my view will have … Read more
Because the first shift of POV in a film may jolt the audience’s experience, it works best where this brief ‘disconnection’ doesn’t hurt the story: after a climax. The start of Act Two is a good place to move to the antagonist’s POV. We have just seen that our protagonist is ready to take on … Read more
Should you write a happy ending? Commercial common sense will tell you: yes, you should. Robert McKee says: “Tell the truth.” (see the previous post) McKee means: your story needs to reflect your worldview. If you contradict whatever you believe in for the sake of commerce, you will fail. During his Arthouse seminar, he gives … Read more