Story. Screenplay. Sale.
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
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
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
Question: Is it possible for the Inciting Incident to happen in backstory? Answer: Technically, ‘backstory’ is not in the movie. It is the history of your characters before the time the story starts. Because we need to see the Inciting Incident and how it affects the protagonist, it cannot happen in the backstory. However, the … Read more
This is the first in a series of structural overviews of popular films. Identifying the main story turns in a film is a great way to get a solid understanding of how film story works. So I invite you to view these films, break them down in their main story parts and compare notes with … Read more