Chariots of Fire was hugely successful, though. It ended up making nearly $60 million at the US box office alone. It also won four Academy Awards, one for its original score.

I remember enjoying the movie, and as a fan of the early music of Vangelis (who also scored Blade Runner), I was curious to see if and how 25 years later the film would hold up.

Minimal Appeal

I put Chariots Of Fire on my watch list, but didn’t get around to buying the BluRay until its 30^th anniversary. It took another five years before I actually watched it.

Do you have that, too? Some films you really want to see, yet you never end up being in the right mood. Perhaps because of all the reasons Michael Hauge gave when he labeled the movie a fluke.

This so-called logline in IMDb doesn’t help, either: “Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, compete in the 1924 Olympics.”

Whoever wrote it, must have missed an act or two. The first half of the story takes place in Cambridge from 1919, and shows Jewish student Harold Abrahams’ determination to counter the prevailing anti-Semitism, by proving he is the university’s best runner:

“I’m gonna take them on, all of them, one by one, and run them off their feet.”

Director Without A Clue?

The movie still works, mostly because of the sheer obsession of its main players. And running is in a way very cinematic. (Tom Cruise has known this all along) But what is it about?

Tom Stemple wrote an amusing piece about two video interviews, one with writer Colin Welland, and the other with director Hugh Hudson. After he listened to Welland, he concluded: “Religion is the main theme of the film. Then I turned over the tape and listened to Hudson. He talked at great length about the mechanics of shooting the film. It became clear from how he talked that he did not have a clue what the movie was about.”

Really? It’s not that hard to see what this is about. As the act one curtain falls, in a textbook declaration of the hero’s objective – the ‘Outer Journey’ if you wish – Abrahams vows to “run them off their feet.” It is a fairly open goal, but in good tradition, the mid point will specify it further as ‘winning at the Olympics’.

The theme is clarified in the movie moment that I will show you below. While adversary Liddell runs because he finds his inspiration within, in his faith (“when I run, I feel His pleasure”), for Abrahams the motivation lies external.  It is all about how others perceive him. His faith defines him negatively. He wants to fight prejudice by proving himself worthy, through running – to an Oscar®-score.

Oscar To The Greek

Synthetic soundtracks usually don’t age very well, and their composers rarely achieve more than cult status, e.g. Carpenter, Moroder, Wendy Carlos (for Kubrick), Tangerine Dream (for Michael Mann) and Vangelis. But did you know that Hans Zimmer’s early scores were largely synthesizer-based?

Nothing is more subjective than music, and I was expecting for Chariots Of Fire’s Oscar-winning score to be quite dated.

At the opening credit, my fear was confirmed.

As we see the Cambridge men running on the beach in slow motion, over Vangelis’ main theme, I cringe. The tune has been played to death, to a point that it distracts.

Director Hugh Hudson made a beginner’s mistake: images and music never carry any intrinsic cinematic emotion. Unless an emotion is set up through a character’s experience, the moment is shallow. To the mainstream audience at the time, this music cue appealed as a catchy tune, rather than an effective movie score. A lubricant into the actual movie. Thirty-five years on, it no longer works (to me).

Ars Electronica

That opening image with the famous tune may be what most punters remember about the movie, but it’s also devoid of emotion. We don’t know these guys yet. Pretty pictures, but we don’t really care.

To my surprise however, the rest of the score holds up fairly well, and one scene in particular jumps out.

There is a moment twenty minutes into act two that really works in terms of emotional – and musical – payoff. 

Chariots Of Fire – Movie Moment

Abrahams and Liddell meet for the first time in London in June 1923, when they race against each other in a British open. Liddell beats Abrahams, who takes it extremely badly.

Over the rhythmic clapping of the grandstand seats, sharp electronic shards from the legendary Yamaha CS80 synthesizer emphasise our Hero’s pain, alternating with more subtle filtered ‘pads’.

In that moment, Sybil appears, to comfort her lover. Now we see what our Hero’s real problem is: “I don’t run to take beatings. If I can’t win, I won’t run.” She realises it is all about his ego, and this is exactly what he needs to resolve before the movie is over.

“Ring me when you’ve sorted that one out. Try growing up.”

-Karel Segers

https://ozzywood.wistia.com/medias/z8ch7weusb?embedType=iframe&seo=false&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=1080

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!

I had my day planned out and the first of the mark was Billy Mernit.

BILLY MERNIT

Billy has been around for a long time and it shows… in a good way. He developed a fine palette for the genre we were covering: that of romantic comedies.

He was a very affable guy, easy to listen to and was constantly getting the audience involved.

In the brief time available, Billy succinctly described the obvious pattern in RomCom’s: – Boy meets Girl – Boy gets Girl – Boy loses Girl – Boy get Girl back (with the inverse being true as well).

The 6 secrets of Rom Com are as stated by Billy:

1. Write the Chemistry – The inner journeys should oppose or duel with each other
2. Expand the Genre – Move it from the bedroom to the jungle or disguise it within another Genre (Romancing the Stone, Wall-E) etc
3. Be Cinematic – Make it visual… Show the concepts don’t just speak them.
4. Make sure the concept is a ‘high concept’ to get noticed, e.g. 50 First Dates
5. Tweak the Formula – Create and execution gag e.g. 500 days of Summer
6. Romantic means Sexy and Comedy means funny – Use the characters’ flaws against them in comedic situations. Comedic reversals etc. And maybe show a bit of skin ;)

Another note that stuck out is that a lot of the great comedic moments happen when the private matters of a relationship are made public.

I was tempted to stay for Billy’s second lecture but decided I had to spread the love a little and moved onto:

BOB KOSBERG – SELLING YOUR IDEA TO HOLLYWOOD

Bob was fun. He is an executive at Nash Entertainment, who primarily run reality TV shows. Has worked everywhere and his side gig is taking people’s ideas and pitching them to people.

He was full of funny anecdotes on pitching. Bob has become somewhat of a pitch master from what he said as he rarely walks in the door without 30 ideas to pitch. His basic motto is: “Give up and Sell Out”, which will make people uncomfortable but this is Hollywood and this guy is one of the more generous guys.

Bob was very open to ideas being sent to him and if any grabbed him he assured us that he has always come through with money if he liked your idea and the pitch was successful.

His theme was the same as all the ‘business’ guys at the expo: when it comes to your pitch, you have 15 seconds to give the execs an idea for your story.

If you can get through this 1-2 line 15 second concept pitch, you may be in with a shot. According to these guys if you can’t distill your idea into a 1-2 line ‘pitch’ then you are in trouble as they won’t even read the script…

LINDA SEGER – Structuring Scenes and Scene Sequences

This was a tossup… I wasn’t sure as Linda has been around for a while and from what I have read since her original breakthrough book a few years ago, nothing has really evolved.

Yet, I decided to go.

That was a mistake. Within the first 10 minutes I was finding the best time to leave. The old Turning point systems and complete rigidity made the class very grating.

All of this stuff was dynamite about 15 years ago with Syd Field. Now however, with the likes of Gulino , Hauge, Kaplan, Vogler et al a lot of this simplistic metric stuff is just old hat.

So I ventured out and caught the tail end of Victoria Wisdom’s lecture on “Finding the Right Buyer”: It was very similar to the previous day’s speech which was OK as it was good to refresh it all again.

After Lunch onto:

An Afternoon with STEVE KAPLAN

I decided to clear out my final two sessions and give them up to Steve Kaplan, a story analyst focusing on comedy.

This guy is to Comedy or in the ancient form Commedia Dell’Arte as Vogler is to Campbell and the Hero’s Journey. He had some brilliant insights in his two lectures; Creating and Developing a Comedy Screenplay and The Hidden Tools of Comedy.

Briefly (and by no means doing him justice) I’ll try to cover what his ideas were:

• All great comedies, theatre, film or television involve archetypical characters in a closed environment. (Sadly he went to fast to write them down but Steve will be in Australia in 2010, so go and see him then.)
• All great comedies involve a comic premise and this premise is generally a lie. A good comic premise is something that would never happen in real life. However, comedies will fail if they lie more than once.
• All comedies have character determine the structure. This makes sense even to a structure nut like me as comedy involves characters reacting to situations to get their want or desire. How they fail is the comedy.
• All (well, 95% of) comedies revolve around a story with an ordinary guy or gal struggling against insurmountable odds and they lack the tools to win, but they never giving up hope.

The hidden tools of Comedy

These are the different situations a writer can put a character in to achieve comedy.

Steve did a great gag with some volunteers, that proved that funny is very different to comedy.

A ‘comic’ event is always going to be comical because of the situation a character is in and involving what they hope to achieve.

A ‘funny’ event is a forced, generally uncharacteristic action of the character, that the writer inserts. They, subjectively, deem as it funny and results in is forcing the character out of their natural story choices. While they may get some laughs not everyone will and he proved this with a great gag he played on some audience members and the movies he referenced.

So if Comic events are situations how do you create them?

Referring back to the title the following are the hidden tools of comedy as stated by Steve Kaplan:

• Winning – The idea that comedy/story gives your character the permission to win. (note they may not necessarily win)
• Metaphorical Relationship – E.g. the Odd Couple – Instead of two guys acting as friends they act as a married couple.
• Non-Hero – A character who lacks all the required tools to win but who will manage to win nonetheless.
• Positive Action – The idea that every action is positive for the character and they expect it to work (selfish actions)
• Active Emotion – The act of trying to gain the want of the character in the scene in the face of all obstacles.
• Straight Line/Navy Line – One character struggles against a problem and another is creating/perpetuating the problem.

This is all very brief. As Steve Kaplan doesn’t have a book out that I am aware of, I suggest you look him up and book in for his session in June in Australia.

I’ll leave you with my favourite quote of his regarding drama and comedy:

“A Drama helps us dream about what and who we should be – Comedy makes us deal with who we are”

The Story Department now has Steve’s full article on The Hidden Tools of Comedy online here.

DAY 3

The final day and the Pitch Fest was still pumping away. A few writers told me they had been successful – others not – so it IS possible to come here and achieve something.

Before I go into the Day 3 breakdown just an inside word for anyone planning to come and pitch.

You need 3 things:

1. A 60 second (or less) pitch: read Michael Hauge’s book.
2. A 1-sheet: A printed 3 paragraph synopsis to give out straight away
3. A backup pitch: if you’re successful, you might as well ride the wave

Also, know your antecedents: which similar film is playing now or will be opening next year. Go to IMDb etc. Find out what the next or just released successful film in your genre was and see if it is similar. NEVER mention it if it is like a flop though ;)

PAUL GULINO

Paul is great. He is an associate professor at Chapman Uni in the states and has a great take on the sequence structure in acts and good practical ways to develop them.

He discussed an important section of his book SCREENWRITING: THE SEQUENCE APPROACH, called “The 4 Tools of anticipation”, about the ways a screenwriter can hold an audience’s attention:

1. Telegraphing: Deadlines & Appointments (character has to go somewhere)
2. Dangling Cause: Cause and Effect but withholding the effect.
3. Dramatic Irony: The Audience knows more than the characters (bomb under the table etc.)
4. Dramatic Tension: the character is having trouble achieving a goal

Paul also spoke about his theory on sequences, in particular the 8 Sequence structure: Act 1 has generally two major sequences, Act 2 has around 4 sequences and Act 3 has 2 sequences.

The fact that sequences run around the 8-10min mark has to do with how old films were made with 1,000 foot reels and how in theatres at the end of each reel the film would stop and music play while they changed the reel.

Using Toy Story and Being John Malkovich as examples, he broke them down describing the different dramatic tools used to keep the audience watching and in turn the reader turning pages.

MICHAEL HAUGE

It was a solid look at the opening of Million Dollar Baby, and as always Hauge delivered it well.

4 major objectives in the opening 10 pages

1. Draw Reader into the Story with vivid description and an introduction of the hero
2. Create Empathy for the Hero, using likability, comedy, sympathy, jeopardy, and knowledge/power.
3. Set the Tone of the film: Comedy, Thriller, Drama etc. and don’t confuse the genre.
4. Continually elicit emotion.

He also discussed the 6 most common openings of a script:

1. Everyday Hero Intro: Living in a normal ordinary world
2. Action Hero Opening: James Bond etc.
3. Outside action opening: Not involving the hero, we see an event that will affect the hero.
4. Prologue Opening: Event from earlier in the hero’s life, which is relevant to the wound.
5. Bookend Opening: Using a narrator, usually involves a flashback. (Princess Bride)
6. Mid Point Flash-forward: Open with the midpoint or Ordeal, then show what happened before. (Maverick, MI3)

WILLIAM GOLDMAN AND JOHN CLEESE

This was the last hurrah and a fitting finish to the seminar. The guys spoke about the current despair in the industry and some old war stories. Everyone had a good laugh…nothing major…a nice relaxed finish.

That’s it!

I hope I was clear and concise for everyone who read this and if you need any more info regarding the event, the speakers or the sessions just comment below.

Keep writing and Support the Story Department!

Thanks,

James.

James Nicholas is producing a PC game to be launched in 2012 for Games Lab.

He has worked in film and TV for the last 10 years, assisting George Miller during development and production of Mad Max: Fury Road and Happy Feet and acting as an Assistant Director on such films as Stealth, Ghost Rider, Superman and Kokoda as well as various commercials.

James is also a Monomyth expert, which makes him a perfect contributor for the Story Department.

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!

Producer/scribe James Nicholas flew from Sydney to L.A. to attend the Screenwriting Expo. He generously reports back about his brush with the Gurus and any lesser Gods.

Upon entering the convention centre, the air is filled with anticipation as the budding writers fill the smallish and rather cramped Wilshire Grand meeting area. One can’t help but notice the flashes of desperation…

SCREENWRITING PITCH FEST

‘Do or die’ screenwriters sign up for the “Pitch Fest”, where a writer can pay $25 for five minutes face time with various production companies and agencies, ranging from the major studios right down to the bit players.

With a ‘first in first served’ rule, the majors were quickly filled. Looks like a busy weekend for the assistant to the assistant of the assistant VP of development.

For those not pitching though (like me), we had a plethora of speakers and sessions to choose from. With many session overlaps, some shrewd choices had to be made on how to plan the day.

LINDA HEYS

I took the gamble and stuck with my country woman, a Story Consultant named Linda Heys. She had just finished an 8 week stint at Pixar helping refine their story structures. With this pedigree and experience I had high hopes – and wasn’t disappointed.

Linda visualised a Hero’s Diamond to display the inner journey of the character and how it ties to the outer journey. For those familiar with Vogler et al, it was a good representation.

MICHAEL HAUGE

Next up, Michael Hague delivered his well versed and well rehearsed “Sell your story in 60 seconds”. Many of the writers started to shift in their seat, secretly hoping they had one more day to refine their pitches. For those who missed it: Michael stayed close to the book and the DVD accompaniment.

A quick lunch break and on to Dara Marks.

DARA MARKS

Dara is gaining some attraction (according to her website anyway) within the industry so I thought it would be remiss of me not to check her out. Her theory of the “Fatal Flaw” and the emotional inner journey made some sense. Her idea of the outer journey obstacles and how it could be applied successfully – especially through the mono myth – didn’t deliver. It was a weird meld of McKee and old school Syd Field. The heroic outer journey structure was brushed over and her repeated use of “use your intuition” made me feel like I was back in Australia.

I decided the Round 2 of Dara would be a little too much.

I needed to wake up. Enter…

KARL IGLESIAS

The topic of Karl’s session read “How to elicit emotion in your concept”. He offered a great lecture, with sharp answers on what works and what doesn’t. A refreshing change from Dara’s musings. I was wide awake again.

Finally the piece de resistance.

VICTORIA WISDOM

To a packed house, Victoria Wisdom gave all the writer’s in the room a well needed reality check. As a working developer and previous agent, she is – and remains – well connected in the industry and had some hard facts forthe budding writers in the audience.

Her basic premise was that writers to be successful and especially professional need to follow the market, know the demographic, know the current ‘it’ genres, retool old ideas, break the mould.

She gave notes on all sorts of insider tricks to getting your, script seen hence the title of the session “Getting your script seen”.

This was a great look at the reality of the business side of not only selling a script but selling the screenwriter.

All round a good first day.

James.

Are you attending the Screenwriting Expo? Why not give us your experience in the comments! Thank you.

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!

Most ‘gurus’ each have their own area of expertise and angle of attack, they each follow their own agenda. And with every new light shed on the craft, different people may see that light.

Don’t they ever contradict each other? And if they do, which truth do YOU choose?

Screenwriting is a dynamic craft. What Syd Field wrote back in 1979 was state-of-the-art… but things change.

Earlier theories fall short when it comes to writing successfully for today’s audiences.

And surely Aristotle’s basic  beginning-middle-end will not get you far – if applied only to the story spine.

Screenwriting principles and techniques keep getting ever more sophisticated as successful movies bend or refine the old molds and screenwriters share their secrets.

The mere fact that the gurus keep being reprinted (Field for thirty years now, Aristotle for 2,000) exposes them to obsolescence. Yet there doesn’t seem to be any flagrant contradictions between what most recognised story teachers and screenwriting authors have said.

Here is a choice of statements and claims that you may not fully agree with. Let us know what you think:

– McKee says “The finest writing not only reveals true character, but arcs”. This sweeping statement has been successfully contested by Mystery Man in a fine piece of research and clear and unbiased thinking.

– John Truby and James Bonnett denounce the 3-act structure. As I yet have to find a discrepancy between Truby’s teaching and the 3-act structure, I assume it’s just a matter of marketing.

– Michael Hauge once said that Inner and Outer journeys are completely separate. In an interview on this blog he tells us how he has changed his view on this, which will be included in the revision of WRITING SCREENPLAYS THAT SELL.

– In Save The Cat, Blake Snyder called the Mid Point either a “false peak” or a “false collapse”. No mention of an Inner Journey, which is essential to e.g. Michael Hauge’s approach to that crucial story point.

– Defining what we call the Inciting Incident, Billy Stoneking asks “What INITIAL PROBLEM or OPPORTUNITY confronts or is created by the main character […]” This includes the assumption that the Inciting Incident can be created by the Hero.

– Kal Bashir in his detailed and insightful Monomyth eBook says: “in Star Wars (1977), music when Luke appears signals that there is a quality about him.” But what use is it to the screenwriter?

What theory do you follow? Ever changed your mind along the way?

A very small minority of successful screenwriters denounces all theory. They follow “their gut”. But most working writers know there’s a hell of a lot you can learn from studying films and screenplays as well as reading up on modern story theory.

In my work with screenwriters, I’m learning every day and I constantly refine my own views. In the first screenwriting lesson I ever taught, I stated that the Inciting Incident should be a ‘deus ex machina’ (oh dear oh dear…). I knew darn well what a deus ex machina was but clearly hadn’t nailed the essence of the Inciting Incident yet.

I also once disagreed with Linda Aronson when she stated that Ridley Scott’s THE INSIDER was a failure. I vehemently argued against this. Boxoffice Mojo reports for THE INSIDER a worldwide Box Office of $60,289,912 and a budget of about $90,000,000.

Epic fail, Segers.

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!

Last year she worked with Michael Hauge as part of Inscription.

Last month Tracy traveled South to attend the NSC in Adelaide.
As a guest blogger on The Story Department, she gives us a de-brief.

“As an unproduced writer it was a huge outlay to attend the National Screenwriter’s Conference in Adelaide in February. Did I get my $1,000 worth? You bet.

I didn’t know a single person before I arrived. I departed clutching handfuls of business cards and felt like I’d found a new family.

The main thing that impressed me was how generous everyone was with their time. You could walk up to anyone, introduce yourself and have a chat. Tell me where else in the world you would find such diverse and interesting characters as Rolf de Heer (Ten Canoes) and Darren Star (Sex in the City). Clayton Jacobson (Kenny) and David Weiss (Shrek). Mike Bullen (Cold Feet) and Jan Sardi (Shine).

The Micro-Mentorships (30 mins) were also useful if feverishly short. Tim Ferguson gave me some great advice about Romantic Comedies and followed it up with some interesting articles.

Here are some tips I picked up from the speakers that will stay with me.

• Detail drives a character (Clayton Jacobson, Kenny).

Remember the scene when Kenny visits his Dad with the boy and has napkins placed on the floor, under his feet? The shot is very brief, and Clayton knew some people would miss it, but this tiny moment reveals so much of the Dad’s character.

• A script is a document in seduction.

So says Rolf de Heer. He doesn’t write a word until his plot and story are fully thought through. And he does this by using cards that he sticks up on a wall. The cards give him the flexibility to play around with structure and content, and to feel happy with the story before he commits a single word to paper.

• If you’re stuck, make a Vomit Pass. David Weiss (Shrek).

If you’re having trouble writing a scene, just get some thoughts down. Don’t worry if they’re bad. When you come back to it later, it’s much easier to evaluate something and make it work better than having a blank space in front of you.

• Choose crispy dialogue. David Weiss.

Avoid letting a character say exactly what she is feeling. For example, don’t say in dialogue ‘I’m afraid.’ Say it differently. What about ‘Would you mind if I slept with the light on?’

• Network or attach yourself to someone who can.

I found a friend in Helen who is a network demon. Watching enviously as she deftly worked the room, I started to try by myself. All it takes for the more shy amongst us is a deep breath, a smile and an outstretched hand.

Gripes? Not many. I wish it could have gone on for another morning. I wish that I had spoken to Jan Sardi. I wish I could have done an Hermione Granger and used the Time Turner to attend all the sessions. But most of all, I wish everyone the very best with their projects and can’t wait to see how far they’ve progressed when the conference happens again in 2011.”

-Tracy Richardson

A friend asked me if I would be offended should he spend $600 to go see McKee in Melbourne.

Years ago I happened to be in LA in the first days of release of the first edition of STORY (McKee’s bestselling book). I purchased two copies: one for myself and one for my best friend who had attended the story seminar a couple of times and who had told me McKee had never published. McKee autographed both. Mine says:

“To Karel. Tell the truth.”

So I will.

I have seen McKee a couple of times. He is entertaining, and has an impressive knowledge of cinema, both mainstream classics and arthouse. I think he’s worth the money – if you can afford it – for a whole weekend of entertainment. His guru-like performance also ignites inspiration with a lot of people.

But I have never found the level of practical, detailed and essential information that is required to successfully analyse and create screenplays. This I have found with other people such as Hauge, Vogler, Truby and Gulino.

McKee’s weekend story seminar was the basis for his book. It is a literal transcription.

A few years back UNK published a blog post on his experience of the story weekend and when I wanted to forward the link to my friend with the spare $600, I couldn’t find the article on his site. Fortunately Google had cached it and I have reprinted the cache below.  UNK’s post is entertaining and …

The Truth.
(From The Unknown Screenwriter)

“So I got my yearly Robert McKee brochure in the mail…

Last year when I received the exact same brochure, I read it over… Having never been to a McKee seminar but having been to every other screenwriting guru’s seminar, I figured it was worth the read…

After all, I had spent the money to attend the seminars of…

* Bill Martell
* David S. Freeman
* Syd Field
* Blake Snyder
* John Truby
* Michael Hauge
* Chris Vogler
* Chris Soth
* Screenwriting Expo

And, to be honest, I THOUGHT I had left the best for last… The piece de resistance if you will…

Uh… No.

The brochure last year AND this year said for me to be sure to read STORY before attending the seminar so that I would be intimately familiar with the material…

So I did.

Now I already had a copy of STORY that I purchased the first year it actually came out. I remember trying to read through it but holy shit… So much stuff to wade through back then…

On the other hand, I can read STORY today (which I did a year ago) and pull an enormous amount of material from it.

Make no mistake… From reading the book, McKee obviously knows his stuff.

Maybe too well… LOL.

Why do I say that?

Let me take you back to last October (from what I remember) in Los Angeles when I attended McKee’s seminar…

First of all, I was late. I ended up having to take the 405 freeway which I loathe and always try to avoid but a quick glance at my Google Map revealed that I had to take the 405 to get to Loyola Marymount University after all!

So after an easy extra hour of driving, needless to say, I arrived LATE.

I walk up and get my complimentary cup of coffee (thanks Bob!) just outside the building where the STORY seminar was being held, go inside to the tables where the assistants were very nice and directed me to the seminar.

While I stroll around the McKee tables toward the entrance to seminar I notice piles of the book, STORY…

Piles of the screenplay, CASABLANCA…

Piles of the STORY audiotapes…

Cool.

So I enter through the seminar doors about an hour late and as I walk in I hear that “PHIFFFT” sound of a few hundred people turning pages…

A full house to be sure.

I find a nice little fold-up desk in the extreme upper left-hand corner of the room… Upper left-hand corner to Mr. McKee that is.

I didn’t know this but he had stopped in mid-sentence to wait for me to find a seat… I thought that was pretty nice of him but when I sat down and focused my attention down at him and his table, he didn’t seem that accomodating… LOL.

Oops.

I sat down and smiled at him and when he felt like my entering the seminar was no longer an interruption, he continued…

He went on and I was impressed! It was like watching Hal Holbrook’s one man show of MARK TWAIN TONIGHT!

The only thing I kept finding strange was the consistent “PHIFFFT” of hundreds of pages turning every so often…

This captured my attention so I looked around and by golly if there weren’t hundreds of people turning pages as Mr. McKee progressed with his performance… er ah… course outline.

At first I was confused. Then I realized that everyone was following along in their book as he was going through WHAT I THOUGHT WAS HIS OUTLINE…

Was I missing something?

Oh yeah.

I ended up meeting a very nice female actor who was sitting next to me — also reading through the book as McKee did his schtick. When we finally had a break, I made an inquiry…

I asked: “Why is everyone going through the book while he speaks?”

She replied: “Because HE’S going through the book.”

I asked again: “You mean he’s going through the same topics?”

She replied: “No, he’s going through the book.”

I asked again: “You mean he’s looking at the book and expanding on the information?”

She replied: “No! He’s MEMORIZED the book and he’s going through it!”

I asked/stated: “SAY WHAT?”

She replied: “He’s going through the book word for word but he’s memorized it.”

I stated: “No fuckin’ way…”

She replied: “Yup.”

I asked: “And I paid over $500 for this?”

She replied: “We all did.”

Okay, so we went on a little more about it until the seminar started up again… I sat there in disillusionment.

And the rumors you heard about cellphones are in fact true… If you have a cellphone and it rings during his performance, you gotta give the guy $10.00 for interrupting. I actually liked that part of the seminar because I fucking hate cellphones and I hate people that leave their cellphones ON during any kind of seminar… Don’t EVEN ask me what I’ve done when a cellphone goes off in a movie theater… Let’s just say YOU DO NOT WANT ME IN THE THEATER IF YOUR CELLPHONE GOES OFF…

Anyway…

After lunch, McKee’s cellphone goes off… He’s looking around the audience… The audience is looking around the audience… Everybody is looking at each other until finally… He checks his own briefcase… He opens it up and sure enough, the ringing gets immediately LOUDER.

Everybody laughs and he turns off the phone and remarks, “I’ll pay myself later.”

The audience HOWLED for at least a minute… THEY LOVED IT!

I sat there with I know what had to be a stupid look on my face… I swear I was in the midst of mob-mentality… THIS GUY COULD DO NO WRONG!

At one point throughout the weekend, McKee talked about good and evil… When talking about evil, he pressed a button on a remote and a picture of Oliver North went up on the screen… Again, most everyone laughed except for myself and a very large man down in front who just happened to be a former Marine.

He stood up and said, “Fuck you old man!”

I for one was hoping this was going to get good but alas… Everyone in the seminar kept sticking up for McKee and told the guy to eat shit and get the hell out of there if he couldn’t handle it… Yada yada yada… LOL.

And, the former Marine did in fact leave only to show back up later and take on the mob mentality himself, by clapping and laughing at McKee’s every breath…

I had about all I could stand when, on Sunday, we started going through Casablanca… Of course, I didn’t buy his copy of the script so I couldn’t follow along but I have gone through Casablanca on my own many many times so I felt qualified to at least sit there and listen.

It was BRUTAL yet everyone was eating it up… I finally got up and hit the road. Thank fuckin’ God but I did go ahead and purchase Mr. McKee’s STORY audio book on cassette tapes (he didn’t yet have the seminar on CD).

As I eeked my way through the Loyola Marymount University campus on a late Sunday afternoon, I inserted tape number ONE.

And guess what?

He did memorize the book!

The only thing that was different on the tape were the jokes! Nobody laughed at his jokes hence, they were not funny… By the time I got back home, I was listening to him go through his discussion of CHINA TOWN.

Word for fucking word I listened to the tape and while I cannot say with 100% accuracy that he simply went through the book word for word (but why wouldn’t he?), these audio tapes were exactly what I had just paid over $500 to sit through on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday when I could have been at home or my favorite coffee shop, WRITING.

So there you have it… You can get the entire three days on audio for $15.00 — well, that’s what it cost me at the seminar so it might be more if you purchase it elsewhere IF you can purchase it elsewhere…

*NOTE: I see over at Amazon, that he now has the book on CD… Nice. Anybody know how I can convert my cassette tapes over to CD?

Shit…

So now the question… To McKee or not to McKee… Is that the question?

Is it?

If you want to witness the performance, by all means… Pay the $575 and see the one man show.

If you want the material, read the book. That IS the seminar. Better yet… Buy the book, buy the STORY audio CD and then follow along in the privacy of your own home, coffee shop, bathroom stall, etc…

My only regret is not actually paying $675 instead of $575.

Why?

For $675, I could have gotten the latest version of Final Draft instead of paying almost $200 for it about 2 months ago…

I never learn.”

-The Unknown Screenwriter

Here is another opinion, by John August. The disclaimer: John has written a few screenplays that manifestly stray from the generally accepted 3-Act convention. Up to you to decide if he’s a reliable source in this.

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!