Structure: Thelma & Louise

I am a fan of Ridley Scott’s flamboyant visual style of filmmaking. Although he has had numerous box office successes, in my view he has never equalled the overall excellence of THELMA & LOUISE (1991). It is a fabulous movie and an outstanding debut script by first-timer Callie Khouri. Here is an attempt to analyse … Read more

The Psychology of Scriptwriting (3)

PART 3: THE ID THEORY In an average life, most people have a very constricted time. Rarely is a person satisfied with as much sex, food, money and fun as he/she desires. Mostly, society (and health issues) enforce humans to lead somewhat disgruntled lives. Because the alternative, if everyone did exactly what their hearts desired … Read more

That Mid-Point Thing

Following UNK’s publication of his post on The Mid Point and to the benefit of the students in a recent HERO’S JOURNEY workshop, I have updated the article of 20 April last year about this important turning point. Since writing the below post, I have come to realise that the mid point may well be … Read more

Checklist: 10 Ways To Create An Active Protagonist

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

POV: When to Shift?

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