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by
Blake Snyder
Started reading
March 22, 2019
The Magnificent Seven
DUDE WITH A PROBLEM This genre is defined by the phrase: “An ordinary guy finds himself in extraordinary circumstances.”
a dude, meaning an average guy or gal just like ourselves. And a problem: something that this average guy must dig deep inside himself to conquer.
Breakdown
Whether our hero is skilled or not, it’s the relative size of the challenge that makes these stories work.
And one rule of thumb is: The badder the bad guy, the greater the heroics. So make the bad guy as bad as possible — always!
At first the “buddies” hate each other. (Where would they have to go if they didn’t?) But their adventure together brings out the fact that they need each other; they are, in essence, incomplete halves of a whole. And realizing this leads to even more conflict. Who can tolerate needing anybody?
Often, as in Rain Man, one of the buddies is the story’s hero and will do all or most of the changing (i.e., Tom Cruise) while the other buddy acts as a catalyst of that change and will do slight or no changing (i.e., Dustin Hoffman).
Lethal Weapon
It’s Danny Glover’s story. Mel Gibson is the agent of change.
It’s just good storytelling. And the beats are the same for a reason.
Chinatown is perhaps the best Whydunit ever made, and a textbook example of great screenwriting.
The operating principal of “The Fool Triumphant” is to set the underdog Fool against a bigger, more powerful, and often “establishment” bad guy. Watching a so-called “idiot” get the goat of those society deems to be the winners in life gives us all hope, and pokes fun at the structures we take so seriously in our day-to-day lives.
Often movies of the Institutionalized category will be told from the point of view of a newcomer. He is us — a virgin who is new to this group and who is being brought into it by someone who is more experienced. Jane Fonda in 9 to 5 and Tom Hulce in Animal House are examples. For any world in which the technology, lingo, or rules are not familiar to the average viewer,
They can literally ask “How does that work?” and allow you to explain the importance to everybody. It’s a way to show what is often a “crazy” world to us civilians.
The problem of how to have sympathy for the likes of millionaire Bruce Wayne or genius Russell Crowe, is solved by stressing the pain that goes hand-in-hand with having these advantages.
This is so often why the first movie in a Superhero series succeeds and ones that follow don’t (such as Robocop 2). The creation myth that begins each Superhero franchise stresses sympathy for the Superhero’s plight.
Look at Point Break starring Patrick Swayze, then look at Fast and Furious.
Now look at The Matrix and compare and contrast it with the Disney/Pixar hit Monsters, Inc. Yup. Same movie. And there’s a million more examples: Who Saved Roger Rabbit? is Chinatown. Blank Check is very similar to Home Alone.
You must know movies. But you can’t know them all. So this is a way to start. Take the script you’re working on and try to find what category it’s most like. Maybe you have moments in your script that borrow from all the categories? Maybe you start off your screenplay telling one type of story and end up telling another. That’s fine, too. (I mean, at the end of the day, I doubt you’ll sell that script, but we all have to learn the hard way. We’re screenwriters! Pain is the game!)
Pick up the movie section of your newspaper. Review each of the movies available and decide what genre they fall into. If you go see that movie, compare and contrast it with the other movies in that genre. Were you drawn to it because of the type of movie it is? Grab your handy TV Guide and go to the movie loglines. Going down the list to check films you’ve seen, write what genre each falls into. (Using the categories above, simply assign a number to each movie you’ve seen.) Does it work? Does every movie listed fall into a genre? For the movie idea or script you’re working on now, decide what
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And it starts from the very beginning with that great logline that hooks us with someone to identify with as much as something.
So let’s add a few things to our list of what the “perfect” logline must include to be truly compelling: > An adjective to describe the hero > An adjective to describe the bad guy, and… > A compelling goal we identify with as human beings
In many cases, the key to figuring out whom this story is about and what type of person is leading the action is right there in your logline.
“A henpecked husband finally gets the house to himself one weekend and loses it in a poker game to an unscrupulous gambler.” It’s “Risky Business with a Dad.” Need I say more? To service that concept all we had to do was play with the balance of the hero and the villain — and make it about Dad’s journey from henpecked to empowered.
To make the idea work, very often you have to play with the characters in order to give your hero the most conflict, the longest journey, and the most primal goal to “amp up” the idea for maximum impact.
And let’s be clear, the trick is to create heroes who: > Offer the most conflict in that situation > Have the longest way to go emotionally and… > Are the most demographically pleasing!
once I do catch myself and give up on trying to change things, is to make that great character with the existential dilemma a teenager, and make that married couple who’s having a crisis a twenty-something married couple. This is the crowd that shows up for movies.
In Ride Along, try taking out the sister/fiancée. What if the doofus teacher just signs up for a ride along with a cop — any cop. Well, in this gin-rummy hand of primal-ness I’ve still got: survival. This teacher still has to make it through the night and there will still be risks to his life. But having the cop’s sister/teacher’s fiancée as the goal makes the stakes resonate with primal-ness. Again, as in the examples in Chapter Two, it’s almost a knight-errant tale, isn’t it? But having the princess as the prize makes it work whether it’s set in the modern
Make the hero want something real and simple: survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones, fear of death.
And when it comes to who to cast in your screenplay, we respond best to stories of husbands and wives, fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, ex-boyfriends and girlfriends. Why? Because we all have these people in our lives! You say “father” and I see my father. You say “girlfriend” and I see my girlfriend.
The point is to leave yourself plenty of room for casting. Your leads should be able to be played by many actors and actresses.
It’s the Jungian archetypes these actors represent that we’re interested in seeing. And if you always remember to write for the archetype, and not the star, the casting will take care of itself.
The rule of thumb in all these cases is to stick to the basics no matter what. Tell me a story about a guy who… > I can identify with. > I can learn from. > I have compelling reason to follow. > I believe deserves to win and… > Has stakes that are primal and ring true for me.
When you have found the perfect hero for your story and nailed down just what his primal goal is, it’s time to go back to your logline and add in what you’ve learned to make it perfect.
The logline with the most conflict, the most sharply defined hero and bad guy, and the clearest, most primal goal is the winner.
Cast and concept is, in fact, the starting point of getting any movie made. “What’s it about?” and “Who’s in it?” are the first two questions any moviegoer asks,
and that goes for everyone else as well, from agent and producer to studio executive.
The perfect hero is the one who offers the most conflict in the situation, has the longest emotional journey, and has a primal goal we can all root for.
Survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones, and fear of death grab us.
It is usually someone we can identify with primally, too, and that’s why mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives make better characters than mere s...
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these discoveries to your logline, you must have an adjective to describe the hero, an adjective to describe the bad guy, and a ...
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What actor archetypes can you identify from the list of movies in your genre? What type of character is the lead portraying and what actors from the past could play those parts as well as the modern-day star?
THE BLAKE SNYDER BEAT SHEET PROJECT TITLE: GENRE: DATE: Opening Image (1): Theme Stated (5): Set-up (1-10): Catalyst (12): Debate (12-25): Break into Two (25) B Story (30): Fun and Games (30-55): Midpoint (55): Bad Guys Close In (55-75): All Is Lost (75): Dark Night of the Soul (75-85): Break into Three (85): Finale (85-110): Final Image (110):
I use this simple one-page blank form whenever I have a pitch meeting. I won’t let myself go into that meeting until I’ve filled in every space — and there aren’t that many spaces. You can only write one, maybe two sentences explaining what each beat is, and that’s perfect.
I learned that if I can’t fill in the blank in one or two sentences — I don’t have the beat yet! I am just guessing. I am treading water, about to drown.
Take a look at Blank Check where, five
minutes into the movie, roughly page 5 of the script, the theme is stated loud and clear.
Look at where the midpoint, the All Is Lost, and brea...
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OPENING IMAGE (1) The very first impression of what a movie is — its tone, its mood, the type and scope of the film — are all found in the opening image.
