Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

by Blake Snyder

I like Viki King’s book with the improbable title of How to Write a Movie in 21 Days.

I also value Joseph Campbell’s work. Hero With A Thousand Faces remains the best book about storytelling ever.

Because liking the person we go on a journey with is the single most important element in drawing us into the story.

In Hollywood parlance it’s called a logline or a one-line. And the difference between a good one and a bad one is simple. When I pick up the trades and read the logline of a spec or a pitch that’s sold and my first reaction is “Why didn’t I think of that?!” Well… that’s a good one. At random I’m going to select a few recent sales (from my Web source: www.hollywoodlitsales.com) that made me jealous. They’re in my genre, family comedy, but what we can learn from them crosses comedy, drama, whatever.

What are those four components? Well, let’s investigate… the logline from hell! ISN’T IT IRONIC?

A COMPELLING MENTAL PICTURE

A KILLER TITLE

YOU AND YOUR “WHAT IS IT?” All good screenwriters are bullheads.

A TEST MARKETING EXAMPLE

THE “DEATH” OF HIGH CONCEPT

it?” the spec screenwriter must be able to tell a good one-line or logline — a one- or two-sentence grabber that tells us everything. It must satisfy four basic elements to be effective: Irony. It must be in some way ironic and emotionally involving — a dramatic situation that is like an itch you have to scratch. A compelling mental picture. It must bloom in your mind when you hear it. A whole movie must be implied, often including a time frame.

Audience and cost. It must demarcate the tone, the target audience, and the sense of cost, so buyers will know if it can make a profit. A killer title. The one-two punch of a good logline must include a great title, one that “says what it is” and does so in a clever way.

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

It’s because primal urges get our attention. Survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones, fear of death grab us.

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.

THE BLAKE SNYDER BEAT SHEET PROJECT TITLE: GENRE: DATE: Opening Image (1): Theme Stated (5): Set-up (1-10):

Now that you have your 40 cards up on The Board and you’re pretty sure this is how your story goes, you think you’re done, but you’re not. Here are two really important things you must put on each card and answer to your satisfaction before you can begin writing your screenplay: One is the symbol +/-. The other is the symbol ><. These two symbols should be written in a color pen you have not used and put at the bottom of each card like this:

The basic set-ups of Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, and Man vs. Society that you learned in high-school English class can all be applied here.

If you too want to reach Mike Cheda for screenwriting advice, you can do so on the Internet at www.mikecheda.com, where for a fee of $500 Mike will read and analyze your screenplay.

Then Mike showed me this simple Bad Dialogue Test: Take a page of your script and cover up the names of the people speaking. Now read the repartee as it goes back and forth between two or more characters. Can you tell who is speaking without seeing the name above the dialogue?

Make sure every character has “A Limp and an Eyepatch.” Every character has to have a unique way of speaking, but also something memorable that will stick him in the reader’s mind. The reader has to have a visual clue, often a running visual reminder, which makes remembering a character easier. A Limp and an Eyepatch may seem like a silly way to think about how to attach traits to characters to make sure we remember them, but it works — if you remember to do it.

Ask yourself these questions, the “Is It Broken?” Test: Does my hero lead the action? Is he proactive at every stage of the game and fired up by a desire or a goal? Do my characters “talk the plot”? Am I saying things a novelist would say through my characters instead of letting it be seen in the action of my screenplay? Is the bad guy bad enough? Does he offer my hero the right kind of challenge? Do they both belong in this movie? Does my plot move faster and grow more intense after the midpoint? Is more revealed about the hero and the bad guy as we come in to the Act Three finale? Is my script one-note emotionally? Is it all drama? All comedy? All sadness? All frustration? Does it feel like it needs, but does not offer, emotion breaks? Is my dialogue flat? After doing the Bad Dialogue Test does it seem like everyone talks the same? Can I tell one character from another just by how he or she speaks? Do my minor characters stand out from each other, and are they easy to differentiate by how they look in the mind’s eye? Is each unique in speech, look, and manner? Does the hero’s journey start as far back as it can go? Am I seeing the entire length of the emotional growth of the hero in this story? Is it primal? Are my characters, at their core, reaching out for a primal desire — to be loved, to survive, to protect family, to exact revenge?