cover image for Save the Cat!

Save the Cat!

Blake Snyder

6/10
A really good, basic structure to story telling and screen writing with a lot of good details on ways to think about ideas and common pitfalls. A bit rigid
  • Movie, should hav ea clear sense of what it's about and who it's for. Logline, Irony/emotional, Compelling mental picture, show tone/audience/cost hinting, A good title that says what it is and is clever in doing so
  • 10 Movie types: Monster in the House, Golden Fleece - quest, Out of the Bottle - wish for X, Dude with a Problem - ordinary guy in extrordinary circumstances, Rites of Passage - Coming to terms with life and change, Buddy Love - love story in disguise, Whydunit - audience discovers something about human nature, Fools Triumphant - , Institutionalized - about a group vs a system, Superhero - an extrordinary person in an ordinary world
  • Perfect logline - adjective to describe hero, an adjective to describe bad guy and a compelling goal we identify with as huamns
  • Also most conflict, longest way to go emotionally and most demographically pleasing
  • Primal urge, survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones, fear of death
  • Tell me about someoen I can identify with, learn from, have a compelling reason to follow, deserves to win, primal stakes
  • 15 beats, Opening Image, Theme Stated, Set-up, Catalyst, Debate, Break into Two, Fun and Games, B Story, Midpoint, Bad guys Close In, All Is Lost, Dark Night of the Soul, Break into Three, FInale (See page 95 for ref)
  • Make a board with acts 1, 2, 3, 4 as sections and then add cards to each, to represent the 15 beats with +/- to represent the positive of negative out come of the scene and >< to label the conflict in the scene that drives it
  • Save the Cat, Make the main Character likable
  • Pope in the Pool, make the exposition happen in a weird way / set peice
  • Double Mumbo Jumbo, audiences can't handle 2 magic systems in a movie
  • Laying Pipe, limit setup for the movie
  • Black Vet, don't get to meta or too clever or ironic or punny, stick to the theme / idea. One concept at a time
  • Watch out for that glacier - Danger must be present and fast approaching rather than slow
  • The covenant of the Arc - every character must change th ecourse of the story, except the bad guys (hero and friends)
  • Keep the Press out - no media coverage of the fantastical thing, its emersion breaking
  • Hero shouldn't be dragged through the story (ref 146)
  • Show don't tell (with regards to plot)
  • Make the bad guy badder
  • The plot should intensify as it moves ahead
  • Use many emotions not just 1
  • Flat dialouge is bad - each character should talk in a distinct enough way that you could tell it was them without the name on the page
  • Make characters distinct and unique - give them a limp and an eye patch
  • Networking, Film festivals, classes, screenwriting groups, become an expert, come to LA, you.com
;