Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies: The Screenwriter's Guide to Every Story Ever Told
Blake Snyder
Language: English
Pages: 287
ISBN: 1932907351
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
theme. Debate: What will Steve do now? John offers to find Steve lodging for the night. Should Steve join him? That is the question. Break into Two: Steve and John ride with Wolf, whose “Taxiola” is part jukebox and part opium den. Steve has entered the “upside-down world” of Del Griffith and he won’t be the same again. When they arrive at the motel, John is welcomed by the owner — as he will be all along the road. John is crass but lovable. Steve, uptight and effete. What better way to find
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN Written by Robert Rodat Opening Image: A battlefield cemetery. An old man and his family. He served in World War Two and finds the gravesite of a fallen comrade. We will learn just who this brave man is by story’s end. Set-Up: The opening gives way to flashback. D-Day. June 6, 1944. The landing at Omaha Beach is bloody. Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) shows courage and saves lives as his unit helps secure the objective. This sequence sets up the world of hellish war and
Groundhog Day — the movies all feel like “a dream.” But each ends with the hero learning what all heroes of the OOTB movie discover: that things were pretty good back in “real” life. Featuring a toned-down Jim Carrey, an amped-up Kate Winslet, and written by Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation), who is best known as a screenwriting iconoclast, the film asks the question: Can you erase the memory of love and defy fate? Thanks to the sci-fi-ish Lacuna Inc. (“lacuna” defined by Webster’s as “a gap or place
to be a love interest offering a romantic interlude — although it helps! This character not only provides a place to discuss what’s happening, but gives the screenwriter a break from the A story. In Die Hard it’s a cop, Reginald VelJohnson; in Deep Impact it’s Tea Leoni’s mother, Vanessa Redgrave. And in Open Water, when the couple treading water have no “other” to turn to, it is the moment when they play down their situation and find escape in a game of movie trivia. Most DWAP movies are of the
when the two friends get to the assembly, they discover they have to put on a “skit,” too. Pedro’s speech promises students that “all your dreams will come true.” The audience expects more, but Pedro has prepared nothing. To save the day, Napoleon takes the stage and begins to dance. He’s good! Amazing, actually. And all, including Deb, are impressed. A nerd’s fantasy becomes real. Final Image: Life returns to normal. Grandma is back home, Kip’s girl and Rico leave, Pedro is “El Presidente” —