Miyazaki again

I'm not making a story yet, that's too limiting.

Starts with just images that make you question and wonder what is happening. Totorro started with just the image of the kid and totorro at the bus stop. Then builds the story around the moments he explored.

doesn't matter if it's just an illustration, it works so long as it's interesting, if people are bored it's game over.

funiko - atmosphere or mood. japanese animation emphasizes this idea of strong emotional resonance rather than gag based cartoons. the environment is a character and has a feeling mood and story about it. The particularity of place, there'a narrative anchored in the larger world. How does this particular environment push on and change the story elements.

You must animate will, not just movement, the drive behind it.

easy to understand movies are boring. Logical storyllines sacrifice creativity.

empowers his protagonists with a sense of action, the power to do what is right despite adults perhaps not doing it.

he's creating worlds for the next generation.

self satisfied people are boring. we have to push to surpass ourselves

Pitch Bibles

Artist Resource Link with a bunch of show pitches linked in it. What goes into a pitch and glossary

Bee &Puppy Cat

 CocoaNuts

When do we level up

 Other Town

Cupcake and Dino

Bravest Warrior

Adventure time

Flooby Nooby Storyboarding Lesson

http://www.floobynooby.com/comp1.html

Sticky Anime style

tutorial on stickiness that they get in anime that helps sell the punch.

Miyazaki study

spend time on arbitrary actions, ones that characters don't have to think about, and it describes for us the characters personality. putting on shoes, eating, sitting down to work. Are they careful and precise, forceful and impatient, etc...

character short comings are a requisite for identifying with the characters. Have to have flaws to feel real. no binary, everyone has positive and negative, brutality and tenderness

story is not about the protaganist winning, it's about them adapting to the world as it is

Miyazaki's characters begin flawed and end flawed but their experiences have helped blossom their outlook. Miyazaki gives a sense of liberation to his characters, and so to us. We see people in a suffocating society who achieve self reliance not through a tangible achievement, but an emotional one.

don't depict fate, depict will. The goal is where you want the char to end on an emotional level

scenes are planned out individually, not as story threads, but as a method conveying emotion. Draw settings that evoke feelings not concerned about plot, emotion is the key, important to instill this in the audience before anything else.

His films create atmosphere so well because the imagery takes precedence, continually altering during preproduction with the objective to make us feel something. The impression of a landscape is dependent on the person viewing the landscape, by displaying the world through the emotional perspective of character, the world reflects this emotion back. Human sensibilities are often connected to the weather. Miyazaki's feel bigger and calmer because the mood of the character is recreated through the world

Pacing is used to heighten the response of the audience. Having big octane moments needs quiet moments to let it sink in. A quiet moment lets the character, and the audience reflect on the characters situation and project the audiences feeling onto the character. Time slowly passing lets us relate with the characters, just living through the same moment with them.

Not understanding something makes it more interesting, if you understand you can empathize, so fantasy stuff is mysterious and humans are empathetic.

Sometimes it's fine not to offer explanations, having a reason doesn't necessarily clarify anything.

Daniel Gonzales notes

ran across animator Daniel Gonzales blog

he has a summary of Glen Keanes rhythm tilt twist
 rhtyhm - " So in a drawing, every line flows and curves into each other creating a rythm. it'll capture your eyes lead it around the drawing in a sort of dance."
 tilt - contraposta, keep things from being stiff
 twist - don't keep things flat


 and a good group of animation excercises that mostly don't require special models

Basics
Bouncing ball (loop) (squash and stretch/spacing)
Bouncing ball across the screen (2 bounces) (squash and stretch/spacing)
Cinder Block sliding off a shelf, hitting the floor. (spacing, form)
Flour Sac Jump (mass)
A blink (spacing/squash and stretch)
A head turn (transitions/ arcs)

breaking a sweat
walk cycle (technical)
run cycle (technical)
character jumping (physical/ spacing)
Suicide backwards fall off a ledge (subtle delays and overlap)
A character getting up from a chair (physical, anticipation)
A smile (face muscles, appeal)
A sneeze (exaggeration and timing)
Do an action that requires a 'smear' (technical)
Laughing (reference studying)

Marathon training
Animate a hand doing something-close up (anatomy)
character lifting a heavy object (weight)
animate a dog shaking after a bath (overlap follow through)
hammering a nail (timing spacing)
character blowing up a balloon (physicality)
piano falling on a character (timing weight)
character brushing their teeth (personality)
character eating a sandwich (personality)
getting up out of bed (physical personality)
waiting for the bus stop (entertainment/ appeal)

Quitters quit, winners win
character throwing a bucket of water on another (physical acting)
tug of war b/w two characters (tension)
character drinking wine (research)
character making an egg- full process from fridge to mouth (rhythm and timing)
A feather falling and being blown by the wind (reference)
character reacting to "your parents are dead" (acting)
putting on a pair of pants (physical)
sleeping character being startled, then going back to sleep (rhythm and texture)


and some nice acting clips

and this idea of organizing time I've been trying to re track down for a few years now

Keith Lango with Kenny Roy

 Kenny Roy did an interview with Keith Lango

here's notes I took

there's a collection of elements that make storytelling impactful.

film is not an intellectual medium, if you want to get across a thought, the written word is much  more nuanced gives you more power to get an idea across

film is an emotional medium, so things that are emotionally affective will have a bigger impact

the myth is that humans are rational beings, we gather information and make the best analytical choice. In truth we do that afterwards to justify our choices.

19:41

Studies have shown that we make our decisions on an emtional relational level, so low it's non verbal. The biggest thing that impacts our emotions is a sense of relation.

So if you apply that lense to storytelling, then character, relationship, and emotion are the big chips for affecting the consumer. Everything else is a tactical choice.

So thinking strategically what's gonna bring the biggest punch? hi fideltiy in animation or modeling or rendering?

Audiences are striving for coherence, they want to learn the rules (visual rules) of your world and for you to stick to them.

You can have very low rules like southpark, and stick to them, and people will be happy to go along for the ride.

So if you approach directing with this in mind you can step back and think, where can I use less, put my resources where it will matter more.

truck driver thinking "if a little gravy is good a lot of gravy must be better" but in truth sometimes a little less gravy is excellent

On directing:
I would give my shot handoffs with these
parameters of success;
what they're feeling, what they need to feel, what changes need to happen (open a door), and energy level (level 2 to level 6, irritated to angry)

and then leave it the animator to solve it however they need. So this opened up to ideas I would have never thought of, it gets the animator invested, it brings better than my own stuff, and any notes I give is not trying to make them match the scene in my head, but to help them make their scene better achieve its needs

Righteous Creative

Ran across this lecture by comic artist  Lucy Bellwood

will get you pumped up to go create. 



and her notes from it

and then notes I took listening


no aspriring, you're doing it or you're not doing it

(ala yoda do or do not, there is no try)
and business cards are secret validity, Joe Schmoe comic artist on a card proves that you are

pay attention to the stuff the consumes you and you lose track of what you're doing,

that's what people will be into when you bring it

like razor scooters, they had a phase in the 90's but if you are super passionate about
it you can bring it back with your passion

lack of time, fear of failure, lack of energy, I'm not good enough
vs
don't wait until your ready or good enough, you will never be good enough or ready

enough, do it now do the best with what you have

when you feel down about your work right now, think about what 9 year old you would think of you now

done is beautiful, don't nitpick it and try and make it perfect, just get it out in the world

easiest way to finish is to make it small

it doesn't have to be perfect or beautiful, it just needs to be done

don't overinvest in people who give advice, just do the work

ways to trick yourself into work:

micromovements
break it down as small as you can (day one get a pencil and put it next to the piece of

paper done for the day) you trick yourself into getting going because you are frustrated

at the stupid slow pace

pomodoro technique
egg timer for 25 minutes, choose a task with no interuptions and just focus, work on this

comic page for 25 minutes, when timer goes off stop what you're doing set timer for 5

minutes and goof off, then another 25 minutes

boxsheets
grid of the steps you need to do, basically a check off list for everything
includes milestones for "celebrate"

limits
work with limits hourly comics day or 24 hour comics day

consistency
if you have a lot of stuff happening make a boxsheet really easy like "have to do 1 thing

comic related everyday" to give yourself a way to start checking off boxes, once you have

a line of checked boxes you'll find yourself wanting to keep it going, you're building a

postive comic creating habit

community
find a group of people trying to do what you do to keep yourself inspired
meet people, find people, be friendly, you never know when someone who knows someone has

a thing that'd be an awesome project for you

omnivore
be an omnivore, the more you bring all the different facets of your life that youre

passionate about into your work the more interesting your work will be

Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon  (being creative in a distracting digital age)

How do you get Money at this?
get a website presence, if they look for you on google you need to be findable

do good work and share it with people
people die from "exposure" don't do work for it as payment

talk to your peers, raise your rates (if you do you'll get more work,weird stuff)


resources comics expirience, behance, illustrators market,

stop doing stuff you hate, you can make just as little money doing what you love as what you hate, you can actually make money doing what you like


Martha Graham to Agnes de Mille (one of my favorite quotes of all time):

    “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. … No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others”

(which is why the 9 year old perspective is good to have to so keep 'em both)

Horse=Brick

horse cheat sheet by Emma Coats from her twitter

and since we're at it, Gurney had thrown up this cheat sheet from Spirit days (though I don't think he was involved)

Feng Zhu

he has a really interesting trick (goes into it pretty quick on ep 5) where he's basically kit bashing his image value/color together. So he takes a bunch of random photos that have the feel he wants and just slaps them down onto a single layer, and I guess just color picks and colors in his line drawing. really interesting.




Holy Crap, Feng Zhu (who has always been awesome) has thrown down a billion tutorials (I think he has a school). He makes the brilliant point that watching a lot of tutorials is like watching a professional basketball player, it's cool to see, but you're not going to be able to go out and do it because you have to put in your practice time on the fundamentals which most tutorials don't even go over. Seems like maybe his earlier tut's (like this one) do go over the basics some.


he has a really interesting trick (he goes over it in ep 5) where he kit bashes random unrelated photos into 1 layer because it has the value and colors he wants. Then he color picks off that abstract image and fills in his line drawing. He does it again ep 14 part 2 @ 7:40 but this time he's laying down some techy photos as overlay, so they pick up the value of his painting but make his sketchy thing look totally teched out. (I think he takes all his own ref photos so that he doesn't have to worry about copywrite)

another thing he talks about is zooming out til your image is postage stamp size, the image will work if your values are well organized even this small, so don't get detaily until it works this way. Make sure the eye travels well around the image, and points to your emphasis.

he always throws down a horizon line, this tells him wether he's looking up or down onto parts (because our eyes are always on the horizon line) which helps with light and form.

know what the selling point of your image is and emphasize it

don't be afraid to use "entertainment lighting" meaning everything is awesomely lit with rim lights and stuff, because we're trying to make awesome images so do it

he always thinks in terms of forground mid and bg, usually pushes things back with fog layers to make them softer and less contrasty, repetition of objects helps us know distance by how small the further back one is, likes to include human sized elements so we can judge size,

he has a trick where he'll copy out a piece of the image, take it to a new file and uprez it to get details in (easier with a regular brush, instead of a 1 pixel brush) then drop it back in to the original and fit it in

for a painting he does a very loose line sketch, then fills it in with silhouette (or gradient w/ light at top) and starts working on defining form, as soon as he can turn off the lines and the forms and volumes still read he's done with the lines.

Psychology of Creativity

My brother gave me an old poetry magazine he was done with. There was a great article by Dennis Cass, it talked about how creativity works, the different ways it works, and then suggested ways of using the knowledge of how it works to get yourself out of a block. Applicable to any creative field. Check it out here.


notes:
fixation - getting stuck
mental set fixation: can't stop trying to apply solutions to old problems to the new problem (when you have a hammer every problem looks like a nail) comes from short term experience take a walk and you'll come to the problem with new ideas
functional fixation: not being able to think out the box (pliers are only used for grabbing, blocks you for thinking of them as a pendulum weight)

creative process:
divergent thinking= brainstorming, has 3 parts
fluency: lots of ideas
flexibility: variety of ideas
originality: how unique the ideas are

convergent thinking: editing and narrowing ideas into the final One

types of creativity:
innovative: lots of crazy ideas, not worried about stupid ideas
adaptive: more focused tight ideas, expect results

so if you recognize your stuck you can try and figure out how you've been approaching your problem and try approaching it with one of the other forms of creativity to get around it.

Facial Expressions by Gary Faigin

got this book out from the library finally, I've seen it kicking around as a suggested on lots of animators sights but I always assumed it was just like a pose gallery. Really excited about it now that I've flipped through it, looks like a more in depth on the muscles look at specific expressions and nuances between expressions. Seems like with Emotions Revealed by Paul Ekman and this one you can totally unlock the face and make have total control of it as an instrument for your acting.

this image I saw on my first flip through, which is awesome because I've been thinking about this idea of "how do you make a character stare off into their own landscape" ever since Carlos Baena spoke about it back in October 2008


so anyway, I'll report back more once I have a chance to read it and absorb it. (might actually prove worth buying a copy of my own, we'll see.)

*sorry, the book has proven so useful that I'm just going to buy it, so don't need to transcribe notes onto the web because I'll have the original. It's great because it talks about the muscles involved in making an expression, with typical furrows and bulges, and also analyzes the expression down to the most subtle version. So great for drawing & acting 11/14/2010

11 Sec Crit - February

Nedy Acet won Feb's 11 second Club Kevin Koch did a vid review

This has been executed so well that it looks like it could be rotoscoped or motion captured. The solution is to push the exaggeration more. Push the poses to be more extreme after a quick move. Not mess with the timing so much, but more of an exaggerated and caricatured version of what a skilled dancer can do. The problem with CG is that if you show what a really talented dancer(for example) can do it doesn't have the same thrill, it feels like motion capture. In CG the onus is on us to exaggerate a little more. (Hand Drawn has a little scruffiness that lets it get away with it.) Take it to the point where it's clearly being exaggerated, you can always dial it back. You have to break the illusion of realism a little bit to make it work as animation. Just push the poses maybe 20% more. Can keep the timing, and you don't want to push every single pose, just pick places to push the extremes a little more.

Stephen King - On Writing

Recently read Steven King's On Writing, that everyone raves about. It was a good read, nice and smooth and easy to get through, chatty, makes you feel like you could sit down and bang out a novel, I'd recommend it if you are interested in writing stories. Here's notes I took from the writing part of it:


You have to read a lot and write a lot.

Don't worry about your vocabulary, you don't have to have big flowery language to get the story out: "He came to the river. The river was there." -Ernest Hemingway

Use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful. If you hesitate you will of course come up with other words, but the first one was most directly what you meant.

Know grammar, the usual have to know the rules in order to know when to break them.

Any noun paired with any verb = a sentence. Rocks explode. Jane transmits. Plums deify. Grab onto simple sentences when you start feeling overwhelmed by complex grammar rules.

Avoid the passive tense. The subject of the sentence should be doing stuff, not have stuff done to it.

Adverbs are very bad. They are words that end with -ly. You should be able to describe with context how things happened. "He closed the door firmly." vs "He was angry. He shut the door." {I don't understand the big deal, but other writers suggest this too}

And similar {and similarly repeated by others} don't use dialogue attributions. 'Said' works great, anything else is over the top and stupid.

Lots of short paragraphs make the reading easier. Topic sentence with support and description means the writer has organized their thoughts and isn't wandering.

In fiction the paragraph is the beat instead of the melody. (the more you read and write the more you'll find you're own rhythm)

King writes 2000 words a day, so in  3 months that's 180,000 words; a goodish length book. He suggests starting easier at 1000 a day (and 1 day off a week). His main point though is that you're doing it because you want to, not because you feel like you should. You do it because it's your passion.

He likens writing to creative sleep, you're dreaming while your body is conscious enough to type the words out. So he suggests having a space where you can be free from distraction, and try and be consistent day to day so that your brain learns at what time it's supposed to fall into creative sleep. You should go into your room, shut the door, shut out all distractions, and not emerge until you've hit your goal (1000 words).

People want a good story they can get involved in. So write what you're interested in, infuse it with what you know of life and love. And put in what you know about because that feeling of expertise makes things more believable. (Grisham wrote about lawyers because he was one.)


{somewhere I read that how to write books can be divided into those who like to plot everything out (with notecards for example) and those who fly by the seat of their pants. King is a "pantser"}

King starts with a situation. Then the characters come (usually 2 dimensional) then he just rides along to see where the characters go. He says this way he gets surprised, which is great if even he doesn't know where his story is going to go. He talks about writing like unearthing a fossil {which Andrew Stanton talked about too, but I can't find my blog post on that} you don't know what you're going to pull up until you're done. With Misery he started with a captured writer and a crazy nurse, but when he started he thought it would end with the writer's skin binding his last single edition book. Misery is "two characters in a house". Bag of Bones is "widowed writer in a haunted house". Easiest way to start is with "what if".

Description is what makes the readers a sensory participant in the story. Read and write a lot to learn how. Thin description leaves the reader feeling bewildered and nearsighted. Overdescription buries them in mundane details. See (and smell and feel) the scene in your mind, then put down what you experienced, then edit it. A few well chosen details that stand for everything else. Simile and metaphor (when used right) are one of the delights of fiction, we are able to see an old thing a new way.

Dialogue is a strong way of showing (instead of telling) the reader what kind of person the characters are.

Pay attention to the real people around you, then put what you see into your characters.

I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather then the event, which is to say character-riven. But once you get beyond the short story (2000-4000 words) the story should be the boss, otherwise it's a biography.

2nd draft is 1st draft minus 10%. 2nd draft is also where you polish the theme and symbolism you see when you read your first draft. Symbolism is another tool you can use to help focus the story. Symbolism exists to adorn and enrich, not to create a sense of artificial profundity.

Every book is about something after the 1st draft your job is to read it and in the 2nd draft make it more clear, which may take major changes and revisions, but will give you a clearer and more unified story. But starting with the theme is a recipe for preachy bad fiction. Write what's interesting to you, then go back and see what the overall message was that snuck out.

Steven has to write the first draft as fast as possible to keep up the enthusiasm and outrun self doubt. Write the first draft with the door shut, just you and the story, no outside comments or input, resist the temptation to share it. Then when you're done let it sit for at least 6 weeks (this is when he writes his shorter novella's, between drafts of the bigger novels) leave it long enough so that it's a little foreign to you so it's easier to kill your darlings.

As a reader what's about to happen is more interesting then what happened already. 

Pacing:cut out the boring stuff. But if you go to fast you'll leave the reader behind. Everyone has personal taste for what the right pace is. (and it doesn't have to be fast paced to be a good book)

11 second club 2009 October & November

Watching the 11second club winning critiques for October and November has me thinking about Hand Drawn and CG. I was reminded that somewhere I read the suggestion for hand drawn work to always be squashing and stretching a little, always be changing the shape, to give it the feel that it's organic and alive and a flesh sack filled with liquidy stuff, so always a bit of the feel of a water baloon. Watching Mike Walling in October gave me the impression that the CG equivalent is everything a little bit overlapping, nothing ever settling or starting at the same time (which I think is harder in hand drawn because you try and keep your charts simple so your inbetweeners can follow.)  Kind of like the juice box is the CG equivalent of the flour sack. Food for thought. (wish 11 second club would update their archives with links to the critiques faster, it's always a few months slow.)

In Character: Actors Acting

lots of shots here

* Couple shots up here

In Character: Actors Acting by Howard Schatz

Took me a while to find this book (I'd seen it once, but when I went to look for it I didn't know the title, and no one else knew it.) Anyway it's really cool. Professional actor's are given a prompt, then photos are taken of them portraying it. Beautiful book, great reference. Especially fun when they give the old guys prompts of being little kids.

JANE KRAKOWSKI

Left: You're a finalist on America's Next Top Model who is hearing Tyra tell the other girl she's out—and you're prepping to give your nemesis a "sincere" hug. Center: You're a stand-up comic performing at a Toronto showcase packed with S.N.L. and HBO scouts—and your "lesbian chickens" bit is utterly tanking. Right: You're, like, 15, and he's, like, 17, and even tho U have only ever said, like, "Hey" in the hallways, he's just texted 2 ask U 2 B his D8 @ the prom!!! the prom!!!


JEFF DANIELS



Left: You're an N.B.A. power forward who's been lightly grazed by an opponent, flailing and wincing with Oscar-worthy panache to elicit a foul call. Center: You're an insufferable epicure at a revered restaurant in Lyon, having an out-of-body experience on your very first bite. Right: You're a high-school freshman who's just been publicly hazed by a bullying senior, skulking away ashamedly—but getting the last word.







Also included is short thoughts from the actors. Hence, these notes :)

I look for similarities and things that are very different as well. I decides should I play against certain moments or should I play into them? For example, if the character I just made has some kind of disability, do I want him to hide that disability and not make it seem so pronounced because I'm embarrassed by it? Or do I want to make that disability seen and do I want to elicit some kind of pity fro the audience or any other characters I might come into? - Giancarlo Esposito

If an actor asks me my process, I say I don't have a clue to my process. I just see it like it is a suit of clothes across the room, and my business, my obligation, is to walk across the room and get into that suit of clothes. -Richard Dreyfuss

All you really need to do on stage is have a good play, a good script, with good actors. The rest of it is almost unimportant. Adornments are unnecessary. The quality of the writing and the quality of the acting make everything alive...I don't really believe you need to act in movies. "Movie stars" do very little acting. They play themselves in various roles. They change costumes, and the situation is somewhat different. But Cary Grant is Cary Grant, no matter where you see him. And Cary Cooper and John Wayne; nobody in his right mind would ever accuse John Wayne of being an actor, for God's sake. -Philip Bosco

I read somewhere that "art is the search for beauty, and religion is the search for truth. And it hit me like a great revelation that it is the search - not the finding. And that search is the process where the art occurs and where the truth occurs. - Ellen Burstyn

I know that to play a role honestly you have to dig down into your own self and you have to find that little devil tn there who is yo, and you have to enlarge on that devil; you have to find that little angel - whatever is in there you have to find it. - Hal Holbrook

Acting is not showing. Only bad actors try to cry. Good actors try not to...How a character hides his feelings tells us who he is. The only people in the world who exhibit or show their emotions are bad actors. How a character distills and holds on to his feelings tells us what slips through. The power of that emotion is what tells us who our character is. In a well-written script, what people say to each other - the dialogue - is what a character's willing to reveal, willing to share with another person. The 90 percent he or she isn't willing to share is what I do for a living. The subtext is what makes the people do what they do. I watch people. It's not what they say that tells us who they are, it's their behaviour. - Martin Landau

The truth is a constant search, because it's constantly shifting and changing. It's the looking. It's the searching. - F. Murray Abraham

Actually, I think the word acting is a bad word for what we do. If we're doing it correctly, we are being. - Dennis Haysbert

Who can teach you emotion? Who can teach you how to be happy? Nobody. All there is to acting is find your mark, look the guy in the eye, and tell him the truth. - Charles Durning

An artist's job, is not to be judgemental. An artist's job is to tell his truth, too Tell the truth that he envisions. - Danny Glover

You go to the zoo, and you watch what an animal does, watch what a gorilla does, watch what an otter does, you know? And you try to move that way. A lot of my characters are bearlike. You walk like that. They're deceptively faster than you think. - Charles Dunning

Film, for me, is a director's medium, it's not an actor's medium. You have absolutely no control over your performance. It can be completely cut to smithereens. Your best work might never be seen. It's all up to the director. But what you can do is go for little moments of absolute truth. Because you're not going to go through it all start to finish, you really work with he moment. - Natasha Richardson

In movies, I always think of my job as putting globs of paint on an easel, for the director to paint his or her painting with long after I've left. For instance, i get hired for red and black, and I'd better have really iridescent black and vibrant red. - Scott Glenn

You have an uncomfortable feeling that all of these characters are within you, and the criminals out there are people who don't have an outlet. They're actually acting it out in real life. - Edward Herrmann

When a playwright writes a play, the orthodoxy says that he would be well advised not to direct it himself because director will find things in it...It's a collaborative venture, and as personal as writing a play is, we[directors, actors, set designers, composers etc.] could add tremendously to it. - Robert Klein

when I discover something that's true about the character in one moment, I try not to extrapolate it through the rest of the play. I try to keep what is true of the character in the moment true in that moment and then discover the true thing about the character in the next moment from the material.

With Strasberg you came first. You dominated the material. It's your character. It's what you want to do with it. You act out of yourself. - Robert Loggia

Plot & Structure by James Bell

Plot and Structure by James Bell he gets started with the common basic stuff, but then goes into lots of useful examples of how to do the things he's talking about, like stretching tension and raising stakes.

LOCK is the acronym he likes. Lead, Objective, Conflict, Knockout (a strong ending, like in boxing, instead of a draw). He boils down all stories to this basic schema for the 3 act structure, and you then add your unique non cliche ideas on top to make it interesting.

Act 1
a) introduced to world
b) call to action
c) through doorway number 1 (can no longer continue in their normal life)
Act 2
a) hero meets mentors and aids and maybe picks up some useful artifacts
b) scenes get more intense
c) hero might go through a dark patch
d) through doorway number 2 (direct path to final showdown)
Act 3
a) final battle
b) wrap it up

The inciting incident creates reader interest, but is not necissarily the main story point. Doorways of no return (aka plot points) how to get from Act 1 to act 2, and from act 2 to act 3, shove your characters through a decision/event they can't return to how things were afterwards.

Coming up with ideas:
Come up with a cool title to a book, then write the book that goes with it. Come up with a cool opening line and run with it: "ever kill anyone?". Quickly jot down a list of nouns, then go back and look at any associations you have with them. Write on an issue you care about: poverty, war, etc. "I think arresting fiction is written out of a sense of outrage." -Robert Ludlum. Come up with the most intense climactic ending scene you can, then fill in the story before it.

Establishing a bond with the reader:
Identification: character goes through an experience we've all had (not getting the toy you want at the store)
Gain sympathy with, Jeapordy, Hardship, Underdog, Vulnerability, Likeability, Inner conflict (people who react without 2nd guessing or being afraid are too different from regular people)

ARM action, reaction, more action, fundamental rhythm of a novel. Lead character has to be doing something, can't just stand there, they're trying to achieve a goal, and for the scene to be interesting there needs to be something in the way. More conflict and tension you can add the more interesting the scene will be.

Keeping them reading through the long Act 2

Trim the dullness, combine or cut characters, absorb uninteresting subplots, look at your scenes if one doesn't have enough conflict punch it up, or kill it and drop the knowledge into a different scene.

Stretching the Tension
There has to be something to be tense about, potential badness about to happen to the character. Set it up so the audience know: "Saturated by silence, the house brimmed with also with an unnerving expectancy, as if some bulwark was about to crack, permitting a violent flood to sweep everything away." -Dean Koontz, he then spends the next 7 tense pages walking a girl through a house to find her drugged up mother. Slow down to make more tension. Action, thoughts, dialogue, description, milk them and more to slow down the pace of a scene and get the reader more into it, so they're worried about what's going to happen and you're pointing out every detail, in film they do this with slow motion. What's the worst thing from the outside that can happen to my character? What's the biggest trouble they can get into? Is the reader prepped enough? (can't worry if they don't know they're supposed to) Emotional tension, go through it beat for beat with the character showing what they're going through, where their thoughts are flitting, what emotions are boiling up, what they're emotional stake makes them physically feel. What is the worst thing from the inside that could happen to the character? (hint: look to their fears) What is the worst information my character could receive? Does the reader care enough about the characters to go down with them? Stretch your big scenes out of course, but also stretch out little passages as you go (not a whole scene but a momentary bad thing a half paragraph instead of a half sentence) It's easier to stretch all the bad as far as you can in your first draft and pull it back, then try and cram it in later.

Raising the stakes
If you can create a character worth following, and a problem that must be solved - and then along the way raise the stakes even higher - you're going to have the essential elements of a page turner. 3 aspects of stakes to consider, flowing from: plot, character, and society. Plot stakes the bomb, the papers, What physical harm can happen to my character? What new forces or characters come into play against my character? Is there some professional duty at stake? What's the worst thing I can do to my character? Character Stakes inner turmoil, How can things get more emotionally wrenching for my character? Can I twist the emotional knife in my character through another character? (law and order governer's only son is under suspicion for murder ,what's our gov gonna do?) Are there dark secrets from the past? Societal Stakes like Scarlet O'harra's can raise the tension. Whose on which team socially? What big sociatal issue could they be dealing with? Now take your list of troubles, sort them from least to worst, and now you have a stakes outline (don't have to use all of it) to keep ratcheting things up as act 2 rolls along. Just keep asking: What else can go wrong, how can I make it worse?

Scenes
HIP: hook, intensity, prompt
hook pull readers in, don't start with boring description, suck them into the action, tease them with what's gonna happen, etc.
intensity keep the reader anxious through tension, make the tension with emotional or physical conflict.
prompt make the reader want to know what happens next. Where does this new revelation leave the characters? How will they react to this news? How are they going to get out of this one? What are they going to do about this? Reversals, surprises, questions.
Intensity Scale: Within a scene the intensity will change. And different scenes will have different overall levels of intensity. If you analyze your scenes from this angle it will help you build your story. A novel usually revolves around a few Big Intense scenes, like guideposts you move from one to the next (passing through less intense scenes) always going up to the climax. If you've analyzed your scenes (go ahead, make a graph, each scene 0-10 (although 0 is probably too boring)) then you can plot out your story to have good balance, to always be stepping it up, and to be giving the readers a breathing break everyonce in a while.
4 scene chords: action, reaction (minor chords) setup, deepening.
Action scene: character trying to achieve something (scene objective). He comes against an obstacle to keep things interested. Commercial fiction majority of scenes are action based.
Reaction scene: how character feels about what has happened, often done beat by beat. (literary novels may feel like they have more reaction scenes, because they are more about the interior or the characters.) Can put a reaction beat in the middle of an action scene. If you handle action and reaction well your plot will move along smartly.
Setup scenes: are needed for the rest of the scenes to make sense, they potentially can be dull, so build in a problem to pep them up.
Deepening: not really a full scene, use it sparingly, it's added spice. The "barf-o-rama" story in Steven Kings "The Body"
Scenes fall Flat: find the hotspot, the essential point of the scene,(if there isn't one, dump the scene) circle the hotspot and go up from there trimming dead wood sentences that don't catapult you into the hotspot

Long Novels
Like the story of a snot nosed Irish urchin who grows up, emigrates to America, and dies as the major mob boss of New York. Treat each section as a mini story, 3 acts, LOCK, but change Lead to Locale, and K to Kick in the Pants prompt to read the next part. Locale:Ireland, Objective:get out of Ireland, Conflict: Abusive father, Kick:beats up Dad and runs. Locale:Boston, Objective:find a way to live, Conflict:gangs and cops, Kick:kills a cop. Locale:NY, Objective:Rule it, Conflict:Rival mobs, Knockout ending:becomes mayor. Have to make each section work on it's own.

Character Arc
Our core self, who we really are, we surround with harmonious layers. To change you have to penetrate through all the layers to the center (self>core beliefs>values>dominant attitudes>opinions). Take Ebenezer Scrooge: opinions (xmas is a humbug, clerks try to take advantage)<attitude (profit greater then charity)< values ($ more then people)<believes (love is pointless)<core (miser and misanthrope). Can't just jump to a change, have to break down all those layers.

The rest of the book (half of it) goes into different ways to write, outlining, not outlining, getting through the first draft, different archetypes of story (quest, revenge, love, adventure, chase, one apart, one against, allegory) Common problems (wandering on a tangent, characters taking over, writers block.)

Show don't tell. Showing as if you were watching it: Marc's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He tried to take a breath, but breath did not come..." the reader feels the emotions along with the character. Telling: "Mark was stunned and frightened." Don't list: "Perry Mason, on the other hand, was urbane, fair, logical and smilingly frank to the jury." we don't really believe he's urbane fair logical and frank just because we're told.

Soap Opera tricks: 1)Don't resolve anything to soon, raise questions then delay answering them. 2) If you can cut from one scene leaving the reader hanging, to another scene, then cut from that scene leaving them hanging. In other words force them to come back for more because you always leave more threads then you tie up.

Orson Scott Card

I like Orson Scott Card (except for his politics, but Pixar's Adrian Molina can speak for me there) and I recently read his How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy and Characters and Viewpoint

Character:
We judge who someone is based on what we see them do. (A guy talking loudly, spilling his drink, and being rude we'd think was an obnoxious drunk)
But knowing why someone is behaving a certain way changes the impression. (if we know the hostess just cruelly ended the affair she was having with our "drunk" 5 minutes ago, we'd judge his actions differently.)
A character is what he does, but even more what he means to do. (difference between murderer and victim good at self defense)
And is defined by their past. (it matters if our adulterous drunk is married to a meek devoted wife, or if his first girlfriend had been so manipulative he's never been able to completely open up to a woman since)
You can let the reader know their reputation, and live up to it, or violate it (and show how they got it like a conman who pretends to be pious)
Stereotypes can be used as a quick fill in of a character, if the character's minor you can use stereotypes to not need to spend too much time on them (need a thug use a thug), you can also use them to break expectations (the old man in the poor fitting suit and bottle of wine in a paper bag could be a wino, or a cancer survivor making his way to a party)
Showing us the how a characters different social networks work and treat them informs us.
Specific details make fiction more real. Habits, preferences, and talents that a person has make them interesting and tell us about them. (been doing kickboxing for 12 years, carefully stacks his quarters, love of b movies)
Physical characteristics are not very important (unless it's a peg leg) let the reader flesh it out (they'll probably imagine themselves into it)
If you don't care about your character's your readers won't either, you are the first audience member, keep yourself interested and entertained.
Tools to making a character important: Ordinariness vs strangeness, amount of their "on screen" or talked about, how many plot characters their choices affect, how much everyone else focuses on them, frequency of appearance, how involved in the action they are, readers sympathy with them, are they narrating.

If you don't tell what the character's motives are the audience will assume the most obvious, cliche, boring ones. To make character's more believable we give them more complex and justified motives. Each new revelation of a character's motive doesn't just add information, it revises all the information that came before.

We want to know what the character's think and feel about what's going on around them, it clues us as to what we should think and feel about it too, and makes the character more alive. It is through attitude that we learn what people think about each other.
"what a day" she said.
Yeah, right. poor dear, couldn't she find a single dress that fit right?

"what a day" she said.
She could say anything right now, and it would be music. He didn't realize how much he missed her until she came back.

A character's expectations imply what their past experiences have been. How people view them and interact with them tell us who they are now. If you're character is changing their behavior, you don't have to show the cause before or during, but you need to let the audience know that the character's behaviour change is a mystery that will be cleared up (otherwise they just think you're a bad writer and can't keep track of your characters). The more important the character and the bigger the change the more time you have to spend making it believable.

Main Character:
Who's in the most pain? they have the biggest motivation for action, and the strongest ability to elicit sympathy from the reader. Who has the power and freedom to act? The greatest power to act unpredictably is usually found away from the center of power (the king can't just haul off and kill the ambassador, the way the kitchen boy in the alley can) If Captain Kirk acted like a captain he would never leave the ship putting himself in danger, that's the job of front line troops, of scouts.

The Protagonist:
The hero is who you are hoping will win, the main character is who you are most fascinated with, they are not necessarily the same. If the one who's making all the interesting decisions is the bad guy, you'll probably be spending a lot of time with him (like Darth Vader). The viewpoint character is the one we ride through the story with, who's view we most get to understand so will obviously be important to us. Dr. Watson is the viewpoint character, because if it were Sherlock Holmes we'd know who did it almost right away. The viewpoint character must be at the main events, actively involved in them, and have a personal stake in their outcome.

Tools for making readers care:
Pain: the more someone suffers, or inflicts it, the more important they are (but if it's repetitive it loses it's edge and gets funny) You increase the amount of pain by showing it's causes and effects (not by describing it with more detail). If you show us how much they loved, and how hard they work to cope after the loss, we'll believe it better. Pain is stronger with more choice, setting a broken leg is important, setting your own is even more so. Sacrifice raises the character's worth (love vs integrity). Jeopardy, anticipated pain, raises a character's value, the more vulnerable the more oomph (which is why children are such strong fictional victims), but jeopardy only works if the reader believe it can happen. Sexual Tension raises the stakes of both characters (as long as we believe they are attractive to each other) until they reach sexual harmony. If the character is a victim, they'll gain sympathy of the audience, but may loose some respect, you can try to show the character fought all the way, or is trying to cope with it but you may never get all the respect back. It's easy to like saviours, but if you want to make sure they stay liked make them reluctant to interfere, or give them an invitation to come in and save someone. Character's need to have a life, they have needs and plans that they are actively striving to fulfill, and if we understand their reasons and believe in them we'll be with them, don't just have them "doing nothing in particular". Readers respond to a character who is brave, plays fair, will take risks for what they believe in, doesn't gloat, and lose sympathy for characters who cheat or are cowardly. Character's attitude towards others, and towards themselves can help win the audience, if they man up and admit their mistakes, if they give people second chances, basically if they have good traits you would appreciate in real people. Volunteer or Draftee, gain sympathy if they volunteer for a crap job, or if they're mandatorily recruited for a glory one. Keep their words, if Pete holds onto the family farm, even though it's failing and everyone wants him to sell it, because he promised his dad on his death bed, the audience will be rooting for him, even though he's dragging the family down in flames, we admire those who stick to their word, and dislike people who make promises and break them. Audiences appreciate cleverness, quick thinking problem solving, but not intelligence because it's snooty and aristocratic. (Indiana Jones is great on his feet, but bumbling when teaching). Of course if you're character's perfect they won't be believable, so give them some endearing flaws (just keep the overall balance on the sympathetic attributes). Murder for selfish reasons or against those who don't deserve it earns dislike, but if it's to protect someone or punish someone who deserves it the murderer will gain audience sympathy. We hate people who appoint themselves, people who try and make themselves experts, but if they later earn their position and gain the respect of those around them they become okay. Actually crazy characters are never liked. You can soften your bad guys by partially justifying their actions.

Ideas
Why? and What Result? questions that will build your story. Why are they doing that, what are they trying to avoid, or make happen? What made this happen, what was the purpose, what was the result? (What happens when your 12? you can babysit. What happens when you babysit? baby cries. Why? Sick. What do you do? Burp it? no. Call the Dr.? no too sick. Grab the baby and run to get help. Why didn't you wait for the ambulance? mom died waiting before ambulance arrived. etc. brainstorm quickly splintering ideas off, chasing interesting ones, circling back if you hit dead ends. Don't just take the 1st good enough answer. 1000 questions in an hour.) It's fiction, exaggerate some, make it a tale worth hearing. Try taking an assumption and giving it a twist, (baby's sick because it's actually in the final stages of an evolution cycle, and becomes a luminous being) If it's a setting or an idea you want to start with you can ask "who suffers most in this situation. Beware the cliche, the easy first answers.

Ideas come from life. If you see something that catches your eye, play with the idea. A guy eating a banana. Looks like it's covering his face - maybe he's going to make an entire biohazard suit out of banana peels. Everyday, everywhere, get your brain in the practice of being creative and playful. Use the people in your life, take the passion your sister had for horses and the struggle she went through working in the barn to afford it and put that into an elderly character trying to learn to dog sled race. Take a random time from your history and wander forwards or backwards in your memory until you find something juice, your high school chemistry teacher letting your make a fool of yourself in front of the class as you try to figure out an experiment, and put it into a new place like a wife trying to start a new career in the husbands field and the husband letting her fail so she could "do it on her own".

Or Ideas that the story needs. Who must be there? (If you want to do a story about a princess locked in a castle, you're gonna need her jailer.) Who might be there? (maybe the princess strikes up a friendship with the rats in the tower) Who has been there? (is the jailer's real problem with the princess' mother?)

All of Cards stories marinated for a long time before he wrote them, years sometimes, and often he combined two unrelated ideas to get one story.

1st Contract with the Readers: Readers will expect the story to be over when the first major cause of structural tension is resolved. So if a man is murdered we won't be satisfied until the murderer is caught,but if a woman is widowed we won't be satisfied until she has established her new role in life, even if both of these stories use the same characters and events, it matters what starts it off. All good stories do NOT have to have full characterization. Character stories do, but we never cared what Indiana Jones' father was like in the first two flicks because they were Event stories. You need to be able to write interesting and believable characters, but not necessarily take the reader through the results of your heroes angsty teenage rejections. "Characterization is not a virtue it is a technique, you use it when it will enhance your story, and when it won't you don't." So what part of the story are you most interested in telling? Of course you can mix it up, and use all the parts for different kinds of sub plots, but knowing the main type of story helps you structure and prioritize and decide how much characterization you need.

MICE
Milieu is about WHERE the main character is. When you are most interested in the surroundings: suburban life? Tolkein's world? Deep characterization isn't needed, character's can stand in as representatives. LoTR fellowship has 1 dwarf, 1 ranger, 1 elf, 1 smeagel etc. Tolkein spends time talking about history or daily life of hobbits, or how treebeard and his pals think about things. Starts when the main character heads off to see the world, ends when they've seen it, maybe having been transformed by it. Frodo isn't done when the ring goes into the lava, or when they kick wormtongue out of the shire, he's done when him and all the elves check out and it's the end of the age. Dorothy's not done when she kills the witch, she's done when she gets home.

Idea story is about How the main character solves a puzzle. When you're most interested in the process of solving a puzzle. Murder mysteries, Capers, and Sci-Fi where the ship needs a part, are all examples. Characterization doesn't really need to go further then maybe a few eccentricities to differentiate and make the characters entertaining, and everyone having their own reason to have killed the bastard. You could go high-brow and have each character be a symbol of something, like Mr. Compassion vs Mr. Greed. Sometimes the detective needs to be good at figuring out what kind of person someone is, but rarely does anyone experience growth or change in a story. The story starts when the puzzle is posed (mystery is so established that the readers will give the author some leeway to actually get going), and ends when it's solved.

Character story is about WHO the main character is. When you are most interested in what makes someone who they are and how they go about changing. You're main character is the one who's changing triggers everyone else. The conflict that drives the story is when the main character can no longer stand to be in the roles they are in, so they try to change their roles in their social circles, or change their social circles, and of course the ripples from there. Sometimes the break from the old role is easy and the story is about the search for the new one (coming of age). Sometimes the break is very difficult and the story is about how to make it happen (escaping a manipulative relationship). The most complex character stories to write are the ones where someone tries to change themselves without loosing their relationships (becoming a strong independent woman while keeping the old world husband.) Starts when the character must transform from the roles they are in, ends when they have

Event story is about WHAT the main character does. When you are most interested in trying to set the world right. There's an evil king raising an evil army(Indiana Jones & the arc). There's a love that can not be allowed, yet can not be denied(wurthering heights). There's a great crime that has been committed and justice must be meted (macbeth) Deep characters aren't necessary to get the story told, we don't know much about Lancelot other then his main roles. Starts when the person crucial to righting the balance gets involved, ends when they have or have failed completely.

2nd Contract: the more time you spend on something the more significant to the story. Don't spend 3 chapters talking about the characters first dog unless something like the dogs habit of putting slippers in the empty dog food tin leads the hero to find the final clue in the dog food container.

Suspense is not created by withholding information, suspense comes from giving almost all the information so the reader is involved in the characters and cares about them so really wants to know how the tiny bit of key information that has been withheld will decide the characters' fate. In other words, the only information you keep back is what is going to happen next.

Show Don't Tell, sometimes:
Fiction is life with the boring bits left out. Telling is giving the information needed from the boring bits, without living through it. "they went through 19 file drawers, paper by paper. They cracked open books that had 10 years of dust on them. Even after all that searching they almost missed the answer when they found it."= compressing a day of tedious searching through telling. Showing is making the reader live through the event with the characters. The important dramatic scenes are relatively rare, but the take the most space because it takes a lot more space to show then tell, which makes these the scenes that stick with the reader afterwards.

Card talks a lot in both books about the art of language, what kind of voice and tense and viewpoint to use, how to make phrases presentational vs representational. Honestly, at the moment, all of that stuff is over my head. I figure it will take some practice of me actually writing to have enough foundation to absorb and use those ideas.

Hooked by Les Edgerton

Hooked by Les Edgerton, "write fiction that grabs readers at page one and never lets them go. Decent read, flows smooth, has some good examples of how to "show not tell"

Main point: Gotta start strong, right in the inciting incident, with no fancy words and backstory, right in the middle of the action. Open as quick as possible then dive into solving the problems.

notes:
Opening needs: 1)inciting incident, 2)main story problem (learn to love again) 3) surface problem (there's a bomb) 4) setup (where we're at, who's who, what's going on, as short as possible!) 5) backstory (absolute minimum possible! you can fill it in more depth later once you've hooked 'em) 6) brilliant opening sentence (opening sentence is what gets a publisher to buy your book) 7)language (strong, original verbs. don't pair adjectives (each additional one halves your power) use "said" instead of some overly fancy dialogue tag) 8) characters (introduce them to the reader by showing their reactions to the inciting incident. have them DOING stuff. don't say he's a miser, have him save his teabag in his fancy coat for reuse)(and don't overwhelm the reader with too many characters to early 9)setting (readers don't care about all that long flowy descriptive stuff you can right, quick and clever is better) 10)foreshadowing ("a brief hint of what's to take place at the end will make your story feel complete to the reader")

Readers have to live through the inciting incident and experience it with the characters so they can understand and care about it. Think smaller not bigger. If a bomb is your inciting incident how are you gonna top it, with a bigger bomb, bad idea. He says the inciting incident in Thelma and Louise is when Thelma decides to go on the trip without her husbands permission, not the rape, it's the first moment of defiance in her. So inciting incident won't be obvious enough for the protagonist to realize their "story problem" so you need a "surface problem" strong enough to get them moving (Thelma and Louise killing the rapist.) Surface problems can be overcome, but always lead to new ones, which gives us time to unfold how big the story problem is, until all problems get resolved in the end.

How do you figure out your story problem? Ask "why". You want to drag a dude around looking for the lost city of Xenon, WHY would he do this? Um.. to impress a girl. Can't he imress her another way? Um... there's this Walter guy who made our dude eat sand a year ago in front of the girl and now he has to prove he's a man to her because she's just looking at him with pity. Boom, there's your inciting incident, eating sand, and an antagonist, and probably our dude is really trying to get his self respect back for himself. etc, ask why and chase up reasons like that, pick them up put them down shuffle them around etc. Having trouble distinguishing between story and surface problems? You can photograph a resolution to a surface problem (getting the girl to love him = wedding photo)surface goals are particular while story ones are all encompassing and more general. Keep asking "what does my protagonist really want, so deep they don't even know it?" Try and get the goals entwined, Thelma and Louise running from the law works well with Thelma breaking free from men. You're antagonist's goals are probably opposite of your protagonist's but don't make him straight evil. Hal wants to capture Thelma and Louise because they're wanted for murder, and because he doesn't want them to wind up killed. The best story worthy problems are the writers own because you'll already be emotional about them, so you'll write stronger (if you can take it).

Always get your story down to particular individuals. It won't work to make a story about "Freedom", but it did work to write about Uncle Tom and his experience with slavery.

He was so mean that wherever he was standing became the bad part of town.
At that moment, the bad part was State Street just past Maplecrest, in the Georgetown Shopping Plaza. Behind it, actually, back by the dumpsters behind the Cap 'n Cork.
Into one one of which he was stuffing the body of his wife.

that's all the setup and backstory you need. Don't need to go into how he became a bastard right now, don't need to describe the town. Quick and Dirty, use words cleverly to crowbar the most important info into very few sentences.

We are used to noticing the big melodramatic moments, but the moments that really count are the dramatic moments. Dad dying is a melodramatic moment (big, huge, Thing), the first small realization of just what that death really means to our character = dramatic moment (intense, emotional, specific individual, to the bone.)

Show us who the characters are by their actions, and specific details. You don't need to give us specific's on how they look, we'll fill that in. "I was just finishing my afternoon flossing when I noticed the chip in my backup Peter Rabbit teacup." The audience starts forming an idea of who this person is based on flossing in the afternoon, and having at least 2 Peter Rabbit teacups.

Specific details can help paint vivid pictures. "He was forty eight, a fisherman, and had never caught a significant fish" the simple detail of "significant" makes that sentence much more interesting. Good writing is strong verbs and concrete nouns, not flowery useless adjectives and adverbs. Give the reader a character who's obviously cut from a different cloth then the everyman, and you create a compelling opening.

red flag bad openings: open with a dream, or an alarm clock buzzing, opening with dialogue (we probably won't know who is who), or too little dialogue (long walls of text)

Open short and sweet, quick scene giving a strong short flavor of who's involved and what the inciting incident is, then get to work to solve it.

Screenwriting Formula

Been reading stuff on writing lately. This stuff very plainly lays out the formula for Hollywood films, which lets face it, can be very powerful entertaining and fun, but can also be predictable and dull. But knowing the formula and thinking behind it makes it easier to use the formula's strengths and side step if you don't want that flavor.

The Screenwriting Formula by Rob Tobin, an easy read with lots of examples from recent films.

Quick summary: you need a hero, ally, and opponent. The opponent should somehow be the cause of the inciting incident. And there needs to be a character plot (learn how to open up to people) and a straight plot (stop the bomb).

Full notes:
Screenplay typically: Act One=25-30 pages, Act Two=60 pages, Act Three=30 pages (screenplay page typically=1 minute movie time)
Act 1 is about defining and describing the hero. Movies are short we only have time for people to have 1 major flaw. Also need to show hero's redeeming qualities so audience will be interested/care enough about them to see them through. Show hero's motivation, and point of view so audience understands hero. Introduce opponent and maybe the ally, end with the inciting incident.

Act 2 (first part)you need to figure out the driving force aka objective storyline (ie. stopping the bomb) and the real point aka subjective storyline (ie learning to love again). The commercial hook you're gonna sell the film with is the objective storyline, like a boy finds a space alien in his closet E.T., a down and out loser gets a one in a million shot at boxing championship of the world -Rocky. Objective storyline often provides a time limit. Act 2 starts with hero's emotional response to the inciting incident, then their physical response (what they actually do). Ally offers help. Hero makes a plan against opponent. Hero balks at giving up flaw (ally might have to finish 1st plan). Opponent counter attacks and states their point of view. Ally challenges hero about balk. Stakes are raised (bomb's gonna kill more people). Hero confronts their flaw, reconnects with ally partially redeems themself and they bond, big fight with Ally (hero doesn't want to give up their flaw, ally wants them to) hero explains flaw Ally reveals own struggles.

Act 2 (second part) Hero chooses flaw or opportunity (let 'em blow up, I'd rather not risk loving). Hero and Ally unite against opponent. Stakes get higher again (gonna blow up the moon too). Opponent counters, situation is becoming a mirror of the one that created the flaw in the first place. Stakes higher (gonna blow up the ocean). Hero breaks own rules, but even that doesn't help. Opponent does something making hero really choose flaw or opportunity and reveals full extent of danger (highest tension point heroes on the edge of the cliff hanging by his pinky toes). Events are now a complete mirror of the origin of the flaw (flashback may be necessary). Final decision. (sometimes a chance to revoke final decision and backslide.)

Act 3. (Act 2 was apparently find opponent, catch opponent, train to fight opponent seems like the authors chronology doesn't quite agree with himself. All or nothing (guess we're back on the cliff with pinky toes). Damage to hero mounts. Low point for hero, then discovers a way to fight back. Audience learns of the full threat. Hero learns of the full threat. Final battle, fully engaged. Hero restates point of view. Battle over win or lose. Optional final twist, should raise raise the emotional stakes of the battle and lend an edge or some irony to the whole act.


7 Elements of a screenplay:
Hero - sympathetic or interesting enough for us to want to know what happens to them and follow them for 2 hours. (humans relate to humans, a story about a tornado is not as interesting as a story about a tornado chaser)

Hero's flaw - viewed by the hero as a behavior that protects them in life. "All stories are essentially about a hero who has to overcome his flaw in order to accomplish some worthwhile goal. Thus the hero (and audience) faces innate conflict choosing between the worthwhile goal, and the necessary for survival flaw." Figuring out the flaw, you'll probably create the backstory to find the original event that created the flaw as a defense mechanism. Brokeback Mnt. flaw=fear that if being himself will get him killed, Rocky=fear of getting in a situation where he will prove he's a loser.

Enabling Circumstances - how the hero's placed themselves in life to maintain the survival flaw. The Wedding Crashers who are terrified of intimacy work in a divorce law firm

Opponent - the one who instigates the inciting incident and prevents the hero from achieving their goal. The opponent could have the hero's best interest at heart, opponent/ally is very common in romances. Forest Gump the opponent is Jenny, who prevents Forest from his fulfilling his goal of being with her. Million Dollar Baby Maggie is the opponent because she forces Frankie to open up and care about her.

Hero's Ally - Helps the hero overcome their flaw, spends the most screen time with them, especially during Act 2. If the ally fails it's a tragedy. Ally suggests how the hero should proceed, through advice, example (bad or good), or some other way. Brokeback Mnt. Jack risks his life living true to himself, hopefully inspiring the hero to do the same. Forest Gump they gave Jenny the flaw (mistrusts men) and Forest does the ally thing of being a good man no matter what, so she can overcome her flaw.

Life-Changing Event - Comes at the end of Act 1, usually instigated by opponent, forces hero to choose between their flaw and an opportunity (key point).

Jeopardy - "asking someone to give up their flaw should be like asking someone to take off their bulletproof vest in a gun battle."

Choose a few elements and use them to figure out the rest. If you have a woman who is afraid to make connections, you can decide that her enabling circumstances is defining herself with her job, and her opponent's going to be an autistic nephew who's parents die and she becomes the caretaker, etc. Knowing your flaw helps you build a backstory that makes your character real. The hero's goal doesn't always help them, the author's example is of a miser who wants to hold onto all his money and so becomes lonely and isolated and unable to actually enjoy his wealth with the opponent being a generous loving person wanting the miser to help a worthwhile cause. The flaw has to be possible to overcome, a guy without a hand can't have to play piano in carnegie hall.

Use the Elevator Pitch to make sure that your story has the required parts. The pitch should sum up the objective and subjective stories within 2 sentences. "A meek and alienated little boy finds a stranded extraterrestrial in his closet and has to find the courage to defy authorities to help the alien return to it's home planet." A "high concept" pitch sells itself. High concept has a definite identity for the hero(lawyer), hero's flaw relates to identity (lies to get his own way), event forces hero to choose between flaw and opportunity (can't lie anymore, quit job or find a new way), idea is new not a rehash, sense of irony (more ironic for a lawyer not to be able to lie then a plumber). Being able to immediately imagine consequences from the inciting incident is a good sign. (a priest falling in love with a woman)Think extreme opposites. (plumber being forced to tell the truth is not as opposite as a lawyer)


Intrinsically conflicted characters are more interesting. A mathematical genius working at MIT, as a janitor.

He says titanic is not on any Top Best Movies lists, so he uses his formula to make it a better story (he says it was the $250million budget & $50 million ad budget that made it so big.) There's 2 heroes, he chooses to go with Rose. He says Rose has too many flaws (5), you need 1 flaw so that the EVENT and story can work around it. There's only 2 major events in the movie, Rose falls in love, the boat sinks, they are not related. So he decides to make Rose's flaw that she gives up true love to marry for money (currently in the movie it's Rose's mother who wants her to marry for money). Jack is the ally/opponent, as the 1 true love, he moves their affair to backstory before getting on the boat. Then he contrasts Rose in the upperclass sailing with her Fiance to America, with seeing Jack in the steerage representing her love, her self, and her people that she comes from. So the life changing event is her discovering the lover she thought she left behind is on the boat with her so she must really make a choice between love and luxury. So the whole movie is about Rose choosing between staying with the upperclass above, or returning to the hard life of the poor below for love. So the original elevator pitch: "A callow young woman who is engaged to a handsome, wealthy man she does not love takes up with a young street urchin who teaches her to spit and have sex in the back seat of a car on the maiden voyage of the Titanic." vs. his new version:"A desperate young Irish woman who abandons her one true love, as well as her family, country, and heritage, to marry for money. She boards a luxury liner with her rich fiance, headed for an American wedding, only to discover that her lover has followed her aboard...on the maiden voyage of the Titanic."