Thank you for this. Came here from your appearance on the “Script Apart” podcast. Your honest candor about the process was validating, and seeing how you and the story team solved these puzzles is illuminating. Really amazing stuff.
I would love to hear your thoughts on how this relates to other formats of visual media storytelling (modern tv series, miniseries, anime, etc.). Are seasons morphed into the 100 page gauge? Individual episodes? Multiple problem sets and maybe even multiple sets of stakes throughout the story?
This is amazing. My only point of contention is when you say the "Little Miss Sunshine'" script is nowhere near as great as "The Graduate" or "Star Wars". It is equally as great.
Ive successfully sold screenplays a few times in my life... I feel like I learned more in the last 90 minutes than I did in filmschool or my career. Like, I've done this for a living, completly ignorant to what I was even doing holy shit.
I wouldn't necessarily say Luke's internal stakes are the search for greatness. I feel like it was more a search for meaning. That famous yearning scene with the twin sunset, to me, beautifully captures a young person's craving for their life to start. Luke wasn't living his own life yet, he was living his uncle's life. The farm may have been at stake, but that's his uncles stakes. The farm wasn't his future. I feel like that moment perfectly captures what cinema does so well, using image, performance, and music to capture that kind of ineffable feeling better than any other medium. And it does it with so much graceful confidence. I think about movies that try to recapture Star Wars' magic (*cough*John Carter*cough*), and this is what's missing, that simple use of film language to reveal the heart of a character. Most films would try to explain what Luke is feeling here, especially these days. But dialog would only diminish that moment. All you'd get is, "I want to be something greater than a farmer," or "I want to follow my friends and make a difference in the galaxy." But that only diminishes what's said in this scene. Because it can't be said in words. It's not a popular opinion, but I thought the sunset scene in The Last Jedi perfectly bookended this scene, and emphasized what it meant. At the end of his life, Luke isn't looking back proudly at his greatness,, or ashamed of his mistakes, but simply gratefully for the rich, storied life he had yearned for all those years ago. He seemed grateful for all of it, the good and the bad, his triumphs and his follies, the whole enchilada. Sure, it wasn't always a life well lived. It was a life lived thoroughly. And to be grateful for that seems like a pretty solid philosophical triumph. And once again, not a line of dialog to explain it. Just Luke and a twin sunset, and Mark Hamill's excellent performance.
The other interesting thing about Star Wars, that I think parallels The Graduate, is how what pulls the characters into adventure is simultaneously the thing they wanted, and their worst fear realized. With Luke, it's the death of his family. He was sad he couldn't go on his adventure, but he had responsibilities to his uncle. Well congrats, kiddo. Now you don't. You're welcome! And the same thing happens to Benjamin in The Graduate. He wanted something exciting to happen, something that would make him feel like a grown-up. So now he's doing something horribly grown up. He's neck-deep in a middle-aged woman's mid-life crisis, and all the bitterness and regret it comes with. There's nothing more grown-up than making life-decisions that cut you off from any chance of youthful optimism. So in both cases, you have a youthful character yearning to begin their adult lives, and then spending the rest of the story dealing with the reality of that. Of course, Buck Henry's little opus is much more cynical and honest then George Lucas's romantic fantasy. But I'll go out on a limb and say I don't think I would have loved The Graduate as much at age six, back when Star Wars came out. I think Star Wars is the coming of age movie you watch before you grow up, and The Graduate is the movie you watch afterward. But you kinda need the romantic optimism of Star Wars, or no one would want to grow up.
I feel like you chose to ignore the ending of The Graduate. The true ending of The Graduate is a curve ball. It's not a happy ending, and it's inside the bus. When reality sets in. It's when they both realize, "Now, what?" That is NOT a positive ending, and what makes the ending great and unique.
I still haven't found a person under 40 that has truly enjoyed The Graduate. There is one good scene in it, the ending, everything up to it is dull and dated.
Why this video has so few views and this channel has so few followers is beyond me. Excellent content and presentation, Michael. Thank you for sharing the knowledge.
This is an insanely great video essay. I’ve been pouring over it weekly, soaking in more learning with each viewing. Thank you for sharing these valuable lessons you learned. At the end you note the Luke, Benjamin and Olive are all innocent characters (not flawed) and thus living in a flawed Universe. I’m curious what in these tools may change if your main characters ARE flawed. Hmmmm….
So far these series of videos are helping me loads with my own writing process, but I had one question; I thought that a long-term Global Goal started at the Inciting Incident, not at the First Act Break. Maybe I misunderstood but any clarification would be appreciated cheers
Michael, these are so insanely good! These videos helped me get through my first 2 screenplays. Also I don't know if you edited this or if someone else did but crazy that you guys snuck 4 frames of Mrs. Robinson tiddy in here.
I loved toy story 3 . I believe you that was the process for how toy story 3 was made but I can believe they used the same process for toy story 4. so much from beginning to end made no sense or went against everything already established in the previous movies. Anyway thanks for this best wishes to you and yours.
Both of those Star Wars steaks can be spun as selfish or alturistic. Its selfish for Luke not wanting to help his uncle (and go off an adventure he'll enjoy more than farmwork) whos looked after him for his entire life, and alturistic for Luke to stay and help him. Its selfish for Luke not want to help Obie Wan (someone he doesnt know) and the Princess and stick with the life he knows, and alturistic for him to go off and help them. If you ask me staying put and helping those whove helped you is the more aulturistic choice, an adventure is a lot more appealing than a boring life
I'd add that Han Solo for most of the movie acted in his own self interest which lead him to helping Luke etc. His reward was worth risking his life over.
