For mobile users: 1) 0:45 - Write Something That Only You Can Write 2) 2:20 - The Primary Goal 3) 2:53 - A Mediocre Script 4) 6:01 - Not Enough Story 5) 6:23 - Burning Questions 6) 10:18 - No Curiosity 7) 10:53 - Not Hooking The Reader 8) 12:50 - People Can’t Read Your Script 9) 14:06 - Cliché Character Descriptions 10) 14:27 - Main Character Must Want Something 11) 16:42 - Boring Characters 12) 18:06 - Secrecy & Deception 13) 20:41 - The 4 Goal Rule 14) 22:20 - Know The Characters 15) 24:45 - Characters That Do Not Serve The Story 16) 25:20 - The Heart And Soul Of The Story 17) 27:34 - Skin Jump 18) 32:42 - What The Story Is Not 19) 36:07 - BMOC Tools 20) 38:44 - Small Ideas 21) 40:11 - How To Generate Original Ideas 22) 43:14 - Real Life 23) 51:58 - Writing Your Own Story 24) 52:52 - Four Emotions Of Cinema 25) 54:33 - Imagination & Psychology 26) 56:36 - The Comfort Zone 27) 58:46 - Normal World 28) 1:01:35 - Delaying Conflict 29) 1:04:27 - Compelling Conflict 30) 1:07:31 - Not Enough Conflict 31) 1:09:23 - Levels Of Conflict 32) 1:11:47 - Where Is The Adversary? 33) 1:12:48 - Idiot Plot 34) 1:14:41 - Making A Scene Better 35) 1:18:44 - A Movie Is Not A Lecture 36) 1:19:56 - Assuming It’s On The Page 37) 1:24:27 - Don’t Worry About Being Perfect 38) 1:28:18 - Spend Time With The Best Scripts 39) 1:29:57 - One Way To Test A Screenplay 40) 1:30:58 - Great Movies Change Lives 41) 1:36:28 - How To Know A Script Isn’t Boring 42) 1:40:07 - Final Words
I know that this comment is going to be lost, but this RU-vid channel kicks an absurd amount of ass. They don't have the most subscribers out there, they are probably making little to no money of these videos, and they consistently release engaging videos on engaging topics with a great overall level of quality. This channel is an example of what teachers should strive for. Film Courage is here to teach; not to sell merch, not to critique movies, and not to be recognized as the one of the best screenwriting resources out there. This is EXACTLY why they are one of the best sources out there. Thank you so much for what you do🙏
Hi Dominic, your message has been received. Thank you, we certainly appreciate your kind words about our work. Hope you find stuff here on this channel that helps you be a better creative. Cheers!
I really want to thank you guys for putting these together. You don't get the attention you deserve and I just really want to express how great these are.
This is both interesting and informative, and I watched the entire thing. But it cracks me up when these experts try and sound high and mighty and then "Writer - Sharknado" pops up.
Then again, as the creator of one of the dumbest franchises in history, he's been paid six times for that one ridiculous idea. We should all be so lucky.
Writer is a person who has a lot to say in a unique way. It's a person who is passionate about a lot of things. It takes a lot of strength and courage to find your inner voice and put it on paper.
Films become boring when either the story isn't moving forward or it isn't moving forward at a steady pace. Make sure each and every scene you write has a purpose in moving the story along.
If you are interested in the character enough, you'll watch them do something that is revealing about them, sometimes those end up being the best parts of a story.
Films go boring when they are either safe, woke or franchise (a form of TV in the modern day and age of streaming). It is a fact. All classics are based on experience / often based on real life memoirs, quasi biographic inserts, personal statements. These lecturers would never write Trainspotting, none of Scorsese, none of Kubrick, none of Coppola, none of Caspar Noe... Etc etc etc.
Here's your basic story structure: Fade in. We're introduced to the protagonist, we get to see their normal life and identify with them. A challenge arises which will effect the characters life in a profoundly negative way if not dealt with. The protagonist becomes aware of the challenge and its implications and courageously accepts it. In taking on the challenge the protagonist comes up against various difficulties which test the limits of their character. The protagonist realises they have no choice but to deal with the problem so they decide to try again by trying a different course of action or somehow finding a stronger sense of determination and belief. The character meets the problem head on and using all their courage, knowhow, skill and determination either fails or succeeds. We see how the protagonists success or failure has changed their world. Fade out.
Sounds like you're familiar with Dan Harmon's Story Circle: 1. The protagonist 2. Wants something 3. Accepts the challenge 4. Searches for it 5. Finds it 6. Faces the consequences 7. Returns to their familiar situation 8. Having changed.
Literally right when she said that, my mind went straight to Seinfeld and how the show lasted for years on that concept. Thanks for commenting this. I feel like a lot of what they say may need to be taken with a grain of salt. Writing isn't like math, where there will always be only one way to do something and that's how it is for life, ya know? Anything artistic changes and adapts as one learns more. But I guess this channel is a good starting point.
This is one of the most incredible things I’ve seen on RU-vid! So amazed by not only the sheer number of perspectives featured, but the quality of each one!!
I can’t thank you guys enough for these tips. I’m 16 and writing a screenplay currently, and this gave me hope! I’m about halfway through the script and I think I’ve finally gotten it to a great place with these tips, thank you!
Nah. There’s no internal conflict in, for instance, Raiders of the Lost Ark or Star Wars. Luke and Indy aren’t conflicted. What’s the internal conflict in The Magnificent Seven or The Longest Day? Not every great story requires angst.
I keep saying, "Oh that's why _____ movie works so well" This is so incredibly helpful. Thank you so much. I am amazed at the amount of value you guys have in this video.
I'd never heard about Eric Edson before watching this. Love his simple, elemental, straightforward advice. Totally agree about the goals! So many movies forget this and try to wow us with their weirdness and/or beauty.
Was about to write this myself. I'm hardly an expert but nothing irritates me more than someone talking about writing like maths or science. There's absolutely a method and structure that works but this idea that there's a formula you have to regurgitate every time is complete shit.
@@franjes9999 I actually think he has a point. You are primed to recognize certain patterns as being stories. You can't force a sentence to be a story, but a good writer may be able to write a story in a single sentence. That is to say, the structure is there but you are not really paying attention to it.
Corey has an interview where he delves into it. Yeah, maybe he should just put "Metropolis" when listing his screenwriting portfolio, but he obviously doesn't mind too much. From listening to the interview, it was like someone talking about their first failed marriage where they learned a lot. Plus, they wrote over a lot of his ideas and *ed it up.
Almost all movies are an exaggeration of real life. The dialogue, the way characters behave, the events and the imagery are heightened versions of what we see and hear in our everyday world.
heightened dialogue and wittiness. Also over the course of 1 day they have several emotional revelations, a hockey match on the roof, a murder in the store, a change in relationship status and like 3 heart to hearts. Very very heightened, exaggerated
35:10 "nuclear submarine in a bottom of the ocean" That's not a story! "ok ok... A bunch of sharks attack out of the ocean! We call it sharknado!" Now that's a story!
I echo the many comments here - these videos by Film Courage have become indispensable as a creative. The insight into craft, process, and philosophy has already paid so many dividends in my work. Thank you so much for your fantastic interviewing and selection of guests. ❤
I had a professor who spoke of a common mentality with people who aspire to be writers. They spend years coming to grips with their personal neuroses and problems and anxieties and personal history. They then put pen to paper and express this as an anguished autobiographical statement. And then the reader gets this look on his face....and the look is a person who is thinking..."You must have confused me with someone who cares."
1:24 I remember seeing that on TV as a kid and up until now, no one has ever been able to tell me what it was. Finally...Ray Bradbury, the Lake. Wow, what are the odds?
Here's the thing: they all seem to be indicating a writer needs to arrive at an 'uncommon' solution, but they're all still defining the "problem" in terms of the conventional, staid, established formulas. All of these characterizations of what they are advising as the optimal means of creating a script-they're all formulaic in and of themselves. So, yeah, maybe-if you're trying to write a good formula, this is the path. But, one can easily name a ton of successful, excellent films where the characters don't match the 'standard' described by these 'teachers,' for example. Many of the best films don't rely on these strategies. It seems that these strategies are probably best toward 'inducing' a low-level reader to pass a script upward, because it ostensibly has few 'flaws' as defined herein. All the rest of it comes down to the fact that some writers are talented and most aren't. // @1:00:00 - Raiders of the Lost Ark is the "well, you could," after the 'don't do this.'
"You can just step out into the street and see what's real." This is inaccurate. And it is terrible, potentially irrevocable advice. It takes the dedicated, discipline of looking, listening, watching and analyzing to see what's real, what has value (almost everything), and a concurrent lifetime playing with language and learning how to express it. THAT'S the job. That's why Shakespeare, Joyce, Nabokov, Kubrick, Polanski, Chayefsky, Allen and Welles were who they were and you're who you are. You don't get it. Stop telling younger writers that you do. You're misleading them.
You just ended up explaining what he said. And then you lost it. "See" is beyond a mere "look". And, everything has meaning and purpose. That's seeing beyond just looking.
this explains a lot of why things are so unwatchable these days. i have enough stress in my life. i really can't wade through shit like breaking bad, where everyone walks into a room angry, tense and disappointed. are people so relaxed and happy in life that story is the only place they can go to have the missing stress in their life?
"Originality is very important." Listening to these vignettes is like being invited into the kitchen with Thomas Keller. Originality! Important! The insights are astonishing.
I second @PAKKAP's comment... I sincerely thank you for this! I believe this is a HUGE resource for real-world examples and successful tips to make our stories jump off of the page. I took three evenings to dissect this amazing compilation, IMDb many of the interviewees and wrote out eight pages of notes. With this caliber of potent, valuable information - Film Courage will continue to flourish. Thank you for your dedication in bringing only quality material to the table! : )
This is such a great video, something I really needed to watch. I'm a patient man, but having a movie in my head for 17 years is too much time. This video has helped me with the struggle I have within that stopped me having to put thought to keyboard. Thanks much.
Old compilation, but for anyone watching in 2022. Do not hesitate to show the trigger incident. Skip the "ordinary life" setup, there's 90-120 minutes to reference/show their ordinary life. I find it best to establish a character throughout the course of the story and not before the story begins. Characters are secondary to Story. Story is the sun and characters are flowers, the story allows your characters to bloom.
absolutely nothing boing, about my real stories, yrs and yrs ago, but still crystal clear and tired of having people tell me this one or that one should be a movie etc.. so reaching out and about, every audience is clear, finds it raw, incredibly intense and relatable. The more ai learn the more I realize I have been sitting on stories that are incredibly entertaining and feast of emotional turmoil and growth.
What's your great screenplay? Those stories connected with millions of people across different generations. Great stories can also be commercial and straightforward, otherwise fuckin Dostoevski would be the only one writing great stories
Thank you Film Courage for everything you doing to helping us. And Thank you to all the People in all your videos for sharing their knowledge with us.+++++++++++++++++++++ (Gaining knowledge is the first step to Wisdom. Sharing it, Is the first step to humanity. -Unknown)
I wonder how stories like Moonlight, Boyz N The Hood, and countless other dramas get the green light when it doesn't follow the story structure or the typical character motivations mentioned here
Aye_Jones FKA Marvel_Jones Some of these people are at least 50% wrong in what they say and have little to no great screenplays under their belt for the most part, thus why I like COREY MANDELL. No cookie cutter formulas, rules or page requirements. You let the story tell itself through organic characters and conflict, and work it through rewrites. The guy who talks comedy and says you dont need an antagonist, Michael Hague and his interview partner, are also great. Take everything the others say with a grain of salt. Peace!
Synecdoche NY..would never be accepted by some of these cunts. A masterpiece. Let the audience have to reach to the art, instead of making it simple so the masses understand.
"Not enough story." Be nice if these talking heads used clear and simple language to communicate what they're talking about. Lots of vague blah blah blah and strict adherence to formula. If you don't stray from a formula, your work because formulaic - see the credits of these people for evidence. Why is it that there are so many videos and books that give writing advice coming from people who have either written stuff you've never heard of, or absolute trash? It gives me the impression that "writing advice" is the career of choice for failed writers, but I think there might be a simpler answer - these are the writers who are sociable enough to share their insights. Most of the really great writers don't care to blab self-indulgently about their craft until their career is on the rocks. What videos (or books) like this seem to miss is that the formula they identify as the clearest and best way to craft a marketable screenplay isn't a timeless equation to which great writers also adhered with strict fidelity. No, the formula is descriptive, not prescriptive. We know what good writing is because we can look to hits and classics, and say, "this is what good writing looks like; let's do what they did." Ultimately, spending 102 minutes on a youtube video is never going to equal the schooling you get from watching your favourite movie and asking yourself, "What makes this so good?" and "How can I do this my way?" Nobody's gonna answer these questions for you, so get cracking.
That’s the whole point? Is it not? To hear what others call “rules” so you can confidently break them without a sweat. Being ignorant of the formulaic story telling structures of commercial successful stories is the best way to unknowingly repeat said structures and mistake it for originality rather than identifying it as subconscious imitation of movies you once watched (structurally not content-wise). That’s why I love learning about narrative formula. So I can confidently pit it against natural story telling talent (which I hope I have, but could be sorely mistaken 😅).
yeah, how many people who write articles about finance or stock advice are wealthy themselves? almost none. I think the BEST rule is to know your audience- and then secretly pander to them haha
While I agree that watching movies is the best way to absorb filmmaking techniques and style, I still think that watching a video like this can help guide you towards putting the thoughts you have about what you do or don't like about a film into words. People shouldn't take every single rule or tip as gospel, but if any one of these leads to a breakthrough or a better understanding of their own writing, then it might be more worthwhile than just watching a given film.
This video asks to consider what's in common with all these people. There's something they all share. I think they just don't fear as much as younger writers do. They're not crippled by it, and instead they're free to express themselves however they want
Inside Out and the Martian were fantastic because they didn't shoe-horn in a protagonist. The "adversary" in this is poorly defined, because it assumes it must be a human.
This is an amazing video and I love how you broke it down into easy steps to understand. Thanks for all the information you provide on your channel! I learn so much from listening to all your videos!
Jurij Fedorov Even if they wrote a movie that 1,000 people watched, that is still hundreds of miles ahead of 90 percent of aspiring screenwriters. Don’t lose perspective
ET has its structure amped up. It gets really heavy when the alien hunters get him and he dies. But then wheee he wakes up and flies away to his ship and is rescued with a sincere heartfelt goodbye. It's brilliant and really quite silly.
A writer whose stupid 90 page shark script ended up as a 6+ movie franchise that's extremely successful and extremely famous? Sounds like someone you should take advice from! The Bicycle Thief is considered a "great" movie, but I've never convinced anyone outside the film hobby to watch it. I'd bet money I could get my friends to watch Sharknado with me.
@@burpie3258 (1) That seems like conjecture; although B movies are widely disrespected, they're also widely enjoyed, and there are important differences between an enjoyable B movie and plain old hot garbage. (2) Even if we assume Sharknado's success was "dumb luck", that's also true of Halloween and many other highly respected films. If we dismiss every movie or every actor that became famous on dumb luck, there wouldn't be much of Hollywood left over. (3) "Good writing" isn't entirely (or even mostly) about producing "high art". Quentin Tarantino - who wins best screenplay for putting his name on the byline - made his entire career writing B movies with slightly upgraded dialog. Your 600 page thinkpiece about The Modern American Man isn't necessarily going to make for an entertaining movie....but that goofy little shark script sure did!
@@exquisitecorpse4917 Let me specify: people deciding to view the movie as a comedy (when it wasn't originally intended as one) is dumb luck. A few people started it, and then everyone else followed suit. People mostly saw it to see what all the rage was about, I think. Sure, good profits for films need luck, but writing a good script and directing a good film is not dumb luck, it's talent, skill, and money. Most of the respected films are respected because they're good movies. Not sure I understand your third point. Good writing needs to be entertaining- that's one of its criteria. So if it's boring (which is a major issue), then that's a problem with the writing. And again, I'm claiming Sharknado was only entertaining because people chose to view it as a comedy
@alo alo My point isn't that Sharknado is some kind of brilliant, perfect film. It's that aspiring or amateur writers don't benefit from adopting a superiority complex regarding movies like Sharknado. They have an audience, a substantial audience, and there's a lot to be gained from swallowing your intellectual purism and trying to figure out why the film was successful, what makes the script work, and how we can use these ideas to improve our own writing.
36:30 Someone needs to put an APB out on ticking clocks purchased from central casting. Just stop, already! I suppose movies with one conspicuous/gratuitous clock after another pass the "not boring" test on the couch, but I've seen any number of these where I could barely recall the plot the morning after, and I definitely did not want to make any real effort to fish it back into mind. Clocks are the empty-calories of narrative story telling. Sugar in the moment, providing nothing to take home.
Sometimes I feel like there's so many rules, so many things what not to do and shit. I just like to write, and quite often it come out and it does follow these rules but I didn't try to. It just happened that way. And I think that's what it's all about, if you can't write anything good naturally, you're not gonna be able to do it after having watched some RU-vid videos.
The way I think of writing is that I imagine myself being in that character and think of all the objects around me. Feels like I'm in the scene I just keep in my head that a character isn't gonna say "I'm gonna get up now and exit the door" because it's mundane Using that it's easier to think of what to write and what not mundane things to write
It is easy to watch this and see this a force into a formula. But what they are offering are tools... No matter how much coaching, training, and technique I try, I will never be able to play in the NBA. But as well, if LeBron James hadn't had coaching, hadn't trained, hadn't learned technique, he wouldn't be there either.
Great Video, very comprehensive overview of screenplay writing. I especially liked the lady who said you need thematic focus to draw your story into alignment, it cant just be about anything and everything. I've got enough experience writing stories [written 3 fantasy sagas now] that most of their advice resonates with a lesson in craftsmanship i learned, but there's still the occasional new insight.
This channel is outstanding and I really appreciate the work to get this stuff put up. I've been struggling with wanting to write and having no idea where to start. It's nice to get good, unfiltered information about it. You guys are doing great work.
Kind words, thank you Tony! There are so many great resources to find helpful information, we are glad ours can be such a place for you. Here's a playlist that may guide you a little - bit.ly/3IXGJJ0 And this one may be extreme but if you start answering some of these questions it could get you up and running - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VHzDsoliZiY.html In any case, our best to you and your work.
I started watching this channel because I want to make a short film, and I have no idea if I’ll accomplish that but I feel like listening to these authors has helped me understand stories better.
Welcome John! There is a lot of content to get lost in here on this channel. Here is a playlist from various interviews with people talking about making short films - bit.ly/3F3MfbL You may gain some good insights and / or inspiration from looking at some of these clips.
Film Courage That’s awesome. I only have access to limited internet at the moment but your videos are at the top of my download list the few times I get access to unlimited data. These videos have been extremely useful as I write my current novel.
Boring stories reflect a lack of experience in life. That doesn't mean going out into the world. It means understanding your world. If you understand the world more than your audience you have something, not to say, but to illustrate. Know history, view story in terms of past, present and future. How will that interest your audience? Setting is important, strong protagonists is important but they should be flawed to make them human. Protagonists are best met with a moral dilemma, not just physical barriers. Their belief system must be challenged. The world doesn't have to be illustrated as gray, but you must bring gray into the world to paint a picture of a world, your story, is complicated and must be met with much reflection. Lastly, you have to always be aware of how your audience is going to feel about what you are illustrating. Bored, scared, happy, uncertain, anxious. Play on those things, but focus more on the anticipation of hope. Life is a journey and your story should reflect this feeling as well. Your audience should see and think about things they haven't thought of before. If you do a scene breakdown your scenes should average no more than a half page. If it averages more than that, you are writing too much dialogue and your scenes are just too long. Efficiency is the ONLY thing a writer works on no matter how long you've been a writer. Less is more, few words more meaning. Idle chit chat is out the door, ie one person walks into a room and says hey. then the reply is, hey. No. A great way to flush out a scene is to just write and allow it to be as long as you want. Then go back and cut out the beginning and the end and usually the middle is what you intended to capture. Good Luck!
VERY IMPORTANT: 1) F O C U S and OBSESSION. (You need to focus your protagonist's POV, scene by scene and have them obsess about something, someone throughout) - otherwise lose your audience/reader. Especially group movies. If you multi-plot group characters you divide the overall focus (20%, 20%, 20%, 20%, 20%) instead of choosing 1 and have it 85% engaging. 2) No conflict = No drama. No foreshadow & payoffs = No audience gratification whatsoever. 3) PROACTIVE character vs ACTIVE character vs PASSIVE character. (you can be Active, but not Proactive, and passives are thee worst). "Reactive character" is not a thing, because without reaction = no story. Most people confuse reactive with passive. And narrative-driving proactive with active that just do things without goal/purpose.
Now I’m starting to see how these are some of the people ruining the film industry. “Passive main character” if you look at Jordan Peele’s filmography, he’s the epitome of the complete opposite of that. It’s the events happening to that character that makes them react and adapt rather than making them impose themselves on the story. Those are some of the most immersive stories to me. You’re following a character and watching them being changed by the evolving world. It may be because I, myself, am an observer. So that’s similar to my perspective on a daily.
Time stamp 1:11:51 point 32: I TOTALLY disagree. I have not made any adversaries so super powerful as to be insurmountable, some times they were even weaker, and people still found themselves riveted to the story from start to finish.
You gotta handpick the right advice from this video because most of it it's quite bad. Cliche at most. You will end up writing Marvel movies instead of what you really want to write.
There's a lot of great stuff in Marvel movies. If I can write a character like The Winter Soldier, stories as funny as Ant-man and Spiderman, and stories like Guardians of the galaxy, I'll be very happy.
44:44 Half the time, I find myself watching film _despite_ the oversimplification of the character's motives. Also, I tend not to find people's motivations in real life all that mysterious, probably because I recognize that real life is messy and impure; even knowing a person's motivational palette isn't going to make that person entirely predictable, because life doesn't work that way. For myself, the oversimplification of motive only works in satire.
What's up with the comments,the most we've all written and published has been our comments on RU-vid,yeah myself included. even if they're no house hold name writers, they're actual working writers who's stuff has actually been made wether it was of anything you personally liked. It got made and your a working pro, god can you imagine David Mamet being your head writer and just yelling at the writer team,lol.
