I put this lecture together in 2006, when I started work at Pixar on Toy Story 3. It looks at how to write an "insanely great" ending, using Star Wars, The Graduate, and Little Miss Sunshine as examples. 90 minutes.
Above and beyond what everyone else is saying, you are clearly a natural teacher. Your presentation is perfect and there is a wealth of information that can readily be understood and put into practice. Thank you, Michael.
This is one of those lectures that's gonna go down in history as being one of the best ever delivered on the craft. I can already see agents and managers politely forcing their clients to watch this. Epic content.
Someone gotta say it and I'm kinda tickled that, at only 67 views (11/17/21), that someone is me: *this is Insanely Great.* This channel (lol, 42 subscribers) and particularly this video - a book's worth of invaluable information for ANY writer - will blow up soon enough. Merci mille fois, monsieur Arndt
It's perfect for me, but It's too long and not algorithm friendly. RU-vid doesn't like extremely long videos. There are at least 6 or 7 15 minutes videos inside here. It's more like a masterclass. That's why.
@@juansorel You're probably right as far as the algorithm is concerned, and my statement that the channel will 'blow up soon enough' was more a testament to my enthusiasm than a realistic assessment. I am convinced, however, that a production this brilliant (and as instructive as it is entertaining) will find its audience. It may be a sleeper; it will keep on drawing students, writers, film buffs. I will return to it periodically, and will be recommending it to other writers. I came here via Tyler Mowery, who based his Rewriting Crash Course, Ep.2 - Fixing Your Philosophical Conflict upon Arndt's work (specifically this lecture). Unfortunately, while he claims to link it in the description box, he doesn't. Since his is a self-selected audience, it would have led to more overflow than happened now. I love the long format, in general, whether educational or interviews or whatever: fortunately, they're all over youtube, algorithms be damned.
This is one of the most valuable videos I've ever found on RU-vid. Thanks for making this, and thanks for writing Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3!
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….
Thank you so much for sharing these on youtube. I think I watched the Vimeo links about thirty times. These videos always keep me sane while I'm writing. Thank you for taking the time to share such great insights.
Great video, very helpful. Michael misreads the ending of The Graduate somewhat, calling it a happy ending, when the last scene on the bus makes it clear the ending is ambiguous and unsettled.
I had this thought and was wishing he’d let it run the extra minute or so. It’s only great up to that point. What makes it insanely great is the change in the looks on their faces in the last seconds of the film.
Man, I thought after watch your video on TS3 it couldn't get any better, but proven wrong. Took me almost 2 days to get through this one and taking all the notes, screengrabs etc. but I'm so glad I did it and I'm sure I got several level-ups during that time. This will come in very handy when fixing my own climax. I might have to go back and fix a lot of little things now throughout my script, but hell, writing is re-writing. Let's pull our sleeves up and get better, and have some fun while doing it =)
I LOVE this video, fantastic work. Especially the part about how there can be different main antagonists for different levels of stakes. Seems obvious like how it's described here, but I never thought of this in that way before. I'll steal your ideas and try to apply them into my next screenplay outline.
This is absolute gold. Thank you Michael. I know Michael says, "Story can be anything." but this to me is everything for a story about a hero without flaws who is the redeemer of the universe.
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.
Thank you so much for your work and sharing it in this very transparent way. How are there only 1600 views on this??? 🤯 ...OK just finished watching everything on your channel. Again, deep thanks for your work really love the movies that you've been involved in, I really appreciate you sharing it, I know it's only been a month but I'm just baffled how there are more views on this anyway have a great holiday thanks so much
This is a great video every writer should watch. I would add that The Graduate's ending is a bit more ambiguous than even this great analysis points out. The very final scene on the bus with 'hello darkness' introduces doubt as to if the right decision was indeed made. For me that elevates it to an _Extremely_ Insanely Great ending.
Glenn Gers recommended to see your essay. Thank you very much for your deep analysis. I found it very useful and interesting. While watching it I was reminded of the endings of great movies like Modern Times (1936), Matilda (1996), About a Boy (2002), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2006). Greetings from Argentina!
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’ve only gotten a third of the way through and I’ve already been able to solve a problem in one of my screen plays that’s been holding me back for a year.
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 disagree that the emotional core of Star Wars is Luke's call to greatness, if that was the case then that narrative arc would've ended when he returned with Leia, but it didn't, the arc of that story continued on into Death Star Trench intertwining with the philosophical core of Ben's story, where he becomes the inheritor of Ben's philosophy and the Force. That arc I think is structured in identity, who Luke will become. Is he a child doing his chores? Will he be a farmer? Will he engage in romance with Leia? Will he become a smuggler like Han as per the invite to join him? Will he engage in romance with Leia? Will he become a member of the rebellion? Will he fall to Darth Vader as his father did? That identity and the unresolved tension of it is I think the stronger emotional thread of the story and the core of it. While there is the "call to action" and the usual beats of that, they happen separately from this core identity conflict, which has a much stronger resonance than a superficial desire to leave. That's the difference between Star Wars' emotional core and something like Tangled, a more fundamental emotional core that can't be resolved externally, and that's where the strength of the emotion comes from.
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.
31:53 yep, those are definitely the emotional stakes. How do I know this? Because I watched Star Wars with my 5-year-old daughter, and all she wanted to see afterwards was this same scene over and over again. It really moved her and she couldn't get it out of her head.
So you just basically described my life to a T. My life is a screenplay. Perhaps a lot of people think this or feel this way but I mean on every level.
This is a great resource, would love to see some non-linear stories broken down like this? Can you apply this descriptive framework to something like Gone Girl?
@MichealArndt From having to watch your video beginning to end there are multiple reasons why this should be all applied with bigger budget films and some independent movies. Dialogue is delivered between the attacks of viewpoints, something my professor had explain to me while I was attending film school. I want to get better with this knowledge and apply it to my stories that will make an impact on people's lives. What's the best way to talk to you one-on-one and getting to know each other? I would love to network with you. I'm a Dallas native. Happy holidays!
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?
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.
I haven’t seen Star Wars in a long time but I’m curious since Vader argues for the force maybe the dark side is using community or others to achieve selfish goals? Just came to mind…
I have a question here - is it possible at the beginning of the story, for the protagonist to believe in and represent the antagonistic values of the story world? Maybe the supporting characters are the ones who show him otherwise.
I don't see why not. In fact that seems like a good start of a character arc, letting the character find out over the course of the story that their ideas, originally held by themselves and the antagonist are wrong... and they need to change.
He does say all his examples have a hero who isn't flawed and doesn't change. That's the exception in screenplays. How can it work for heros who are flawed?
I am curious about one thing. You said at 1:09:54 in this video : "...You can't use these story ideas to plot forward, they only work in retrospect when you've already had that great moment of inspiration, you've laid down that first draft and now you are just trying to find a way to turn it into the best version of itself." Why is that? because if you follow that pattern first it limits the creativity of the story? Can't this "structure" or "sequence" be compared to your initial outline even before writing first draft to possibly get a better first draft ... first? I don't know if it would really limit or handcuff your creativity, it would I think structure it. But maybe that is just speaking from not enough experience on my part. *** CAN you always make these elements work in any first draft of any kind of story? Have you ever found that a story idea can't be revised to work with these points to make it better?
I think it's because it's hard to write a story that's marketable, fits genre conventions, aligns with medium limitations (writing for a novel, movie, tv show, sitcom, video game, etc. requires vastly different narrative structures), and takes into consideration franchise limitations (if you're working on a pre-existing story like Micheal Arndt usually did when he worked at Pixar) if you come up with the internal stakes/philosophical stakes first. But if you have 100% creative control, I don't see why you can't come up with the internal stakes/philosophical stakes first. For example, if your story's philosophical stakes is about forgiveness/rehabilitation/pacifism vs vengeance/judgement/violence, and you end up coming up with a story about a serial killer vigilante who starts off torturing and killing criminals, but then ends the story giving up their violent ways and forgives a criminal who harmed him etc. That might be a compelling story, but if you're working for Pixar then regardless of how compelling it is they're gonna ask you to come up with something else. Because there's no way in hell Pixar would be willing to produce something that dark and violent. How would they even market something like that? Why would people who liked previous Pixar movies watch that? And even if you were asked to make a violent and gritty story for a video game company like Rockstar, you would be required to take into consideration game design elements whilst writing your story. How would you make killing and torturing criminals an entertaining gaming experience? Where are the loot boxes? Where is the oppurtunity for exploration and open world elements? Item upgrades? Skill trees? Etc.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens would have been far better if you wrote the whole film and the story treatments weren't scrapped, my friend. You were Lucasfilm's last hope...
Yeah I found this video while looking further into his 50 page story draft. I was really hoping that he had mentioned it somewhere on his channel, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It'd be really cool if he elaborated more on what his ideas were, assuming he's even legally allowed to.
