I was looking for the full video of this the other day and am glad it's up. Edson is so wonderful to listen to and tremendously helpful as a writing instructor. I read his book, The Story Solution, and took lots of notes. It's so incredibly helpful and is saving me so much misery in writing. It's not abstract like McKee's Story, though I find that helpful as well. But I love that it's more of a helpful, clarifying guide: "Good movies do this, then this, etc". Just a wonderful book, and Edson was nice enough to respond to me on Facebook and in email as well. Thanks for interviewing him, because I'd be so wretchedly lost in my screenplay without his help.
We're glad to get this one posted. It has about an hour of previously unreleased content (segments that we will release in the coming months.) Great to hear of your connection with Professor Edson. We had a great visit with him and love this interview.
Hi FlyingOver ,,,, how many screening plays have you written,,,,?, l wrote a Novel (Mind Power : A Silent Killing Machine) ,,,,l would like to sell the Rights to it,,,l'm battling cancer ,,,,do you know someone out there that is looking for great stories to turn them into screen plays ,,,
Thank you so much for this channel It provides information and insights into film making; the inner workings, the hardships, and the true courage it takes to persevere and continue to push forward. I don’t know what made you start this channel but I’m sure grateful to you for it. Please continue. Between you and so many countless others I tune into on a regular basis; I’ve been to film school already! Werner Hertzof said you can learn the fundamentals of filmmaking in about two weeks but it takes a lifetime to truly realize all filmmaking has to offer. Thank you Karen you’re appreciated more than you might realize. God bless.
Mychal, thank you. Great comment, one that also makes our day. We're grateful for your support and we hope in some way what we do makes your work a little better.
"The thing about luck is you have to be ready for it when it arrives. That is where craft comes in." @1:54. 00. Perfectly stated in the context of what had been discussed thus far, up until this point. What he says about being true to yourself, focusing on individual point of view and insight into the human condition, can be applied to every field. Great video!
I don't write screenplays or plays. Yet even though I am interested in writing novels and short stories, I find much of this interesting. While I know the theory, I love learning new takes on it.
Film Courage, you have given me hope again. I want to go to a film school so much but cannot afford it. This channel makes me feel like I am not wasting my time and am actually learning. Thank you.
You are welcome Kevin. Glad you are finding value here. It's amazing how much we can learn online. Hope you learn things here that you can put into practice.
This video is like gold dust. I followed a faint trampled, trail to get here. I was unconscious of the the things discussed in this interview. After viewing only this one video, the elements Mr. Edson defined, jump off the screen in movies to the point where I sometimes feel as if I am being beaten over the head, with the obvious, as a movie audience member. So, I ordered his book and it's filled with gold nuggets. How perfect of the author to have chosen the movie, "Up", on which to demonstrate the complete Hero Goal Sequences! Prior to encountering this channel and this video, I had been struggling through Christopher Vogler's, "The Writer's Journey". This video was like the Rosetta Stone. I get it now! All this culminates into a gold mine of a channel and an OPEN SECRET to the Keys to the Kingdom, that is Hollywood. What a wealth of knowledge. I'm forever changed. Thank you.
You cannot write what you do not read. My favorite from this great interview with so much information. As an aspiring novelist, Stephen King has said among many great things. The best way to write is to read. He elaborated with, something along the lines of not seeing 5 novels in every room of someone's house says they won't be a successful writer.
I was watching this till 2 am and wanted to grasp all the knowledge. I have so much respect for older men who are wise and share their knowledge and love to share it. He is my go-to guide from now.
This was quite interesting. A huge THANK YOU goes out to your team that put this whole video and channel together. Time is money and you just gave 2:12:15 full of information for me to think about. You truly can learn something new everyday. It always seems to come in handy at some point in our lives especially when we least expect it . Thank you.
I will write badly with pride! This much I learned from Mr Eric Edson :) I always said about myself that I'm absolutely talent-less at everything I do, but now I've changed my mind. I might never hit art levels of craft, but I'm a good crafter. I'll keep at it and try to be the best version of myself. So thank you both for making the interview.
This information is truly gold! Especially, aspects of writing craft and giving yourself permission to write badly...to achieve better writing in the future.
Another full high-quality interview to see from you. Thanks and keep it up! Can't wait to read "The Story Solution"! I can't resist - Eric Edson resembles Obi-Wan ;)
1:35:00 I understand that "on the nose" dialogue is problematic on any number of levels, but it needs to be said that there are far too many films out there where the dialogue is so far off the nose, that you wonder the characters manage to put their own pants on in the morning unassisted. Another thing: to say "people don't talk like that" is a bit of a weird criteria, considered that the screenplay formula eliminates 90% of the ruminative gossip that's central to the human condition. We usually canvas _many_ points of view when confronted with a giant surprise in life, before tangling directly with the big bad. But because of the conflict boiling process essential to the media, 90% of this is neglected or left out (greatly aided by the ever-popular device of making your protagonist a long-suffering, bitter orphan). So, true, it's good to point out that people don't usually talk like that (fixable, in this media), but how about also pointing out that people don't really _decide_ that way (unfixable, apparently, in this media).
My God! If you can see past the thick veil of superhuman levels of pretentiousness and occasional condensation, there are a few good needles in this haystack. This video is, by far, about 90 minutes too long. Also, whoever mic'ed this guy needs to find a new career. Constant loud swallowing and lip smacking was very distracting from this already difficult listen. In my opinion, the cookie cutter formula for writing this guy purports is outdated and as condescending as his demeanor. I'm shocked he isnt wearing a beret, monocle, and cape, with a miniature poodle in his lap during this interview.
I think you mean 'condescension' rather than 'condensation' but your point still stands about needles in a haystack. I find these videos too general and evasive, avoiding 'giving away' full information because the interviewee has always got something to sell, like a book or a training course.
@@goldeneddie the idea that there's a clear precise thing to teach in writing is absurd, I don't know what you expect from film making videos but it's not gonna be clear and end-all-be-all answers, it's a process with guidelines, ideas and some known popular structures.
That's funny, because he has quite a few takeaways about the reality of writing as career, and how craft can help troubleshoot problems with a story. I think you're confusing using a formula with writing something generic. What he's saying is that there's a pattern in most of the stories (in terms of pacing and tension) that resonate with an audience. I would think even an expert like yourself would concede that. Perhaps if you want to avoid the sound of a person on a mic you should just read a book?
I am a Syd Field FAN. I love his BOOK! Eric Edson sold me! I am going to buy his BOOK and add it to my collection as I go on my Screenwriting journey! :) Thank you!
I'm always leery of these screenwriting systems where there's X Y that must Z because of the shoehorn factor. But it's pretty obvious that Eric nails Erin: what she wants is to be taken seriously. Of course, she's already being taken seriously by the small guys where she functions as the primary liaison, or she wouldn't have been successful. But she seems to need to be taken seriously at the institutional level, and to have professional peers who take her seriously, over and above her winning ways with the small fish (also known as the common folk).
At around the 50m mark, Eric Edson discusses the "14 characters" archetypes. He lists nine of them. "Hero, Adversary, Adversary-Agent, Mentor, Love Interest, Ally, Sidekick and Gate-Guardian". Leaving five unstated. What are they?
"You are not ready to write until you are very well-read and well-versed in the literature you are proposing to create and in this place it's screenwriting."
Whether on music theory or guitar channels or here on writing theory videos, the environment is saturated with placating all the wannabe stars. I'm so sick of it. Everybody thinks they're the next big rapper... I just wanna learn the tools, but I have to listen to so much fluff for these fools. 😎
I interrupted the video to find the Erin Brockovich script - now I can't stop reading it. Almost better than the movie. Thank you so much Film Courage for what you do.
@@Sehon13Ultd it's a small price for knowledge. That is one of the best purchases you can make, recall that some US colleges charge $250,000 for a degree, his book costs $15 or so on sale. Don't be cheap, that's an hour or so of your own labour for a lifetime's knowledge poured out for you. Scratching your own head to figure it out will cost far more in wasted time.
Do you really still NEED studios nowadays with platform like RU-vid giving you access to billions of streamers that can view your content for free? (No cost to you or the viewer) 🤔
Madsadgladandscared and win, stop, retrieve, escape. That's so stupid but so useful. What are the other character categories, though? 8 are missing. 1. Adversary 2. Mentor 3. Love Interest 4. Helper, Follower, Ally 5. Sidekick 5. Adversary Agent 6. Gate Guardian
Erin Brockovich's growth is about the "Disney princess nightmare" for all women imo. You are supposed to be the princess, be a good wife decorating your husband and hide your smartness. And also ostracize other women not fitting in. And the real world just eats you up if something goes wrong. Two ex-husbands/dead-beat dads and a boyfriend who in real life was another complainer and demanded money as soon as he could. In the movie he is depicted nicer. And of course she as a woman was blamed for not being a good wife and having two children from two separate men in the 90's and earlier. And she also is a legasthenic, in her times teachers often still thought legasthenic kids were stupid. So all her life she was probably confronted with "dumb but pretty/marriage material" when she was so much more as a human being. My favourite moment apart from knowing all the cases by heart was "They're called boobs, Ed." Her payback against the male-dominated world who always depicted her as dumb now hands out important evidence for two fat deposits on a woman's body. Her struggle is about self-respect and her own truth in a world full of lies and appearance-addiction.
No one tells women they are "supposed" to be anything. This wordy comment exemplifies the passive-aggressive victim mentality perfectly. I was born with a vagina so I'm a helpless victim of society! Woman, get an education, get a job, quit the pity party, stop blaming everyone else for your self-created problems and STFU.
@@sergeiparajanov Wow, judgmental open aggressiveness without correct punctuation, no woman speaking out ever had that reaction before... I must be on to something, comments like yours usually mean that some fragile little ego got hurt and now wants to be collected from the ball bath.
What I'm struggling with is the way most of the 'experts' on this site talk about writing technique as though it's fact rather than theory, as though writing is science, rather than art. I don't understand. I'm not saying there are no scientific principles, loosely speaking, but surely we are talking about art here, where, for example, it simply cannot be the case, that, "there are only 14 character categories". There must be other theories about this, in which case it evidently cannot be presented as a fact. If there aren't other theories, then we have a very very serious problem!
Nowadays this channel is one of the most clever and pleasant to listen to. Always with so brilliant and attentive people. Eric Edson is amazing ,one of the best with Haugue and Trubi (but they are all wonderfull!) Thank you Courage for your work! : )
This video is incredibly good and I bet his book is even better. But there is one big problem, he focuses too much on technique rather than style i.e. he turns an art into a science. It is like the difference between swimming in a pool or at the beach. He will make you good but you will be stuck there instead of becoming a legend. No one can teach style but the artist needs to be aware that style is the objective reached through proper technique. Technique is taught sure, but it can also be invented or discovered. Chaos is what makes all creatives great not order.
Eric got me to believe I could be a screenplay writer. He makes it sound so logical and precise. That means a lot to because even though I was good at history and languages at school, I hated the subjects because I believed awarding of marks was a subjective thing and as a student I couldn't logically master a counter argument with the teacher if I felt I deserved a better mark. I know this is a lot of talk just to illustrate the point. What I am trying to say is that, he makes everything about the progression of a story look logical and non-subjective even though the characters and their circumstances might be subjective (creative intellect of the story writer). Very helpful. Now I want to give it a try. Beautiful work by the presenter and the production crew....
I would like to propose a character he might have missed out. Seems everyone misses this one, yet it plays the biggest role of both hindering or allowing the lead's progression. It plays the role of gatekeeper but it isn't... Would love to discuss it with Eric and am sure my interaction with him on the subject should lead to to me understanding the concept of story a lot better.
Absolutely. I couldn't afford the mainstream route to learn, so I record him on my laptop. During breakfast I watch em. After about a few months my old scripts in the trash came to life.
Fantastic video, but timestamps would have been helpful for this length if the video doesn't get into its title subject directly, but simply contains it at some point eventually. There is a time to view conversation and a time to learn fundamentals and unfortunately I watched this video when I was trying to structure my characters and it took AGES to get to the title subject and after half an hour, I gave up and found another video. I still have no idea if/when he gets around to the 23 actions and I thoroughly disliked a video I would have enjoyed otherwise - I have watched dozens of your videos completely in spite of them being long and loved them. But basic content creation mistake - your title should reflect your content. :(
To the question of "can someone become a writer without formal education"? I'd say: Absolutely. But only maybe 0,01% of the people who just write with no formal education make it. I'm sure the percentage rises among educated writers. That's why I'm here. I wish I could go learn there, but I live in Argentina and have no money. So, again, here I am. Trying my best to learn from the best. THANKS AGAIN PROFESSOR AND FILM COURAGE.
Bought the book on amazon, can't wait. Anyone else think, somehow, Kevin Spacey must have studied the mannerisms of Eric E? So similar (I'm sure it ends there, no connection re Spacey's issues, of course!). Love this video, really got me thinking...
Can anyone recommend a good class that teaches screenwriting formatting for free? And any recommendations that'll help me become a writer would be greatly appreciated. Please and thank you!
It does suck every time one of these screenplay writers mentions how they got into it, because it’s never wishing to be there and searching how to do it like we all are now, it’s always, “well I hadn’t thought much about it and then suddenly I was a writer” :/
I've been binge watching this channel and there seems to be so much wisdom and skill out there, so much competition to hone the industry to a razor edge. So why are there so many shitty movies whose main failing is a terrible script?
How does story structure work with a 3 part mini series? Does each episode of the series have to have this structure? How does stunning surprise work in each and in the overall story?
Don’t forget he paid with years of his time and his money to formally learn the knowledge he’s passing on. People don’t pursue advanced degrees just to give away their knowledge for free. That said, chances are you learned something from this video for free that you didn’t know before. But even if you didn’t, other people did. Whether goodwill or sales pitch, or a combination of both the result is the same. There’s nothing wrong with him saying the equivalent of - if my approach strikes a chord with you, and you want to know more, I have material available for you to buy that goes into a lot more detail that I can’t provide here. Nothing shady about it.
![The Story Solution - 23 Actions All Great Heroes Must Take - Eric Edson [FULL INTERVIEW]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
