Reading Notes from "Save The Cat!"

Exactly what it says on the tin! These are the notes I personally took while I was reading Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need by Blake Snyder earlier this month (both in picture form & transcript). And once again, I will mention that my friend Delphie recommmended this book to me ^-^

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Transcript

What is it?

• If you can't summarize your story in 1 line, it isn't well thought-out | "logline"/"one-line"
• Irony is king, hook for drama & comedy
• Good logline must envoke story in listener's mind | Suggests setting incl. time span
• Outlines audience quadrants & budget
• Title: attention grabbing & uniquely self-describing
• Test marketing: talk about your story | best to try capturing the attention of someone who doesn't want to listen
• High-concept: movie you know everything about by the poster

Good exercises: pitching familiar plots- with a twist! (ex: funny Us, serious Hot Frosty), unique senerios (place a crime drama hasn't happened, ____ school)

Avoiding Cliche

• Know thy medium- study until you can dismantle a text from various time periods
• Learn the genre you want to work in & its rules
• What is it most like?
• Study these texts to learn what you must do with yours.
• Story archetypes: master in house, golden fleece, out of bottle, guy w/ problem, rite of passage, whydunnit, fool triumphant, groupd (called "institutionalized"), superhero
• "True originality can't begin until you know what you're breaking away from" (page 42)
• Categorization as storytelling tool

Good exercises: Assign different movies into these story archetypes, try to come up with your own archetypes

It's about a guy who...

• Choose your hero! (+ antagonist)
• Put adjectives in your logline + outline character goals
• Even ensemble stories need a clear main character
• Typically: plot first, then populate with characters
• Who would be the ideal hero for a particular story?
• Build character journeys from a premise

Best heros:

1. Offers the most possible conflict
2. Have the longest emotional journey
3. Best appeal to the masses (Always age characters down for Hollywood | Always build in hyper-relatable relationships [boyfriend/girlfriend, parents, siblings, best friends])

• Know big actors on the scene, write what they will be looking for, but don't expect that casting. Build in as much wiggle room as possible.

Character Archetypes

• "young man on the rise"/"good girl tempted", "clever child", "sex goddess"/"the hunk", etc.
• "wounded soldier returns", "troubled sexpot", "lovable fop", "court jester", "wise grandfather"...
• Fudge biopics until the subject is likeable
• Ensemble pieces where the setting takes the role of the central character
• Ideal hero: identify with, learn from, are compelling, deserves to win, truly resontates

Good exercises: re-work your logline with your characters in mind, study heros within your genre & assign them archetypes, disignate main character in an ensemble

Build It

• Strong structure ensures a story will stay yours through any level of management meddling (Literally, can be what gets you credited)
• 3-act structure: thesis, antithesis, synthesis
• The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (link will take you to the website, I have attempted to embed the PDF of the sheet at the end of this section)
• Opening Image, Theme Stated, Set-up, Catalyst, Debate, Break into Two, B story, Fun and Games, Midpoint, Bad Guys Close In, All is Lost, Dark Night of the Soul, Break into Three, Finale, Final Image
• A movie script should be ~110 pages
• Must show what is missing in a character's life

Good exercises: use the 15 beats to plot out your story or the story of a preexisting movie

Cont.

• Use a conspiracy board

Other Rules

1. Save the Cat (make audience like protag)
2. Pope in the Pool (make audience listen to exposition while they're distracted)
3. Double Mumbo Jumbo (only 1 fantastical thing per movie- no mixing aliens & vamps. Unless you're the Z-O-M-B-I-E-S franchise)
4. Lyping Pipe (avoid overwhelming amounts of set-up)
5. Too Much Marzipan (kill your darlings)
6. "Watch out for that glacier!" (Speed up antagonistic threat, or it will loose its teeth)
7. Covenant of the arc (everyone needs a character arc- unless they're villians)
8. Keep out the presses (breaks 4th wall)

Good exercises: figure out what rule is violated by a particular unlikable movie, find good exambples of Pope in the Pool

Fixing Things

• Inactive heros -> proactive
• Show not tell
• Make bad guys evil-er (+ iconic)
• Corkscrew the plot (accelerates over time)
• Milk the audiences' emotions
• Better dialouge
• Actively contrast the end point to the start
• Make side characters unique so the audience can tell them apart
• Would a cave man be able to understand this plot?

Good exercises: find the weak spots in specific movies, examine how a fictional dynamic would change if you changed XYZ, test dialogue on unsuspecting innocents

Conclusion: Actually selling your script is 100% luck. Networking is your best friend. Good luck.