Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies: The Screenwriter's Guide to Every Story Ever Told

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 287 pages
• Published by: Michael Wiese Productions October 1, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1932907351
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1932907353
• Book Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 1 pounds

Product Description
In the long-awaited sequel to his surprise bestseller, Save the Cat!, author and screenwriter Blake Snyder returns to form in a fast-paced follow-up that proves why his is the most talked-about approach to screenwriting in years. In the perfect companion piece to his first book, Snyder delivers even more insider's information gleaned from a 20-year track record as ?one of Hollywood's most successful spec screenwriters, ? giving you the clues to write your movie. Designed for screenwriters, novelists, and movie fans, this book gives readers the key breakdowns of the 50 most instructional movies from the past thirty years. From M*A*S*H to Crash, from Alien to Saw, from ten to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Snyder reveals how screenwriters who came before you tackled the same challenges you are facing with the film you want to write ? or the one you are currently working on.

Reader Reviews
I still stand by what I said in my review of Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need ------------ It is indeed the LAST book you will need (and you do need it) to create saleable screenplays. That means it isn't the first one. STC! summarizes and organizes, rearranges emphasis, and illuminates all the myriad other techniques taught in other books. ------------ STCGoes To The Movies is actually more a prequel to STC!, or maybe a Teacher's Handbook or as another review states a "Companion Book." Other reviews have described the contents of this book, but perhaps not explained the unique lessons to be learned by writers. STCGTTM does the homework assignments of STC! for you. Blake walks you through the "Beats" from his beat sheet, or paradigm, for "The Great Classic Film" by breaking down dozens of famous movies and naming many others where you'll find the same form. You'd think that doing the homework for you would be cheating, but it's more like the answers in the back of your math textbook -- it shows you when you've made a mistake but lets you correct that mistake yourself and thus become strong in problem solving. Snyder uses movies you're familiar with -- but the beginning writer, and even many experienced published writers, would be tongue tied at trying to describe them. Even using Snyder's Beat Sheet (a list of points in a film script), a writer would make errors in identifying the beats from only viewing a film. Do a couple yourself. Watch a DVD of an award winning blockbuster. Write down the content of the 14 pivotal moments in the film. Compare what you "see" with what Snyder sees when watching that film. Try comparing "Alien" and "Jaws" -- then read this book. Snyder shows (without telling) what the producer's eye sees when reading a script. For a screenwriter, the producer is the "market." The writer has to convince the producer that THIS story told THIS way will reach an audience big enough to cover the cost of making the film, and then some. This isn't a book about the inventive, cutting edge of what's possible with the film medium. This is a book about how to reach BIG audiences with your favorite story. But how can you learn to do that from reading beat-by-beat breakdowns of movies you've seen a dozen times? Have you read the book Writing the Killer Treatment: Selling Your Story Without a Script? That will convince you that you must master the art of the Treatment to make a living at scriptwriting. Any number of textbooks and courses insist that you must start writing your script by creating an original High Concept, a short sentence that gives the reader a vision of the whole movie as something familiar. Those same courses insist that you start with an outline evolved out of a 1 paragraph description, expanded to 1 page, and then to perhaps 5 pages, maybe ten as a Treatment. The Treatment is the key to the writing of the successful script. Those 1 sentence, paragraph and page descriptions are to become your sales materials for the script -- that's what agents and production companies want to see in a query. They have to be polished, perfect and what they promise must be fulfilled in the script. I have read a number of textbooks that say you must do the Concept, Logline, and Treatment, before writing the script. I've seen formulas for what to include, how to structure the sentences, and how to choose what to highlight. But never before Save The Cat Goes To The Movies have I found a book that actually explains HOW to use your writer-type brain and imagination to construct a High Concept or HOW to take a story idea and state it as a High Concept from which a Producer would visualize a complete movie that would be profitable to make. Blake Snyder is a writer. He thinks like a professional writer. And he conveys that style of thinking in this book. Snyder has constructed a writer's manual for creating the marketing materials (concept, logline, paragraph, and Treatment) that will sell your project. But very few readers will understand it that way. This book looks like homework assignments. But actually it's mental training -- brain spraining mental training -- for hurling your ideas into "Theaters Everywhere!" For each of the "Genres" of story Snyder has identified, he gives you the key variables, the moving parts of the Concept and Logline statements. Not the statements themselves, the ones that sold these film scripts -- but the mechanism for generating those statements. Then he articulates the emotional payload the Genre delivers (which defines for a Producer what audience the film will draw in.) Find the story inside you that fits one of these ten paradigms and you will have an "Opens Everywhere" film. But while you are writing your script, keep STC! at your elbow as a reference book. STC! is the roadmap through writing your script, and is indeed the LAST book you need. Before that, you need STCGoes To The Movies to construct the Concept, Logline, and precise beats before you start to write. Jacqueline Lichtenberg Comment | | (Report this)