Thread by @Alteralias

Thanks everyone who came to my @feralvector talk! If you'd like to revisit my highly curated selection of slides or re-experience the INCREDIBLE feral crowd-generated movie idea, I'll have the rest of the slides up in this tweet thread by the end of the weekend. #feralvector 🎥🤘

Welcome to this talk on how to make your own Hollywood movie. You've all heard movies described as 'Formulaic' - that the formula is actually well documented, Shall we dissect the components of a standard big budget Hollywood tentpole movie and find out what makes it tick?

We all know that movies heavily borrow elements from each other. That Alien is basically “Jaws in Space” for example.

Or that “Point Break” and “The Fast And The Furious” are the same movie.

If you have ever suspected that these movies are written to some sort of step-by-step a formula, then congratulations, you are entirely correct.

I’m actually cribbing a lot of this talk from a book called “Save the Cat” by a writer called Blake Snyder. It's a fun read.

In it, Blake lays out step by the the 15 major events (or “BEATS”) that need to happen in your movie. We’ll come back to this in a bit.

The book claims that there are really only 10 types of film that you can write.

Categories by Blake Snyder, examples by me (writing this talk the night before giving it and everyone else who was still awake and willing to chat films with me!)

I digress

SO, THE TEN FILM TYPES?

**Monster in the House**: AKA Don’t Get Eaten/ Run & Hide

A sin is committed, creating a supernatural monster, an avenging angel that kills those who have committed that sin/spares those who realize what that sin is.

The Babadook, Snakes on a Plane, Cabin in the Woods (META!)

** Out of the Bottle**: AKA Wishes & Curses:

A hero in need of deliverance. A wish granted, “rules” to be followed, a lesson learned from the experience.

The Mask (1994). Limitless (2011), unusually the hero doesn't pay a price for the lesson/wins by remaining drug-assisted.

Fun to see exceptions though & I will note that the ending of the movie LIMITLESS differs significantly from THE DARK FIELDS, the book it is based on which has a much more, shall we say, consistent ending. It's a pretty decent page turner and worth a read. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_…

**Whydunit**: All detective movies ever.

We don't watch them for the WHO so much as the WHY. The secret ultimately forces the detective to take a dark turn, breaking the rules in order to get to the bottom of the mystery. SHUTTER ISLAND yes, CLUE? - honestly I'm still not sure.

**Golden Fleece**: A road/journey. Signposts to indicate growth; a team or buddy to guide the hero (representing things the hero lacks: skill, experience, empathy, attitude) A prize to be won—going home, obtaining a treasure, a birthright..

ALADDIN. STAR WARS. MAD MAX:FURY ROAD.

Fury Road is also very much Furiosa's film (hint: she's right there in the title along with Max). They're both on a journey - the prize for her is self determination, the ability to change the status quo. Max, as ever, goes from feral to human by taking up someone else's cause.

There is quite literally a road, a journey taken (ok a VERY MAGNIFICENT car chase) and the Wives each of whom embody a different character trait/skill. Even poor Nux who wanted to "die historic on the Fury Road" 'wins' a death that is witnessed and has meaning.

I'll shut up now.

**Rites of Passage**:

Dealing with a problem the wrong way (a diversion from confronting the pain) the acceptance of a hard truth, the knowledge that it is the hero who must change.

LABYRINTH (!986) perfect adherence to the formula
PAN'S LABYRINTH (2006) takes some dark turns

Don't wish the Goblin King to take away your baby brother, people. Or do.
I don't judge.

**Institutionalized**: the story is about the choice between towing the company (group, family, organization, business) line or being a rebel; join the system, destroy it, or let it destroy you

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994). MONSTERS INC. (2001)

(I am prepared to defend this)

** Buddy Love** : Theme “My life changed for having known someone else”.

Romance, Buddy Cop movies, Dog Movies.

LA LA LAND. HOT FUZZ. MARLEY AND ME.

(LETHAL WEAPON, PRETTY WOMAN, MISS CONGENIALITY - the awkward lady cop & the pageant beauties form the core relationship here)

**Superhero**: An extraordinary person finds themselves in an ordinary world.

SUPERMAN, WONDERWOMAN.

But I also think FERRIS BEULLER'S DAY OFF might qualify.

**Dude with a Problem**: An ordinary person finds themselves in extraordinary circumstances.

FIGHT CLUB. DIE HARD.

**The Fool Triumphant:** ...an underdog... and an institution for that underdog to attack.

BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE. (Fighting the forces that would separate the band)

BRIDGET JONES DIARY (Pride & Predjudice with a ditz)

Both films rail against society's expectations

Join me when I write up the next section of this talk: WHAT EVEN IS A LOGLINE?

Right now I need to sleep.

Right I'm back! Let's take a look at what is, for me, the most fun part of coming up with a movie: The LOGLINE.

The logline is a statement that tells you what your movie is about.

It gets used at pitching meetings and the information it contains usually ends up in the movie trailer or the description on the cinema website.

A successful logline can make the difference between a film people get excited about (and fund!) and one that is forgettable.

1. A logline must have the following:

– the protagonist (Use adjectives. Make them proactive.)

– their needs/ their goal (something primal is always good)

– the stakes (make them high!)

– the antagonist/antagonistic force

A good logline should make you want to see the movie.

Here’s one I made earlier


👩‍🍳🥮**BAKERS DOZEN**🎂🧟‍♂️

A DISGRACED PATTISSERIE CHEF and TWELVE OF HER STUDENTS must SURVIVE AT ALL COSTS when A ROGUE STAIN OF BREAD YEAST triggers THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE.

Interestingly, we haven't described genre. Do we like Monster in the House? Golden Fleece redemption comedy? Possibly Rite Of Passage? Perhaps it is whatever we consider Shaun Of The Dead to be.

But BOOM. In a small number of words we’ve described a film that piques interest.

I can picture the poster right now:

A woman in a chefs hat beating a zombie back with an egg whisk, 👩‍🍳🧟‍♂️ the kitchen in flames 🔥. Her name would be JOSEPHINE BAKER and we would be discussing the part with @jes_chastain's agent.

I hesitate to call this is a GREAT logline, but

...that’s a film I would definitely watch.

So OK what makes a GREAT logline?

- a great title
- a sense of irony
- a compelling mental image
- as well as containing information about what the movie is about

You know, BAKERS DOZEN is kinda growing on me...

At this point in the talk I decided me and the @feralvector crowd should PLAY THE LOG LINE GAME!

Me: We’re going to need a character. Any ideas?

Crowd: A Badger! A WERE BADGER!

Me: OK now we need a quest. What do they *NEED*?

Crowd: 😍❤️Love❤️🥰😘

Me: Ooh. Primal. I like it.

Me: So. What obstacles are in our WERE BADGER's way?

Crowd: They have a videogame addiction!

Me: (Remembers #Feralvector is a games conference, so, alright)

- OK! Just for fun can we increase the stakes?

- Can make this more ironic or compelling?

- Any ideas for a title?

It's around now that @RecklessAthena pipes up with this fully realised solid gold nugget:

GAME SETT & MATCH

A SAD WEREBADGER must overcome their VIDEO GAME ADDICTION to FIGHT a DE-FORESTING PYROMANIAC (that they are in LOVE with), (who DOES NOT KNOW that they are a WEREBADGER).

I don't know if anyone got a closeup of my face when this happened, but it was 😃😆😃 It even has a MULTI-LEVEL-PUN😍 I have never been more FLOORED and DELIGHTED while on a stage. It's hard to live-type into keynote while you're giggling like a fool.

https://twitter.com/RobotJoel/status/1131879925491863552

Alright so now we have our logline, but we’re a way off from having a whole movie.

This is where the “Save the Cat” formula comes in.

We didn't have time to go through all 15 beats so instead we took a look at the broad structure the beats slot into.

I even made a diagram!

In general a film will have three acts with specific beats playing out in each act.

The first act is for setting up the world, introducing the hero, what the hero wants and how the hero needs to change or grow.

The first act is also when you introduce the theme of the film.

As an aside, NEO's introduction in 1999's THE MATRIX is short and perfect.

We need to know that he is a computer hacker, lacking a sense of purpose, bored and disaffected with life.

The first time we see him? He's at a computer. Asleep.

Beautiful.

The end of the first act is the point when the hero actively decides to embark on the quest.

STAR WARS: Luke chooses to go with Obi Wan Kenobi.

LORD OF THE RINGS: Frodo deciding Rivendell to complete the journey with the ring,

JOHN WICK: digging up the floor to get the guns.

ACT 2 is split into two halves.

1st HALF: FUN & GAMES.

This is all your massive set pieces, all the stuff you saw in the movie trailer, low stakes, high energy.

It’s all important set up for the later parts of the movie, and shows the audience how the rules of your world work.

In the Matrix this is the Dojo scene.

"I KNOW KUNG FU"

"STOP TRYING TO HIT ME AND HIT ME"

PACIFIC RIM: it’s the early kaiju fights when the humans are winning and we haven't yet lost most of the Jaegers.

It’s all the early fights learning to use super powers in every superhero film and at wizard school (looking at you HARRY POTTER) it’s when the kids are learning spells / how to fly broomsticks.

These fun and games end at the MID POINT of the film.

Here you get a false victory (or in some cases a false defeat) after which things take a darker, more serious turn. The stakes are raised and things are only going to get worse from here.

Thread continues:

https://twitter.com/alteralias/status/1133400602585817088?s=21

Back to the Future has a GREAT example of a false victory.

Marty travels back in time and defeats the bullies that once tormented his father. But now his mother is super in love with HIM instead of his dad. So now his parents wont get together and Marty will never be born. Crap.

The stakes after this point in the film are huge - literally a fight for the hero's very existence.

In Disney’s THE INCREDIBLES there’s a another great false victory when Mr incredible gets a new lease on life when hired to fight the OMNIDROID.

Unfortunately we later see that the robot has been using these fights to learn how to defeat Mr Incredible when it counts the most.

False defeats on the other hand are a LOT more common: In THE MATRIX this is when Morpheus is captured and interrogated.

We've already had the Oracle tell Neo that he is "not The One" so we believe that Morpheus' faith in Neo/sacrifice was based on a lie. Things look super grim.

But all the events that follow this MIDPOINT are what make Neo transcend and finally become The One.

Feels like a defeat / sets off the chain of events that leads to the victory.

Thank you Mr Anderson.

Talking about MIDPOINTS.

Did your film have a mentor?

Now’s the time to kill ‘em.

After the FALSE VICTORY/FALSE DEFEAT at the MIDPOINT, all the the fun and games are over.

For ACT 2: 2nd HALF - The stakes are raised, and the situation spirals until it reaches the LOWEST POINT at the end of this act.

Remember this diagram*?

[*Of course you do, it's so beautifully laid out that you totally can't tell I made it at 5am. One day I'll make a talk more than 8 hours before giving it, but NOT TODAY PEOPLE.]

Some examples of lowest point / ALL IS LOST moments:

Disney's ALADDIN (1992) Shortly after Aladdin treats his friend the Genie badly by going back on a promise to release him, Jafar gets hold of the lamp.

The most powerful force in the film is now in the hands of the most evil.

In THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980) the lowest point might be when Luke gets his hand cut off. Empire is a weird example though because it’s really one half of a film that ends with 1983's RETURN OF THE JEDI.

I think the moment which best qualifies in RETURN OF THE JEDI is when it seems the Emperor will defeat Luke as Darth Vader just stands by and watches, while at the same time, the (actually) fully operational death star is about to wipe out everyone on Endor.

Those poor Ewoks.

Oh and if you have a team, a classic is to just have them all fall out at the low point...

...riiight in time for them come back together in the ACT 3: BIG FINALE the final test of the hero or the team where they decide to work together towards their common goal. The conflict is resolved, and everyone who's gonna arc, arcs.

Think of ACT 3 as the Boss Fight.

And after all that, ACT 3 ends by showing the hero completing their arc.

SHAPE OF WATER (2017) - Elisa sacrifices everything to fight for what she loves and transforms from a misfit ill-suited for her surroundings to being entirely accepted by an environment that loves her.

WALL-E (2008) - the human race rejects the easy life of mindless consumption and takes it's first baby steps into mindful stewardship of the planet.

BLACK PANTHER (2018) - again it is an entire nation that arcs. in this case WAKANDA stepping up and taking its place in the world. @ellardent's tweetnotes on this are magnificent and required reading

https://twitter.com/ellardent/status/978287003862257664

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015)

Everybody arcs!

Well OK, MAX, FURIOSA and NUX certainly do, and the WIVES get a decent chunk of development.

See FURY ROAD comments in tweets earlier in this talk - I think if I link to previous tweets here it will create an infinite loop.

(Fun fact: I spent a New Years Eve once making a film with friends called Infinite Loop. It's batshit & I love it very much vimeo.com/35871955)

@ChaoticTortoise @Bugs_Binny @roderickhodgson @sam_cook @pedropan @MoragHickman @cat_harris_fx @GSDMediauk fun times!

I DIGRESS!

I haven't spent any time in this talk discussing THEME, but the end of your film is when you restate your theme, resolve your conflict and bring the hero to the end of their journey.

If you're really good, you can even leave the viewer with a FINAL IMAGE that sums these up.

There's often a lovely relationship between the OPENING IMAGE and the FINAL IMAGE too. Bookending the film, they can represent where our journey starts and where it winds up. Lets go back to the SHAPE OF WATER for a minute and this gorgeous pair of opening and closing shots.

On THAT note, I'd like to put a shout out to @finalscreens on twitter and instagram instagram.com/finalscreens/ who have made it their mission to "Celebrate movies by juxtaposing their first and final frames." and who brighten up my timeline no end.

And there we have it. The film is over, the audience leaves a-crunching popcorn underfoot and my talk has only run over by 33%. It was a lot of gifs to cram into 20 minutes but I maintain I could have done it if the crowd generated movie idea hadn't broken me. Glorious isn't it?

I feel I should leave you with some further reading if you like this sort of thing. Consider following @ellardent immediately. Also the @BFI has some lovely thoughtful takes on this stuff - for example bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/n…. You can buy SAVE THE CAT obvs, but don't stop there!

There's The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven… (Thanks @jearle!) and that old chestnut The Hero with a Thousand Faces y by Joseph Campbell. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_…

And a whole bunch more - I'd love to hear people's favourites😃

But it's super fun to look at things that don't obey these story structures, or adopt them loosely then break away from them. One of my favourite tricks a movie can pull, is to fool you into thinking the wrong character was the protagonist all along.

Looking at you EX MACHINA

MEMENTO (2000) Guy Richie's backwards amnesiac masterpiece is a famous example of a film that doesn't neatly fit into any of these boxes, and its summary in SAVE THE CAT uses language I won't reproduce here. I think the author of the book found it annoying. I think it's GREAT.

See also
Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenpla…

the sadly no longer updated Every Frame a Painting on youtube. youtube.com/user/everyfram…

(If you only watch one watch this - the ART OF THE GAG: Buster KEATON)

I came to @Feralvector to get a perspective on storytelling from people who make games. I've been a plaintiff in GHOST COURT, been in my first larp, heard some incredible talks, helped film ART VS VIDEOGAMES:THE DECIDER & had SO MANY unexpected chats.

https://twitter.com/NORTH_NCL/status/1132066279542743040

I've learned a lot about expressing stories through whatever medium delights you the most.

https://twitter.com/barelyconcealed/status/1131998197784694784

And generally just had a blast.

Thank you so much for having me!

https://twitter.com/barelyconcealed/status/1131875874876170240

Oops - I of course meant CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’s film starring GUY PEARCE. I was reading about Guy RICHIE’s take on Aladdin today and got my wires very crossed.

“Blade Runner is saturated in melancholy, overshadowed by death and peopled by ghosts. Visually and sonically, it is awash with hauntological whispers.” I mean, holy shit @BFI

It has also come to my attention that not everything needs to be read one tweet at a time. Some people (@ellardent, not me) take the time to curate their work.

https://twitter.com/ellardent/status/1133777081513463809?s=21

@threadreaderapp unroll, ta.