Save the Cat Goes to the Movies (38 page)

ALL STORIES ARE ABOUT TRANSFORMATION!
— This is not a Hollywood term … it is our motto! It should be printed out and put on top of our computers as a reminder of why we do this job. No story is worth telling unless change occurs in the hero — or in us, the audience. The bigger the growth, the more epic the tale.

BRANDO
— The rebel found in stories of the Institutionalized kind. Named for Marlon Brando, who portrayed motorcycle tough Johnny in 1953’
S
The Wild One
, this is the radical who defies the system and doubts everything about the family, business, or group that has stood the test of time.

BUTTON
— A line or visual punctuation that ends a scene: an ironic comment, a joke, or a note of deep meaning. “We need a better button here” is a line we hear from execs, which means our scene ends with a whimper … not a POW!

CASE WITHIN A CASE
— In a Whydunit, usually the initial or long-buried caper that for some reason is unresolved. By pursuing another case, the detective revisits the original — and cracks both.

CHASE TO THE AIRPORT SCENE
— In any movie with a love story at its heart, invariably one lover will leave near the end, prompting a frantic “chase to the airport” to stop him or her, e.g., Woody Allen in
Manhattan.
This big finish is re-freekin’-quired according to every studio exec you will ever hear on the subject … so be prepared with yours!

COMPANY MAN
— In an Institutionalized story, the one who has so bought into the establishment that he has sacrificed his humanity for it, resulting in robotic side effects that often include sexual dysfunction and a general crankiness, e.g., Frank Burns and Margaret “Hot Lips” O’Houlihan in
M*A*S*H.

COMPLICATION
— Typically in a romantic comedy or love story, the
sabot
in the machinery: the person, place, or event that stops the lovers from being together, e.g., the iceberg in
Titanic
, the bet in
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
, and the fact that Matthew McConaughey lives at home in
Failure to Launch.
Ironically, it is also the thing that keeps the lovers together — and is usually what your rom-com is “about.”

CONFIDANT
— In an Out-of-the-Bottle story, a person the hero can trust with the secret of his magic power — and sometimes the one who uses that information to harm the hero (so much for trust).

CRAWL
— The moving text at the beginning or the end of a film that explains its context, giving background to, or a time frame for, a historic or futuristic setting that we need to know to understand what will happen next. It is usually slow enough for us maroons to read — and getting slower every year!

DOUBLE MUMBO JUMBO
— In movies using “magic,” the tendency of the writers to pile it on, or use several forms of it, and unwittingly make the story feel fuzzy or confusing. The rule is: We, the audience, are allowed to suspend disbelief once in a movie. You cannot be led to believe aliens
and
vampires exist in one world.

EYE OF THE STORM
— In a Dude-with-a-Problem film, the break from the fast-paced, confusing, and dangerous situation our innocent hero suddenly finds his bad self in. It can be a friend or a love interest who also offer the hero a needed lesson.

FOOL ASSUMES A NEW NAME
— In Fool Triumphant, when the hero enters Act Two and takes on a new moniker, e.g., when “Michael Dorsey” becomes “Dorothy Michaels” in
Tootsie.
The name change usually occurs as a disguise or by accident.

HALF MAN
— In a Monster-in-the-House movie, the partial survivor who has had an interaction with the monster in his past and comes away damaged in some way because of it. This is the “false mentor” who can tell the hero — and us — the horror of what dealing with the monster will entail — and who is sure to die!

INSIDER
— In a Fool-Triumphant movie, the jealous one who realizes the “idiot” is wiser than everyone and seeks to stop him before others see this too, e.g., Salieri in
Amadeus.

KILL THE CAT
— An alt ernate to having the hero do something nice — like save a cat — so that we’re on his side, is to have someone do something mean to him, e.g., when Elle Woods is dumped by her beau in the beginning of
Legally Blonde.

LEARNS TO DO IT WITHOUT THE MAGIC
— Usually a beat found in any movie using “magic” that indicates a change in the hero in Act Three. Up till then the hero has been empowered — or cursed — with some form of magic spell, and now must choose not to use the magic in order to learn a lesson, e.g., in
Bruce Almighty
when Jim Carrey does good deeds without using any of his godly powers. But this is a general term, too, used for movies
without
magic. It can indicate any Act Three change where the hero “learns he had it in him all along” or “learns he already possesses the bravery or skill he needs to win.”

LEMON SEED
— The new “thing” introduced at the midpoint of a movie that indicates we are going to be heading for the finish at a faster pace — and with added pressure. Think of a slippery lemon seed between your thumb and index finger being slowly squeezed until it
squirts
out in the Act Three climax! It is introduced mid-movie at the “stakes are raised” point.

MASCOT
— In a Superhero tale, the loyal and very human underling who looks up to the title character but can never be him, e.g., Jimmy Olsen in
Superman
and Timon in
The Lion King.
Often used by the Nemesis to threaten the Superhero.

NAIF
— The character in an Institutionalized story that is “us,” such as Jane Fonda in
9 to 5
and Tom Hulce in
Animal House
, who, by being brought into the system, helps explain its rules.

RIFF
— Coming from the musical world, this term implies a sometimes improvised bit, routine, or off-the-cuff piece of “business” that springs from a particular set-up. For instance, if you set up the premise of a mom and her cop son who become partners in solving crime, I will riff on ideas such as: mom stops a mugger with her knitting needles; the two get into the “world’s slowest chase” when she and her son pursue a bad guy and she is driving; or mom thinks her son’s room has been rifled by intruders when it’s just a mess. See?
Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot
was funny when it left my hands! And these riffs prove it!

ROAD APPLE
— In a Golden-Fleece movie, this is the thing that stops the team from gaining the prize. It’s the set-back, surprise backstab, or bit of new information that makes the participants think they will never win the day, e.g., when Tom Hanks and company find Private Ryan — and he refuses to go home.

RULES
— The magic in an Out-of-the-Bottle story needs these parameters, guidelines, or boundaries to keep what happens credible. State The Rules up front and stick to them!

SET PIECE
— Whenever I come up with a good movie idea, my first question, and that of a lot of movie producers who might buy it, is: “What are the set pieces?” These are the “trailer moments,” examples of the premise that demonstrate the essence of the movie.

SIX THINGS THAT NEED FIXING
— Six is an arbitrary number, but should indicate there are a bunch of defects in the hero’s life when we first meet him that will be healed during the movie. In the opening scenes of
Tootsie
, Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey is shown as: (1) a difficult actor with (2) an uncaring agent. He is (3) insensitive to women and — not surprisingly — (4) an ineffective pick-up artist and (5) bad friend who (6) doesn’t like to hold babies. All these things will get “fixed” by donning a dress and becoming a better man for having been “Dorothy Michaels.” The journey would mean nothing if these problems weren’t set up in Act One.

TIME CLOCK
— “How long do we have?” asks the captain of
The Titanic
upon hitting the iceberg at the midpoint of the movie. Meet the “time clock” or “ticking clock,” a way to let us know how much longer we’ve got and to put pressure on the heroes to solve, get out of, or triumph before it’s too late.

TWO-HANDER
— A movie where we follow two characters, each has an arc, and each grows because of the other, e.g., the rom-com
Two Weeks Notice.
THREE-HANDER — A movie where we follow three stories, each with its own arc of growth, most often a love triangle, such as in
Sweet Home Alabama, Titanic
, and
Gone with the Wind.
FOUR-HANDER — A movie where we follow four stories, most often a two-couple love story like
When Harry Met Sally …
as well as such darker studies as
Closer
and
We Don’t Live Here Anymore.

TURNING OVER CARDS
— Describes any progression that reveals the plot points of a story. In a Whydunit, it’s the series of clues leading the detective to a final secret.

TURN, TURN, TURN
— This is the dictate (at least in my book) that a story not only moves forward but faster and with more energy — particularly from midpoint on (see “Lemon Seed,”
page 283
).

WATCH OUT FOR THAT GLACIER!
— My ironic cry of boredom while sitting through a disaster movie or revenge tale when the heroes know a showdown is looming, but which is so slow in coming (one inch a year!) that we in the audience must wait and twiddle our thumbs. Screenwriters, watch out for … this icy sensation!

In his 20-year career as a screenwriter, Blake has sold, optioned, or been hired to write dozens of scripts for film and TV. Best known as “one of Hollywood’s most successful spec screenwriters,” he also co-wrote
Blank Check
, which became a hit for Disney, and
Nuclear Family
for Steven Spielberg — both million-dollar deals. Blake sold his 13th spec screenplay, the horror-comedy
Granny
, in 2006.

Blake turned author in 2005 with
Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need
, now in its ninth printing. He is also a popular and enthusiastic speaker who has prompted “standing room only” lectures and workshops in New York, London, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Vancouver, Toronto, Barcelona, and his hometown of Los Angeles.

The
Cat!
method has become the “secret weapon” of many development executives, managers, and producers for its precise, easy, and honest appraisal of what it takes to create and write stories that resonate.
Save the Cat! The Last Story Structure Software You’ll Ever Need
has codified this method in an easy-to-use CD-Rom that is, like the book, a consistent best seller.

Blake has a B.A. in English from Georgetown University and has been a proud member of WGA, west since 1987.

For information, check out
www.blakesnyder.com
.