Beginners Guide To Story Beats: How To Outline A Screenplay - Steve Douglas-Craig
Scriptnotes 403 - How To Write A Movie - • Scriptnotes 403 - How ...
After graduating from the AFI, Steve was recruited by Sony Pictures Entertainment to work as a Story Editor & Acquisitions Executive for the Worldwide Acquisitions team in Los Angeles where he received an induction into story & business development, feature film packaging, domestic & international distribution, theatrical marketing & product acquisition. He helped develop & shepherd film titles including Terminator: Salvation, The Book of Eli, Django Unchained, War Room, Don’t Breathe (Sequel current in post-production), the Insidious horror movie franchise, Manchester By The Sea, The Grudge (reboot), Searching, Arrival, Whiplash, The Call, Attack The Block & many others (including TV releases - The Tudors, House of Cards).
Steve's tenure at Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions was followed with a promotion to Senior Story Editor & Creative Executive at Screen Gems where he was involved in the development & release of theatrical titles like the recent releases of Monster Hunter & the adaptation of James Herbert’s novel - The Unholy. Before that he helped shepherd Black & Blue, The Intruder, Possession of Hannah Grace, Brightburn, & Slender Man. He was also heavily involved in developing content strategies that attracted financiers & talent to specific projects for the studio.
Steve is also a professional screenwriter having worked as a freelance staff writer for the hit CBS TV series Hawaii Five-O over a number of seasons & currently has a pilot & several feature films (including a creature feature) going out through his literary managers in Los Angeles.
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Here is our full interview with Steve - kzhead.info/sun/lMiPqLSZoWNtpY0/bejne.html
EYYYY, I adore content like this! I think even novelistic writers can benefit more from being able to drill a story down to the beats like this. ^_^ Perhaps especially novelistic writers, since it can be fairly easy for them to sink into elaborate prose.
Discovery writing is fine for writing a novel if that's how your brain works. Jack Grapes certainly is a fan of that type of writing (he wrote Method Writing). What many (I'd hope most) discovery writers do, though, is go through and make sure the structure is there.
@@5Gburn I'm not strictly talking about 'discovery' writing. I'm talking about Stephanie Meyer-ish writing.
This makes me feel much better about rewriting just my outline before I fully write the first draft.
This is honestly the video I've been searching for.
403 to be exact. Watching it next.
Here is the Craig Mazin Podcast that Steve mentions - Scriptnotes 403 - How To Write A Movie - kzhead.info/sun/qbeRXaiKhoyrrZE/bejne.html
This podcast is so good.
I listen to these guys - Craig and John are amazing
Thanks for sharing.
As the other video "This is Trouble" from this interview, thank you, both of you, for this captivating exchange 🧡
You got it!
Great!
This is great. I just sent a link to my 3rd quarter students. Thank you.
Nice Tony!
Great talk on beats and reconstructing an outline.
What do you like about this video?
What we all like about _Film Courage_ videos. No sound effects; no music; no animated chapters. Just a great question followed by a great answer by the guest. Please, continue doing that.
His factual understanding of what works.
Good to see this feedback!
Makes me understand why so many movies don't feel organic and fresh. Instead one could anticipate the overall trajectory well before the end.
Loved it. I'm a system writer, a planner not a prancer so this is perfect for me.
Thanks Karen (and Steve). 🙏🙏🙏 This IS film school. For those with an “engineer’s” mind, Outline is where it’s at…Rework & restructure & reimagine without having to dismantle a lot of hard work. Now, I have some homework to do…episode 403? ✌️☕️🎩🎩🎩
Where can I find the interrogation method for character development that he talks about please? Thank you!
Outline, three structure treatment, script done in 3-4 weeks. That's my formula.
@ 2:11 in he says "In between the Midpoint and the first Act" and then @ 2:19 he says "same between end of Act 2 and Midpoint". Can anyone explain what he means? When he talked about Midpoint it sounded like halfway through the entire script?
Isn't it lovely hearing such definitive advice from someone who has never written a successful script? Hmmm, I wonder why.🤔 It's because creativity cannot be taught. Much of what is taught comes from deconstructing other creative people and theorizing what appears to be a pattern. He fooled you again. A good story is like a good song. It's just good, and even if it breaks all conventions, you still enjoy it. Never forget this important lesson. You might never learn to be a great writer, but learn to listen to your heart, and you might write something that touches the world. Simply, write!
Steve's bio is in the description.
Steve in alarmingly ripped. The Mighty Pika approves.
Cringe
My takeaway from the interview (if it helps you) A big beat for me is the pulse of a screenplay. The big beats for me are the the driving force or the signposts behind where your story is going. Big Beat 1 - As I mentioned the inciting incident should be around page 10 to 15 roughly…that if you can get it on page six, all power to you! It has a function in the script which is to split the character's wants and needs to be the explosive beginning of our story - this is what our story is going to be about. And this is the decision our characters are going make right then. You declare the topic of the debate. Hero’s Journey - This is really the way that I need to go, so we explore that through other characters relationships the actions that your main character will take - to try and reject the journey or accept the journey. Big Beat 2 - By the end of act one there is another big beat. - This is where the character is forced to make a decision - to go on the journey or they're pushed into it - either way there's no turning back. Big Beat 3 - Midpoint Identity - Once we get to the midpoint of a script - that's an important part of a script of a screenplay for me, because it's where the characters’ wants and needs come really close they almost get to understand what they need while still pursuing what they want but something happens to push them even further away from it. A small Beat - Between the First Act and the Mid Point, you have a small defeat or a minor victory for your main character. Likewise, there is another small beat between midpoint and the end. At the end of the second act your character might get a version of what they want, but they've lost something. There is something wrong. Once I've developed my character biographies, I kind of know what the story is and I think I know the ending. I try to elevate these sign posts as the start of my outline. Okay, here's what happens in the explosive exciting incident (based on what my character wants and needs), then what's going to happen at the end of act one, where they have to go on this journey, what is that thing …identify it. Identify the midpoint, I try to get them to identify that all the way to the final confrontation scene, or the taking back of the loss at the end of act two and then into - Do they get what they need and want? Does a character have to get what? - They may not. Do they have to get what they want? No. They should get one or the other…sometimes they get both. Most B plots are connected to a character's need. Why do you love outlining? For me it's writing… writing the story. I love to write the story. I also love to rewrite the outlines. I spend a lot of time rewriting it. I go back to things like my character biography and have a look at and I'll rewrite my character biography right and I'll rewrite the outline itself based on what I discover. One of the elements of screenwriting is the setup and payoff. You set a whole bunch of stuff up in the First Act …it's got to pay off by the third act or we're going to get irritated. In between the big beats are bullet points of what's happening and why it's happening. When I'm writing I don't necessarily do a traditional treatment my outline just seems to morph into a treatment. If I hear my character say something in service of that beat I'll write that. In those bullet points I'll start to put in Slug lines and then - what's happening in that scene, who's in the scene, what they might say, but not in a screenplay format. That's essential for me so that when I get into the screenplay itself, I'm more focused on the formatting of the screenplay and the structure and the rewriting of description and transitions between scenes and how does that play and what is this sequence. I literally cut and paste the entire outline into the screenplay format and then I just play with it. I rewrite 20 times before it would get to my manager. I just have to know those big beats and what's happening in between …so I can then really focus on the structure and formatting of the first draft. No one will ever convince me without having structure. One of my favourite podcasts is is script notes with John August and Craig Mason who are just tremendously gifted writers and Industry mentors. I haven't met Craig at allI I could could listen to them and have listened to them pretty much since they started. I've got the transcript. The transcript is phenomenal and he puts it into like 45 minutes this is how you write a movie and it's a little anti-st structuralist but the way he came from character and the way he talked about developing a story. It's worth a listen because it's jus tremendous although I don't agree with everything he says. I needed a film school because I didn't have a grounding in film or TV I came from the theatre, which is a very different medium. No one's going to convince me not to use structure. Am I completely closing on the door on people who don't use structure....No! (Plz correct me, if I got something wrong.)
Thank you 🙏🏿
A movie has to have a lot a beats, basically moments, from beginning to end. Some are big , some small, but they keep the story engaging. If you don't have enough, your story will be one dimensional. Every beat in your story has to fit, and how you do this is the most challenging part of the process.
Sub plots connected to character's needs in that world is a good perspective. Otherwise you can create a bunch of subplots that derail the story
Yes, Whiplash is a nice movie
Overrated movie
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a very classical and predictable way of storytelling, there are new ways that make the stories even more exciting and unpredictables
Such as?
@@Lilliathi Terrence Malick way, Charlie Kauffmak way, David Lynch way, Jim Jarmush way, Godfrey Reggio way, Ron Frick way etc I didn't even mentionned foreing film directors, like europeans and asiatic ones !!
@@aymen2949 None of those are particularly popular outside of a handful of films, what makes you say their work is more exciting if it doesn't translate into popularity? What exactly do they do different in a positive way that others should replicate?
@@Lilliathi do you talk about popularity or originality ? There's a huge difference between the 2, those guys had particular ways of storytelling, and it's exciting because it pushes the storytelling language to another dimensions, you never know what gonna happen, you might be even confused but you are willkng to watch, while the guy in this video talks about very conventional way of storytelling, I will tell you something, i watch only the first 15 minutes of a hollywood movie and I know what gonna happen in the story, because they have the same movement, same patterns, there's nothing challenging in them, that's the real tragedy of creativity in cinema
@@aymen2949 You used the word exciting. If those movies were truly more exciting, everyone would be using their way, because that translates directly into money at the box-office.
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