Question: Can you abbreviate “Mister” into “Mr.” in a film script? Answer: Abbreviations are allowed in character headings (names) and Action, but not in Dialogue. Any spoken words need to be fully printed, to keep an approximate page count/screen time ratio of 1p/min. Question: Does that mean
Question: Is it possible for the Inciting Incident to happen in backstory? Answer: Technically, ‘backstory’ is not in the movie. It is the history of your characters before the time the story starts. Because we need to see the Inciting Incident and how it affects the protagonist,
Question: When McKee talks about the conscious desire being a contradiction of the unconscious desire, would you relate this to the mid act 2 reversal / change in approach? Or would this be true from the very start of the story, script or life of the protagonist?
RATATOUILLE has 1 (one) deleted scene. It is a long, uninterrupted travel from a wide establishing shot of the Paris skyline down to street level, through the Auguste Gusteau restaurant and ending on a medium shot of Remi. The shot could have been spectacular, reminding of the
MICHAEL HAUGE is a story consultant, author and lecturer who works with writers and filmmakers. He has coached or consulted on projects for Will Smith, Julia Roberts, Robert Downey, Jr. and Morgan Freeman, plus every Hollywood studio. I am speaking with Michael about his career, his teaching
This is the first in a series of structural overviews of popular films. Identifying the main story turns in a film is a great way to get a solid understanding of how film story works. So I invite you to view these films, break them down in
“A strong inciting incident is an event that happens to the protagonist, never an action by the protagonist“, I said. Then I asked you for exceptions, i.e. strong Inciting Incidents that are actions by the protagonist. Now have a look at the first three responses I received:
This blog started when a certain analysis of Michael Mann’s THE INSIDER sparked my frustration. Discussing BLADE RUNNER in a story workshop recently, I felt I was close to doing the exact same thing. To this date I don’t fully agree with her INSIDER analysis but Linda
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