Today’s story is that of Nigel Graves, a client who became a friend.

I love movies. I always have. Funny that I couldn’t figure out why I was having so much trouble writing a novel. I had written the first few paragraphs of at least ten.

My head was full of ideas, plots, characters, anecdotes, twists and turns, but it never seemed to come together.

Where the journey started

In the summer of 2005 I took a community college workshop on screenwriting over two Saturdays and the light bulb was shining bright. I imagined my stories in the form of film, eureka! The course was moulded around The Writers Journey by Christopher Vogler.

After finishing the workshop and reading the handbook we each received, I rushed out and bought a copy of Vogler’s book. That was it. After a workshop that lasted about ten hours and one book, I was ready to write the best screenplay in the world.

I was ready to write the best screenplay in the world.

I spent the majority of Sundays in the year 2006 writing my treatment and then my screenplay. I should say first draft, but it wasn’t to me. It was brilliant. I knew it was quite different from what was already out there, but that was what made it so great.

I also attended some other community college courses on filmmaking in order to improve my overall knowledge of filmmaking (‘shooting short films’, ‘editing’ etc.).

Early in 2007 I sent it to Metro Screen – a local facilities and learning center for emerging filmmakers – and was introduced to my editor. I’ll never forget the confusion he conveyed when he tried to explain how muddled and incomprehensible my masterpiece was.

Once I recovered from the initial shock, I quickly discovered that my editor was not simply shooting me down in order to make himself feel superior. He had every intention of helping me improve not only this script, but my practically non-existent screenwriting skills. He sent me on my way with a recommendation of a DVD he thought would help me and the instruction to return with a step outline next time instead of a complete screenplay.

The turning point: finding the structure

Slowly but surely I was improving and I must say I was really enjoying the process. I attended different workshops and short courses and did my best to network. I became a regular member of The Sydney Film Industry Meetup Group and The Sydney Screenwriters Meetup Group.

Slowly but surely I was improving and I must say
I was really enjoying the process.

I finally figured out that I was trying to cram way too many ideas into one story. After this realisation I was able to practically tear my story in half and really go deeper into one particular theme. It was extremely liberating and the new screenplay finally came together and took form.

I applied for the AFC’s new screenwriter’s program and was turned down. I must admit this really knocked the wind out of me.  But only briefly.  2008 was a new year and I had a story itching to break out. This time I would use the skills I had learned to shape the story before I began, instead of trying to force a square story into a round hole.

Starting fresh with all the tools at my disposal, the story flowed out and took shape quite well and with my editor’s help I created a screenplay for a film that I could honestly say I would love to go and see. I even found time to make one of my short scripts into a film and enter into Tropfest. This was unsuccessful and of course, that hurt. But I learned a lot and am very glad I entered.

I created a screenplay for a film that
I could honestly say I would love to go and see.

Life took an unexpected turn in 2009 and my filmmaking dreams were put on hold for awhile. But I managed to complete the screenplay and polish it up at the end of that year and into the beginning of this one.

When I write this, I have completed a draft that I am confident enough to send out to producers and that for me is a huge accomplishment. The query letters have been sent out and now I wait.

So what has it cost me to get here?

I cannot break it down in detail for you but after about five years of reading, attending workshops and short courses, watching instructional DVDs and listening to CDs, countless hours spent with my story consultant, tweaking, polishing and sometimes, totally re-writing, I probably spent around AUD$6,000.

I must face the fact that my story may never become a film and I am OK with that.

Strangely, my life has headed in another direction and I am now preparing to go to university and study psychology. I will probably never pursue screenwriting with the gusto I did in previous years, but I will always write. I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey and would not change a thing. I have met some really amazing and talented people and made some friends I hope to have for life.

I must face the fact that my story may
never become a film and I am OK with that.

I can honestly say that if no one ever replies to my letters and it all ends here, that I am happy and very satisfied that I gave it a red hot go. I will not die wondering. That is what I have gained from all this. That is the true goal anyone who embarks on this journey should pursue.

If you really believe you have a story worth telling, tell it.

Don’t worry whether it will ever be made or not. I don’t have to go into statistics for you to know what the odds are, but your chances are zero if you never write it.

So write it and don’t be afraid to stuff it up and learn as you go. Don’t be that boring person at the pub saying “I could’ve done something, but……….”

-Nigel Graves

Since writing this piece, Nigel’s first script has been requested by a genre director with multiple credits. Nothing has come from this to date, but it is the start of yet another journey.

To give you the opportunity to delve into Lavandier’s amazing knowledge and insight, we will be publishing a weekly excerpt from the book.

The nature of the objective

It is clear from this that an objective does not have to be particularly ambitious or philosophical. In some cases it can be merely a pretext. Oedipus’s objective in Oedipus Rex is to bring to an end the plague epidemic that has ravaged Thebes. But what interests Sophocles is that Oedipus should discover his true identity.

That is why, after the Oracle has conveniently intervened, the objective changes, with Oedipus now wanting to find out who killed Laius. Even if the Oedipus legend had not been available to him, Sophocles would have been able to find another pretext for his protagonist.

Moreover, though theoretically there are an infinite number of possible objectives, these can be boiled down to a relatively small number of basic objectives. In drama as in life, most people pursue similar objectives. Who for example does not seek to throw off cares? Finding things out, escaping from something, seeking revenge, protecting oneself: these have been classic objectives since the dawn of time.

In drama as in life, most people pursue similar objectives.

Winning a person’s love is the objective embodied in many works of drama (The Apartment, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Importance of Being Earnest, Let’s Make Love, and such Buster Keaton films as The Cameraman, College, The Three Ages, etc). So is finding a missing person (ComDads, The Magic Flute, Missing, etc) or a missing object (Raiders of the Lost Ark and innumerable fairy tales). In The Bicycle Thief as in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, the protagonist’s objective is to find his bicycle.

The joint protagonists of The Warriors have the same objective as Dorothy (Judy Garland) in The Wizard of Oz or Neal (Steve Martin) in Planes, Train and Automobiles: to get back home. This incidentally is the objective of one of the very first protagonists of narrative fiction: Ulysses (The Odyssey).

These examples demonstrate that the same objective can give rise to very different kinds of drama depending on the nature of the arena, the protagonist and the obstacles he encounters.

the same objective can give rise to very different kinds of drama

A word of warning: though even an apparently banal objective can create great drama, this does not mean that a writer can choose the first thing that comes into his mind. On the contrary: the choice of an objective is a delicate matter.

The nature of the objective is one of the three determining elements of a story, along with the nature of the protagonist and the obstacles placed in his way.

-Yves Lavandier

If this excerpt has whetted your appetite and you would like to own this book, don’t fork out the $150 or so Amazon is charging.

Instead, send an email to the publisher contact@clown-enfant.com with subject ‘the story department referral’ and you will be eligible for the super-discounted price of 30 Euros (i.e. only $37 at the time of writing). This saves you $113 (or 75%) off the Amazon cost.

Ozu’s cameraman Yuharu Atsuta shot the film, and his long-time production company Shochiku produced it. This short clip (2:30mins) is about the remarkable – and potentially inspiring – writing process of Yasujiro Ozu and co-writer Kôgo Noda.

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Check out this video link…

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For more videos about screenwriting or filmmaking, look in the sidebar or click on the category link under the title of this post.

If you know of a great video on Screenwriting, let me know!

Just complete the form below and send me the link.

Thank you!

Karel

He meant screenwriters should keep scenes to what is essential to the story. No arrivals and departures, no meet & greet or chit-chat.

This is one of the fundamental rules in writing a scene, one which David Mamet has also been credited for. ‘Late’ usually means later than you imagine, so its wise to try and cut out as much as possible at the beginning and ask yourself if it still works. The later the better.

In the following example from Fight Club, the scene starts off with a gun shoved into the mouth of Edward Norton’s character. We are immediately connect with the scene and wonder how it happened and what will happen next.

As Hitchcock once said, drama is life with the boring bits cut out. So give the reader the essential, exciting bits of information in the least amount of words. As soon as the goal is achieved in the scene, get out.

I have this really beautiful shot that really must stay

Exceptions that deliberately break or bookend the flow of the action sometimes work at the beginning of an act or sequence.  You’ll hold a shot or scene longer when you want to give the audience a breather and you want to intentionally start re-building tension again.

In case you need this transition moment at the beginning or end of a scene, consider making it interesting by dramatising it or introducing something unusual, unique.

Here’s another prime example of leaving early and thus creating wonderful suspense.

In this scene from “The Dark Knight”, Jonathan and Christopher Nolan carefully finish the scene with unfinished business. A question unanswered. A massive conflict. Three men. Two halves of a broken cue. One survivor. Who will win? It also adds character to the Joker, showing how ruthless he is without ever mentioning a drop of blood.

However, unless it’s the final scene in the film, be sure to leave a question unanswered. This will engage the audience and urge them to ask what happens next. This creates movement, and it is important to have everything in your screenplay serve the movement in order to propel the story forward.

When I read a sex scene in a script, I’m not usually moved by the mechanics of the act itself. I’m drawn to the emphasis on the characters in the scene and if the writer is doing something interesting beyond the clichéd emotion of euphoria. That’s the difference between exploiting sexual instincts and elucidating the poetry, tragedy, or comedy of sex.

Character Truth

So let’s explore some of the ways sex can be crucial to a story. It can, first of all, be a way to get to a truth about a character. Chinatown was all about obtaining truth through knowledge of sexual behavior. It opened with Jake revealing to a man photos of his wife having an affair. The story moved on to what may be Mulwray’s affair with a young girl and ends with a devastating revelation. I’m sure you know the story. If you don’t, you’re not much of a screenwriter. Hehehe…

In any case, there is a scene in a bathroom with Jake and Evelyn, which precedes the sex, where Jake removes the bandage off his face. She’s shocked by his deep physical scar, just as Jake will later be shocked by her emotional scars.

a way to get to a truth about a character.

Then, he allows her to dabble peroxide on his nose in a moment of trust. Jake notices a black mark on the green part of her eye. She tries to shrug it off as “a flaw in the iris,” “a birthmark of sorts.” Uh huh. Interesting that we have two characters both avoiding talking about the past (Evelyn and her father, Jake and Chinatown) while both have deep scars to share. Then, we cut to Jake and Evelyn lying in bed having obviously had sex, and we’re given more subtle clues to the murder mystery. The phone rings. She answers. She tells Jake she has to leave. Jake mentions that he recently met with her father, which gets a subtle, yet important reaction. Evelyn is visibly shaken, has to cover her breasts with her arms, and she quickly goes to the bathroom. Some scars can only be seen when we’re naked emotionally and physically.

Character Arc

Sex can be a way to chart a character’s arc, too. A character’s attitude toward sex is one way in the beginning of a film and completely different by the end. Masturbation was the vehicle to showcase Lester Burnham’s character arc in American Beauty. You may recall the opening sequence where Lester tells us in voice over that he’ll be dead in a year and that he’s already dead spiritually. We’re given a scene where we’re to look pitifully at Lester “jerking off in the shower,” which will be, as he says, “the high point of my day.”

Sex can be a way to chart a character’s arc, too.

Later, when Caroline catches Lester masturbating in bed, she becomes furious. Lester tells her, “I’ve changed. And the new me whacks off when he feels horny!” In the beginning, masturbation illustrated how desolate he was, but later, it signified the new, assertive, independent Lester Burnham.

Character Depth

A sex scene can also be a way to reveal different sides of your characters. It can, on the one hand, illuminate a character’s hypocrisy, as an individual says one thing in public and does something quite different in private. On the other hand, you can have a character that simply behaves one way out in the world (timid) only to be completely different in the bedroom (tiger).

A sex scene can also be a way to reveal
different sides of your characters.

I love the scene with Faye Dunaway and William Holden in Paddy Chayefsky’s Network. This woman was so passionate and so sexy in the office that a guy can only wonder how fantastic her love life must be. However, when you finally get her into the bedroom, you are revealed just how totally cut off she is from her emotional and sexual roots. She will not stop talking about the ratings and the network and the TV shows. But she will pause briefly for an orgasm:

(Next week: A ROLLER COASTER NAMED DESIRE)

- Mystery Man

In his own words, Mystery Man was “famous yet anonymous, failed yet accomplished, brilliant yet semi-brilliant. A homebody jetsetting around the world. Brash and daring yet chilled with a twist.”

MM blogged for nearly 4 years and tweeted for only 4 months, then disappeared – mysteriously.

The Story Department continues to republish his best articles on Monday.

Here, you’ll also be informed about the release of his screenwriting book.

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With thanks to Sol.

Enjoy!

Karel

I am not writing.

I am waiting.

It’s that feeling of nervous energy contrasted with heavy eyelids on dry, malfunctioning eyes.

Taste of diet coke in my mouth.

Tenseness in the stomach. A cool breeze blows from the open window, but every part of my body is still sticky with sweat from this terrible, terrible humid summer climate.

It is impossible for me to sleep until the arrival of The Email. Or until I pass out.

That email will decide the fate of a business venture into which I’ve already sunk a bit of time and money.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am an entrepreneur.

This is my life and this is how I like it. Although deep down I’d prefer to be a filmmaker.

And I often think that if I keep doing what I’m doing, I will at some point have enough financial security to sit down and write and make films.

Back in 2008, at the age of 22, I wrote my very first feature length screenplay. The roughly three months it took was probably the most fun I had had in my life up to that point and yes, I had gotten laid before.

It was an immensely fulfilling experience. I got to build an entire world from scratch. I got to build an entire web of human relationships. I got to populate it with every kind of flawed personality I had met in my life and more.

probably the most fun I had had in my life up to that point
and yes, I had gotten laid before.

What amazed me the most, however, was the fact that unlike with anything else before that, for the entirety of the three months, I actually wanted to get up in the morning.

I actually wanted to start writing.

I wanted to write and to think about the story and to play with the characters.

I mean, when was the last time you had a joyous three month period when you did the same thing every day, alone, and actually looked forward to doing it again in the morning when you finally got to sleep?

The sad thing is, unfortunately, that life sucks and you don’t always get what you want.

I’m also quite convinced that life here in Estonia, for anyone wanting to make films, probably sucks more than it does in many other places.

There’s no film or TV industry to speak of here.

When I said that there’s no film or TV industry to speak of, then I wasn’t entirely truthful. There is. It’s government-funded, as it is in many other European countries, so making films that people actually want to see is not high on its list of priorities. And you pretty much have to be an established filmmaker with the right connections to get any funding.

Not really an option for someone like me.

life here in Estonia, for anyone wanting to make films,
probably sucks more than it does in many other places.

With my high school grades I could have gone on to study anything, including film, but at the time computer science seemed more useful for making actual money.

Had I gone on to study film instead, I would probably be broke right now, smoking a pack a day, and drinking heavily, mostly to fit the time-honored tortured artist stereotype.

My life is way better than that at the moment.

I don’t come from an affluent family, so it’s unlikely that I would have even graduated. The need for financial independence was one of the reasons why I dropped out of computer science studies.

Money, money, money.

The screenwriting I was doing in 2008 was a ton of fun, but, unsurprisingly, it wasn’t paying the bills, and neither was my “career” as a freelance journalist at the time.

I did send my screenplay out to some studios, but nothing became of that. Which is to be expected, really. (Ah, the magic of the internet — you are now competing even against screenplays from Estonia!)

So I looked to my other passion and in 2008 co-founded Estonia’s very first iPhone software development company with a guy whom I had gone to college with, and had dropped out with. Built that up as its CEO, hired people, found clients, and then, at the end of 2009, got screwed out of my shares in the company by the guy and his friends.

Hey, this is Estonia. Shit like that happens.

My very first grey hairs still remind me of those days.

Ah, the magic of the internet — you are now
competing even against screenplays from Estonia!

There I was, Christmas of 2009, completely broke and living in a 19th century log house with my girlfriend whom I had met on the only day I took off from work during the entire year.

It gets below freezing in this place during the dead of winter.

I really wanted to get back to screenwriting at that point in my life, but I had more urgent things to worry about. Like food and warmth. I even started translating my 2008 screenplay (which had been written in English) into Estonian with the insane hope of being able to shoot it myself. Didn’t get very far before the last of my money ran out.

Unable to write, because I was broke, and unable to get a job, the only option left to me was to start a business of my own. So far this has been working out pretty well for me.

Things are going so well that I’m considering taking a week or two off each month to start writing again.

Finally there is enough money coming in for me to sit down and write.

I could keep running my business at a nice and profitable level and use the plenty of free time I would have to write.

Or I could continue to grow my business. Make it bigger. Make it better. Diversify it further so that if any one part of it fails, it won’t mess up the rest. Maybe even grow it to a point where I could use it to fund my films. Maybe even retire and then make films.

At what point will enough money have been made? It’s so easy to just want more… At what point do I sit down and write?

Being an entrepreneur, if you love building things of value out of chaos, is actually surprisingly addictive. Both on the high level (“Let’s build this new business and see if it works!”) and on the low level. (“Let’s tweak this layout a bit and measure if we get more clients!”)

Right now the choice I’ve made is to give into this addiction, to keep building a business.

There will be plenty of time to write and make films later in my life. After all, I’m just 24 at the moment with several decades of productive life ahead of me.

With films always on my mind, then who knows, I might accidentally come up with a 21st century business model for this stuff. Hearing from people like The Unknown Screenwriter how hard it really is to get a film funded nowadays, it seems we surely need a revolution in this business.

A few more years to go. Maybe more. Then I will sit down.

Until then, the constant nagging pain of not writing will stay with me.

(Update: The email was a ‘yes, but…’ I will continue working on the project. As soon as I get other things in good enough order that I don’t have to stay up till 5 AM almost every day to finish everything that needs to be done.)

-Elver Loho

Elver Loho is a tech entrepreneur in the tiny European country of Estonia. He dreams of one day having made enough money to retire and make films unlike anything seen before. The most important lesson he has learned so far is to not be afraid to fail. Failure breeds knowledge unlike any book.

photo credit: jurvetson

To give you the opportunity to delve into Lavandier’s amazing knowledge and insight, we will be publishing a weekly excerpt from the book.

Emotion

The spectator is an essential partner in the dramatic process. In fact it can justifiably be said that it is above all the spectator who must experience conflict or the prospect of conflict. There is a good reason for this partnership: drama is capable of producing one or several emotions in the spectator, and these emotions are produced by conflict or the prospect of conflict or its resolution—including when the conflict is a source of humour.

the spectator [...] must experience conflict
or the prospect of conflict.

Our attitude towards our emotions, particularly in today’s so-called developed societies, is ambiguous. We often hide them; sometimes we repress them while remaining under their immense sway. This is above all true of the negative emotions.

Children, for example, are rarely allowed to express sadness or fear. Most parents require their children to master their emotions, to become insensitive. The only negative emotion many children are allowed to experience is guilt, or occasionally anger. As a result, many people replace their authentic emotions with racket feelings. But feelings, without exception, are natural, legitimate and powerful.

many people replace their authentic emotions
with racket feelings.

To ignore the emotions when trying to understand human life and the arts that represent it is as absurd as proposing to move around on only one leg. We know that the movements of History, small or large, arise from human emotions. But emotions lurk also where we least expect them. A Portuguese neurologist, Antonio Damasio, demonstrates in Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain [53] how the ability to express and experience emotions is an essential component of the ability to behave rationally. In other words, without feelings, we cannot be intelligent!

the movements of History, small or large,
arise from human emotions.

With children, symbolic play provides a means to explore sensations and feelings. It is probable that drama plays a similar role, for children as for adults. A film or a play enables us to feel, and above all to master, all sorts of emotions. In the context of drama we can give way with impunity to feelings of hate, we can train ourselves to overcome our fear or our frustration, we can weep with joy or sadness without facing the scorn of our peers. This is surely one of the fundamental attractions of drama.

A film or a play enables us to feel, and above all
to master, all sorts of emotions.

Of course conflict and drama are not the only phenomena capable of arousing emotion. There is hardly any drama in painting or in music and yet these are perfectly capable of moving us. On the stage or the screen, a tune, an actor’s performance, a carefully chosen succession of shots, and numerous other effects can produce emotion in the spectator. However it must be understood that there is nothing incompatible here.

Efforts to perfect film language or art direction need not stand in the way of effective dramatic technique. The movies Psycho, Rear Window and Citizen Kane are brilliant illustrations of this. Jean-Paul Torok [191] describes how French filmmakers at the start of the 20th century who refused to accept this idea contributed to leading a section of France’s movie-making industry up a blind alley.

-Yves Lavandier

If this excerpt has whetted your appetite and you would like to own this book, don’t fork out the $150 or so Amazon is charging.

Instead, send an email to the publisher contact@clown-enfant.com with subject ‘the story department referral’ and you will be eligible for the super-discounted price of 30 Euros (i.e. only $37 at the time of writing). This saves you $113 (or 75%) off the Amazon cost.

Here is a great, 2-hour talk with the screenwriter about his work and the industry. Did you know he worked on Minority Report?

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Check out this video link…

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For more videos about screenwriting or filmmaking, look in the sidebar or click on the category link under the title of this post.

If you know of a great video on Screenwriting, let me know!

Just complete the form below and send me the link.

Thank you!

Karel

[contact-form]

After seeing Inception this week, for me Toy Story 3 is still the only movie I have seen in cinemas this year that has a flawless story, reaching for a four-quadrant audience with a script that is at the same time intelligent and moving. But while analyzing Toy Story 2 I was reminded how much I love this one – and how much TS3 is indebted to it.

Because the Pixar brain trust have proven beyond any doubt that they understand how stories for the big screen work, I have decided – encouraged by a good friend and fellow Pixar fan – to analyse every single movie from their stable. You can now find structural analyses on this site for the following movies:

• • • Toy Story 1
    • Toy Story 2
    • The Incredibles
    • Up
    • Toy Story 3

A Structure that works

So far I have found that the Pixar movies are often structured around an eight-sequence hero’s journey, with two sequences in acts one and three and four in the second act. Sometimes (like you will see below) Act Two consists of five sequences with the mid point sitting in the middle sequence rather than at the end of the fourth sequence.

Each movie has a powerful Mid Point Reversal – not just a ‘point of no return’ – and all three Toy Story movies have more than one transformational journey. Later (e.g. with Finding Nemo and Ratatouille) we’ll find that some of the Pixar stories have a  dual protagonist, each with their journey of change.

all three Toy Story movies have 
more than one transformational journey.

Now let me ask you: do you like these movies? Have you embraced the structural engine behind them? Do you master it? Or are you still resisting the structure, thinking that it’s all just about the characters?

Well, good luck to you if you are.

spoilers about Toy Story 2 and 3

We’re only eight minutes into the movie when Woody rips his arm and Andy shelves him. Right there is a metaphor reminding us of our mortality, soon reinforced by Wheezy’s statement that there is no use in prolonging the inevitable: all toys are ultimately destined for the garage sale.

How much deeper can a movie go
with its thematic challenges?

In Act Two Woody has to decide what his purpose in life is when he actually does have an opportunity to ‘prolong the inevitable’ by going to a museum. Now he has to choose between (the equivalent of) immortality and happiness for a child. How much deeper can a movie go with its thematic challenges?

At the Mid Point, there’s a heart-wrenching moment when Jessie shares her emotional wound with Woody. This experience will be referenced again in Toy Story 3 when Jessie says “It’s Emily all over again!” and it’s not hard to recognize the exact same emotion in Chuckles’ story about Daisy leaving Lotso, Big Baby and himself behind. In Toy Story 3, however, the abandonment is a result of a mistake rather than a deliberate donation.

Now, despite the fact that Toy Story 2 is immaculately – and, yes, almost mathematically – structured around nine sequences,  this movie is not all about just slavishly following structural principles. Actually, it breaks one major rule… Look carefully and you’ll find something quite peculiar about the second act.

Look carefully and you’ll find
something quite peculiar about the second act.

Where in most transformational movies at the Mid Point the Hero changes the approach from ‘doing it the easy way’ to ‘doing the right thing’, Toy Story 2 shows that the opposite can work, too. Initially it is Woody’s plan to return to Andy; at the Mid Point he is so moved by Emily’s story that he changes his mind, only to be brought back to reason at the end of Act Two.

Enjoy!

ACT ONE

Sequence A: Preparing for cowboy camp, then shelved. (10mins)

00.00 Disney + Pixar Logos + Credits, space version.
01.00 Opening Sequence: Buzz vs. Zurg (video game)
04.30 Woody’s hat is missing. Going to cowboy camp with Andy.
06.30 Slinky: good news (hat found) and bad news (Buster the dog). Red alert!
08.00 Five minutes: Andy plays with toys. Rips Woody’s arm. Leaves him behind.
09.00 Mom: Toys don’t last forever. Woody shelved. Andy leaves without him. (I.I.)

Sequence B: Rescuing Wheezy, then stolen by collector. (8mins)

10.00 Andy back early from cowboy camp. Nightmare. “Bye Woody!” Wakes up.
11.00 Woody finds Wheezy. Shelved, too. Yard Sale. Emergency Role Call.
12.30 Mom takes Wheezy away. Woody calls Buster: to the yard sale. Toys don’t get it.
13.30 Outside: not being noticed, into box, find Wheezy, falls off Buster.
14.30 Al picks up Woody. Offers 50C, then $50, then steals him.
16.00 Buzz goes after him but falls off. License plate: LZTBRN.
17.00 Al goes into apartment. No children allowed.

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ACT TWO

Sequence C: New friends – They want Woody to stay. (12mins)

17.30 Toys reconstruct abduction, decode license plate: Al’s Toy Barn.
19.00 Al: You’re gonna make me big bucks! Woody comes out of glass box.
19.30 Collector drives to work. Woody tries to escape.
20.00 Woody meets with Bullseye, Jessie, the Prospector: Woody’s Roundup.
23.00 Toys find address of Al’s Toy Barn and leave.
24.30 Woody watching end of show; canceled.
26.00 Playing with Bulls Eye and Jessie – on record.
27.30 We’re being sold to museum in Tokyo. Woody: I can’t go to Japan!
28.00 Woody: This is all a mistake. Jessie: I’m not going back into storage!
29.00 Al tears off Woody’s arm. Repair first thing in the morning.

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Sequence D: Woody tries to get arm back so he can leave. (10mins)

30.00 Buzz and toys on their way to saving Woody. 19 blocks to go.
31.00 Collector asleep. Woody out of box, trying to recover arm.
33.00 TV Switches on – Al wakes up. Leaves, takes arm away.
33.30 Woody blames Jessie of switching on TV. Woody & Jessie fight.
34.30 Prospector stops them. Woody: get arm fixed, then out of here.
35.30 Toys have to cross the road. Traffic cones. Traffic chaos.
37.00 Repair man arrives – Cleaning montage (1). “You can’t rush art.”
38.00 Al’s Toy Barn closed. Opening door, all together. Going in.
39.00 Cleaning montage (2) – Painting over Andy’s name. Just like new!

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Mid: Buzz swap – Jessie changes Woody’s mind: staying. (10mins)

40.30 Buzz at toy shop: Buzz Lightyear aisle, NEW utility belt.
41.30 Attacked by other Buzz: they fight.
42.30 Barbies dancing. Tour guide Barbie.
44.00 Buzz locked into box. Wrong Buzz joins friends.
45.00 Woody repaired, Jessie devastated. Tells about Emily.
50.00 Prospector: stay with us. Woody decides to stay.

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The Mid Point of Toy Story 2 was an absolute highlight of the trilogy, with Jessie telling us about Emily through the Sarah McLachlan song When Somebody Loved Me.

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Sequence D: Toys getting closer. Woody excited about Japan (10mins)

51.00 Toys looking for Woody, find Al. Buzz escapes box.
52.30 Collector leaves with toys. Buzz left behind.
53.00 Buzz escapes store but releases Zurg.
55.00 Toys enter apartment building, into elevator shaft.
56.00 Woody excited about Japan.
58.00 Toys arrive on 25th floor. Real Buzz on their heels.
59.00 Woody plays with his Roundup friends.
59.30 Toys go through air duct and break into apartment.

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Sequence F: All is lost. Woody is a yo-yo! (7mins)

60.30 Buzz picks up Woody, real Buzz stops them. Fight of the Buzzes.
61.30 Woody: I actually want to go. Explains about Roundup. Shows TV.
62.30 Buzz: You are a toy! Let’s go. Woody’s not coming. Toys leave.
64.30 Woody: what am I doing? Changes his mind. Come with me!
65.30 Jessie & Bullseye want to go but Prospector locks them up.
66.30 Toys return but Al comes in. Grabs toys and leaves.

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ACT THREE

Sequence G: Airport Climax (11mins)

67.00 Zurg appears. Rex helps defeat him. Buzz: Father!
68.30 Toys follow Al outside. Al disappears in car.
69.30 Toys drive Pizza Planet van and chase after Al.
71.00 Airport: Toys enter in pet container.
71.30 Baggage conveyor room. Looking for Woody.
72.30 Buzz knocked out by Prospector. Woody vs. Prospector.
73.00 Toys help against Prospector. Ends up in girl bag.
74.00 Jessie on luggage trolley; Woody and Buzz follow to save her.
75.00 Onto plane, too late. Plane taxis. Open up and jump off.
77.00 Buzz arrives to help. Final episode. Woody & Jessie jump off. Let’s go home.

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Sequence H: Woody’s Roundup united at home. (4mins)

78.00 Welcome home Andy.
79.00 Andy fixes Woody.
81.00 Wheezy fixed, too. Sings.
81.30 Woody about Andy: fun while it lasts. After that: Buzz.
82.00 Credits