The jet lag is over! I am back in my own time zone — rested, tan, fit… and looking at the calender.
We are very excited here at STC! Industries (home of “stories that resonate…”) about all the new things coming your way soon. In addition to being brought in for studio consultations, and called on to give our “Green Light Insurance” review for movies that are about to go into production(Yes, it’s true, it’s amazing how many speak Cat!), we have some special events and services on the horizon to be on the lookout for:
— In June, I will be appearing at Great American Pitchfest as the keynote speaker. My topic is “Death and the Screenwriter,” and it’s a preview of Save the Cat! Strikes Back which will be in bookstores this fall. We talk about the “All Is Lost” point all the time in our scripts, but what about when it happens in our careers? From the pitch we love — that dies, to the rewrite we dread — that thrives, to moments in our professional life when we “hit the wall” — yet rebound! Coming back from these dark moments is the most exciting and rejuvenating aspect of what we do. That is my topic, and I can’t wait to share some success strategies!
— We also will have some news about a new app for iPhone users. Prompted by calls from many of you to put Save the Cat! into cyberspace, more readily available, help is on the way! I am thrilled by this!
— We also will be announcing a new quarterly newsletter called Cat! Nation to keep everyone in the loop about the Save the Cat! writers groups around the world and focus on marketing tips and strategies that work!
— Finally, at long last we are going to begin a membership service, offering Cats who want a little more insight the tools they need to “dig, deep, down” and win! We are starting it off with a monthly beat sheet of a current film or DVD release, plus access to a Beat Sheet Library that gives you clues from recent films to find the exact genre your movie is most like, and the structure beats you need to figure out YOUR movie!
This is in addition to our regular Beats Weekend and Board Weekend classes, which have been getting so amazing lately. These weekends are packed with both new and seasoned writers and the results we’ve been seeing are nothing short of remarkable! On top of that, I LOVE to hear your stories!
And if all that weren’t enough, check out a great blog posted today written by Jim Cirile about all the things happening in Cat! land.
Thanks to Jim and to all the writers whose suggestions we are implementing as fast as our little paws will let us! Have a great writing week everyone! And keep those great ideas coming! You suggest: we deliver!
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Blake,
Just how many clones of yourself do you have? No one man could do all this without being split multiple times at the atomic level.
Come on. What is it? The secret? Vitamins? Clean living? Oompa-Loompas?
:)
jw
Blake, I’d PAY to see a beat sheet of Fight Club – ! I re-watched it this weekend as research for the project I’m working on and I couldn’t clearly nail the beats. (Tootsie, on the other hand, was easy.)
Blake are you going to be speaking at any writers guild functions any time soon. As you say, it is amazing how many writers “speak Cat”.
Hey Blake! Everything sounds super-exciting! Can’t wait to become an “Official Cat”, you should send us out a button wrapped in bubblewrap:)
Blake, How about coming to Chicago for a Beat Workshop? Anytime soon?
Blake,
How about a special way for all your Cats to order and purchase “Save the Cat! Strikes Back” in advance?
Cheers,
Martin
Blake, all this sounds awesome. I’m also curious to see what the iPhone app will be. I can see it now, Cats figuring out beat sheets, while watching a new movie, and then sharing the beats with other moviegoers in the same theater or something …
Any chance you can come to the east coast for a Beat Workshop? I’m in Connecticut, which is probably silly … but New York City? Please? I’ll definitely drive down for that. :)
I’m all for Blake leading Cat!shops around the country, but until he’s able to bring his story-healing powers to a city near you, I encourage you to make the pilgrimage to LA.
I did it. Twice. I flew all the way from Arkansas, and it was worth every cent! We have a big airport in Little Rock, and I love an excuse to go up there and watch the big jets take off and land! The pudding on the cake is that most flights include a nice flyby of the Bill Clinton Presidential Library, known locally as the big doublewide parked at the edge of the river.
Anyway, get on Expedia, Travelocity, etc. and check airfare and hotel packages for LA and, even if you have to sell a pint of blood or a keg of moonshine every week for six months to finance it, make the trip!
For those of you from smaller cities and towns, you get the added benefit of exploring LA before or after the workshop. The train, or Metro, is really fun. For a few dollars I got an all day pass and rode it back and forth, back and forth, all over town, and met lots of interesting people who are sure to show up somewhere in one of my stories. One old girl I met hanging around outside my hotel still calls me (I think she likes my accent).
Plus, I got to walk around in the evenings and admire the vast number of traffic lights (they’re like mini-Christmas trees hanging everywhere, year ‘round!), multi-lane streets (by the way, just what is “jaywalking”?), and exotic cuisine (doc says the last series of shots should finish off those nasty little “bugs” I picked up).
But, the best part was spending two days (each time) with a group of fired-up, talented writers and all-around good people who dove in and helped each other – and that kind of made me feel at home.
So, sign up soon and get on out there. And please, no Cat!calls about Arkansas. We’ve been kinda sensitive since Bill and Hillary left us for New York. If you’ve ever been left for another, you know how we feel. ;)
Way to go, Blake! I’m looking forward to the new book.
I’d really enjoy it if we could break down movies just a bit deeper than simple beats. One thing Blake said was that every scene MUST have conflict in it.
I was watching Raiders of the Lost Ark the other day and I couldn’t find any conflict in the scene where Indy is told about the Nazis by the government agents (it’s where Indy is pulled out of class at the beginning of the film).
Am I being too literal here? Is the conflict “implied” by the introduction of the Nazis as an obstacle even though they aren’t there? Any thoughts on this?
I’d love it if the membership would break down a movie scene by scene discussing the conflict, and the +/- charges instead of just doing the beats.
It might also be interesting to break down the “less successful” movies because sometimes seeing where a movie failed might be more insightful than just seeing when they break box office records.
Jamie
Jamie, I think the conflict in that scene is low-keyed.
The government agents consider Prof. Ravenwood to be collaborating with the Nazis (his name is in their communiques), while Indy doesn’t believe that to be possible.
This conflict is downplayed in order to highly the exposition in the scene (whether this is a good thing or not, is a matter for discussion).
Arg. “HIGHLIGHT”, not “highly”… “highlight the exposition”.
I’ll watch the DVD again this weekend and mull that over.
This is why I’d love to see a scene by scene breakdown done by Blake’s team.
Speaking of “higly expositional” (sorry… just yankin’ ya.. :-)…), I saw “Angels and Demons” last night and I can’t think of a more passive movie experience as a viewer. Now, I’m sure that many will disagree but to me the whole movie is a “Pope in the Pool” scene (no pun intended Blake).
It’s the kind of film where EVERYTHING must be explained so no matter where they’re running, or what they’re picking up you get a lecture on symbiology, Vatican history, or the bio of a long dead artist’s assistant.
All of the running up crumbling staircases in the world doesn’t take away from the fact that pretty much the only time Tom Hanks says ANYTHING it’s exposition (not to mention the fact that it only takes him ten seconds to find any secret portal no matter how many people have searched the room and came up empty).
But hey, what do I know eh? The movie will do 100 million this weekend easily.
A saying among educaters out there is : The best teachers are those who need most to learn . And you never really owned it until you gave it away . Thanks Blake for coming up with more ways to give it away.
In high school I tried to, ‘give it away,’ but…
Michael, your “Midnight Cowboy” open-mindedness to L.A is awesome!!
I’m not sure Michael is really even from Arkansas. I grew up in the bootheel of Missouri, which for those of you that don’t know is where Arkansas folks move when their tired of the rat race. And let me tell you, Michael didn’t mention the “hogs” one time in his post. So I’m just sayin.
Jeff – Thanks! In all seriousness, I love LA.
David – Hog fanaticism is indeed part of the cultural landscape of Arkansas, but it seems to be concentrated in the central and northern parts of the state. I’m from the southeast corner, which is culturally and geographically closer to Louisiana and Mississippi. The land is flat and covered in row crops, pasture, or pine, the towns are small, the rivers are slow and muddy, the crawdads are boiled, the catfish are deep-fried, and hogs are either running around in the river bottoms or slow-roasting on a spit. Some people call us rednecks. We like to think we’re Faulkneresque. ;)
You are “my people” Michael. I was born in Mississippi and grew up in the bootheel. So I pretty well stayed out of the hills myself. We did vacation at Hot Springs a couple of times. We still own a home in the Sikeston Mo. area and get back there a few times a year. L.A. is great but I love going home. You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.
Hey Sarah…
I took your advice to heart and I thought of trying this out for the pitch:
David possesses a secret that forced him into hiding thirty years ago.
When a mysterious package surfaces a trail of suspicious deaths follows and leads to the murder of the only man who knows that David is still alive.
The package is the last chance that David has to get his life back, but if he exposes himself he risks the one thing that still matters to him.
The life of his daughter.
Is that better? Do I need to expand at all?
Feel free to roast it if it sucks.
Hi Jamie, I’d have answered yesterday, but WordPress wasn’t letting me post.
:D
This is MUCH better! You’ve given the emotional hook (saving his daughter), and made the mystery intriguing enough for me to go “Hmmm!” I don’t think you need to expand it at all, just tighten up the sentences for maximum impact.
Good job!