What is your story about? Don’t tell me it’s about a guy who robs a convenience bank to get the money to pay for his daughter’s cancer operation. Tell me it’s about income inequality and the lack of affordable healthcare. That is the difference between story and theme. Even though they’re different, they play off …
Tag: screenwriters
The Ballad of Wallis Island: What the Character Wants vs What the Character Needs
The Ballad of Wallis Island has been out for a few weeks, and I finally got to see it. I had heard some good things about it, so I went in with relatively high expectations, and somehow this film surpassed them. Sometimes, films are primarily about what happens. Sometimes films are about how you feel …
Sing Sing: An Important Film That Everyone Should See
I saw Sing Sing over the weekend, and it blew me away. This film was a masterclass in acting and directing. It was thematically powerful, had a definite point of view, and drove home emotionally charged components. It had important messages about incarceration and the ideas of rehabilitation vs. punishment. Let’s talk about the story …
Story Structure and the Hero
I have talked to many screenwriters over the years who lament the idea of the 3-act structure and the supposed restrictions it places on writers and the screenwriting process. This is a simplistic view of what story structure really is. There is a reason that the 3-act structure (really 4-act structure) has become the industry …