Cockeyed Caravan

Monday, June 12, 2017

In a Lonely Place: The Archive

This is another one from the early days where I was sort of transitioning from writing about Underrated Movies to spotlighting classics for the checklist. Probably not one I would choose today, simply because it’s not well known enough, but it’s one of the all-time great movies and I found the checklist to be illuminating.

Thursday, June 08, 2017

How to Train Your Dragon: The Archive

One of the first movies I spent a lot of time on. In regards to the third piece below, I’ve now seen Up many times with my daughter, and it bugs me more and more every time that he’s able to throw away his walker at the end due to an attitude adjustment. I’ve also seen this one many times with her, and admire it more every time.

Wednesday, June 07, 2017

Groundhog Day: The Archive

Dear God, that opening credits song is awful...

Tuesday, June 06, 2017

Frozen: The Archive

I had a lot to say about this movie...

Donnie Brasco: The Archive

Out of all the movies I’ve done, this is probably the most forgotten. It was from the early days of the checklists when the idea was more to pick random movies. I’ve thought about dropping it from the list and replacing it with Goodfellas or something. That said, I do adore this movie. At Columbia, I rescued the screenplay from the garbage when they were cleaning out their archives, then I started reading it over and over. Indeed the script has one of the highest scores of any movie I've done (Behind only Star Wars, I think) There’s just one area that it flunks: The Hook, and that’s why it’s not as well remembered as it should be. Never forget the need for unique imagery!

Sunday, June 04, 2017

Do the Right Thing: The Archive

I think we had a lot of really good discussions about this movie in the comments. Updated to the sixth and final version of the Checklist.

Thursday, June 01, 2017

The Story Project: The Archive

A fun series that I’ve rarely referred back to. Some of this ended up in the Tone section of the book, in a very transformed way.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

How (Not) to Alienate an Audience: The Archive

Some of these made it into the book in a transformed form, but others didn’t. And hey, it’s an excuse to link to my favorite video again! I get this stuck in my head all the time:

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Hero Personality Profiles: The Archive

This is another section that only got cut from the book at the last moment. Really valuable stuff.

Monday, May 29, 2017

Special Guest Picks: The Archive

Hey guys, remember when this used to be an underrated movies blog? Most of you probably don’t, but if you journey all the way back to January 1st, 2010, you’ll find that I blogged about a new movie every damn day for a long time. Eventually, just to save my mind, I started blogging about story in order to give myself some days off from the three-hour grind. Another way I would take a break sometimes would be to invite guests around to share their own picks. I still have all 148 Underrated Movies in their own sidebar, so I won’t archive those, but I never put the Special Guest Picks in the sidebar, so let’s archive those, shall we?

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Losing My Religion (aka Writing Misconceptions): The Archive

Did you know that books take a long time to write, and even longer to make it into the hands of readers? This series is from late 2012, and it came about because I had gotten serious about writing the book (after spending two years generating the material). The book finally came out almost exactly four years later, and now six months after that, I’m proud to say that it’s a success. (I forgot to tell you guys that the audiobook was the Deal of the Day on Audible a few days ago, sorry!)

Thursday, May 25, 2017

The Narrative Breakdown Podcast: The Archive

Here's another one that never made it into the sidebar for some reason, so it’ll be new to a lot of you. Hey guys, did you know that before I had my own podcast, I was a semi-regular guest on the Narrative Breakdown podcast with James Monohan and Cheryl Klein? We covered a lot of good stuff over the years, and here I am archiving it for the first time. Enjoy! (And once you’re done listening to these, go back and listen to all the others!)

Unfortunately, these links aren’t working anymore, but you can still subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and find each of these episodes there:

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Head-Heart-Gut (aka How to Create a Polarized Ensemble): The Archive

Here you can follow the development and maturation of this idea over several years. A lot of this made it into the book, but I regretfully couldn’t include my obsessive diagrams, such as the one above. I used to put so much time into these things!

And here’s where I actually define it if you just want to skip to here:

Oh why not, here’s one more diagram- I loved making these things:

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Specific Genre Structures: The Archive

This is another series that only got cut from the book at the last minute.

Monday, May 22, 2017

The Hero Project: The Archive

This is where it all began. I decided to branch out from my Storyteller’s Rulebook pieces and start thinking seriously about story, and charted my thought process in real time. A lot of this ended up in the book, in a very rewritten form, but a lot of it didn’t. My favorite one that didn’t: Hitchcock In The Shadowlands

Sunday, May 21, 2017

How to Generate a Story Idea: The Archive

I love this section. It was one of the last things I cut from the book.

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Always Be Closing (aka How to Meet with a Buyer): The Archive

This is all really solid advice that I still stand by. Good for all writers, but especially for screenwriters. Please share this with anyone you know meeting with a producer, so they don’t make my same early mistakes.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

What I Wish I'd Heard at Graduation (aka How to Get Ahead): The Archive

This is another one that’s somewhat painful to archive. I wrote this when I was a cocky 30-something in the first blush of career success. There’s a lot of stuff here that I’m no longer sure I really believe, now that I'm a more grizzled 40-something. Nevertheless a lot of this is pretty good, so I’ll let you pick through it and evaluate it with your own bullshit-meter.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

How to Write Every Day: The Archive

This is a painful series to re-read. To a certain extent, it was a diary of my struggles as much as it was advice for you guys. Nevertheless, there’s some good stuff, here, so it’s worth archiving.

Monday, May 15, 2017

How to Give and Receive Notes: The Archive

This series, for whatever reason, is not in the sidebar, so I completely forgot it existed until I had to link to it yesterday. It’s full of good stuff! I laid the groundwork here for my current sideline giving notes professionally.

Sunday, May 14, 2017

All the Charts Mentioned in the Book (and Some That Aren’t)

I just got an email from a book reader who pointed out that I promise readers that they’ll find some charts on my blog, but those charts aren’t actually easy to find here. So here’s the afterword of the book, annotated with where you can find these things on the blog:

Thanks for reading! For more advice, examples, and bonus material, please visit SecretsOfStory.com. You’ll find:

Career advice, including sections on how to write every day, give and receive notes, launch your career, find representation, meet with buyers, and sell challenging material
Two dozen examples of films analyzed according to the Ultimate Story Checklist. You can find all of these in the sidebar. You can also download a template copy of the checklist at the above link) Meanwhile, I created a massive spreadsheet of all the answers for every movie.
A massive chart that helps clarify the difference between the goals, long-standing social problems, flaws, and the dramatic question.
A chart that compares my proposed structure to those of other gurus.
An in-depth series of articles on the fundamental differences between different media, especially books vs. movies.
A series of instructional articles that address how to write a pilot episode of an ongoing series.
A supplemental version of the Ultimate Story Checklist specifically tailored to pilot stories.(You can download that, too)
A dozen examples of popular TV pilots analyzed according to the pilot checklist. (Check the sidebar)

Bonus, I’ve finally started using Google Docs not SendSpace for the downloads, so hopefully the links won’t constantly die.

And hey, good news: The book seems to be doing well! I’m happy to report that I’m up to 25 reviews on Amazon: 24 five-stars and one four-star. And remember, you can also get the book on audio on Amazon or at this link!

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Moving Days

Hey guys, we bought a house! (Directly across the street from the house we’ve been renting, so it’s a short move, distance wise, but I’m sure it’ll be a long move.) I’ll be back soon.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Chinatown: The Archive

This was an interesting case where I closely examined the movie only to discover that it kind of fell apart under the scrutiny. Ultimately I conclude that it makes no damn sense, but that’s okay because it has just enough of a semblance of sense to be a masterpiece.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

The Many Ironies of Casablanca

As I update the old checklists, I thought it would also be good to take some time along the way to look deeper into irony. As we did with Blazing Saddles, let’s run through fourteen ironies you can find in Casablanca:

Your story will be more meaningful if you present a fundamentally ironic concept (which will sometimes be encapsulated by an ironic title).

The least patriotic American has to save the Allied cause. (The title is not ironic.)

There are three big ways to have ironic characterization: Your heroes will be more compelling if they have an ironic backstory…

Rick the cynic used to be an idealist

…an ironic contrast between their exterior and interior…

Rick the cynic is filled with tender heartache

…and a great flaw that’s the ironic flip side of a great strength.

He’s too cold-blooded, but the flip side is that he’s very cool.

Structure centers around another great irony: Though your heroes might initially perceive this challenge as an unwelcome crisis, it will often prove to be a crisis that ironically provides just the opportunity your heroes need, directly or indirectly, to address their longstanding social problems and/or internal flaws.

Rick finds heroic fulfillment by being placed in a deadly situation and having his heart ripped up again.

Each scene will be more meaningful if the hero encounters a turn of events that upsets some pre-established ironic presumptions about what would happen.

Rick has made it clear he doesn’t care if Victor makes it out of Casablanca.

Likewise, the conclusion of each scene will be more meaningful if the character’s actions result in an ironic scene outcome, in which the events of the scene ironically flip the original intention, even if things turn out well for the hero.

When Rick discovers that Victor is with Ilsa, he suddenly has to care.

There are several types of ironic dialogue: On the one hand, there’s intentionally ironic dialogue, such as sarcasm.

Rick is insulted, but says, “I stay up late at night crying about it.”

On the other hand, there’s unintentionally ironic dialogue, such as when there’s an ironic contrast between word and deed…

Strasser thinks he’s very much in control, but we can see otherwise.

…or an ironic contrast between what the character says and what the audience knows.

Ilsa says she’ll meet Rick at the train station, but we know that she won’t have the chance.

There are the pros and (potentially big) cons of having an ironic tone, which is the one type of irony that most stories shouldn’t have, although it can be a useful tool for certain very specific types of stories.

It’s tempting to say this movie has an ironic tone, because it’s full of cool, jaded sarcasm, but that’s not the way I use the term. This movie does not take a sarcastic attitude towards storytelling itself (as Blazing Saddles does, for instance) so I would say that it doesn’t have an ironic tone.

Finally, there are the thematic ironies that every story should have: The story’s ironic thematic dilemma, in which the story’s overall dilemma comes down to a choice of good vs. good (or bad vs. bad)…

Romantic love vs. love of country

…as well as several smaller ironic dilemmas along the way, in which your characters must consistently choose between goods, or between evils throughout your story.

It’s important to fight for freedom, but do you have any right to endanger someone’s life by asking them to come to a resistance meeting?

This will culminate in an ironic final outcome, separate from the ironic concept and the thematic dilemma.

Rick finds fulfillment by sending away the woman he loves.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Casablanca: The Archive (and Updated Checklist)

Another early one. We’ll spend some more time on this movie tomorrow...

Monday, April 17, 2017

Bridesmaids: The Archive (and Updated Checklist)

This was the very first movie I ever did, so there’s a lot fewer posts:

Sunday, April 16, 2017

The Bourne Identity: The Archive (and Updated Checklist)

A wonderful movie:

Here’s another example of one I had to cut because it’s no longer on the checklist, but which got an interesting answer:
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Are set-up and pay-off used to dazzle the audience (and maybe distract attention from plot contrivances)?

We’re shown very early on that the Americans are so frustrated that they’re looking up everywhere Marie has ever lived. When this pays off for them an hour later, it doesn’t seem dubious.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Rulebook Casefile: 12 Ironies in Blazing Saddles

Hi guys, I talk a lot about irony here and in my book, but I’ve never specifically focused on all the ironies in one story before. I just re-ran the checklist for Blazing Saddles, so let’s go back and look at all the ironies in that movies. Here are the thirteen ironies I list in my book:

Your story will be more meaningful if you present a fundamentally ironic concept (which will sometimes be encapsulated by an ironic title).

A white old west town is saved by a black sheriff. (An ironic title is the only type of irony this movie doesn’t have)

There are three big ways to have ironic characterization: Your heroes will be more compelling if they have an ironic backstory…

The black sheriff is a condemned track layer.

…an ironic contrast between their exterior and interior…

Taking himself hostage reveals his internal contradictions

…and a great flaw that’s the ironic flip side of a great strength.

He’s self-destructively defiant, which almost gets him killed, but the flip side of that is that he’s charming and funny, which saves his life many times.

Our examination of structure will center around another great irony: Though your heroes might initially perceive this challenge as an unwelcome crisis, it will often prove to be a crisis that ironically provides just the opportunity your heroes need, directly or indirectly, to address their longstanding social problems and/or internal flaws.

Bart finds heroic fulfillment by being placed in a deadly situation

Each scene will be more meaningful if the hero encounters a turn of events that upsets some pre-established ironic presumptions about what would happen.

He clearly expects a hero’s welcome when he rides into town, but does not receive one, to put it mildly.

Bart winds up a hostage in his own jail.

We’ll look at several types of ironic dialogue: On the one hand, we’ll look at intentionally ironic dialogue, such as sarcasm.

No shortage of sarcasm: “Dare I even say, president?” “Dare! Dare!”

On the other hand, we’ll explore unintentionally ironic dialogue, such as when there’s an ironic contrast between word and deed…

The governor keeps talking about how important he is, but he has no power.

…or an ironic contrast between what the character says and what the audience knows.

Before Bart meets Mongo, he says that Mongo can’t be as menacing as people say, but we’ve met him and we know better.

We’ll discuss the pros and (potentially big) cons of having an ironic tone, which is the one type of irony that most stories shouldn’t have, although it can be a useful tool for certain very specific types of stories.

The ending of this movie adopts an ironic tone, and gets away with it. They ride off into the sunset, then get tired of riding and switch to a car.

Finally, we’ll look at the thematic ironies that every story should have: The story’s ironic thematic dilemma, in which the story’s overall dilemma comes down to a choice of good vs. good (or bad vs. bad)

Good vs. good: Individualism vs. solidarity, standing up to people vs. winning them over.

…as well as several smaller ironic dilemmas along the way, in which your characters must consistently choose between goods, or between evils throughout your story.

Bad vs. bad: Anger vs. subservience

This will culminate in an ironic final outcome, separate from the ironic concept and the thematic dilemma.

He saves the town but is too discontent to stay.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Blue Velvet: The Archive (And Updated Checklist)

Probably the most arty movie I’ve done, though it does just fine by the checklist, so maybe I cheated by picking this one. I should tackle some more difficult movies. Any suggestions as to which one?

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Blazing Saddles: The Archive (and Updated Checklist)

This is more recent, so there’s more posts per movie.

Monday, April 10, 2017

An Education: The Archive (and Updated Checklist!)

I do love this movie. Updated to the sixth and final version of the checklist!

The Ultimate Story Checklist: An Education
Straying from the Party Line: An Education
Denying Synthesis in An Education
Storyteller’s Rulebook: Avoid the Sorkin Stammer

Bonus: They later did a follow-up to that Sorkin Supercut. Wonderfully unbearable:

Sunday, April 09, 2017

Alien: The Archive (and Updated Checklist!)

I’ll also go back through the Checklists, archive their posts, and update them to the current list. Again, this is a lot of work for me without as much benefit for you, but the whole point of the checklists is to create a robust data set that I can mine for all sorts of purposes, which means they all need to be the same version. We’re going back to one of the earliest checklists here, which means I had a lot fewer follow-up posts about each movie. I should go back and generate some more.

The Ultimate Story Checklist, v6: Alien
Straying from the Party Line: Alien (I used to do these all at once)
Morally Ascending in Alien (This is in reference to a question that’s no longer on the checklist, and I don’t really miss it, but it’s interesting to see what’s gone.)

Of course, the new checklist is a little shorter than the others (my book editor wanted to slim it down). For the most part, we cut out questions that weren’t providing good answers, but sometimes I’ll have to cut out good answers, like this one:
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Are unrealistic genre-specific elements a big metaphor for a more common experience (not how life really is, but how life really feels)?

Yes: the horror of childbirth, the evil of corporations, the dangers of mining, etc.

I do kind of miss that question. Sorry buddy, that’s the price of progress!

Thursday, April 06, 2017

The Great Guru Showdown: The Archive

It’s never a bad time to run my big-ass concordance of everybody’s structure (NEWLY UPDATED to include Dan Harmon’s Story Circle and Film Crit Hulk’s Five-Act Structure!)

The first few posts here made it into the book, but then there’s lot of good stuff that didn’t make it in. I made my own graphics for lots of these! Ah, to be young again...

Wednesday, April 05, 2017

Books vs. Movies: The Archive

Given our recent discussions of prose, it seems like a good time to archive this old series…

Sunday, April 02, 2017

What's the Matter With Hollywood?: The Archive

Hi guys, I’ve been giving you guys a ton of new material recently, and I’ve appreciated the lively comments, but I thought I’d switch things up for a while, in a way that’s going to still be a lot of work for me but less value for you, so yay! Here’s the problem: I need to do a better job archiving my old posts. Though it no longer has a blogspot URL, I still host this site on Blogger, which means it still has their infrastructure. The most annoying part of that, for me, has always been that Blogger archives posts in backwards order, starting with the most recent, so if I create a ten-part series, and then link to that series in the sidebar (by linking to its tag), it’ll start with number ten and count down. One thing I’ve meant to do for forever is to create archive pages that I can link to for each one. The problem is that each of these has to be its own post, so I can’t just go back and do all that in the background. So here I am doing it. Does that mean that this site is going into reruns for a while? Somewhat, but hopefully you’ll enjoy rediscovering old posts. I know I have. On some of these, I have egg on my face: I predict that Netflix streaming might never make as much money as DVD rentals. I predict that the third Hobbit will be much lamer than it was (I later appended an update). Anyway, these are a ton of work for me, but I’ll try to speed through them for your sakes, or mix them up with some new material. I thought I would start with a series that I haven’t updated in a long time, since that might be more interesting to revisit...