Purrrrfect Pitch!
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Ah you're wrong, wrong, wrong, get with the fifteen beats Manfred, man. Never been moved to write a review before, but anyone anywhere interested in writing a successful screenplay MUST read this one. It IS a simple read - but movies aren't rocket-science. They have rules. Just takes someone to point them out. And sure the movies Blake critiques here could be described as bubble-gum movies, but the fifteen rule Beat Sheets apply to all well-constructed movies - from Alien to Zelig (as Blake shows to brilliant effect in Save The Cat Goes To The Movies). There's one easy way to see if these rules work and could help with your screenplay - read the book, then watch your favourite movie. See? It works!
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The Cat Saves the Day
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There are many screenwriting books on the market, but this is undoubtedly one of the most helpful and the most fun. Written in a breezy and conversational style, but packed with tips and tricks that really work. The other day I needed to bash out a treatment in a very short time. Lots of ideas, but I was all over the place. The Save the Cat structure helped me pull it all together - every time I got stuck, the cat had the answers. Highly recommended.
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A screenwriting masterpiece
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Blake Snyder demystifies the 'Perfect Beast,' (perfect screenplay), by sharing his method of working with a simple board by which he maps a way to plot out the story using tried and tested scene breaks to construct a three act film. An eye opener for me who'd struggled to comprehend various other screen writing books and come away with a clear idea of how to get through act two without tearing my hair out. If you want to write for movies then this is the book for you. His latest book, Save The Cat Goes To The Movies, is fantastic too. Everything you ever wanted to know about genre is right here.
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Not Worth the Price Paid
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There are a couple of nuggets of advice that might be construed as semi-useful, but most of this is recycled from existing literature on the craft of screenwriting. It's really just a quick fix piece written with the assumption that its readership has the attention span of an aging goldfish.
You know that friend you have who is so in love with the sound of their own voice that they'll just riff on for ages and ages until you're on the verge of telling them to shut the heck up? Well, Blake is sort of like the literary equivalent of that. While it starts off all loud and sassy, it quickly deteriorates into a non-stop barrage of written noise. Just try counting the exclamation marks if you don't believe me. They start with the title.
As opposed to truly cogent and coherent form for constructing screenplays (with the exception of an oversimplified rewrite of the structural outlines that can be found in any screenwriting literature from Syd Field's 'Screenplay' onwards), Blake seems to be providing more arbitrary pieces of 'advice' that seem to be matters of personal taste as opposed to truly insightful information about the workings of drama. Ironically, his most valuable piece of information - the part about shifting between positive and negative values within a dramatic unit - is lifted straight out of Robert McKee's 'Story'.
The final straw in determining the author's mental frame of reference occurs when he begins to lampoon solidly crafted films like Steven Spielberg's 'Minority Report' or Christopher Nolan's 'Memento' whilst simultaneously praising vacuous pop hits like 'Miss. Congeniality' and 'Legally Blond'. What's more, he goes on to dedicate an entire portion of the book to dissecting 'Miss. Congeniality' as a case study in how to make a worthy film in a section called "$100 million in 15 Beats".
It suddenly becomes painfully obvious precisely what types of films Snyder seems to be wanting to will into existence. And they're certainly not the types of films I'd term 'classics' in any sense of the word.
His only notable screenplay successes are the 'Home Alone' rip-off 'Blank Check' and an expensive script sale to Steven Spielberg of an unmade screenplay called 'Nuclear Family' (it's just another version of 'The Incredibles').
If you're really looking to seriously invest in mastering the form, 'Save the Cat' is little more than a library rental on a weekend when you have absolutely nothing else better to do. The book is obviously geared towards readers looking for 'quick fix' methods to writing screenplays. Unfortunately for them, if there is a quick fix out there, this book is not it.
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Serious about scriptwriting
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I first came across Blake's writing in the Scriptwriter magazine and was intrigued by the quality of his article. This lead me to his web-site which is filled with really useful tools and templates for structuring your script and have now just had to buy this book - which is also EXCELLENT! Blake's book has really helped me get to the heart of my story, which is ultimately what scriptwriting is all about. I recommend this book to anyone who is serious about writing films.
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