Screenwriting Tools - Know them to Build a Great Story

Every sensible invention must have a purpose. Likewise every story or film must have a goal to achieve. A promise to fulfill. It’s called premise.

Laos Egri says, “Everything has a purpose, or premise. Every second of our life has its own premise, whether or not we are conscious of it at the time.”

Explanation of "PREMISE" in Romeo and Juliet

Explanation of "PREMISE" in Tom and Jerry

Identify the premise 17 again Exercise

Identify the premise 50 First Dates Exercise

Identify the premise of Jerry Maguire Exercise

Identify the premise of The Girl Next Door

Identify the premise of The New Year's Eve

Theme is defined as a central idea or an underlying meaning of a story that may be told directly or indirectly.

Explanation of "THEME" in The Incredibles

Explanation of "THEME" in Titanic

Identify the theme of Die Hard 4.0

Identify the theme of Die Hard

Identify the theme of Iron Man

Identify the theme of The Dark Knight Rises

Identify the theme of The Dark Knight

Explanation of "PREMISE & THEME" in Romeo and Juliet

Dramatic irony - The reader/watcher/listener knows something that one or more of the characters in the piece is not aware of.

Situational Irony is defined as a situation where the outcome is incongruous with what was expected, but it is also more generally understood as a situation that includes contradictions or sharp contrasts

Verbal irony - The ironic statement usually involves the explicit expression of one attitude or evaluation, but with indications in the overall speech-situation that the speaker intends a very different, and often opposite, attitude or evaluation.

Brief Explanation of "DRAMATIC IRONY" in Aladdin

Brief Explanation of "SITUATIONAL IRONY" in The Incredibles

Brief Explanation of "VERBAL IRONY" in Julies Caser

Identify the Irony of Argo

Identify the Irony of Casablanca

Identify the Irony of Citizen Cane

Identify the Irony of The Godfather

Identify the Irony of Vertigo

The Journey of your Protagonist with clearly defined goals

The structural unity of the parts is such that, if any one of them is displaced or removed, the whole will be disjointed and disturbed. For a thing whose presence or absence makes no visible difference is not an organic part of the whole.- ARISTOTLE

Identify the Clear line of Action of Back to the Future

Identify the Clear line of Action of District 9

Identify the Clear line of Action of Gravity

Identify the Clear line of Action of E.T. Extra Terrestrial

Identify the Clear line of Action of Star Trek

One should know who the main character or protagonist is and where they come from and their objective in the story

Identify the Protagonist and Objective of Her

Identify the Protagonist and Objective of Wall E

Identify the Protagonist and Objective of Toy Story

Identify the Protagonist and Objective of Groundhog Day

Identify the Protagonist and Objective of Big

Dramatic effect derives from what is probable, and not from what is possible - ARISTOTLE.

Explanation of "PLAUSIBILITY" in Its a Wonderful Life

Identify the plausibility of China Town 1974

Identify the plausibility of Gold Finger

Identify the plausibility of Mean Streets 1973

Identify the plausibility of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Identify the plausibility of The Apartment

If the protagonist and his objective constitute the first two important element in the construction of a story, the various obstacles collectively constitute the third. Without impediments to the attainment of the protagonist’s desire there would be no conflict and no story. The protagonist would simply accomplish his objective without difficulty.

Explanation of "OBSTACLES" in Terminetor

Identify the obstacles of Finding Nemo

Identify the obstacles of Up

Identify the obstacles of The Incredibles

Identify the obstacles of Big Hero 6

Identify the obstacles of Tangled

The difference between activity and action: if there's lots of running around with no conflict between the characters, it means there is no dramatic action - FRANK DANIEL

Explanation of "ACTIVITY & ACTION" in Body Heat

Identify the Activity & Action of Jaws

Identify the Activity & Action of Raiders of the Lost

Identify the Activity & Action of Mac Max Fury Road

Identify the Activity & Action of Sky Fall

Identify the Activity & Action of The Adventures of Robin Hood

Conflict is the very engine that propels a story forward; it provides the story’s energy and movement. Without conflict, the audience remains indifferent to the events depicted on screen. Without conflict, a film story cannot come to life. The necessity of conflict cannot be overstated.

Explanation of "CONFLICT" in Kung Fu Panda 2

Explanation of "CONFLICT" in Tom and Jerry

Identify the Conflict of Bridge of Spies

Identify the Conflict of Hugo

Identify the Conflict of Looper

Identify the Conflict of North by North West

Identify the Conflict of Sicario

In dramatic writing, the very essence is character change. The character at the end is not the same as he was at the beginning. He’s changed- psychologically, maybe even physically.

ROBERT TOWNE

Brief Explanation of "MAIN TENSION - CULMINATION - RESOLUTION" in Kung Fu Panda

Identify the Main Tension-Culmination & Resolution of Die Another Day

Identify the Main Tension-Culmination & Resolution of Golden Eye

Identify the Main Tension-Culmination & Resolution of Quantum of Solace

Identify the Main Tension-Culmination & Resolution of Skyfall

Identify the Main Tension-Culmination & Resolution of Tomorrow Never Dies

No discussion of screenwriting would be complete without dealing with rewriting. Whether or not it includes the screenwriter per se, the rewriting of a screen story is not complete until the film is in the theatres.

To do list