• Article Series

  • Arcs and Endings
  • Point of View
  • Structure: Examples
  • The Inciting Incident
  • The Logline

• Structural Analyses (Prem.):

  • Jaws
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark
  • Iron Man
  • A Room With A View
  • Assault on Precinct 13
  • Michael Clayton
  • Ghost World
  • Terminator 2
  • The Shawshank Redemption

• The Tag Dept.

  3-act structure act one adaptation character consultancy dialogue dramatic irony format formatting happy ending hero's journey high concept kuleshov layout mckee michael hauge mid-point outline pitching Point of View protagonist ratatouille robert mckee scene screenplay screenwriters screenwriting script script development selling slug line software step outline story consultancy story structure synopsis The Inciting Incident The Logline The Plot Point turning point

A structural overview of Jaws (Peter Benchley, Carl Gottlieb, Novel by Peter Benchley 1975)

Steven Spielberg first drew me into movies with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, back in 1977.

Because I was too young for Jaws in 1975, it wasn’t until later when I discovered the movie that really made Spielberg.

Jaws literally changed the movie industry as its tremendous success not only started the ‘wide opening’ with over 500 theatres, it also launched the summer season as the most profitable movie season in the US.

A structural overview of Raiders of the Lost Ark (Laurence Kasdan, Story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman 1981)

The first film of the extraordinarily successful Indiana Jones quadrilogy, created by Spielberg and Lucas, the greatest filmmakers of their generation. A timeless piece of of the very best entertainment. This is your typical Hero’s Journey and an excellent starting point for screen story study.

Did I mention it is also great fun?

ACT ONE

Sequence A

A structural overview of Iron Man (Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway 2008)

Not just a great comic book adaptation and an exciting action flick, but also an elegantly written pieces of cinema entertainment, executed with a daring cast and grounded in a solid foundation of character.

ACT ONE

SEQUENCE A

- Tony Stark visits soldiers on duty in the Middle East.
- The convoy is attacked, the soldiers are quickly killed.
- Stark flees when a bomb explodes, severely wounding Tony’s chest.
- Tony is captured and recorded by a group of terrorists.

In a Q&A for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, Michael Arndt made the point that “happy endings are really underrated”. It got me thinking.

What’s wrong with a Hollywood ending?

If you have a truly well-written story, why would a happy ending diminish its value? Why is it that writers believe happy endings are a cheap Hollywood device? The majority of cinema goers prefer a happy ending. Why don’t we want to give it to them?

It may have to do with the confusion between our taste and our trade.

A structural overview of
A Room with a View (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, 1985).

Without any doubt, this is one of the finest literary adaptations and a timeless romantic movie.

The film launched the careers of actors Daniel Day Lewis and Helena Bonham Carter, while it was a first major hit in a string of successful adaptations written by James Ivory’s scribe of choice Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

The film formed the inspiration for my university thesis about film translation and subtitling back in 1988. For that purpose I had to view it dozens of times (on VHS). But it couldn’t stop me from watching it many times again over the twenty years that have since past.

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