May 28, 2012
The Godfather : A Story Breakdown From Brian McDonald

Brian McDonald, “The Godfather,” and how to find the Theme

Brian McDonald is the author of Invisible InkA Practical Guide to Building Stories that Resonate, and The Golden ThemeHow to make your writing appeal to the highest common denominator. 
   He is an award winning screenwriter who has taught his craft at several major studios, including PixarDisneyand Industrial Light & Magic. His award-winning short filmWhite Face has been shown all over the USA. 
   I had the privilege of asking him some questions back in January. That interview will be published here shortly. Today we’re focusing on a question I asked him about Theme and everybody’s favourite movie, The Godfather. Is the theme of that movie, Family is all?
   Instead of simply answering my question, he went one better and answered a question I’ve been asking for years: How can you know what is the theme of any given movie? _______________________________________________________________________ 


Act One: The Proposal


That is not justice. Your daughter is still alive.

That’s my family, Kay. It’s not me.

Act Two: The Argument or Proof


… a guarantee: No more attempts on my father’s life.

Act Three:  Conclusion

Do you renounce Satan?   I do renounce him.
  • It is better to seek justice than revenge.
  • Revenge corrupts.
  • Revenge brings pain to the avenger.
Or, if you word it in character terms, you might say something like:
  • Anyone can be corrupted.

April 16, 2012
What is Cinema: Hitchcock, Scorsese, and Following the Story


The Hitchcock Cut













Following the Story






September 22, 2011
Act 1’s

I once saw a film in which the very first thing the audience sees is the main character bruised and hurt. 

This is a problem. Think about it.

Let’s say you drive past a collision on the highway. There are ambulances, firetrucks. You even see a person being carted into the back of the ambulance. You will get a reaction, sure. Yes, you will be curious. You will feel sad for the person on a superficial level. And then you will move on. That’s what you would feel if the first thing you knew about a person is that they are hurt.

But let’s say you find out that your best friend, brother, or mother was in a horrific collision on the highway—and let’s say you decide to drive out there to meet them. You will be filled with an entirely different emotion. You will be terrified, scarred, nervous. You will be full of anxiety as you drive along the highway. Each stop in traffic will be filled with tension, suspense. Where is your loved one? Finally you see the firetruck. An ambulance. Finally you see a person being carted off. Is that your friend? You can’t breathe. You get a sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach.

What accounts for the difference in how you react to these two events? They are the same events after all, but with one key difference: in the second scenario, you know the people involved the accident.

You are more emotionally attached to someone’s plight if you knew them before their darkest hour. Only then can you really be with them as they get hurt or die. That’s why starting the movie with someone hurt might be a bad idea—it is only a hook. If the hook is that your main character is hurt or dead, you better go back and explain how it happened that way—as in Double Indemnity or Sunset Boulevard. If you go ahead and do that, then you get to explain why we should care about your hurt/dead character, such that by the end of the movie, we actually do care. It is a way of rewarding the audience for paying attention to your Act 1.

People use catching hooks all the time to start conversations:

"I got fired from work today".

"My daughter got into Harvard!"

"I think my wife is cheating on me."

But then the rest of the conversation is usually always the lead-up to the hook—it explains the hook:

"So I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business…"

"Yeah she got her envelope in the mail this past Thursday…"

"So last week I was packing for a business trip and I came across…"

The conversation works backwards. You get the idea.

In the movie I saw, the hurt woman gets taken care of and gets better—but I was never told who she is and why she was hurt in the first place. In other words, I was never told why I should care about the woman.

The movie held my curiosity, but then I moved on.

Make your Act 1 matter. Hook your audience in more than a superficial way.

February 21, 2011
Originality vs Focus

What makes a great movie is not its originality, but its razor sharp focus.

Take The King’s Speech. It’s about a King who overcomes his fear of public speaking to deliver a wartime speech to his citizens. It is a great movie.

But at the core, it is saying nothing new. Overcoming fear is a theme of numerous self help books and movies. I won’t bother to name all the books and movies that try to address this issue.

Here’s examples of other movies that are unoriginal:

Psycho is about a transvestite killer. It contains one of Hitchcock’s most memorable scenes and many people think of it as original. But if you wiki it, you’ll find that it is based on a play by Josef Stefano, who adapted it from a novel, which is actually based on true events of actual crimes committed by a Wisconsin serial killer.

Dial M For Murder is another Hitchcock thriller based on a play. Yet another one is Rope.

What differentiates The King’s Speech from its competition is its focus, not its originality. Every scene served the story. Remember, the movie is about a prince who overcomes his fear of public speaking. Well, the very first scene is of the prince absolutely bombing a public speech.

Well, duh. Isn’t this obvious? Yes it is. Obvious and unoriginal. So obvious it was overlooked. Overlooked as a story, overlooked by Hollywood and overlooked by moviegoers until now.

The King’s Speech is spot on. Every scene had to do with Albert’s fear of public speaking. There were no wasted shots. They make it look easy, but if it really is easy then there should be dozens of movies this year with the same kind of focus as The King’s Speech. Well, there isn’t.

Almost all movies try to be original, but they somehow always end up having the same corny special effects, the same bad guys, the same hot girl, one of ghosts, aliens, or robots, or all three.

Meanwhile, not many movies actually know what it is trying to say.

It’s okay to drive home an old point, as long as you are focused.

February 1, 2011

Tree Production: Current Storyboard

Armature: Every ending leads to a new beginning.

August 4, 2010
Don’t Use Special Effects Part 2






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