December, 2021 - The 15 Minute Movie Method

Use Plot, Genre, and Emotion to Tell a Compelling Story

December 29, 2021

This is the way most people come up with a story. They first come up with an interesting plot. That’s step one, but then they...

Define Your Story as a Trailer to Lay Out the Plot Points

December 25, 2021

Watch trailers and you’ll immediately notice that they tell you what the story is about, the tone, who the hero is, and what the setting...

Define the Emotion of Your Story Before the Defining the Plot

December 21, 2021

If you watch any bad movie, you’ll notice they almost always start with a good idea. Where bad movies fail is that the appealing idea...

Make Your Setting Its Own Character In Your Story

December 17, 2021

When athletes train, they often practice exercises that don’t seem related to their actual sport. For example, boxers jog and jump rope even though running...

Making Emotion the Key to Engagement and Caring

December 13, 2021

Watch a bad movie and chances are good you don’t care what happens to the characters no matter what challenges they may go through. They...

Copy Plots to Make Screenwriting Easier and Storytelling Less Intimidating

December 9, 2021

When people try to create a story, they often try to create something original, forgetting the fact that there are no original plots but plenty...

Make Your Characters Empathetic Through Feeling, Not Showing

December 5, 2021

All the special effects, explosions, car crashes, and gunfire in the world won’t make your story better. That’s because visual effects are fine, but lack...

Avoid Superficial Stories by Finding the Real Villain Inside the Hero

December 1, 2021

Here’s the simplest type of story. A good guy is trying to achieve a goal and a purely evil guy is trying to stop him....

The 15 Minute Movie Method

December 2021