There’s an interesting photographer named Christine McConnell who posts macabre pictures of herself. One particularly interesting picture demonstrates the importance of making an ordinary scene more eye-catching. Nearly everyone has seen the face-hugger alien attacking people. However Christine McConnell adds a special twist by taking a picture of herself as an ordinary housewife with an alien […]
One common failing of bad movies is that you have no idea what could happen to the hero if the hero fails to achieve a goal. When there’s no clear consequence, there’s no reason why the hero should do anything. Near the beginning of every movie, you need to show clear consequences of the danger […]
There are two ways to motivate people: the carrot and the stick. With the carrot, you motivate them by giving them a goal they can move towards. With the stick, you motivate them by forcing them to move to avoid punishment. In real life, some people are motivated by one or the other, but in […]
Imagine a scene where the hero doesn’t know what to do so he does nothing. Not a very exciting scene, is it? Scenes are exciting only when something happens, but not just anything can happen. You can have mindless action where buildings blow up and helicopters crash into skyscrapers, but that’s completely pointless. Action is […]
Every scene must grab the audience’s attention right from the start and give a hint on what the conflict will be about. The best way to grab the audience’s attention is to show something unusual. In the movie “Kelly’s Heroes,” that unusual item is a war setting with German soldiers walking all over the place. […]
A scene tells a mini-story with a protagonist (not always the hero of your main story) trying to achieve a goal that an antagonist (not always the villain of your main story) is actively trying to block. At the very least, every scene needs to consist of an Intriguing Problem that creates an ongoing Conflict […]