January, 2015 - The 15 Minute Movie Method

Make It Relatable

January 26, 2015

“The Giver” was a popular young adult novel about a community that eliminates emotions in favor of sameness. The idea is to create the perfect...

Make It Complete

January 25, 2015

Watch sequels and they often feel inferior to the original because they’re not complete stories. If you never saw the original, the beginning of most...

Start with a Theme

January 20, 2015

Exciting and memorable stories don’t have the most action, but the greatest emotional appeal. To create a story with a strong emotional core, identify a...

Get Emotional

January 16, 2015

The best stories move us emotionally, so if you want to create the best story possible, start by tapping into a strong emotion of your...

Mini-Goals

January 14, 2015

Divide a typical 120-minute movie into eight segments and you get eight 15-minute segments. Each 15-minute segment the hero must be pursuing a goal. In...

Murphy’s Law

January 12, 2015

Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. The screenwriting world is no different. You want to make everything go wrong...

Halfway Through, Things Fall Apart

January 8, 2015

The next time you watch any two hour move, time your watch to the one hour mark. When you hit the one hour mark, notice...

Haunted by the Past

January 4, 2015

In every story, someone is haunted by the past. Often times it’s the hero, such as Rick in “Casablanca” who’s bitter over a broken love...

Defining the Hero’s Impossible Goal

January 2, 2015

Every hero faces a seemingly impossible goal. Sometimes that goal can be earth-shattering such as in “Terminator 2” where the goal is to kill the...

The 15 Minute Movie Method

January 2015