In the beginning of every story, there’s an initial question defined by the hero’s emotional dream. By the end of the story, this initial question must finally be answered. In “Die Hard,” this initial question is whether John McClane will get back with his wife or not. By the end of the story, John McClane […]
The purpose of the ending is to answer the initial question posed by the beginning. In a typical romance story, the initial question is always, “Will the boy and girl finally fallen love?” Then the ending is usually, “Yes, they finally fall in love.” Sometimes in tragedies the answer is “No, they stay separate and […]
In a previous post (https://15minutemoviemethod.com/to-montage-or-not), I listed reasons why montages may not work. However, that doesn’t mean that montages can’t work. Montages are simply a tool that you need to use properly. When used as a shortcut, montages just look silly and boring. What makes montages effective is when they create a strong emotional reaction. […]
If a story keeps introducing new elements, then you risk overwhelming the audience with so much information that doesn’t have any connection or relation earlier information. That’s why it’s far better to parallel story structures. That means you repeat the same story structure in multiple ways. In Disney’s animated “Tarzan,” the gorilla mother loses her […]
Think of your theme and that defines your hero’s beginning and end. For example, the theme in “Terminator 2” is that “Killing is wrong.” Therefore the hero (the good Terminator) begins the story thinking killing is okay. By the end, the hero learns that killing is wrong when he finally understands why humans cry. Once […]
In nearly every story, the hero or mentor have to deal with a problem. Often times this problem comes from the past, long before this tory started, but sometimes this problem occurs near the beginning of the story. For example, in “Harold and Maude,” Harold’s problem occurred long before the story started based on his […]
The 6th edition of “The 15-Minute Movie Method” is now available with revised and new chapters although you can simply find all the new information in this blog. The book just makes it convenient to find everything in one place and is available as an ebook and as a print-on-demand book as well. The following […]
Listen to the soundtracks to “Mary Poppins” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and you’ll notice something interesting. Although both soundtracks contain music written by the Sherman Brothers and Dick Van Dyke appeared in both movies, “Mary Poppins” is the far superior movie. Part of this difference is how the main characters change in “Mary Poppins.” […]
One story telling technique to describe the passing of time is to use a montage. A montage lets us see the hero experiencing a variety of events compressed in a short amount of time. Just be careful about using a montage as a crutch instead of a tool. The advantage of a montage is that […]