{"id":1692,"date":"2013-08-10T02:30:47","date_gmt":"2013-08-10T06:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=1692"},"modified":"2013-08-10T15:38:56","modified_gmt":"2013-08-10T19:38:56","slug":"some-people-dont-understand-snyders-save-the-cat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=1692","title":{"rendered":"Some people don’t understand Snyder’s Save the Cat!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love Blake Snyder\u2019s storytelling book, Save the Cat!<\/em>  I would say that it is a must-read for all storytellers, but I\u2019m not sure every storyteller would necessarily understand it.  The patterns Snyder identifies are much more subtle than one may think when considering only the examples he provides.  A good reader would attempt to analyze films and stories on his own and look at how stories that are vastly different actually follow similar inherent structures.  That is, Snyder is not identifying arbitrary trends found in modern stories, he\u2019s uncovering much deeper foundations that dwell naturally<\/em> in the ways we humans process, relate to, and understand stories.  If you read his book as simply a how-to guide for writing a formulaic blockbuster, which you can, you\u2019re completely missing the point.<\/p>\n

This article says<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

In Save the Cat!,<\/em> [Snyder] stresses that his beat sheet is a structure<\/em>, not a formula, one based in time-tested screen-story principles. It\u2019s a way of making a product that\u2019s likely to work\u2014not a fill-in-the-blanks method of screenwriting.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s what Snyder intended. But that\u2019s not how it turned out. In practice, Snyder\u2019s beat sheet has taken over Hollywood screenwriting. Movies big and small stick closely to his beats and page counts. Intentionally or not, it\u2019s become a formula\u2014a formula that threatens the world of original screenwriting as we know it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And whose fault is that?  It\u2019s the fault of lazy screenwriters, uncaring directors, and cowardly producers.  It\u2019s not Snyder\u2019s fault that a lazy screenwriter takes his beat sheet as a formula and ignores the countless possibilities he has to express each beat in an infinite variety ways.  It\u2019s not Snyder\u2019s fault that directors accept the word of these lazy screenwriters.  It\u2019s not Snyder\u2019s fault that producers fund these projects, relying on a \u201cformula\u201d to generate a hit.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think this article is necessarily trying to blame Snyder; my point is simply that blaming Snyder is nonsense.<\/p>\n

I found the above mentioned article on author Nathan Bransford\u2019s blog<\/a>, where he writes:<\/p>\n

\n

Save the Cat! <\/i>doesn’t just offer suggestions on structure, it literally says what needs to happen on specific pages, from the opening image that sets up the protagonist’s problems to the false victory at 90 minutes to the closing image, which mirrors the opening image.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It sounds like Bransford is commenting on a book he either hasn\u2019t read or hasn\u2019t understood.  Snyder does not \u201cliterally say what needs to happen on specific pages.\u201d  He gives guideline page numbers for a 110-page screenplay based on where a beat should hit within a film\u2019s overall structure, the page numbers naturally correlating to the time at which a beat would appear in a film.  If any beat is out of place in this structure, the story will risk feeling slow or rushed or both.  Good screenwriters and directors should naturally be aware of how their creative decisions affect story pacing, so I fail to see how giving page numbers is some horrible sin that dares to stifle creativity.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the \u201copening image\u201d beat has less to do with setting up the \u201cprotagonist\u2019s problems\u201d and more to do with setting up the story\u2019s tone and mood.  Read the book, pages 72 to 73.  Most storytellers naturally understand that the opening of a story will set up audience expectations, so delivering an \u201copening image\u201d that promises a different sort of story than the one planning to be told will naturally risk alienating readers.<\/p>\n

That the opening image and closing image should reflect each other should also be understood naturally, as the end of story will relate to its beginning in some way, either providing a great contrast or a more literal reflection.  \u201cAnd the story starts again…\u201d<\/p>\n

Lastly, Snyder\u2019s beats have nothing at all<\/em> to do with guaranteeing success.  It is very easy to follow the beats and still create garbage.  But just as the sound of a toilet flushing will never suddenly be considered a beautiful symphony, no purposeful shunning and avoidance of Snyder\u2019s beats will result in a surprise success.  Snyder\u2019s beats are not arbitrary; they are ingrained in human psychology.  That a \u201cformula\u201d becomes recognizable in some big-budget modern films is entirely<\/em> the fault of the artists working in the industry.  It\u2019s still an art<\/em> after all.<\/p>\n

———-<\/p>\n

ETA: I think Steven Spielberg\u2019s fears<\/a> about the film industry imploding has less to do with big budget films becoming formulaic and more to do with the marketplace for big budget films becoming overly saturated.  But I don\u2019t know how the money flow goes in such a big budget industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love Blake Snyder\u2019s storytelling book, Save the Cat!  I would say that it is a must-read for all storytellers, but I\u2019m not sure every storyteller would necessarily understand it.  The patterns Snyder identifies are much more subtle than one may think when considering only the examples he provides.  A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[328,413],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gI4B-ri","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}