Save the Cat!®

The great part about teaching is the teacher keeps learning.

And you never know when the lesson will strike.

If I suddenly look like I’m listening to a far-off dog whistle, head cocked, slightly blank expression, repeating something I said a moment ago, odds are you are witnessing that very moment.

But such is the unpredictability of the “A-ha!” experience.

One insight hit me recently while talking about the “Fun and Games” section of a movie (the aptly titled part that occurs right at the start of Act Two) when I suddenly realized this amazing bit:

Fun and Games = Your Pitch!

The “Fun and Games” section contains the “promise of the premise” and that means it’s also the poster of your movie. So when Tom Cruise, as future cop John Anderton in Minority Report, FINALLY jumps into action when he discovers the suspect in a future crime is him… well, guess what? That’s the logline.

And if you’re trying to figure out what your movie is, or when the crux of the plot starts, this factoid is a really important thing to know.

Another “A-ha!” occurred during a break from our Master Class this weekend (an amazing group btw). I, and two graduates of the Cat! class, were discussing Sean of the Dead when we were reminded of a key factor that makes that sci-fi comedy a winner. I call it the “Emotional Color Wheel” in Save the Cat! and it really applies to this movie. Sean of the Dead works because the writers have made a point not to be funny in every scene. Sure it’s a funny situation, but it’s also scary as hell in places as when the brain-eating zombies attack Sean and friends in their pub. It even gets downright emotional when Sean must deal with his less-than-proud mother. But because it isn’t one-note emotionally, it feels like these weird events are real. And thus Sean’s transformation from zero to hero is real, too.

Perhaps the best A-ha! happened while teaching here in L.A. recently when, standing at the white board with my structure map (available soon on this site along with several other FREE! downloadable items), I had a true breakthrough about the overall function of story. Look at how the Catalyst - Debate - Break into Two sequence in Act One is identical to All Is Lost - Dark Night of the Soul - Break into Three that occurs toward the end of Act Two. Both Catalyst and All Is Lost are something done to the hero; the hero’s response in both cases is the “debate” about what he must do next; and the Break into Two or Three is what that action entails!

And in each case an old way of life, or an old idea, dies!

The difference is: in the latter set of plot points, the stakes are bigger, it’s “life and death” and must be because, as I keep being reminded, all stories are about transformation - and a big part of that is sloughing off the old to make way for the new.

This cycle is one we see in life, too, and that may be the ultimate A-ha! Think about the 15 beats as they apply to a day of your life sometime and see how from the Opening Image (opening your eyes when you wake up) to the Final Image (closing your eyes when you go to sleep) the 15 beats match many of the ups and downs of your waking hours, and how some kind of “transformation”occurs by day’s end. It’s why stories that follow this pattern hit home. They resonate because we recognize them from our own life experience.

Finding these patterns gives us the keys to success as writers. We aren’t about “formula,” we are about essence! And the search for the subterranean meaning of why stories work never ends.

Like my job? Nope. I LOVE it! I hope I always keep finding new things.