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I love our Save the Cat! weekends. We have two: the Beats Weekend where we break out your movie, play, or novel idea into the 15 beats of the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet, and the Board Weekend where we start with those 15 and bust them out into the 40 key scenes found in the average story.
These weekends are amazing! The max for the Beats class is 12 writers, max for the Board class is 6. It’s because what we do in there defies imagination! Not to mention it is the most fun I get to have all week!
In both classes, there is a moment when we find the “touchstone scene’” of your story, that is a key discovery in the development of any script or novel. This is the scene that is most often part of the “Fun and Games” section, and describes what this movie is at core. In Lethal Weapon, it’s that scene where suicidal Mel Gibson rescues a suicide on top of a building by grabbing him and jumping, while his new partner, Danny Glover, watches helplessly from below. In Black Stallion, it’s the “courtship scenes” between the boy and Black on the desert island, in particular the moment when the boy sits astride his equine pal and rides through the surf — like Alexander taming the wild horse Bucephalus that is at the movie’s thematic heart.
This movie or story you’ve come up with… what is it? What key scene defines your story both in theme and tone but in its “poster”? It seems easy once you find this “touchstone scene,” but until you do, you are often unclear what you’ve got. Finding that key moment when concept embraces characters can be the story paint chip you can go back and test with any new scene you create. Does it match? Is it as good as other scenes?
Whenever I hear that scene in your movie during either weekend, I am eager to point it out. It is a great guide to further ideation — and a fun moment in class. And I’m not alone; your fellow writers are often the ones looking for these moments, too. This small group technique is the best I’ve found for developing a movie, and it starts with the “what is it?” of a key scene that proves what you have is gold!
p.s. I just got a note from a writer urging me to do the beats of best-selling novels! Fantastic idea and so timely! I was reading Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons and saw every beat in the Beat Sheet, including a “Five Point Finale”: the “Storming the castle and saving the princess” that was actually… storming a castle to save a princess!!
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on April 6th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Not sure if this is what you mean, but I’m finding that everything I write has a big, fun set-piece smack dab in the middle of the movie that is not only the most inventive in the script, but also the one that really incorporates everything “fun” about the concept. I did it in FIVE KILLERS (now shooting with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl!) and I’m doing it in the two projects I’m working on now. It also feels like those are the set-pieces that are going to be featured most heavily in the trailer (like when Brad and Angelian finally fight hand-to-hand in Mr. and Mrs. Smith.) Thoughts?
on April 6th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Bob beat me to it, but yes, I was just about to say that those “touchstone” scenes are usually the ones that make it in the trailer because they so encapsulate the idea (or fun) of the movie. And they’re also the ones that people tend to remember, not only in the movie but also in the room when you’re pitching it.
I’ve taken your 15 beat class, and of course it was transformational. As for the 40 beat weekends — Blake, do you guys actually do ALL 40 scenes including the conflict and +/- change for every scene card? I’m having problems coming up with conflict for every scene. Usually these are some of the first scenes, when I’m setting up the thesis world and characters… or the love scene, where usually things are hunky-dory. Is this something the group works on for every scene during the weekend?
Hope to see you in Vancouver again soon!
on April 7th, 2009 at 4:59 am
Brilliant, Blake. The touchstone scene acts as a tuning fork against which the other scenes can be tested for their “authenticity” to the story.
on April 7th, 2009 at 8:53 am
A “poster” scene, how ingenious! Interesting how many other good story’s mechanics are waiting to be spot. Knowing life, there are enough of them for STC 4
Cheers!
on April 7th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
When Disney did the movie Mulan, the first scene they finished was the utterly wordless one when Mulan decides to go to war instead of letting her father go. That sequence was the first one animated, colored, and put to sound, and they held it up as the standard for the rest of the movie.
Not sure if it qualifies as the “poster scene,” though . . .
on April 8th, 2009 at 5:46 am
What do you think about the scene that follows the one you mentioned in LETHAL WEAPON? The one where Murtaugh confronts Riggs by giving him his gun and telling him to shoot himself.
To me, that seems more like the “touchstone” in terms of story.
Riggs pulls the trigger. And is only saved because Murtaugh realizes he made a HUGE mistake and jams his thumb into the hammer.
That’s the heart of the story. That’s the relationship between these two cops. That’s the whole movie.
The jumping off the roof, while a great scene, could almost be anything that illustrates how suicidally “crazy” Riggs is. Like the opening school shooter vs Riggs does. Like the Xmas tree lot with the drug dealers.
I’d argue, Lethal Weapon works without the jumping off the building scene (Don’t get me wrong–we’d be out a great scene), but it doesn’t work without the confrontation following it, with Murtaugh giving Riggs his gun to off himself.
on April 8th, 2009 at 8:13 am
Hi Blake,
You know how some radio stations (like 93.1 Jack FM in L.A.) play snippets of songs in a row
to show off their playlist
just before they launch into a song?
I believe those snippets are the touchstone moments of the song! You’d think it would be the chorus, but that’s not always the best part of the song.
* Back in Black by AC/DC? It’s the dah. Da-dah. Da-dum of the guitar, not the chorus.
A touchstone moment is dense with the DNA of the piece. Perhaps you could clone it from there. Perhaps that’s how successful TV shows do:
* On CSI or House, it’s when the hero takes that extra second look at the evidence, wheels turning in his head, his whole consciousness concentrated on the problem at hand, which he then solves. (Don’t we wish someone would concentrate that much on our problems?!)
* In film, as you pointed out, Riggs is fully-realized up on the roof, doing what he does best (heroic craziness that saves the day) while his buddy love-interest looks on worried. (Don’t we wish would had license to go crazy with a good purpose and someone watching over us?)
I believe the touchstone moment is the DNA imbued by the artist; like God “breathed” air into man, so the artist sparks life into his/her work. And doesn’t “touchstone” have a profound mythical history?
Here’s to Mona Lisa’s smile!
on April 10th, 2009 at 7:16 am
I agree whole heartedly with THE moment that best represents your movie… and heres something to chew on… that moment, in order to NOT be cliche, has to be a unique spin on something we’ve seen before. Take the moment in LETHAL WEAPON… two cops arguing is cliche… when one partner helps the other put a loaded gun to his head…WHOA! We know we’re in different territory here.
Just something to contribute to this great community.