Blake Snyder

Doug Spoors

A day after The Great American Pitchfest, we received this email from writer Doug Spoors. Like many of those I spoke to this past weekend, Doug found the event to be a great success. Congratulations to all!

“Blake,

I can’t thank you enough for your input on my logline. As it turns out, I changed the logline and it changed my pitch. While having my morning coffee before the pitches began, it finally clicked completely… the logline is the pitch! If you can get the story into a really great logline, you’ll have a really great pitch! After I did it a couple times, I had a pitch with an agent who told me at the end: ‘Wow, I gotta tell you, you have that pitch down perfectly! That is nothing less than amazing… Great job!’

As it turned out, I pitched to 14 studios, developers, production companies, etc. (all non-agents) and 12 out of 14 wanted more …. even after I told them the script was only up to plot point 1 at 30 pages, they all wanted the treatment and more. One even asked that we get together in the next two weeks to discuss an option.

Then I turned to pitching agents and managers - 100% interest at that point. I have my first meeting with a management company for this coming Wednesday.

What an amazing day! Thanks so much for your input - I could not believe that between the time of giving your class and by 5:00 p.m. I had your comments by email - you are an amazing person. If ever there is any way I can repay a favor, please please call on me!

Best regards,

Doug Spoors”

Saeed (and friends)

We’ve received this great news from screenwriter Saeed Faridzadeh:

“My screenplay, Mittens (which stands for Multinodal Intelligence uniT v10), got second place in the family category in the Storypros screenplay competition.

And to think this all started on an impulse buy of your book, that someone at another writers group mentioned to me! I bought on a whim, read it, loved it, and a week later when I went to the Writers Store, saw that you had a second book and would be doing a meet and greet there. A week later I saw you talk and KNEW I needed to attend your workshops.

I came into your Beat Sheet Workshop with a script about a lonely girl and a snarky cyborg cat, and I thought I had gold. Then I realized it needed some serious work, but came out with a better story. Then going into the second workshop, your Master Class, I thought that what I had coming out of the first was, once again, gold, but found it still needed work… and once again came out with a seriously revamped story that ended up MUCH MUCH better.

That second workshop got me the script I ended up submitting to Storypros, and landed the second place. But what’s funny is that the fellow LA Cats read that version and gave me even more notes that helped make that story even better. So now I have what I hope is a kick-ass script that has evolved and come a long way.

This second place is proof to me that I’ve got something here with Mittens. And I owe you so much. Your book, those two weekend workshops, and the great Save the Cat! LA Group are the best things to have happened to my writing.

And one day, your book will have a chapter devoted to the beats of Mittens.

Thanks for everything so far. Now I’ve got to sell this sucker!”

Saeed www.thezerospace.com

The prolific Ian Noakes

We just received this terrific email from screenwriter Ian Noakes:

Hi Blake,

I just wanted to say thanks for Save the Cat! I was introduced to your book by a writer I collaborated with, and we used your book and beat sheet to help us write our first thriller. After we completed our script, Dark Passenger, we sent it off for coverage and it garnered a RECOMMEND. We were able to use the endorsement letter and coverage we received to secure an option agreement for high five to low six figures. The producer hopes to be in production within a year, and all eyes coming into contact with the script continue to be impressed.

Coverage quote: “Dark Passenger is one of the rare instances where a drama\thriller actually provides enough depth of character, entertainment value, logic grounded more or less in science, and complexity to lure us in at once and never let go from start to finish. In this reader’s opinion, it is much better than any number of produced films in recent memory.”

Since DarkPassenger, I’ve had two options, three commissions to pen two thrillers and a comedy series (six episodes go into production this summer), plus I’ve had three of my latest scripts requested by a big management/production company. I have found the beat sheet an excellent tool for my writing, but I think your readers also need to take note of the numerous tips you put in your book, especially the one you name the book after: Save the Cat!

Anyhow, many thanks… I’d better crack on.

Best regards,

Ian D Noakes

www.iannoakes.com

 Frederick Ayeroff on the Ace of Hearts set in Vancouver.

I met Frederick Ayeroff today at the Beverly Hills High School Career Day. I was excited to meet him — but I was more excited when he sent me this:

Dear Blake,

From you I learned to condense my ideas into a single, effective sentence.  So how’s this: With your brilliant books as my north star, I wrote two original screenplays in quick succession – both of which got filmed and will be released in 2008.  Ace of Hearts, a family drama from Fox and Peace Arch Films, is now widely available at Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Amazon, etc.  Soccer Mom, a family comedy co-starring Emily Osment and Missi Pyle, will be released theatrically on September 30.

The blank page is much less daunting with STC! on my desk right next to the dictionary and thesaurus. 

Gratefully,
Frederick Ayeroff 

In the Writers Store Tent with PitchFest’s Signe Olynyk.

This past weekend, Save the Cat! was part of the LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA. Over 150,000 attended the event and our little corner of the world was overwhelmed with visitors. Among our tent mates were Anne Lower, our partner at Final Draft, Signe Olynyk of Great American Pitchfest, and the good guys and good buys of The Writers Store — the amazing Dana, Mario, Sam, John and the Writers Store owner, Jesse. Also on hand were a couple of surprise visitors including Kevin Hogan, one of our Barcelona Cats in town to pitch the script he wrote last summer after our workshop. Thanks to everyone who made the festival such a smashing success!

Gary Wheeler with Malcolm McDowell on the set of The List

Hey Blake,

My name is Gary Wheeler and I am a filmmaker in NC. I’m in the final stages of selling my last film (wrote and directed), The List, to Fox. It had a small theatrical run last year and a big DVD release is scheduled for June 10th for Fathers Day. It stars Malcolm McDowell and Will Patton.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that after finishing my deliverables two weeks ago I took my family on vacation to the beach. I picked up Save the Cat! to read while I was there. I too have read them all - McKee, 21 days, etc - and worked with Linda Seger on my last three films. But Save the Cat! changed everything. It was amazing and practical. I’ve been hired to write and direct a novel called “The Sacrifice” (a Whydunit?… The List is Dude with a Problem) and am in the beginning stages of the adaptation. As I read STC I kept telling my wife - “This is it,” “I’ve got it now,” etc.

I bought three copies of the book, gave them to the author of the novel and the exec producers, and said this is the model we are going with.

Thanks for writing it… I’m telling everyone about it.

All the best,

Gary Wheeler
Co-Writer/Director - The List
www.thelist-themovie.com

Received this email from writer Michael Buchanan:

“Just a quick note to say thanks for writing your Save the Cat! books. They proved invaluable in my screenwriting efforts. My co-author and I were asked by the president of an Atlanta movie production company to write a family story that revolved around a true Southern legend. We came up with: How can three kids be helped by Civil War ghosts to find the lost gold of the Confederacy? The real gold has never been found and was with Jefferson Davis until the day he was captured in eastern Georgia. As novelists, we were able to come up with the tale and the essential riddle to be solved. But if it were not for your books and their “cut to the chase” style, we might still be floundering on Treasure of the Four Lions. At this point, we have two studios (Riverwood Productions, who did Fried Green Tomatoes, and Southern Sky Pictures) who have agreed to provide production facilities, distribution and post production, along with casting, etc. The deal is such that when investment monies for pre-production are in place, the movie is greenlit. To date, and with signed agreeements, three of the four million budgeted are set. I thought I would write to offer my thanks. I hope to meet you at a conference someday, thank you in person, and have you sign my copies of your books. You can read the synopsis on the movie website and about my co-author, Diane Lang, and I on the other.”

Check out these sites: www.fourlionsmovie.com www.micahschild.com

NEWS FROM LONDON

We just received this missive from across the pond from our very own Mikkel Iverson, who heads up the London Cat! group. We’ve had a number of success stories come from individual members since my visit in November, but there is nothing better than seeing these writers get together regularly to move their projects forward — that’s what the Cat! groups are all about:

Hi all,

As you know Saturday was our first London Cat! meeting and I am happy to say that we all had a really productive day!

The first meeting was attended by a handful of cats: Heather, John, David the Knight, Napoleon, and Mikkel (Ed: See above photo). Hopefully we will be twice as many in the picture for the next meeting.

And fortunately it turned out to be a mixed bag of projects that came on the table for treatment….1 film/musical fairytale, 1 short film drama, 1 tv pilot drama, 1 real life drama, and 1 magic reality comedy. Each of us spent 15-20 minutes presenting our stories, followed by a 45-minute discussion and suggestion session. At the end of the day, we all had a lot of good suggestions to take back to the story board.

The venue that Napoleon had arranged for us to conquer was perfect. Large room all to ourselves with no interference except from the lunch being served…and it was dirt cheap. Well done Napoleon…we should definitely go back there for the next meeting.

We agreed to shoot for meeting up every 2 months, so May will be our next get-together. I’ll send out more info on this soon.

Hope you guys have all had a great Easter….tapping on those keyboards like madmen or chilling with family and friends!!

Mikkel

For information about joining Mikkel and his London Cats! or to find out more about the projects they’re working on, please contact Mikkel at savetheraindancecat@yahoogroups.co.uk

We’ve recently received this email from screenwriter Robert Henny:

One day, while surfing for answers on how best to approach story structure, which speaks volumes about the library of books I already owned on the subject, I stumbled across Save the Cat! I soon found myself buying wholeheartedly into your approach and signed up for your seminar. I had no idea what I wanted to write, but I knew I had to have something to bring to class, so I grabbed an idea that had been brewing in my mind for years but had never managed to make it to the page. That scenario, unfortunately, described most of my ideas to that point. Dialogue I get. Structure had eluded me. So, in the few days before the weekend class began, I took the idea from the cluttered confines of my mind and created a title and a crudely constructed beat sheet. After your course, I had a stack of 40 cards, each with a scene that seemed to create a coherent story, and for the first time in my writing career, I knew exactly what scene was coming next and how I was going to get there. And I got there quickly, firing out the first draft in a few weeks. A few more weeks and some constructive notes sessions later, I wrote the second draft, and before I knew it, I had a pretty good script of a concept I could never get my mind around. It is called “Pee Wee,” and it’s an Out of the Bottle comedy about a workaholic father who, after pegging his son’s peewee football field as the site of his new condo complex, turns into an 8-year-old boy.

Cut to a few months later when I asked a producer friend of mine to give it a read. He then passed it on to Judd Payne and Matt Rhodes of Persistent Entertainment as a writing sample for some of their future projects. They read the script, decided it was more than just a writing sample, and called me in for a meeting. I expected to hear a series of notes, concerns, script problems, etc., but all they did was slide me a list of directors and asked which ones I liked. The next week, Persistent Entertainment, having just inked a deal with Capitol Films, optioned “Pee Wee.” Now, those big-name directors on that list are being sent my script. Thank you, Blake, for your constant encouragement, but, more importantly, thank you for your wisdom and insight. Although I still have a bookshelf full of screenwriting books, yours are the only two I use.