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Preface | |
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Introduction: The Action-Idea | |
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Let's Start at the Very Beginning, Middle, and End | |
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Why You Want Your Movie to Be a Bomb! | |
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The Subject Is an Action ... Not a Person | |
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Forget Sub-plotting--the Best Plots Have One-Track Minds | |
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Plot Is Soul | |
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The Ends Are Always in the Means of the Plot | |
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Why Is My Beautiful Plot Growing a Hand Out of Its Head? | |
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The Four Species of Plot | |
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What the Poetics Says About Epics Like Lord of the Rings | |
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Destiny Is an Accident Waiting to Happen | |
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Keep It in the Family ... The Tragic Deed | |
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Oops! I Caused My Own Undeserved Misfortune Again | |
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How a Little Moralizing Turned a Gladiator Gore Fest into a Best Picture | |
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A Movie Is Long Enough, So It Ends Happy or Sad | |
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If You're Happy and You Know It ... Time for a Reversal of Fortune and Discovery | |
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"It Scared Me Because I Saw It Coming" ... The Rolls Royce of Complex Plots | |
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The Devil Is in the Realistic Details of the Plot of Angel Heart | |
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Whatever Causes the Action Better Be Up There on the Screen | |
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A Movie Gave You a Bad Case of Pity and Fear? The Doctor Recommends a Catharsis | |
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Action Speaks Louder Than Words, and Together They Can Speak Volumes! | |
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The Perfect Hollywood Sad/Happy Plot versus the Perfect Poetics Sad Plot | |
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Move Your Audience by Teaching Them What They Already Know | |
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The Good, the Bad, and the Intermediate Hero | |
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It's the Thought Behind the Action That Counts: Creating the Tone of Your Screenplay | |
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How to Cheat If You Can't Hire a Whole Chorus | |
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How to Create Characters That Are Really Really Really Alive | |
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Dialog Is a Piece of the Action | |
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If the Pitch Doesn't Fill Me with Horror and Pity, the Movie Won't Either | |
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The Non-Linear Soul of Quentin Tarantino | |
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If Your Story Were a Musical, Where Would the Numbers Be? | |
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History Repeats Itself ... Real and Imagined | |
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Aristotle's Take on the Importance of Drama | |
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Aristotle Took Comedy Seriously | |
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Closing Comments | |