What’s your favorite movie? What makes that particular film stand out from the rest of the millions that exist? What is it about that story, its characters, or its themes that left an impression on you?
Time to do a little homework.
I know, I know. Homework. Booooooring! I get it. But, this is creative homework. This is your chance to do a deep dive into your favorite film and get to the heart of why it affects you and why you enjoy it. In turn, this exercise will help you as a writer by giving insight into how they create a compelling story, how they utilize storytelling structure, and how they create compelling characters.
What You Need
- Grab a notepad or legal pad and a pen or pencil.
- A copy of your favorite movie.
- Your Analytical Cap.
- Good Pause Button skills (you’ll be using this a lot).
Think of yourself as a story archaeologist. Your mission is to unearth the storytelling secrets hidden beneath the surface of the film you chose.
Viewing #1
I know it’s your favorite, but as you go through this first time, write down your favorite moments and note at what time or on what page number they occur. Was it a plot point that intrigued you? A clever line of dialogue? A character moment? Write it down and write down why you reacted the way you did to that element.
Do this for the whole movie, then read back through what you observed.
Viewing #2
This round is all about the story. In one or two sentences, write down what happens in each scene that moves the story forward. What’s the main conflict in each scene? You can number the scenes or write a general location of where the scene takes place.
If scenes are revolving around a sub-plot, see how that smaller story is resolved or if it dovetails into the main story.
By the end, you should be able to go back through your notes and see the primary story arc evolve throughout the film. Does each scene feed into the next? Do you notice a pattern as to when the story has significant changes?
All screenplays have a basic story structure. There are dozens of ways to break down that structure, but for the purposes of this exercise, I’ll refer you to The Syd Field Paradigm below:
If the screenwriter did their job correctly, these elements should be crystal clear and easy to identify as you review your notes. Highlight or underline what you feel these moments are.
Viewing #3
This final round is all about character. Your job is to watch how the main character changes over the course of the story. What traits do they have at the start of the story? Do they become a better person or a worse person by the end?
This is another scene-by-scene breakdown. Write down in a couple sentences what the main character is doing, how they’re acting, what you feel their motivation or conflict is in the scene. As you go through, you should be able to see their discernable character arc as they navigate their way through the ups and downs of the plot. How does the story impact who they are as a character? How do they impact the events of the story?
Read back through and see if you can clearly identify when the writer began to make changes in the character and how those changes altered the main character by the end of the story.
So, What Did We Learn?
So, now you’ve watched your favorite film three more times and have done some digging into its inner workings. By breaking the movie into its basic components, you have a clearer picture of how this screenwriter crafted a compelling story with an interesting main character. You can see where the story beats are, where the direction of the story changes, and how those elements either impact the main character’s arc or how their arc impacts the story.
Keep this exercise in mind when you finish a draft of your screenplay, play, or novel. If you were to sit down and do this exercise with your work, could you summarize what’s happening in each scene in a sentence or two? Would those sentences be enough to show the main story’s arc throughout the narrative? Does your main character evolve over the course of the story? What happens to cause the change from start to finish?
Consider doing this exercise with your own work to help you strengthen your story and main character in your different drafts.
Extra Credit
Now, if you enjoyed that exercise, why not try it with a movie you strongly dislike? I know it can be hard to stomach a film you can’t stand, but take the emotion out and look at it from an analytical perspective.
The first time through, write down all the elements you dislike and why. If anything does work for you, write it down.
The second and third viewings should be done similar to the ones stated above. You may find that the story arc and/or main character arc are weak and lacking in a lot of ways.
How would you, as this film’s screenwriter, fix these weaknesses? When you read back through, brainstorm what you would have done to make the story and character elements stronger and more effective.
You can learn a lot from both good and bad films by breaking their stories down into their component parts. I highly recommend reading screenplays for films as well. Screenplays give you the nuts and bolts of story and character without the distraction and spectacle so you can analyze things even more in-depth. I recommend checking out the link below to find screenplays to break down and analyze.
Happy writing and analyzing. I’ll see you next week!
