Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies: The Screenwriter's Guide to Every Story Ever Told

You won't find the traditional genres "action-adventure" or "romantic comedy" here. Synder swaps those for genre-predicaments like "Monster in the House" and "Dude with a Problem." He identifies ten of them as the engines of all hits. He then decomposes the plots of several blockbusters in each genre to show how that engine operates. His insights are fascinating because, without the distinction of genre as he defines it, you might assume that "Three Days of the Condor" and "Sleeping with the Enemy" are fundamentally different. By traditional definitions, one is a spy thriller and the other is a woman-jeopardy thriller. But in the gospel according to Blake, those two movies are twins. Knowing why will not only make you a better screenwriter but will also give you a better appreciation of the high art of crafting the blockbusters that almost never win the snob awards.Do get this book if you are writing spec scripts. But if you are writing indies, proceed with caution--with any book of rules. Certainly the gurus will preach that the rules of structure can strengthen any story and that, at the very least, you should master the rules before you break them. True enough.But you don't want to get so locked into the box of rules that you can't think outside of it. The goal in indies, in my humble opinion, should not be to make blockbusters on the cheap but to take risks and evolve the cinematic form in ways the studios won't.Gerald Everett Jones is the author of  My Inflatable Friend: The Confessions of Rollo Hemphill  and several books on digital filmmaking, including  24P: Make Your Digital Movies Look Like Hollywood

After reading the very interesting and helpful Save the Cat!, I was immediately attracted to its sequel. While complementary to its big brother, this book also stands entirely on its own.What I really like about both books is their overall tone, the easy way Mr Snyder writes about movies/screenplays. Technical terms are included but I felt more like somebody talking to me than somebody trying to teach me something the (sometimes) dry way that teachers have. Even movies that don't attract me very much reveal themselves to be a lot more appealing when broken up into all the parts a screenplay must include.As a writer and budding screenwriter, I've learned a lot from Snyder's two books and even though one system works for one person and not another, the tips he shares with readers are for just about anyone because they're all about logic. Once you have the bases down, you can fill out the blanks on your own in a much easier way which makes it all as fun as it should be.Another thing that's uplifting about these books is Mr Snyder's self confidence. I wish I had just a tenth of that but I suppose it grows over time (and successes). Still, it's also reassuring to know that even seasoned and successful writers still have downs and doubts - it's makes the rest of us feel a little less alone on those dreadful Whatever-possessed-me-to-choose-writing days. A look through one of the Cat! books and the sun shines again.So thank you, Mr Snyder, and long live the Cat! series.

Si el primer libro fue genial, este es grandioso!!! En este libro logras arerrizar con ejemplos muy concretos los conceptos del primero, haciendo que los aprendizajes sean mucho más profundos!

Easy to read, lots of pointers, great examples and breakdown of each scene for better understanding.

Blake Snyder's sequel to his intriguing essay on script-writing "Save the Cat!", is entitled (logically enough) "Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies: The Screenwriter's Guide to Every Story Ever Told".Snyder's new book enlarges on his basic premise that it's not so much the story that makes a successful movie, it's the way you tell it - and he then proceeds to illustrate his theory with many examples of movies that, while they may use the same basic ten stories, present them in new, different, yet creative ways. It is quite a revelation to read Snyder's analysis of the story similarities shared by, say, "Titanic" and "When Harry met Sally".Snyder goes on to outline the basic structure of successful story-telling, even to the point of allocating the number of plot stages a successful script should have, and how many pages of script should be devoted to each beat of the story. Many may decry the idea of writing to a formula, but the fact remains that audiences subconsciously respond better to a logically constructed and (more importantly) well-paced movie than to one that is just a loosely connected string of events.It's sort of analogous to building a house; the design of a solid basic framework uses fairly similar standard techniques; it is only when you begin to build the house around it that you can make the finished building uniquely different and (hopefully) better than that of your neighbours. And that's where the skill lies.Any aspiring scriptwriter should read and re-read these two books, apply the principles that they propose - and then use their story-telling skills to hide the fact that they have done so! Go ahead - entertain us!

A few years back, I started getting serious about writing a novel. I knew I had a lot to learn on the subject, so I availed myself to the teachings of various story gurus. I learned something from almost all of them, but there are only a few that I would explicitly recommend to someone looking to write a story.If I could only recommend three books, this would be first on the list, followed by The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing by Thomas S. Kane, and The Story Solution by Eric Edson. I like The Story Solution because it provides a brilliant understanding of character archetypes; The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing will actually make you a better writer; this book, Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies contains pretty much everything else you will need (along with a good idea) to write a decent story.It is the second book in the Save the Cat! Trilogy, but it goes over all the concepts from the first book, then describes and provides examples of the ten major genres according to Blake. Save the Cat genres differ greatly from what we would normally think of as the major story genres, but they get to the heart of the actual specific beats that truly distinguish certain types of stories (on the structural level).The STC! genres schema is, like the rest of Blake's work, very pragmatically useful, accessible, and fun. The genres are possibly the most brilliant and unique part of Blake's system. It's handy to have a lot of things sort of figured out before you start writing your story and the primary genre it's going to be is one of them.A notable mention when it comes to story gurus is John Truby. While his work lacks some of the qualities of Blake's work noted above, I did find a lot of gems while studying Truby, most notably, the importance of theme. Underlying all the action that takes place in a story you should have a theme, a moral or spiritual message that you are trying to convey. Blake talks about this aspect as well, but Truby teaches the extremely helpful concept of "four corner opposition" which basically means you have four main characters which each have some kind of a conflict (even if some of them are on the same side) with each of the other three characters. The key is to have the conflicts related to the central theme/philosophy (though not in an overly obvious manner).The real reason any good story exists is the moral message it is trying to convey. Movies etc. that are bad usually don't have a clear (or true) moral/philosophical/spiritual message.Back to Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies. It is simply the best (or at least, my favorite) book on story structure out there. I highly recommend it.

If you thinks that Save The Cat is the only screenplay book that works for you then you should buy this book. But if are exploring all other screenplay books in the market better invest this money on a different book, coz this is book is more of an exercise book than a knowledge book

Awesome!!

O produto cumpre o que promete, utilizando linguagem clara de quem sabe o que fala. Porque quem sabe vai direto ao ponto.

You'll definitely get the aha moments as you read through these brilliant series of three books that connect all the dots and reveal the secret of how to write a well structured screenplay. Synder lifts the veil on why genre is important as well as how to make the hero dynamic. He also offers a very clever and practical cork board technique of laying out your 40 beats BEFORE you touch that keyboard, saving from time consuming rewrites. The trio is not only for newbies, but also for heavyweight screenwriters.