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I'm currently reading John Truby's "The Anatomy of Genre".
You might have seen my previous Post about the Action Genre.
To make sure I actually learn the stuff in there, I do an exercise of watching a couple of movies per Genre and check if they fit the beats that Truby is laying out.
I created a Google-Doc where I go through all the Detective Story Beats that are listed in the book and give examples how they are fulfilled in five movies:
Vertigo, Murder on the Orient Express (2017), Zootopia, Silence of the Lambs, The Maltese Falcon.
Any feedback is welcome. If someone wants to add some movies feel free to contact me, or just do it here in the comments and I'll add it.
Here's the doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zAjNURKS4GRxR4vxiUTfUVVoh45mzh6-YP5_DTr08MA/edit?usp=sharing
I'm doing Myth Genre next.
If anyone is interested in helping out with Lord of the Rings, let me know. It's been a while since I've seen them, I'm sure someone here could do it from the top of their head, so I don't 'need' to rewatch all of them to have them in the collection.
PS: Please don't turn this into "Don't listen to Truby/McKee etc... movies are art and have no rules". I appreciate the sentiment, but - as many others - I find value in their books and enjoy this exercise.
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Oh, awesome – while this kind of analysis isn't usually my jam (not saying "Don't listen to Truby / McKee" – I've read them both) , I can see one big departure from the gurus in your work: places where you say, "I'm not sure," if something fits, or even a definitive "nope." It's useful to ID patterns in storytelling so long as every story isn't tortured into hitting a prescribed beat. Thanks for posting, will definitely check it out.
This is also why I'm doing it. These books provide often 1 or 2 examples for their theory. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that the book also simply doesn't have space to give 10 examples each, or it can feel exhausting.
But still: I could make up ANY concept and give two examples.
"Any movie MUST have Dinosaurs to succeed! No matter if it's an entertainment movie or a meditative exercise. See Jurassic Park & Tree of Life."
I'm also doing that for the Three Act Structure and Hero's Journey. Expected them both to be pretty straight forward, but a) they're not; b) people don't agree on the terms as much as I thought they would.
Do you have any other analysis type you can recommend that would be worth an exercise like this?
Nothing off the top of my head, for overall story I'm just looking at old-school stuff like Lajos Egri.
I came to screenwriting through fiction writing – mostly slow, literary, internal stuff, with a little genre – and my guidelight there was just: want, action, obstacle, and looking at what came before to figure out what "should" happen next (in quotes because there are lots of potential "shoulds.") I had to learn a totally different skillset because the things I value most about that kind of writing - the beauty of language, a character's thoughts and feelings - can't be filmed.
But it did give me a good basis for building outlines beat by beat, basically doing a Clurman breakdown as I write. And if I got the scene "right," I just let what came before propel me into the next scene, and a macrostructure just kind of emerges.
EDIT: forgot to say I love your dinosaur example, that's exactly right.
What is a Clubman breakdown? I seem to be bad at Googling that.
EDIT: I would also like to add that whenever a Dinosaur shows up in your script, I DO think you're on a good path.
Sure, it's named after Harold Clurman (at least "Clurman breakdown" is the term I read somewhere). The idea is that you can analyze a script beat by beat by reducing each character's tactics to a verb. So if I take this short scene from the movie SPOTLIGHT, I'm going to try to assign each beat its own verb or verb phrase, in bold:
INT. GLOBE, BULLPEN - LATER
Mike walks over to STEVE KURKJIAN’s desk. 60s, an old timer.
MIKE: Hey Steve. Crummy game last night. (commiserating)
KURKJIAN: A disgrace, they can’t hit worth a nickel. (agreeing)
MIKE: How you think it’s going in the ten-thirty? (probing)
KURKJIAN: Like it goes every morning. (shutting him down)
Mike looks toward the conference room.
MIKE: What’s Eileen doing in there? She’s not an editor. (fishing)
KURKJIAN: Do you need something, Mike? (confronting)
MIKE: No. Just curious. (deflecting)
KURKJIAN: I’m on deadline. Go be curious somewhere else, will you? (dismissing)
Sometimes I'll give feedback on a script and tell someone they're repeating beats and their conflicts aren't progressing; this is the technique I do to figure that out. It can show if the scene tactics are escalating properly and changing the emotional charge.
And while this isn't true of all analysis tools, I think this one is decent for plotting and awesome for rewriting. Sometimes I don't know what I want someone to say next, so I'll write, "Bobby admits to guilt, but he does it in a jokey, plausible-deniability way." or "Peter asks an innocent-sounding but loaded question about X."
When I'm rewriting, I'm looking hard at the intention behind every line. So I can look at the breakdown and ask myself, "OK, I know the intent of this line is "confronting" – so what're the 3-4 most in-character ways for this person to confront the other?"
Basically, it's how I take my OK first drafts and progressively try to top myself with each rewrite.
I think there can be a ton in value in doing what you're doing - using the models as a starting point for breaking down movies. Anything that has you watching movies closely and thinking about how they work in different ways is likely to be a net positive.
But I think there is very little value in anyone else reading your analysis. The benefit comes from the work, not the result.
YMMV.
I fully agree. Which is why I'm doing the exercise.
At the same time I would've loved to have this sort of document while reading the book, just as an illustration to make some ideas 'click' better.
(Again, I'm an amateur and who knows if what I'm writing there is even in the spirit of the author.)
I really enjoy these. Thanks for making these. Looking forward to reading more.
Thank you very much. I'll definitely do more. Although despite how enjoyable it is to binge all these movies, I don't have so much time the coming weeks to keep up the pace.