The "Catalyst" point is the first moment when something happens. Without it the reader will get antsy. Your coverage will read 'NO PLOT' because you would have lost the reader's attention. So, on page 12 the CATALYST must be there according to Blake. Do it. APRIL CONTENT CHALLENGE BY RB
Screenwriting : Save the cat by blake snyder! by Divij Kak
Save the cat by blake snyder!
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Divij - maybe not exactly on page 12, but somewhere in those first ten minutes or so, something has to happen. In some films (like some of these low-budget horror movies I watch), it's happening in the first minute - talk about keeping the interest of the viewer!
You could do it or you could thumb your nose and write your story the way you want to write it.
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a long time ago, i was a reader for a top agency. we would read about 50 scripts a week, in addition to working 50 hrs a week. If a script didn't connect in the first 5 pages, script goes in the trash.
I don't agree with setting the catalyst to page 12. If it happens to fall there, sure but if it comes early, great. You got some great inside advice from Dan, aim earlier.
What's our motto? Aim Low.
@Pierre yup, the good old days of minimum wage and ramen noodle dinners. this was pre- Internet Boom, Xerox machines making 100s of copies
@Dan, I envy your early start in the industry, even if it was a hard slog. Good luck for the future and thanks for the tips you're throwing out.
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I'm starting to think we should stop saving cats and write some more...
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I agree with Dan Max. If your script doesn't sell in the first five pages the odds are it won't. I love 'Save the Cat' beat sheet and use it as a guide sometimes but I don't give a rat's rectum about the page count and like I said I only use it as a guide line.
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Well said, Anthony. :)
Dan. A rat's rectum? Isn't that rat discriminatory? SAVE THE RAT.
David. In this case I guess I should have said a cat's rectum.
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What was Aristotle's box office gross? Movies are cookie cutter, 2 hour entertainment, shuffle people in and out like a fast food. Rotate tables. Sell tickets. Repeat again. The beat sheets is a guide. Its proven. It works. People s asses get bored fast in the theatres
I once jumped over a copy of Poetics... I also once put one in a safe...
yup, it pays the mortgage. ask the thousands of WGA union writers-grinders presently working
Not a believer in high concept.
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I long for the good old days of Hollywood when a movie like NORTH BY NORTHWEST has the protagonist kidnapped at gunpoint 90 seconds into the film...
"While ladies get their bedding done To win themselves a bouncing son-- But bad girls do it for the fun of just being." Ian Anderson
I'm not a believer in gravity - but I still can't fly.
You can fly in your dreams.
Huh? What the... This thread has definitely strayed way off topic. LOL!
Thank you to all of you for making interesting comments.