Michael Karp Zoom screenwriting class, Lonely Planet, Sept. 1, 2020

A screenwriting class from Michael Karp

I was a Hollywood Director of Photography and camera operator until 2000, now I do visual effects, Matchmove and Layout

imdb.com/name/nm0439935

michaelkarp.net/new-index.html

Save The Cat, by Blake Snyder, great book on screenwriting

http://amazon.com/Save-Last-Book-Screenwriting-Youll/dp/1932907009/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=save+the+cat&qid=1597391862&sr=8-1

In this session we focus on the Omeleto short film Lonely Planet and a student film by Zak Cheney-Rice called Yard Sale

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Almost all narrative films contain these elements:

• Make a film about a relationship forming or ending between two or more vertebrates

• Make a film about a secret

• Make a film about a clash of cultures or ideas

• Make a film which makes the audience cry

The basic conflicts in films include:

• Man versus man

• Man versus God

• Man versus nature

• Man versus machine

• Man versus himself

Man versus himself is usually the most interesting conflict

Scripts are about Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.

Why is the most interesting question.

Films are about the journey from purgatory, to hell, to heaven.

Flaws are the fuel for the plot. Your protagonist must have flaws, even if she is not an anti-hero.

Cinema is the art of revealing the secrets of the universe to the audience.

Love triangles are interesting and powerful. Two to the third power, 2 * 2 * 2 = 8 combinations.

Titanic is built on secrets:

• Rose is broke

• Rose is unhappy with her fiancé Cal

• Rose attempted suicide

• Where is the diamond?

• The ship is sailing too fast

• There are icebergs dead ahead

• There are not enough lifeboats

• The ship is sinking

• Who is the woman in the drawing?

• Where is Jack being held prisoner below deck?

• Jack did not steal the diamond, but is the victim of Cal's nefarious plot

• Rose's grand daughter Lizzie does not know who her grandmother really is (a Titanic survivor and much more)

• Rose was a "hottie" with a past

• And the biggest secret is that Rose's spirit is a secret from herself.

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Lisa Cron story analyses:

medium.com/@penguinrandomus/a-writers-guide-to-hacking-the-reader-s-brain-in-5-steps-f5a4062ff8b6

wiredforstory.com/free-resources

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Video clips shown:

Michael Jackson mocap

https://youtu.be/IYc2VV9loiE

Lonely Planet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6ufrASIMSQ

Yard Sale

https://youtu.be/IYc2VV9loiE

Seinfeld sauna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaW4MBwGhF0