The Book That Is Making All Movies the Same 384
Bruce66423 writes "This Slate story explains how a 2005 book has led to all Hollywood movies following the same structure — to a depressing extent. From the article: '...Summer movies are often described as formulaic. But what few people know is that there is actually a formula—one that lays out, on a page-by-page basis, exactly what should happen when in a screenplay. It’s as if a mad scientist has discovered a secret process for making a perfect, or at least perfectly conventional, summer blockbuster. The formula didn’t come from a mad scientist. Instead it came from a screenplay guidebook, Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need. In the book, author Blake Snyder, a successful spec screenwriter who became an influential screenplay guru, preaches a variant on the basic three-act structure that has dominated blockbuster filmmaking since the late 1970s.' I've always known we could be manipulated — but this provides a segment by segment, almost minute by minute, guide how to do it."
No wonder ... (Score:5, Funny)
No wonder most movies seem like derivative things you can predict what will happen ... because they apparently are.
Still, keep making the superhero movies, and I'll keep going. =)
Did you know? (Score:5, Funny)
This was the book that inspired Micheal Bay's mother to conceive.
Just like all chic flicks (Score:5, Funny)
1. Eye contact. They play coy for a while. He makes a buffoon of himself. She likes him, because he's a little shy.
2. Connection. She hides her innermost feelings from him, while he opens up.
3. Conflict. He either screws up somehow to make her unhappy, or she just can't get over some painful memory from her past.
4. Separation. The relationship falls apart, for whatever idiotic reason.
5. Resolution. Days, weeks or months later, they make contact. They either get together and everything's peachy, or they realize it was never meant to be and end up happy with someone else.
And, #3 always ALWAYS ends up being something so idiotic and petty that nobody with any kind of rational thought process can relate. This is called the estrogen phase.
Damn, I hate chic flicks.
Marketing keeps it there (Score:4, Funny)
This is the method, but it's the sheer horror of marketing the stuff [slashdot.org] that makes it the bible.
“The closer you get to (or the farther you get from) your thirtieth birthday, the more likely you are to develop things like taste and discernment, which render you such an exhausting proposition in terms of selling a movie that, well, you might as well have a vagina.”
Slashdot posts too. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, there's also a formula for the perfect +5 Slashdot post too.
Always start by "I know this will get modded down into oblivion, but..."
Then bash Google, Apple, Facebook, or Microsoft, no matter what the subject is.
Make a car analogy.
Br a grmmer Nazi.
Insinuate all /. are virgins who live in their parents' basement.
Use Simpsons, TBBT, Star Wars/Trek references whenever possible.
Link to XKCD.
Label someone's facts as opinions simply because the guy didn't post a Wikipedia link, and say "oh, don't let facts get in the way of your biased argument."
Save the Cat! (Score:2, Funny)
I can hardly wait for the Hollywood blockbuster movie version of this book.
Re:As you like it (Score:5, Funny)
Me, I tired of "hollywood formula" a long, long time ago.
Sounds to me like someone needs to check out the canon of work by hollywoods greatest story teller of all time, Michael Bay.
Re:Slashdot posts too. (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, there's also a formula for the perfect +5 Slashdot post too.
Always start by "I know this will get modded down into oblivion, but..."
I'd welcome you as the new slashdot post overlord, but Natalie didn't like you for not mentioning hot grits and she was also upset that you were not the frist to mention that vi is superior. Such an attitude almost petrifies me and thus instead of welcoming you, I have to ask you to hand in your geek card.
JJ Abrams (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Slashdot posts too. (Score:4, Funny)
I know this will get downmodded into oblivion but.....
It's pretty obvious you're a Microsoft shill. Your usage of 'ya know' is horrible grammar and you should be ashamed of that odiferous basement dwelling Captain Kirk loving body of yours that no woman would be caught dead near. You probably even think that these ringtones are acceptable to use http://xkcd.com/1241/ [xkcd.com] just like the guys think it's okay to replace their car horn with the General Lee's.
As if you want this for efficiency reasons, provide a citation to prove it rather than labeling your opinions as facts.
Re:Just like all chic flicks (Score:5, Funny)
They either get together and everything's peachy, or they realize it was never meant to be and end up happy with someone else.
This is the only thing that matters. If the couple in the movie don't end up together, you are not going to get laid after the movie.
Re:No wonder ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Protip (Score:3, Funny)
Chick: a baby chicken, or a young woman
Chic: Pronounced like "sheek". French for "fashionable."
And that's why you don't get laid, you pansy-ass metrosexual sitzpinkler PUSSY.
Re:As you like it (Score:4, Funny)
Michael Bay has more of a "cannon" of work. He needs the extra n to pack in more EXPLOSIONS!
Re:Just like all chic flicks (Score:4, Funny)
Man, you use a weird escort service.