Gone Girl uses classic screenwriting techniques to tell its twisty, modern noir story. This video examines three of the techniques used by screenwriter Gillian Flynn to see how and why they work so well.
Most disaster movies are comprised of boring characters, uninteresting antagonists, and a ton of so-what deus-ex-machina action scenes. Independence Day manages to avoid these pitfalls and succeed where most movies fall short, making it a memorable and exciting film 20 years after its release. On the eve of the release of its sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, I examine a few techniques that the screenplay for ID4 executes well.
The screenplay for Ghostbusters is actually pretty underwhelming if you only focus on the details. But if you zoom out and look at the macro-scale of writing — coming up with a premise and figuring out how to execute it — Ghostbusters stands as a great example of the importance of execution. It’s not just what your story is about, it’s how you tell it.
American Beauty is one of my favorite films, and there are so many lessons to be learned from its fantastic screenplay. In this video I cover how screenwriter Alan Ball designs and reveals character.
In the last week of editing, director Sam Mendes cut out a big portion of the film. Why? What are in the missing 27 pages that were cut from screenwriter Alan Ball's original version of American Beauty?
Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker is universally celebrated—and with good reason—but there is more to the character than his excellent performance. In this video I analyze what makes The Joker the perfect antagonist for The Dark Knight.
The protagonist of Nightcrawler is motivated, clever, and a sociopath — and despite him taking unforgivable actions, the audience stays engaged in the story. Why? This video analyzes how to create empathy for an antihero.
In Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson’s style is the perfect match for the story. He uses details to create a believable world, establishes the rules of this fantastical story, and creates a tone that forms a connection between the audience and the characters of Suzy and Sam.
The Shining, more than any other horror film, frightens me on a deep, psychological level. This video explores what exactly makes it so creepy.
A comparison of how the tale of the obsessed artist is told in Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, and Vincent Cassel, and Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash" starring Miles Teller and J. K. Simmons.
At its most basic level, a story is simply information being communicated over time. Ex Machina is a great example of how a screenwriter's ability to carefully control a story's information can make for a compelling film.
Sorkin's dialogue is famous for being rapid-fire and full of wit. In this video I look at the function of this style, how he uses non-linear structure to frame the story, and the critical role that collaboration played in the creation of The Social Network.
When Harry Met Sally takes the conventions of a classic from-hate-to-love story and flips them on their head, creating a unique and charming film.
Examining the elements of suspense that Quentin Tarantino put to use in the opening scene of Inglourious Basterds.
Breaking Bad is celebrated as one of the best TV shows of all time—but every series has to start somewhere. This video looks at how the structure of the pilot episode sets up everything the audience needs to know about the series.
In this video I examine some of the flaws and imperfections in Rogue One and The Force Awakens to extract the lessons we can learn about showing vs. telling, active protagonists, and meaningful consequences.
Examining how Arrival was adapted from the short story it was based on, how clever editing kept the focus on the protagonist, and why good science fiction is really a study of humanity.
Despite the dark and gruesome subject matters of True Detective and Se7en, the character arcs of the main characters tell a story of profound optimism.
Creating a story is often as much of a journey for the writer as it is for the characters. In this video I look at the writing process for Inside Out to examine how the powerful emotions in the film were inspired by the real-life experiences of the writers.
This video looks at how Game of Thrones—and the Battle of the Bastards episode in particular—evokes such strong emotions in its audience by making sure every scene has a compelling value transition.
Analyzing Christopher Nolan's film Memento, and how he manages to tell a compelling story when most of it happens in reverse chronological order.
Blade Runner was the first film to take the thematic elements of classic film noir and bring them into a sci-fi, dystopian future. This video analyzes those elements and examines why the private detective of classic film noir is the perfect fit for the world of Blade Runner.
Examining how Logan and Children of Men begin their stories and send the heroes down the path of redemption.
Hidden Figures is about three women, but it focuses mainly on Katherine Johnson’s story, so the other two women are given their own subplots. This video looks at the elements of subplot and how to design a subplot that supports the main plot.
David Fincher recently implied that the MCU is "lassoed and hogtied" by three-acts, so I wanted to investigate this statement. This video begins this process by examining how to define an act using Marvel’s The Avengers.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an exciting thriller about an unlikely pair of misfits trying to solve a forty-year-old crime, but it’s also interesting from a structural perspective. It uses a non-conventional, five-act structure. This video breaks down the anatomy of an act, to examine how the film breaks the rules while following them at the same time.
Get Out takes a situation that is universally relatable and adds a specific and unfamiliar protagonist. In doing so, the film unlocks new ways of creating tension and establishing trust. This video examines the new storytelling techniques Jordan Peele applied to 2017’s Get Out.
The USS Callister episode of Black Mirror is a bit of an anomaly amongst the nineteen episodes of the series. It cleverly introduces the antagonist in an unconventional way, brings the premise of an old Twilight Zone episode into the near future, and manages to constantly be doing multiple things at once.
Michael Mann’s 2004 thriller Collateral is a great example of how a protagonist’s facade is slowly stripped away as their inner self is forced to rise, and what happens when these two sides of the character collide at the midpoint of the story.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a strange movie. The things it does well, it does very well, and the things it drops the ball on, it really drops the ball on. In this video I look at the character arcs of Finn and Kylo Ren, comparing what works and what doesn’t. And finally, I collect my thoughts on the idea of letting the past die.
Jurassic Park is a great example of how theme can be used to design a cohesive and powerful story. Author Michael Crichton and screenwriter David Koepp use the theme as the DNA of the story, creating interesting characters with opposing viewpoints that explore the question at the heart of the film: Is everything we call “progress” actually progress?
Killmonger is a great example of how an antagonist can challenge the hero not just through confrontation and violence, but by representing something that affects the hero emotionally.
The Mission Impossible franchise is full of great examples of how to construct a compelling heist sequence. This video examines the heists from the original film and Mission Impossible — Rogue Nation to reveal the anatomy of a heis
No Country For Old Men is a film that challenges the audience in the best possible way. It never condescends and refuses to spell things out—instead compelling us to connect the dots and participate in the storytelling. This video examines some of the ways it achieves this.
Sound always plays a particularly important role in the horror genre, but A Quiet Place takes this a step further, making sound itself a key element of the story. So in this video I talk to the sound designers of the film, Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn, to learn more about the ways sound can be used in storytelling.
Edgar Wright films are always full of flashy, fun style, but what makes them so memorable is their equal focus on substance. This video looks at how everything in Shaun of the Dead—from supporting characters to the rise of zombies—is designed to enhance character.
The Devil Wears Prada does a great job of setting up its story in a very fun and efficient way. This video goes on a tour of the first ten pages of the screenplay to see how it concisely sets the stage for the entire film.
Good Will Hunting is a film that puts the psychological aspects of story structure right on the surface. This video examines how characters use defense mechanisms to protect themselves, how the supporting characters in a story can be designed to weaken these defenses, and how these elements work together to create a powerful catharsis for both the characters and the audience.
Every genre brings with it a set of expectations that shapes the kinds of stories it can tell and the themes it can explore, and science fiction is perhaps the best genre to openly explore fundamental ideas of existence. So in this video, we investigate how Annihilation takes biological, existential concepts and translates them into narrative elements. We explore how these are expressed in every element of the story, from the characters, to the environment, to the monsters that inhabit it. And we examine how subverting one of the fundamental elements of character creates an experience that is truly alien.
The premise of Groundhog Day is expertly constructed to drive natural, organic character change. In this video, we examine how Phil is designed to be a character that seems like he could never change, dissect how the premise of the story traps him in a world that will constantly attack his character flaw, and explore how the relentless nature of the premise ensures that the protagonist will have no choice but to transform.
From the first frame of Searching to the last, everything the audience sees happens on a computer or phone screen. While the plot of Searching is fairly conventional, this storytelling approach is used to enhance the mystery and elevates the film to a nail-biting thriller. This video dissects how the screenwriters made the film emotionally compelling by ensuring the designing principle, theme, and story were perfectly in sync. It investigates how they adjusted traditional screenplay format to convey a plot that takes place entirely on screens. And explores how they took something as simple as typing a text message and used it to reveal character.
The Silence of the Lambs is filled with compelling, tense scenes between Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling. In this video, we look at the anatomy of a scene. How each follows a three act structure, and plays a larger role in the narrative.
Adaptation does a fantastic job of portraying the insanity of the writing process. It is a movie about the screenwriter writing the movie the audience is watching, and it cleverly examines the struggle of trying to create something original while also making it accessible to an audience.
One of my favorite scenes in the MCU is the car ride to homecoming in Spider-Man: Homecoming. At first glance, this scene could be straight out of any high school comedy, especially since the film was intentionally modeled after the John Hughes high school comedies of the 80’s. But being in a superhero film, and following a huge revelation in the story, it is also a scene of real tension—three characters trapped in car, trying to hide some really big secrets. So in this video we explore why the twist that sets the stage for the scene is so effective. We examine how the characters’ secrets are teased out in a way that keeps the scene dynamic. And we look at the importance of crafting clever obstacles to put in the way of your characters.
Phillip K. Dick is well known for inspiring some of the greatest story worlds ever put on screen, and Minority Report is no exception. But the design of the technology isn’t the most important part of the story world. The concept of Precrime—arresting people before they’ve actually committed a murder—is the important part of Minority Report’s story world; the futuristic cars, jetpacks, and illogically transparent screens are just cool. In this video we compare three versions of this story—Philip K. Dick’s original short story from 1956, Jon Cohen’s 1997 script, and Scott Frank’s final script—to explore how each tries to establish the philosophy of the story world. We look at how they attempt to persuade the audience to believe in the system of Precrime, and examine how the story world itself becomes the antagonist of the story. Let’s take a look at Minority Report.
The “Before Trilogy" is, in my opinion, one of the greatest gifts of modern cinema. Three films, each separated by nine years, that together tell a beautiful and brutal story of what love means as we progress through life. All three films have an unusual form—comprised almost exclusively of lengthy conversations between the two central characters, Jesse and Celine. So in this video we break Before Sunset into five acts and dissect each one to uncover the invisible structure that keeps eighty pages of conversation engaging, we look at how the script constructs and then destroys each character’s facade, and we examine how each moment is tied to the central dramatic question.
In this video we explore how The Matrix expertly conveys exposition by making the audience curious and embedding it in thrilling action.
Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day are generally regarded as two of the best sequels ever made. In this video we explore some reasons why.
In this video we chat with writer and creative director Neil Druckmann to learn about some of the techniques game designers use to tell their stories. Many people might not associate video games with "storytelling," but video games can tell deeply emotional stories with rich character arcs that you don’t simply watch unfold, you participate in. The 2013 game "The Last of Us" from developer Naughty Dog is one of the very best examples of how to tell a story through the medium of a video game.
The freerunning chase in Casino Royale serves as a great example of how an action sequence can reveal character, and how to introduce the world to a new James Bond.
Parasite a tense social satire about a poor family, the Kims, who con their way into becoming the servants of a rich family, the Parks. In February 2020, it made history by becoming the first non-English language film to ever win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. In this video, we examine the way Parasite cleverly utilizes symbols and motifs to express its theme.
Celebrating its 70th anniversary, the Hollywood classic Sunset Boulevard tells a story that follows an uncommon trajectory. Instead of containing a "positive change arc" as so many films do, this is a story of disillusionment. And despite it being a story from long ago, this disillusionment story bears remarkable similarities to Parasite—a tense social satire about a poor family, the Kims, who con their way into becoming the servants of a rich family, the Parks. In this video we compare the character arcs from both films.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, also known as the Infinity Saga, features multifaceted, three-dimensional characters. In particular, Iron Man and Captain America have compelling and complete arcs that span the series’ impressive run. This video dives into those arcs to examine how they're introduced as flawed characters, demonstrate how they're forced into extreme and opposite positions at the midpoint of their journeys, and explore how the completion of their character arcs leads to balance and closure for both heroes.
A well-designed team of characters enables the story's protagonist to achieve their goal, and at the same time keeps the story interesting by providing a constant source of conflict. In this video we examine the team tasked with hunting down a great white shark in Jaws to see how each individual’s character traits create the ideal balance of harmony and dissonance.
Mad Men, a show about mid-twentieth century American advertising, skillfully employs text, subtext, and symbolic imagery to emotionally sway the audience. In this video, we break down the acclaimed season 1 finale, "The Wheel", to uncover how the show's protagonist, Don Draper, utilizes all the meaning-making tools at his disposal to make a sale, even as the show's creators use those same tools to evoke a response in us.
X-Men: First Class thoughtfully utilizes the setting of its midpoint sequence, Sebastian Shaw’s attack on Division X, to heighten the scene’s emotional impact on the audience. In this video, the LFTS team breaks down the design of the young mutant’s archetypal “warm house”, the roles it helps establish, and why the scene feels so dramatic as that sense of safety is stripped away.
The Outer Worlds demonstrates how companion characters and player choice can come together to create a unique experience for each player. In this video, we explore how Parvati Holcomb, one of the first companions you meet, can influence the decisions you make throughout the game and how your advice and choices shape your relationship as you help her deal with a difficult situation.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl showcases the best of the adventure genre by using key genre elements as fundamental building blocks of the story and character design. In this video, the LFTS team explores four critical components of classic adventure films, dives into the deeper ways Pirates utilizes them as core design rules (or guidelines), and demonstrates why remixing the genre with an unexpected element helps make the film feel fun, spooky, and surprising.
This video examines one of Christopher Nolan's trademark techniques—the crosscut—by dissecting The Dark Knight, Inception, and Interstellar.
This video examines how the unique tone of Stranger Things—a blend of sci-fi horror and 80s coming-of-age nostalgia—is conveyed in the show’s pitch deck, in the script, and on the screen.
Coraline borrows elements from some of the most ancient forms of storytelling itself. In this video, we examine how Coraline uses an underlying fairy tale structure to shape the protagonist’s journey, dissect how the film also incorporates grotesque imagery and classic ghost story elements, and discover how utilizing all these ancient forms lends power to the story by reinforcing one of its central themes.
We look at how screenwriter Aaron Sorkin constructs a battle by examining how the script establishes compelling stakes and defines both the battleground and weapons used to fight, and we dissect how increasing the pressure on the central characters results in an unforgettable climactic explosion.
We look at how Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" is a simple, memorable example of five-act story structure.
In this video we examine two fundamental elements of character design—want and need. Pixar's film Soul puts these aspects of story structure right on the surface, and demonstrates why they're so critical to creating a compelling, emotional character arc.
In this video we do an in-depth breakdown of the midpoint scene of Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
In this video we explain why Mass Effect has the potential to be "the next Game of Thrones" and pitch our vision for a Mass Effect TV show.
Story Mode is a video series dedicated to exploring storytelling in video games.