Save the Cat! Strikes Back: More Trouble For... by Blake Snyder Read Free Book Online

confidence.
    “Blurry Beats” is the same… but different.
    This phenomenon belies the same fear, the same lack of boldness, but it is revealed not in avoiding hitting the beats, but by making them so quiet, so soft, so indefinite, we can't see them.
    I find this often at the turning points of a script: the Breaks into Act Two and Three and at Midpoint. Yes, the writer kinda touches on those. And kinda hits the beats.
    But I want more.
    You cannot
slip
into Act Two. The Detective cannot
kinda
take the case, or suddenly
find himself
on the trail of the killer; he has to decide and step into action.
    Likewise at Midpoint, the stakes can't
sorta
be raised. Big! Bold! Definite! That's how we like our plot points. And if you aren't delivering these, you aren't telling me the story. But what's really wrong is: You don't have the confidence in yourself to tell us a story that we know will work great. If only you thought so, too.
    I'm your biggest fan — and I say: You can do it!
15 INTO 40
    So you have your 15 beats worked out. Now what?
    Well, that's easy.
    In
Save the Cat!
I talk about how every movie has 40 Key Scenes and how I work out those scenes on “The Board.” This simplecorkboard has been the single most useful tool of my career. For those going from logline, to 15 beats, to 40 scenes, it's on The Board where it all comes together, and where we see what you've really got. But could I show writers my shortcuts to turn “15 into 40” in the classroom — and in this book?
    The answer is: Yes!
    For those who want an overview of what a movie is, The Board (on pages 32 and 33) is gorgeous. Please note four rows representing Act One, the first half of Act Two, the second half of Act Two, and Act Three. And look how perfectly the 15 beats fit here. But now we have to make actual scenes, 40 of them, and that begins by taking it row by row and “breaking out” key beats to flesh out the 10 scene cards per row we need.
    Let's start with the first row that constitutes Act One. Take a look. If you've nailed the Beat Sheet you already have six cards out of ten: Opening Image, Theme Stated, Set-Up, Catalyst, Debate, and Break into Two.
    We only need four more.
    To find these, I “break out” the Set-Up card. Set-Up is where we introduce the hero and his world. You probably have a list of things you want in here to “set up” who he is. But what is the best way to organize those scenes?
    Think: at Home , at Work , and at Play . “At Home, our hero lives alone; his neighbor hates him because he never takes his trashcans to the curb. “At Play,” let's say our hero is into bowling, so we're going to have a scene at the lanes with his pals to set that up. While “at Work” our hero's the guy whose secretary bosses
him
around! Think H, W, and P and suddenly that one card breaks out into three actual scenes. And if you revisit at least two of these settings in your “Debate” card, suddenly your six cards become the 10 Key Scenes you need in that row. And while Home, Work, and Play don't apply to
every
story (see the Glossary for a great example of how H, W, and P appears in
Gladiator
), it's an easy way to set up “the world,” and the problem-plagued hero we need to introduce.

     
    The Board with its first 15 cards, representing each of the 15 beats.
     

     
    The Board with additional cards for Set-Up (at Home, Work & Play) and Debate (Home & Work) in Row 1, alternate B Story and Fun & Games cards in Row 2, alternate External and Internal scenes in Fun and Games in Row 3, and five cards for the five “Points” in the Five-Point Finale in Row 4. It's easy to add cards to your original 15!
     
    Moving on to the second row, which represents the first half of Act Two from the Break into Two to Midpoint, we only have three cards appearing from the BS2: B Story, Fun and Games, and Midpoint. How can we get 10 cards from these? Well, again, you're farther along than you think.
    What we're looking for in this row is a