The Power of Film and Save the Cat | Patterns in Storytelling | Betwain

 

The Power of Film by Howard Suber

Published by Michael Wiese Productions; First Edition, September 1, 2006

Genre: Nonfiction

Format: I watched Suber's TMC series on Max and read Snyder's Save the Cat

Suber landed at UCLA after earning a bachelor's in English from Harvard and became UCLA's premier teaching professor in theatre, film, and television. He brings the expertise of 50 years of teaching to his TCM series, which breaks down six patterns in modern cinema, integrating hundreds of clips and examples from films as Suber narrates. 

Six Patterns

1. Popular and Memorable--Does a hero have to be popular, or just memorable?

2. Trapped Between Fate and Destiny--Hear Suber's rationale for the difference between fate and destiny.

3. The Power of Character Relationships--The importance of a pair or a trio for building drama.

4. Heroes and Villians--The interplay of good and evil and a higher cause and narcissism.

5. The Power of Paradox--Interest happens as two types or forces who aren't meant to combine, combine. Characters aren't always what they appear. 

6. Love and Meaning-- Looking for triangulation in love, unrequited love, and the mix of love and war are common patterns that entice us to connect with love stories.

BITS

"Unrequited love is too close to the reality of many people's experience . . . I don't know that there's anything more painful than that experience." 

"The conflict between desire and duty runs throughout storytelling." 

"All memorable stories are about power."

"Love is one of those paradoxes: the more you give, the more you get, BUT (most important word in storytelling) something does die in love, which is why the French refer to sexual love sometimes as le petite mort, the little death. What dies is individualism, the kind of individualism which is narcissistic, which can only contemplate itself and sees the world only through itself. When there is genuine love, "I" becomes "we." And when children enter into that equation, "we" takes on another level."

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Save the Cat breaks down screenplays into "beats" Just about 20 years old, some of the examples in the books are dated, but basically, Blake Snyder, author of Save the Cat and legendary Suber agree with Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces: a good story is a good story. Being human is being human. These patterns will repeat forever. The genius is being able to tell a story in a fresh way---to remix the basic elements of humanity in a way that seems new.

RATING

I love thinking about patterns. Whether it's quilting, collaging, cooking, or storytelling, we all have a basic pantry of ingredients that we have to make work. The art of it all is finding spice and texture in the corners. If you feel the same, you may connect with these books.