Stefanik - Story design: creating popular Hollywood movies

Story Design : Creating Popular Hollywood Movies

Copyright 2013 Richard Michaels Stefanik

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reproduce any portion of this book in any form.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored
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Second Edition: 20130215

Seventh Printing: 20130908

ISBN-13: 978-1482373417

ISBN-10: 1482373416

Richard Michaels Stefanik

RMS Productions Company

www.TheMegahitMovies.com

rms@TheMegahitMovies.com

$1Billion Worldwide Grosses
www.BoxOfficeMojo.com

(December 31, 2013)

The analysis of the films in Story Design: Creating Popular Hollywood Movies is based on the versions of the movies distributed on videocassettes and DVDs.

The primary purpose of this book is to serve as an educational research resource for students of popular films, for teaching, and scholarship. These commentaries are published in compliance with the "fair use" doctrine, Section 107, U.S. Copyright Law.

THE WIZARD OF OZ: Copyright 1939 Turner Entertainment

STAR WARS: Copyright 1977 Twentieth- Century Fox, 1995 Lucasfilm.

E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL: Copyrig ht 1982 Universal.

SPIDER-MAN: Copyright 2002 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING: Copyright 2004 New Line

JURASSIC PARK: Copyright 1994 MCA Home Video.

LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS: Copyright 2003 New Line

FINDING NEMO: Copyright 2003 Disney Pixar

LION KING: Copyright The Walt Disney Company.

HARRY POTTER: THE SORCERER'S STONE: Copyright 2001 Warner Bros.

LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING: Copyright 2001 New Line

INDEPENDENCE DAY: Copyright 1996 Twentieth-Century Fox.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: Copyright 2003 Disney

THE MATRIX RELOADED: Copyright 2003 Warner Home Video

SHREK: Copyright 200 1 Drearnworks LLC

MONSTERS, INC .: Copyright 2001 DisneylPixar

BATMAN: Copyright 1989 Warner Brothers, Inc.

MEN IN BLACK: Copyright 1997 Columbia Pictures.

GHOSTBUSTERS: Copyright 1984 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: Copyright 1981 Lucasfilm, Ltd.

AVATAR : Copyright 2010 Twentieth Century Fox, Inc.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Story Design: Creating Popular Hollywood Movies

High Concepts and Loglines

Hooking the Reader with One S entence

The Unique Object and the Main Characters
Unique Object Protagonist Antagonist - Love Interest

The Climax Scene of the movie: the final battle between 29
the Protagonist and the Antagonist for possession of both
the Unique Object and the Love Interest

Plotting for the Audience Emotional Response

The psychology of the a udience: empathy and enmity

Character Development: Identification & Empathy

Personal Object ives: What Characters Want!

Character Motivation: Why They Want It!

Decision s: Making Hard Choices

Relationships: Between Lovers and Friends

Codes of Behavior: I s it the Right Thing to Do?

Transformations: Character Arcs and Changes

Personaliti es: Idiosyncrasies and Style

Supporting Characters : Friends and Enemies

Subgoals and Plot Twists: Creating Unpredictability

Story Objective

Concrete Objects

Personal Values

Subgoals and Subtasks

Strategies and Plans

Conflicts: Creating Excitement

Obstacles

Jeopardy

Self-Conflicts

Enemies

Relatives

Friends

Lovers

Physical Objects

Natural World

Supernatural World

Plots: Designing the Emotional Roller-Coaster Ride

Plot and Story

Events and Actions

The Inciting Event

Subplots and Subgoals

Plot T wists

Plot Organization

Plot Outline Worksheet

Plotting for Audience Emotional Response

The Emotional Plot Graph

Story: What's It All About?

Human Values

Virtues and Vices

Community Ideals

Basic Story Design

A-St ory and B-Story

Story Climax and Plot Climax

Scenes: Creating those Special Moments

Point of Attack

Crisis

Confrontation

Climax

Resolution

A Model Scene

Opening Scenes

Introduction of Protagonist and Antagonist

Climax Scenes

Resolution Scenes

Scene Construction Questions

Sequences: A Series of Scenes

Entertaining the Audience

Excitement

Surprise

Suspense

The Chase

Ticking Clocks

Emotions: Making the Audience Feel

Emoti on and Story

Emotion Words

The Cognitive Theory

Intensity of Emotions

Reactions to Events

Reactions to Actions

Reactions to Objects

Humor: Release the Tension & Make Them Laugh

Emotion and Humor

Humorous Dialogue

Humorous Situations

Humorous Characters

Cat egories of Humor

Megahit Movie Themes: Creating Universal Appeal

Analysis of Popular Hollywood Movies

Wizard of Oz and Avatar

Story Design Research Resources

STORY DESIGN

Creating Popular Hollywood Movies

This book is designed to show a screenwriter how to create an original story that has the potential of becoming a popular Hollywood movie. Screenwriters reading these discussions should want to create commercially successful movies. This book is written as a workbook, with assignments at the end of each section.

The first thing that a writer should create is the concept of the story. Will it be a high concept story? Next, the writer should create a logline for the movie: a single sentence description of the main character and the goal that the character is trying to achieve. Examples of high concepts and loglines illustrate these notions.