Save the Cat - K-Tock's Korner

Booster Rockets

October 9, 2011October 9, 2011Booster Rocket, Save the Cat, The Shawshank Redemption, The Usual Suspects

Recently, I was reading the scripts for The Usual Suspects and The Shawshank Redemption, two of my favourite movies of all time. Both shared a technique mentioned in Save the Cat, called a Booster Rocket.

The Princess Bride (1987 shooting script)

August 28, 2011August 28, 2011analysis, Beat Sheet, Save the Cat, The Princess Bride

After many days and months of neglect, the beatsheet for The Princess Bride is here. It is based off a 1987 shooting script I found at The Daily Script, a website that has a large

Prison Break and ‘Cat’ Killers

June 20, 2011June 20, 2011kill the cat, Prison Break, Save the Cat

SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers about Prison Break – Season One. If you haven’t seen Prison Break (what are you waiting for? You should see it!) it might be best not to read. I

Anatomy of Story

August 31, 2010August 31, 2010Anatomy of Story, Save the Cat, screenwriting, The Moral Premise

I finished John Truby’s Anatomy of Story yesterday. It is quite a different read than Save the Cat! but still a very informative and valuable read. It doesn’t have the same conversational style or Blake’s

Toy Story 3 and Act Structure

July 30, 2010July 30, 2010act, Save the Cat, structure, Toy Story 3

Not only does a closer examination of Toy Story 3 provide good insight into genre conventions, it is also a very good example of the act structure that Blake wrote about in Save the Cat! He

Toy Story 3 and Genre

July 16, 2010July 16, 2010genre, Save the Cat, Toy Story 3

Watched Toy Story 3 last night. WOW! Just shows you what happens when you nail the story BEFORE production. This, to me, is the secret of Pixar’s success. Because they make animations, they absolutely, positively

Debate: Terminated

June 24, 2010June 24, 2010Beat, Catalyst, Debate, Save the Cat

What does a story lose if the Debate beat is not handled properly, or if it is absent completely? To answer that question I will firstly describe what the Debate beat is, for those who

Terminated!

May 27, 2010May 27, 2010Debate, Save the Cat, screenwriting, structure

My beautiful wife just bought me Save the Cat! Strikes Back, the last of Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! trilogy, and it got me to thinking about the whole structure ‘argument’ again. Surely it can’t be that

BEAT SHEET: Robin Hood (2010)

May 17, 2010May 17, 2010analysis, Beat Sheet, movie, movies, Robin Hood, Save the Cat

Spoiler Alert: The following is an analysis of the movie Robin Hood and deals with most of the events of the movie. Consider the whole article a spoiler. Robin Hood (2010) Directed by Ridley ScottWritten