K-Tock's Korner - Thoughts on screenwriting and the movies

Classic Opening/Closing Images

November 27, 2010November 27, 2010Closing Image, Opening Image

Once again, it’s another month between posts. In this one, I want to look at some classic opening/closing image comparisons. The opening image doesn’t necessarily mean the very first shot of a movie. What it

Long Time No Post

October 27, 2010October 27, 2010commitment, motivation, routine, time management

So, it’s been a month since my last post – it has been an incredibly busy stretch of time working at school, in the real world, which has left little time for any screenwriting endeavours.

BEAT SHEET: Inception

September 27, 2010September 27, 2010Beat Sheet, Inception

It is actually several weeks since I watched Inception, but things have been super busy at school, so I haven’t had a chance to complete the beat sheet until now. Hooray for school holidays!!! This

Natural Suspense

September 12, 2010September 12, 2010Suspense, The Natural

I’m just watching The Natural on TV and was fascinated by the way they have created suspense in a number of scenes involving Robert Redford’s character. We, the audience, were witness to a pivotal moment

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

New Additions to the Library

August 17, 2010August 17, 2010Anatomy of Story, books, screenwriting, The Moral Premise

As a reward to myself for submitting my synopsis to the Marza Story Circus Competition, I ordered some screenwriting books off Amazon a couple of weeks ago. Well, they arrived today! I ordered Dr Stan D Williams’

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

Story Structure and Formula One

July 12, 2010July 12, 2010design, formula, formulaic, structure, The Moral Premise

So, Mark Webber won the British Grand Prix the other day – despite having to give up part of his car to teammate Sebastian Vettel. The drama of the F1 circuit. Wait a minute! Drama.

Story Competition

June 30, 2010March 26, 2021Competition

I just checked my email and saw this competition announced on the Raindance newsletter. Looks pretty cool, and it doesn’t require a complete script, just a synopsis of your story. If you’ve got an idea