Lessons from the Screenplay

Gone Girl uses classic screenwriting techniques to tell its twisty, modern noir story. This video examines three of the techniques used by screenwriter Gillian Flynn to see how and why they work so well.

Most disaster movies are comprised of boring characters, uninteresting antagonists, and a ton of so-what deus-ex-machina action scenes. Independence Day manages to avoid these pitfalls and succeed where most movies fall short, making it a memorable and exciting film 20 years after its release. On the eve of the release of its sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, I examine a few techniques that the screenplay for ID4 executes well.

The screenplay for Ghostbusters is actually pretty underwhelming if you only focus on the details. But if you zoom out and look at the macro-scale of writing — coming up with a premise and figuring out how to execute it — Ghostbusters stands as a great example of the importance of execution. It’s not just what your story is about, it’s how you tell it.

American Beauty is one of my favorite films, and there are so many lessons to be learned from its fantastic screenplay. In this video I cover how screenwriter Alan Ball designs and reveals character.

In the last week of editing, director Sam Mendes cut out a big portion of the film. Why? What are in the missing 27 pages that were cut from screenwriter Alan Ball's original version of American Beauty?

Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker is universally celebrated—and with good reason—but there is more to the character than his excellent performance. In this video I analyze what makes The Joker the perfect antagonist for The Dark Knight.

The protagonist of Nightcrawler is motivated, clever, and a sociopath — and despite him taking unforgivable actions, the audience stays engaged in the story. Why? This video analyzes how to create empathy for an antihero.

In Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson’s style is the perfect match for the story. He uses details to create a believable world, establishes the rules of this fantastical story, and creates a tone that forms a connection between the audience and the characters of Suzy and Sam.

The Shining, more than any other horror film, frightens me on a deep, psychological level. This video explores what exactly makes it so creepy.

A comparison of how the tale of the obsessed artist is told in Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, and Vincent Cassel, and Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash" starring Miles Teller and J. K. Simmons.

At its most basic level, a story is simply information being communicated over time. Ex Machina is a great example of how a screenwriter's ability to carefully control a story's information can make for a compelling film.