The Hampstead Authors' Society
The Beats, The Board and Storytelling -
Zsuzsanna Ardó in conversation with Blake Snyder about the laws and elements of writing screenplays, and about saving the cat.
Zsuzsanna Ardó: Blake, what triggered the idea of writing of Save the Cat!, your bestselling book on screenwriting?
Blake Snyder: I have had success writing and selling scripts in Hollywood. Many writers asked my advice. The “Beat Sheet” was always a tool I gave to writers that seemed to amaze them. To me, it was just one of the tricks I used. Turns out there were a lot of tools and slangy terms like “save the cat!” that I used and writers responded to, so I wrote it all out in book form. It's been a surprise how popular it is, but the greatest and best surprise of my career.
ZA: How long did it take from the idea to the final product - the book, and then the ongoing workshop series?
BS: The book itself I wrote in about a month. And once it was published, it was immediately embraced and began to be touted and talked about. The success of it has been viral – one writer telling another – and that's the best kind. Bottom line: it's because writers find it helpful.
The seminars I conduct all over the world came as an afterthought. I kept saying “yes” when invited, and now I have monthly sold out classes here in Los Angeles, and seminars all over the world.
ZA: Could you tell us about the nitty-gritty details of your writing process?
BS: It's all in the books! And I have a new book coming out this fall called Save the Cat! Strikes Back, the third in the “last book on screenwriting you'll ever need” series. Know that I am about good communication skills starting with your movie idea, and the notion that a movie is really only about one idea. The good ones may have many thematic threads but are just about one thing!
My method is really about solid communication skills. This is why not only screenwriters, but novelists, playwrights and also marketing experts have gravitated to this communication method.
ZA: How do you structure your days when you are working on a script?
BS: I am working on one now. Early morning is my best creative time, just coming out of the dream state, right into grabbing some coffee and sitting at the computer to work is maybe my favourite moment in life.
I used to be night writer, but I find this early to bed early to rise thing works best for me. I am fast so I like to work mostly on the outline, arc of the characters, and key structure beats first, then blast out a draft, set it aside for a while, come back, be horrified, then start in on the work that will perfect it. I also like to have staged readings of spec scripts I'm working on – it really helps to hear dialogue missteps.
ZA: Your Save the Cat! workshop is a fun, collaborative experience. You seem to be enjoying it hugely as well.
BS: Thank you for noticing! And you are exactly right. I do very much love these weekends! What's great about our workshops is that writers learn more from hearing other writers pitch stories than they could possibly imagine. I am a big believer in writers groups and one of my key encouragements from the weekend is to have participants continue the work in Cat! writing groups by meeting on a regular basis after class. I encourage them to contact me, keep working, and continue the stories they started in class and the vital networking they need to go on to the next step: selling their finished script.
We have a great Cat! group in London that is booming. Our groups in US are getting sales, and creating better stories because they have a language they learned in class that zeroes in on problem areas and offers solutions. My method gives writers a way to express what's wrong and what's right in a constructive way. It's not about like or dislike; it's about working or not working – and why.
ZA: What are you working on at the moment?
BS: I am writing a script on assignment, creating a new spec for fall, doing consultations for studios and perfecting what we call “Greenlight Insurance” for movies about to go into production. Very excited about that. But my love is my Save the Cat! books. We are publishing this third book ourselves; my company is also creating tapes of me talking about the method, and we are even working on a radio show with me as the host, a kind of radio therapist for script problems.
ZA: What would you be working on if it was your choice?
BS: I love it all. The variety of the projects I'm working on offers me new challenges and opportunities all the time. Lately, my speeches have become my new passion. I am a ham it turns out. I like making an audience laugh and love the in-person interaction speaking affords.
ZA: What are your thoughts about European filmmaking and films?
BS: It's a much different system from Hollywood, but my focus is the same: I am looking for movies that I can understand at the “poster” level. It's not surprising that those are often the big hits around the world. The rules of how the audience perceives a movie are the same.
ZA: In your books and the workshop, there seem to be hardly any examples of European films, especially continental European films in language other than English – why?
BS: I wanted to focus on American films first, but I'd like to look at world cinema from the Cat! perspective at some point, I think that would be great. Maybe that is a book down the road?
I was just in China this fall, and I do work with Australian, Korean and South American filmmakers, but my criteria are the same: Tell me a story, one that is primal, one that I get at a concept level, one that is well executed. Those films that satisfy those criteria will succeed internationally, and studying that is something I'm more and more interested in doing.
ZA: Which is your all-time favourite movie, and why?
BS: Gosh. There are so many. I love all the classics. I also love bad movies. I think you learn more from the bad ones. But every movie, no matter how successful, usually has one memorable thing about it. We can learn from every film and every story a writer attempts to tell.
ZA: What do you primarily expect from a movie?
BS: To be transformed. I like to say that a great movie is one where you the writer, and I the audience are standing on a train platform. You and I are getting on that train – and we're not coming back. My concept of the world will be so changed by what you tell me that I will never look at the world the same way again.
But this effect isn't just in award-winning films; they can be found in simple comedies, genre pictures, and entertainments. Our job as the writer is to tell a story about a hero that changes because “this is the most important event that ever happened to him”. And by doing so, change the audience too.
