Creativity 101, Videos: February 10, 2010 : 6:28 pm

Req’d Viewing: 70-min Star Wars Review

A good movie succeeds for its own reasons, but most bad movies tend to fail in the same ways. When the movie has an enormous budget, the actual creative mistakes become more clear: there can be no excuse of “we couldn’t afford it.”

Friend and composer Alistair Cooper turned me onto the 70-minute Phantom Menace, and having seen it, I think it’s a quintessential example of learning from a big-budget mistake. It should be required viewing for any storyteller.

You don’t have to have seen Phantom Menace to understand most of this, but it would help. It begins as an overview of the story and characters, and then delves deep into a beat-by-beat analysis of the film. Some of the later sections address specific character concerns (Qui-Gonn is a drunk), but there’s still enough important storytelling theory to make it worth anyone’s while.

(There are some “You Suck at Photoshop” author-as-character moments interspersed within the review, presumedly to break up the rhythm, so be ready for some weirdness. I can tell you the review is worth it. I also find it funny how the author has an excellent grasp of story structure and theory, and yet his own works ends with an awkward anticlimax. Nobody’s perfect.)

Part 1/7:

Part 2/7: Story

Part 3/7:

Part 4/7:

Part 5/7:

Part 6/7:

Part 7/7:

If you like the tone of these reviews, you can find more at RedLetter Media.

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5. Test-Screening Your Screenplay

tags: analysis, creativity, story structure