Here’s a selection of the different types of people involved with screenwriting: writers, consultants and teachers.

Just one hour of your time watching/listening to these videos may provide you with years of expert knowledge.

Christopher Volger

Michael Hauge

Joe Eszterhas

Julian Friedmann

Callie Khouri

Linda Seger

Blake Snyder

It’s a good screenplay, the laughs come along regularly and there aren’t any parts where you feel the need to write your grocery shoping list while getting bored.

So often ‘Disney’ type films for children are so sanitized, that they offer just a few big action moments and not much story in between. Some Disney films are quite brilliant, but the current trend into meaningless animated features with star names for the voices, leaves so much to be desired, but I’m not seven years old anymore; I’m not their target market, although the theatres like children’s movies because they bring their parents/guardians/uncles/grandparents and get to sell three over-priced soda and popcorn/hot dog selections. This isn’t a Disney product, but comes from Dreamworks with Nickelodeon. Perhaps that’s why it doesn’t ‘feel’ like a Disney. It ‘feels’ more like a complete movie for all ages.

The story comes from Lois Duncan’s novel of the same name (I must go get a copy), with the screenplay being adapted by Jeff Lowell, Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle. These guys have attacked the structure of the screenplay like an ‘A’ listing Hollywood movie. It has all the plot points at exactly the right position and could all have been using Blake Snyder’s ‘Save the Cat’ methodology for writing this screenplay.

Emma Roberts and her brother Jake T Austin are two kids who live with weird foster parents (including Friends’ Lisa Kudrow playing the same Phoebe Buffay type character, but perhaps slightly stranger, if that’s possible.) The kids have a dog – Friday – who they have to hide from their foster parents and find a good local home for him when they stumble across a local disused hotel. Word gets around and suddenly the hotel is full of dogs. The kids teach the dogs to entertain and look after themselves while the trainers are at school. Subsequently a problem occurs when the kids are elsewhere, the adults find out and the police get involved.

Enter the quite brilliant Don Cheadle who looks like he acts without trying, a sure sign that he’s working very hard. His short regular appearances keep the long term plans alive and being (almost) a children’s film, we have the worrying points just before the ‘everyone loves everyone’ big finish. The ending is exactly as you would have guessed all the way through the film, but it will guarantee that everyone is smiling when they leave the cinema. The extra sensitive movie critics will be looking for the sick bag, but that’s just because they can’t believe a kid’s film can be this good. More so, they won’t be able to bring themselves to admit it.

The use of good looking Emma Roberts, who must have been around sixteen when she made the film, will satisfy the male audience from ages 14 to 90, while children will idenfity with Jake T Austin’s eleven year old character. Apart from some cat lovers, the dogs will appeal to almost everyone. Throw in Don Cheadle for the women aged 25 and over and you’ll see how cleverly the writers have matched a movie for all audiences.

Interestingly, Lois Duncan herself emerges as an extra in a crowd scene. That’s a nice touch and a thank you to the original book author.

On a budget of $25 million, they’re over 100% ahead already before DVD sales, even after accounting for the theater’s 50% share. Perhaps other studios could take note of the high quality throughout this movie, great screenplay, appeal to all ages and the cost is a quarter of most budgets these days.

This is an excellent movie, take all the family and you won’t be disappointed unless you expect monsters and aliens and big blow up everything scenes. However, in their place you do have to admire the excellent variety of dogs on show and their wonderful comic moments. The dog training must have been of the highest order.

Dogs using human toilets? Yes toilet humor is still alive and working.

5 stars*****

There’s a substantial difference between wanting to write a superior screenplay that you would like to write and a killer screenplay that you want to win the academy award. If you follow Blake Snyder’s rules you’ll be on target for your academy award rather than the screenplay you really sought to write.

Blake shows us the rules for writing the blistering screenplay; the script that will be set up with a structure that matches exactly what Hollywood is looking forward for, down to the very page where vital action must occur. You (and your script) will need major surgery if you don’t have the ‘all is lost’ moment on page 75! Dare you move it to page 74 or 76? According to Blake you’ll put it exactly where he says otherwise Hollywood and studio executives will turn to page 75 and if they fail to see your ‘all is lost’ moment, your screenplay may be heading for the trash can. Can you cope with such detail as a screenwriter?

If you want to write a full flowing masterpiece and it doesn’t matter to you if it can get made, if you want to break all the rules; then it’s best you know all the rules first, so you know which ones to break and where.

Blake has had great success as a screenplay writer, seen his screenplays as movies, so his opinion does count. He has also sold a high number of scripts that have yet to be turned into films, so he must know what he’s talking about, but his opinion is just an opinion and as is the way with opinions, others will disagree. They’ll say he’s too structured in his approach, but he agrees with that thought. His structures are what Hollywood business studios want; it’s the type of script they’ll buy.

Blake suggests you spend a lot of time getting your logline ready first. You should make it so good that once heard, you’ll just need to see the script.

Next he talks through genre. He’s created ten different named genres, but the way he takes you through them, you know he’s right. He leaves little room for disagreement. If you know your logline and your genre inside out (watch movies in your genre!) you’re well on the way to organising your plan.

Blake takes us through the necessary planning of your hero. Where he’s been, where he’s going. What he has to go through to get there. You’ll need to know your hero through your logline.

Now if you think you’re ready to write your script Blake will tell you otherwise. Now is the time to really plan your movie into his specific 15 ‘beats’ which provides the structure of your screenplay, explaining how it can be cast on your storyboard. His software matches the beats and storyboard exactly – we’ll review it and post it here.

Blake expertly shows us how a major movie exactly matches his ‘beats’ planning. His second book (Save the Cat Goes to the Movies: The Screenwriter’s Guide to Every Story Ever Told) takes fifty movies and breaks them all down to his perfect 15 beat arrangement. We’ll review that later and let you know what we think.

Finally you get to write your script and it’s here that this book also guides you though the problems you may come across and how to solve those issues.

It’s a wonderful, friendly read. He comes across as your friend, but don’t mess with his views, because he’s right!

You’ll either love or loathe Save The Cat. I suggest you give it a read if you want to write your academy winner. If you just want to write your movie for pleasure and not necessarily to gain a hit, the book is still a great read because it shows you all the rules you’ll need to break, and you might just prove Blake Snyder wrong.