Story
Page 46
Story values, 34
Storytelling, 113
Stranger Than Paradise, 47
Strangers in Paradise, 359
Strangers When We Meet, 96–97
Straw Dogs, 36
Stream of Consciousness work, 213, 214, 216
Streetcar Named Desire, A, 137–38, 324
Strindberg, August, 54, 217
Stripes, 360
Structure of story, 32–33,See also Acts;Character; Climax; Endings; Inciting Incident
active versus passive protagonist, 50–51
Archplot, Miniplot, Antiplot, 43–47
causality versus
coincidence, 52–53
change versus stasis, 57–58
and character functions, 105–7
classical design, 44–46, 52
closed versus open
endings, 47–49 consistent versus
inconsistent realities, 53–57
creative limitation, 90–92
design, five-part, 181–85
external versus internal conflict, 48–49
and film budget, 63–64
and genre, 86–89, 90–98
linear versus nonlinear time, 51–52
nonplot, 58, 60
“pointless pace killer,” 179
politics of story design, 58–66
quest theme, 196–97
as rhetoric, 113–14
setting, 68–72, 181–85
single versus multiple protagonists, 49–50
subplot/multiplot, 219–22, 226–32
Sturges, Preston, 9
Style, adding vividness to, 395–97
Subplot, 219–22, 226–32
and resolution, 312–14
Sudden Impact, 119
Sullivan’s Travels, 201, 239–40, 241, 301
Sunrise, 366
Sunset Boulevard, 84, 352
Superman, 318
Surprise, 355–56
Cheap, 354, 355
Survival Films, 124, 125
Suspense sentence, 393
Suspense story, 351
Sweet Smell of Success, The, 326
Swimmer, The, 227–28
Sword in the Stone, The, 85
Sybil, 93
Tarantino, Quentin, 342
Tarkovsky, Andrei, 85
Taxi Driver, 201
Technical advances in film, and story, 24–25
Tempo, 293–94 10, 126
Tenant, The, 80, 326
Tender Mercies, 19, 32, 43, 44, 47, 55, 81, 197, 199–200, 290, 303
Terminator, 20, 224–25, 297–98, 372, 379, 385
Terms of Endearment, 126, 127
Testament, 408
Testing Plot, 81, 85
Text and subtext, 252–57
That Obscure Object of Desire, 47, 55
Thelma & Louise, 46, 55, 136, 306, 308
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, 128
Third Thing, 301
This is Spinal Tap, 3, 84, 360
Thoreau, Henry David, 139
Three Faces of Eve, The, 93
3 Women, 55, 56
Thriller Genre, 82, 87, 178, 226, 229, 247, 353–54, 355, 407, See also Psycho-Thriller
Through a Glass Darkly, 50, 203, 271–86, 406
Tightrope, 94
Titles, 408–9
poor, 90
To Die For, 84
Toller, Ernst, 54
Tootsie, 126, 300
Top Hat, 46, 55
Total Recall, 85
Towne, Robert, 154
screenplay of Chinatown, 154–76
Trading Places, 234, 235, 360
Trainspotting, 6
Trans-Europ-Express, 57
Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The, 81, 312
Treatment, 413–16
Truffaut, Franĉois, 9, 312
Turning Points, 74, 209, 217, 233–37
and backstory, 340, 341
and characters’ choices, 248–51
and climax, 311–12
and comedy, 362
and emotional
transitions, 243–48
and flashback, 341
and problem of interest, 346
and question of self-expression, 237–38
scene analysis, 270–71, 286–87
Twelve Angry Men, 292
Twenty Bucks, 227
2001: A Space Odyssey, 46
Ulysses (Joyce), 367
Umberto D, 57, 58
Un Chien Andalou, 64
Unbearable Lightness of Being, The, 358
Unforgiven, 20, 83, 93
Unmarried Woman, An, 126, 206–7
Usual Suspects, The, 70, 351
Verdict, The, 104, 222, 229
Vertigo, 20, 119, 225
Viridiana, 407
Viva Zapata!, 81
Voice-over narration, 344–45
Von Stroheim, Erich, 109
Wall Street, 81, 128, 234, 235, 325
War and Peace, 71
War and Peace (Tolstoy), 137
War Genre, 81
War of the Roses, The, 88, 125, 128, 311
Watership Down, 68
Wayne’s World, 47, 55, 64
Wedding, A, 137
Weekend, 47, 54, 55, 64, 65, 359
Welfare, 47
West Side Story, 85
Western Genre, 81, 86, 93, 192, 407
Wild Strawberries, 47
When Harry Met Sally, 55, 56, 96, 360
Whispers in the Dark, 94
White Men Can’t Jump, 85
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 20, 53–54
Wild Strawberries, 343
Winter Light, 55, 81
Witches of Eastwick, The, 124, 136
Witness, 95, 226
Wizard of Oz, The, 70, 129, 223–24
Woman’s Film, 82
Woolf, Virginia, 54
Wright, Will, 81
Writers Guild of America, script registration service, 15
Writing for film
authorship, 185–89
believing in what you write, 65–66
earning a living, 61–64
endurance, 98–99
from the inside out, 152–76, 412–17
from the outside in, 410–12
mastering classical form, 64–65
and Mind Worm, 374
as poet, 400–408
and risk/maturity, 149–51
screenplay length, 415
step outline, 412–15
style, tips on, 395–97
treatment, 406–8
Yeats, William Butler, 13
Yellow Submarine, The, 85
Young Frankenstein, 360
Young Mr. Lincoln, 84
Zed & Two Noughts, A, 47, 55
Zedung, Mao, 406
Zelig, 84
Zero de Conduite, 47
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For her sensitivity to the truth, for her unblinking editorial eye and omnivorous will to omit needless words, her unerring logic, optimism, inspiration … for her love, I thank my wife, Suzanne Childs.
As the lucky associate of astute accomplices willing to suffer rough drafts, close holes, sand ragged edges, and wisely point out that things don’t always mean what their author thinks they mean, I thank Jess Money, Gail McNamara, and my editor, Andrew Albanese.
If it weren’t for my agent’s uncanny timing, I would have procrastinated this book into the next century. Thank you, Debra Rodman.
If it weren’t for my publisher’s persistence, I would have procrastinated my agent’s promptings into the next century. Thank you, Judith Regan.
If it weren’t for the support of the Evans Scholars Foundation and the minds I met at the University of Michigan, my life would have been diminished. I offer my gratitude to Kenneth Rowe, John Arthos, Hugh Norton, Claribel Baird, Donald Hall, and all other professors whose names I’ve forgotten, but whose brilliant teachings have braced my days.
Lastly, most importantly, my students. Over the years my
understanding of the art of story has grown thanks, in great part, to the questions you’ve asked, questions both perceptive and practical, that have sent me further and deeper in search of answers. This book would not exist without you.
About the Author
Robert McKee lectures regularly in Los Angeles. New York, London, and other major film and television centers throughout the world. For information on the class nearest you, call toll free (888) 67-MCKEE (676-2533). fax (310) 318-3924, or visit his website at www.mckeestory.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Copyright
STORY. Copyright © 1997 by Robert McKee.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-03982-8
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McKee, Robert, 1941–
Story: substance, structure, style, and the principles of screenwriting/Robert McKee.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 0-06-039168-5
1. Motion picture authorship. 2. Motion picture plays—Technique. 1. Title. PN 1996. M465 1997
808.2’3—dc21 97-24139
05 06 /RRD 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33
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