Did You Ever Wish For....?

Working on a script the other day I ended up reviewing part of Chris Vogler’s book THE WRITER’S JOURNEY (3rd Edition). Chris wrote the foreword to The Moral Premise, and I was honored that he did it, considering his fame in Hollywood as a premiere story guru. I have been fortunate to work with him for a few days on some projects years ago.

The chapter I read (perhaps for the first time) in his thick Third Edition is titled Stories are Alive (starts on page 299).

He worked for Disney for years, on staff, as a lead story researcher. This paragraph on page 307 is important. 

He writes about the power of wishing.

Wishes of heroes are the strong point of identification for many people, since we all have wishes and desires that we secretly cherish. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons we go to movies and watch TV and read novels — to have our wishes granted. Storytellers are, most of the time, in the wish-granting business. The Disney empire built its entire corporate identity around the belief in wishing, from its theme song “When You Wish Upon a Start” to the wish-granting fairy godmothers of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella to the genie who grants three wishes in Aladdin. Hollywood executives and best-selling novelists aim to know the secret wishes of their audiences and fulfill them.  (p 307)

In another place Chris writes that a good way to begin a story pitch is to ask “Did you ever wish for ________? Well, that’s what this story is about.”   It’s a good way to connect with the folk you’re pitching to.

Thanks, Chris. 

Final Draft 12 - Exciting Additions

 

[Here is a later post about this Final Draft 12 function with a video from Storycraft Training.]

As a story and script structuralist I have long experimented with various graphic programs like Keynote (Apple's answer to Powerpoint) to graphically represent and revise a story's outline. The interrelationship of Acts, Sequences, Scenes, Beats and story motifs and accents are critical to creating a story and outlining it before writing...or even during the writing process.

A client recently sent me several Final Draft files where he had used Final Draft's Beat Board to outline his ideas. We were both using Final Draft 11. His work was good and helpful, but elaborating on the story's structure using the Beat Board was a frustrating experience because the Beat Board was too limiting in a graphic sense. It just didn't allow for what I considered common sense flexibility. So, I went back to using my favorite program—Keynote (Apple/Mac). 

In the process I sent a number of suggestions to Final Draft about how to improve the Beat Board, so it could actually be used, and not appear as a mostly useless sales decoration.  They wrote back and said..."Hey we just released Upgrade 12, you might want to take a look." 

My first impression, after looking at a half-dozen tutorial videos on FD12 is WOW! They have made significant upgrades in terms of outlining a script IN Final Draft.  I paid $79.99 to upgrade from FD11 to FD12. The major additions include:

• Outline Elements
• Outline Editor
• Track Changes
• Flow Lines (on the Beat Board)
• Beat Board Collaboration
• PDF Import

I encourage you to go to FD'sYouTube channel at http://www.youtube/finaldraftinc  otherwise known as:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYXcOXLvr3X_ZdA1wbs-vyg

and see if this is worth it to you. I do not know yet, but it appears to be a useful revision upgrade to my favorite script writing software. 

I'm not sure if FD12's Outlining and Beat Board revisions will sideline Keynote but I'm going to give FD a thorough looking over. I'm hoping that I can find a way to do a beat level outline for an entire screenplay and have the beats seamlessly find their way into FD's scripting window. Right now, my method of beating out a story in Keynote requires that I copy and paste each beat into FD script page. It's easy, and works well, but tedious. 

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Stan Williams