Film Storytelling

How do master storytellers compel us? There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story, but few have used a scientific approach. In The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can tell better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers - and also our brains - create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change.

No one comes out of a movie talking about structure. What audiences love and remember about a movie are great scenes. Marlon Brando in the back seat in On the Waterfront giving his "I could'a been a contender" speech. Meg Ryan's fake orgasm in Katz's Deli in When Harry Met Sally with the climactic punch line: "I'll have what she's having." In Superbad, Jonah Hill professing "I love you" to his friend Michael Cera by touching his nose with a "boop".

Theme park designer Margaret Kerrison shares tips and tricks for writers on teams tasked with bringing a narrative to life. How do you take an idea from inspiration to manifestation? How do you move from telling a story to creating a world? In this book, the first of its kind written specifically for writers, Kerrison lays out the craft of immersive storytelling, using case studies to show what works and highlighting the essential role of the writer on a creative team. Ready to take the kernel of an idea and turn it into a full-fledged experience? This book gives you the blueprint.

Robert Altman and the Elaboration of Hollywood Storytelling reveals an Altman barely glimpsed in previous critical accounts of the filmmaker. This re-examination of his seminal work during the "Hollywood Renaissance" or "New Hollywood" period of the early 1970s (including M*A*S*H and Nashville) sheds new light on both the films and the filmmaker, reframing Altman as a complex, pragmatic innovator whose work exceeds, but is also grounded in, the norms of classical Hollywood storytelling rather than someone who rejected those norms in favor of modernist art cinema.

The Hero’s Path: Understanding the Enduring Ideas of Joseph Campbell takes readers on a compelling journey into the world of one of the twentieth century’s most influential thinkers. Joseph Campbell dedicated his life to uncovering the patterns behind myths, stories, and symbols that unite humanity. This book explores his most important ideas in depth, including the Hero’s Journey, archetypes, the monomyth across cultures, and the role of myth in religion, storytelling, and personal transformation. From ancient epics like The Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh to modern classics like ...

Every producer aspires to design an entertainment brand that can grow into a pop icon, a brand whose storyworld or hero has enough creative potential to power spin-offs and reboots, theme park rides and acres of merchandise. So how can independents achieve this degree of success if they don't have a hundred million dollars to spend on a marketing campaign or the time to gamble on a viral video or game? In "Transmedia 2.0: How to Create an Entertainment Brand Using a Transmedial Approach To Storytelling", Nuno Bernardo will show readers how to use the transmedia approach to build an ...

AI-Powered Screenwriting: Revolutionizing Storytelling with Artificial Intelligence Unlocking Creative Potential, Enhancing Script Quality, and Transforming the Industry By Ammanuel Santa Anna Step into the future of filmmaking with AI-Powered Screenwriting: Revolutionizing Storytelling with Artificial Intelligence. This pioneering guide by Ammanuel Santa Anna, a visionary with over 25 years of leadership experience in politics, NGOs, and international business, offers an in-depth exploration of how AI is reshaping the screenwriting landscape. Key Features and Benefits: Unlock Your Creative...

Step beneath the klieg lights and into the beating heart of old Hollywood. From its dusty beginnings as a Spanish pueblo to its transformation into the world’s dream factory, Shadows and Sunshine tells the sweeping story of Los Angeles and the birth of the film industry that defined the twentieth century. Author Jack Mobley transports readers through the glitter and grit of the Golden Age—an era when ambition, innovation, and illusion fused under the California sun to create modern celebrity and American mythology. This is a vivid, cinematic history that captures both the shimmer and ...

Based on a true story, this sparkling and witty novel whisks you to 1956 Manhattan, where famed director Alfred Hitchcock is hosting a star-studded party in an allegedly haunted house…only for the soiree to be interrupted by a ghostly party crasher. After fleeing her mundane life in the...

For nearly two decades, Invisible Ink has been the go-to guide for storytellers worldwide. Used by industry giants like Pixar Animation Studios, Cirque du Soleil, Microsoft, Sony Interactive, Disney Feature Animation, and many more, this book has cemented Brian McDonald's reputation as a globally respected expert in storytelling. This updated 2nd Edition brings even more invaluable insights from the award-winning filmmaker and writer. For the first time, McDonald shares new concepts from his acclaimed classes, including a deep dive into "writing from the inside out," the core principle of ...

Ah, another screenwriting guide? Just what the world needed. And there's nothing new in it too — unless you're paying attention ... FROM CAMPFIRE TO NETFLIX: STORYTELLING TECHNIQUES THAT HAVE SURVIVED THE AGES Skeptical? Good. You should be. But hear us out. This isn't your typical "Hero's Journey" rehash or a collection of Hollywood plot zombies. Instead, we're diving into the ancient art of storytelling—you know, the stuff that's kept humans enthralled since we first gathered around fires to share tales of wooly mammoths and angry gods. WHAT'S INSIDE? Glad you asked: Six emotion pairs...

This edition of Story by Numbers is no longer available.

Introducing Attack on Titan and the Human Condition: A Beyond the Wall Companion Guide: Comparing Attack on Titan’s Fictional Society with Real Life Issues, Politics and Culture, a thought-provoking exploration of the popular anime manga series and its connection to our own human experiences. This book delves into the themes that make Attack on Titan so captivating and relatable, using examples from the story to shed light on the universal truths of our own lives.

A hilarious guide to life from a man who has "lived large and fallen hard--lost every job I ever had, messed up everybody I've ever dated, been kicked out of every institution I've ever been in"--and still survived; offering observations on courage ("Lots of guys brag they'd fight off anything...

Alternating between personal anecdote, hilarious insight, and smart analysis, Luke Skywalker Can't Read contends that Barbarella is good for you, that monster movies are just romantic comedies with commitment issues, and that Dracula and Sherlock Holmes are total hipsters and, most shockingly, shows how virtually everyone in the Star Wars universe is functionally illiterate.

In an evolving networked era, social-issue documentaries like Blackfish are art for civic imagination and social critique. In Story Movements, producer and scholar Caty Borum Chattoo explores how documentaries disrupt dominant cultural narratives through complex, creative, often investigative storytelling.

Welcome to The Ghibili World: The Enchanted Films of a Beloved Studio, an in-depth exploration of the world-renowned animation studio. This book delves into the magic behind Studio Ghibli's iconic films, providing listeners with a comprehensive guide to their themes, characters, and techniques.

John Gaspard's More Popcorn Principles: The Sequel! (Further Cinematic Storytelling Strategies for Novelists) is an illuminating guide that takes you on a cinematic journey, revealing the secrets to crafting compelling narratives and characters that resonate. This book is an invaluable tool for any aspiring or seasoned novelist, blending Gaspard's deep understanding of the art of storytelling with inspiration from the world of film.

Thanks to this guided storytelling course, you will learn how to create and structure a story from beginning to end, following the archetypes of storytelling. If you have a book in your drawer, if you are missing some incipits or some narrative features, this is the path for you. You will learn to create blocks to build in order to make your story compelling and exciting, and to characterize protagonists, antagonists, and secondary characters following a functional narrative scheme that has been used on many occasions, from TV series to novels and ancient literature.

Melanin in Movies examines how Hollywood shapes the perception of Black Americans. This book challenges the idea that Hollywood is just about entertainment, exploring how the film industry actively influences society's view of Black people. By analyzing key examples and trends in Black representation, Melanin in Movies reveals how film can be both a tool for liberation and a means of oppression.