When we're watching a movie, it's easy to spot the big mistakes. These are the moments when characters suddenly behave differently or make a decision to facilitate a plot beat, or when heroes escape danger and death at the last possible second in a ridiculous way, or a seemingly dead character is suddenly back. "Somehow, Palpatine returned."These moments are usually jarring and sudden, and they exist because the writer likely got themselves in a corner they thought they couldn't escape otherwise. Writer Brandon McNulty recently broke down nine common storytelling mistakes that plague scripts. The common thread through all these is that they're shortcuts, ways to get your characters where you need them without doing the hard work of earning those moments. Good storytelling requires you to plant details to win payoffs. It requires you to respect your characters. When you take the easy way out, it's obvious.Let's dig into each and figure out how to avoid these. - YouTube www.youtube.com When Villains Won't Commit This happens when your villain has a perfect opportunity to harm or eliminate your protagonist, but instead they monologue, leave the scene, or stall unnecessarily. McNulty calls this "pulling a punch," and it makes your villain look incompetent. The conflict will also feel manufactured in these moments. The hero's survival needs to feel earned through skill, cleverness, or sacrifice. If your villain would feasibly just kill the protagonist when they have a chance, you need a creative way to get the hero out of that...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday