Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

by Blake Snyder

Book Overview

Here's what started the phenomenon: the best seller, for over 15 years, that's been used by screenwriters around the world! Blake Snyder tells all in this fast, funny and candid look inside the movie... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932907009
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Michael Wiese Productions
• Length: 195 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.9" x 0.5" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

If you want to SELL screenplays, this is the book for you

I am a screenwriter, and, yes, I actually make a living selling screenplays. If you want to write a screenplay that everyone loves and nobody buys, read something else. However, if you actually want to write a screenplay that earns you money, "Save the Cat" is where you should begin. Is it the last book on screenwriting you'll ever need? Probably. But after you read this book, it's not the last book on screenwriting you'll ever want. That's because Blake's insight and humor will leave you wantting more from this author. It's not that he needs to change any of his advice (he definitely doesn't), but he is apparently taking the lessons taught in "Save the Cat" and showing how they apply to theatrical releases. I can't wait. As for his resume, anyone who knows anything about screenwriting knows it's extremely difficult to sell a screenplay, even more difficult to get a movie made, and nearly impossible to have anything to do with the script once it leaves your hands and lands in the director's paws. Blake's imdb credits might not be your favorite films, but he is one of the few, if not the only, screenwriting authors who have sold anything much less gotten it made. After years of reading virtually every screenwriting book and attending a host of seminars, I can assure you there is nothing better for your career than this book. This is hands down the best book I've ever read on screenwriting. Hell, I even bought the software.

Aptly titled and Aptly Subtitled

The "Save The Cat!" title refers to a method of presenting your protagonist that draws the reader into the protagonist's personal story, even if the protagonist isn't actually very likeable! It is, simply put, have him do something viewers feel a nice person would do -- i.e. "save a cat." I just saw a jeans commercial where a bunch of guys go out on a clothesline to save a dog in order to impress some girls. It's as if the writer of that commercial had just read this book and spoofed it. It works. The method for finding the correct action to introduce a particular protagonist is explained in spare and direct detail in this book, as is every other point in this book. And that brings us to the sub-title. It is indeed the LAST book you will need (and you do need it) to create saleable screenplays. That means it isn't the first one. This book summarizes and organizes, rearranges emphasis, and illuminates all the myriad other techniques taught in other books. This book won't do you any good if you can't read a novel or watch a movie and identify the protagonist, antagonist, theme, Conflict, climax, resolution, denoument, and trace the plot, differentiating it from the story, and identify sub-plots, B-story, & C-story. It won't do you much good if you can't write a story smoothly incorporating those basic elements, most especially conflict. (not necessarily a script, but a STORY. This book doesn't teach storycraft.) You have to master all that storycraft first -- including spelling, punctuation and grammar (both common English grammar and script-ese.) But this book will draw a picture in your mind -- give you the image of exactly what it is you are trying to learn from all those other books on crafting a story for the screen, and save you lots of time as it points you to exactly what you must learn. Once you've mastered what all the other books have to teach you, and then you read this book again -- WOWWWWW!!! SAVE THE CAT! is the AHA! book at the end of the learning cycle. But it's more than that. This is actually a thumb-reference book, a volume you keep on your desk and refer to over and over as you are laying out the structure of your screenplay from basic concept to blocked scenes. This slender volume, in ultra-condensed form, delineates most of the criteria that you must meet in order to produce a saleable screenplay. It's a checklist reminding you of everything you already know about story telling -- but keep forgetting when you write. Keeping it on your desk and referring to it often can cut your production time in half by saving you many mistakes at the conceptual level. This is the book you will keep after you've thrown all the others into the recycle bin or given them to the library. But this is not the place to start if you haven't yet learned to turn a story on a clean conflict. Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Unbeatable

A fast-paced and entertaining read, this book could help you look at your craft in a whole new way. This is a book that doesn't get bogged down in rules and formulas. The funny thing about it is that it all feels like common sense... except it's "common sense" that most of us haven't thought about before! How do you make a "tough guy" character likeable? How do you paint mental pictures when pitching a script? Practical answers abound in this book. Blake is a guy who really, seriously walks up to total strangers and says, "Hi. I have an idea for a movie. Can I tell you about it and you tell me what you think of it?" He does this even though he's already sold million-dollar scripts to Disney and Spielberg. It's this never-ending quest to learn more about the audience and more about what makes movies work that is so clear in Blake's book. He does an excellent job of explaining things in ways that'll stick in your mind-- funny little phrases and lists that are off-beat enough, yet simple enough to remember while you're plotting out your next script. I felt like I was in the hands of a very capable teacher, and a real pro. No matter how many (or how few) screenwriting books you've read, this one is worth buying. It offers a valuable perspective from a writer who is eager to share, never condescending, and knows his stuff. I give it two thumbs up!

Marie Jones, AbsoluteWrite.com book reviewer, states:

OK, maybe not the last book you'll ever need, but if you are a screenwriter or play one on TV, this just may be the BEST book you'll ever need, or read, on the subject of how to break into the big screen big time as a writer of tall tales. Blake Snyder is a working, selling writer himself, so that gives the reader a true inside glimpse into what it's like, what it takes, and what to expect on the long road to screenwriting stardom. Many screenwriting how-to tomes are written by guys and gals who have few or no real studio credits, so with this book you can be sure you are getting the info direct from the source of a successful member of the Hollywood elite. Snyder starts out with a bang, describing how important a good title, pitch and concept are, and giving tons of useful advise for whipping those log lines into shape, the best shape ever in fact, for as the author points out, many industry powerbrokers won't even look beyond a log line...so it better be good. Damned good. He then discusses how to make your story like everything else out there, only different, and if you can come to understand that paradox, you will be a success indeed. We also learn about the importance of creating characters that fit certain archetypes, like the hero and the villain, and how the use of Jungian archetypes can help you shape and mold real people that resonate with the audience. Also covered is the importance of knowing your genre and how to best amplify the style of that genre. Another chapter deals with the author's own system of breaking a script down to 15 beats, and how every successful movie fits this same beat system. We also learn the art of building scenes and the use of those wonderful index cards for moving and changing scene progression, as well as following the basic rules of a great story, rewriting and reshaping the script, and of course, what the heck to do with the darned thing once you've finished. I really appreciated the glossary of screenwriting and industry terminology, something every writer should know (or at least pretend to know in meetings). Although this book does follow the mold of many other screenwriting books before it, focusing both on writing and marketing the script and including summaries and exercises for the reader to expand their understanding, the difference that makes this book stand out is the honesty and directness of the author in giving the reader every best chance to comprehend and conquer the inner and outer workings of screenwriting. "Save the Cat" (I'll let you find out what the title means on your own!) doesn't hold back on doling out the solid advise, and presents it in a way that will not only inspire screenwriters, but also make them more aware of just how hard it really is to succeed. No sugar-coating here, but plenty of motivation and great info packed into one book. So, "Save the Cat" may not be the final screenwriting book you will ever need, should for some reason the entire industry change and ado