Film Courage: How Movies Work has now changed its name?
Peter Russell, Screenwriter/Script doctor: Yes, we are now University of Story because
of TV. Because we used to just teach movies and we realized that was limiting. So when
we made the transition we brought all of our genre tools into showing how these same things
work in television. For instance Breaking Bad is a thriller so all the rules thrillers
that you may have had in a mystery (like LA CONFIDENTIAL) and by the way…TRUE DETECTIVE
is a mystery/thriller too. So all the rules of not showing the villain, of good news/bad
news, of ticking clocks…all the genre tools that we use in mystery/thrillers…three plots,
one plot is hidden behind the other…all of that stuff applies to TRUE DETECTIVE. All
the thriller rules of suspense and making an antihero sympathetic by making everyone
around him worse, all of that applies to BREAKING BAD.
You just stretch the form and use the tools. So we can no longer say it’s How Movies
Work. We thought well this is just not how TV works either, it’s how story works. And
by the way all of these things we teach work in novels too. They work in books. They work
anywhere there’s a narrative form.
We have a structural form called the BMOC, which is beginning, middle, obstacle and climax.
These are the four points in any great story where the hero is asked to change. They are
in every great story whether it’s STAR WARS or THE FAULT IN OUR STARS or THE FAST AND
THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT. These four points also work inside every scene.
They are in every action sequence this BMOC [which is beginning, middle, obstacle and
climax]. This rhythm of story is present in all great story. We have a lot of novelist
now and they aren’t even novelist who want to necessarily want to translate their story
to television movies although a lot of them are. But this BMOC pattern transforms their
novels, it transforms their story.
We have a music video guy who is coming to study with us because this BMOC form works
in six-minute music videos too. And so do all of the tools of structure and suspense.
It’s all one thing. I mean I know that sounds very counterculture-ey but it is. It’s all
one thing. It’s one rhythm, just like a pop song no matter how cool or hipster, it
has a chorus, a bridge, a verse, structure, right? Kanye West does and Ry Cooder does,
they all do! Why? Because the human brain is wired to have a certain set of beats in
any narrative form. And that is what we talk about, this BMOC structure. It works always.
Bad stories by the way don’t have this and that’s part of why they are bad. Most movies
are bad, most television is bad. It’s applying the tools properly that is part of what makes
the stories great. It’s simple but unless you’re conscious of it, you don’t do it.
If you don’t have good news/bad news, raising stakes and ticking clocks on every page of
your story, your story is going to be boring. But hardly anyone teaches that. In being conscious
of how those tools work is how you start putting them on every page. And by the way, these
suspense tools work in drama, they work in romantic comedy, they work in every genre
and they work in television too.
Film Courage: So each page of a script has to have those elements [good news/bad news,
raising stakes and ticking clocks]?
Peter: It’s better if it does, yes. If you go and look at a Quentin Tarantino script
or you look at a Christopher Nolan script or look at a Justin Lin script you will see
on every page once you’ve been shown in that every page has ticking clocks, every
page has good news/bad news, every page has raising stakes. A lot of them have other suspense
tools too. But writers are often unaware of this consciously. They don’t build this
into their stories when they write them. Just being aware of how this is…and they’re
cheap tricks by the way.
It’s Good News! “I’m giving you $20.00 bucks.” Bad News! “I’m slapping you.”
Ticking Clocks is just a device ticking down. It’s a evil device pointed at someone. These
are not sophisticated tricks, they are simple. But the greatest artists use them in all of
their best work. You’ve never seen a Tarantino script that didn’t have three or four pointed
weapons in nearly every scene. It’s cheap and it works like a charm. It entertains and
that’s why we also see these in television. BREAKING BAD is nothing but a series of excruciating
suspense devices, so excruciating I couldn’t even get Ceci to watch it. When you sit down
to watch BREAKING BAD you often have to stop because it’s so repellently attention making.
But that is what makes it great.