Tips & Tricks

Marty's Big Three

Directions - What we see on screen
Dialogue - What we hear the characters say
Setting - The world of the story

HOW TO TELL A STORY IN TEN SECONDS

The story on paper is called the screenplay. The story line is also called the plot. Story lines can be as simple as 1-2-3.

Act 1 - Something happens to force the main character to action.
Act 2 - Everything that can go wrong does go wrong.
Act 3 - The worst happens, things get fixed, everyone lives happily ever after.
Marty's sample story line: Marty meets la Fanny. Marty loses la Fanny. Marty and la Fanny fall in love ... all over again.
Marty's note: Sad endings are usually a downer. Unless you're Shakespeare ... or Mel Gibson.

Topic #3

Genre: In movie lingo, the genre is the type of story you are telling. Some examples of genre and their storyline might be:

The Comedy: Charlotte, the new girl in school, gets the table cloth stuck in her zipper. (Think I love Lucy meets Hilary Duff. Does the word mortified sound familiar?)

Drama: Marty and his Posse solve a crime. Marty has an identity crisis and loses his doggy focus…stupid cat!

Action Adventure: Avery and the girls soccer team go to the Regionals. Their bus flies off a cliff into a raging river. At the last minute they are rescued ... by Marty of course.

Love Story: Maeve and her latest boy fave share a hot chocolate at Montoya's bakery. Hi jinks ensue ... Hearts flutter.