First Aired: June 8th, 2016
Status: Continuing
Network: YouTube
Summary: A more informed audience raises the bar for storytelling. That examining the techniques used to tell great stories makes your own writing better and your appreciation for the stories deeper.
Lessons from the Screenplay makes videos that analyze movie scripts to examine exactly how and why they are so good at telling their story. Part educational series and part love letter to awesome films, Lessons from the Screenplay aims to be a fun way to learn more about your favorite films and help us all become better storytellers.
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# of Episodes: 64
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Season 2020
Episode 5: Jaws — Assembling a Top-Tier Team (feat. @TierZoo)
Air Date: June 19th, 2020
Summary: A well-designed team of characters enables the story's protagonist to achieve their goal, and at the same time keeps the story interesting by providing a constant source of conflict. In this video we examine the team tasked with hunting down a great white shark in Jaws to see how each individual’s character traits create the ideal balance of harmony and dissonance.
Episode 6: Mad Men — Layers of Meaning
Air Date: June 26th, 2020
Summary: Mad Men, a show about mid-twentieth century American advertising, skillfully employs text, subtext, and symbolic imagery to emotionally sway the audience. In this video, we break down the acclaimed season 1 finale, "The Wheel", to uncover how the show's protagonist, Don Draper, utilizes all the meaning-making tools at his disposal to make a sale, even as the show's creators use those same tools to evoke a response in us.
Episode 7: One X-Cellent Scene — Attack on Division X
Air Date: July 23rd, 2020
Summary: X-Men - First Class thoughtfully utilizes the setting of its midpoint sequence, Sebastian Shaw’s attack on Division X, to heighten the scene’s emotional impact on the audience. In this video, the LFTS team breaks down the design of the young mutant’s archetypal “warm house”, the roles it helps establish, and why the scene feels so dramatic as that sense of safety is stripped away.
Episode 8: The Outer Worlds — How Companions Change the Game
Air Date: July 31st, 2020
Summary: The Outer Worlds demonstrates how companion characters and player choice can come together to create a unique experience for each player. In this video, we explore how Parvati Holcomb, one of the first companions you meet, can influence the decisions you make throughout the game and how your advice and choices shape your relationship as you help her deal with a difficult situation.
Episode 9: The Rules (Guidelines) of Adventure — The Pirates of the Caribbean
Air Date: August 13rd, 2020
Summary: Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl showcases the best of the adventure genre by using key genre elements as fundamental building blocks of the story and character design. In this video, the LFTS team explores four critical components of classic adventure films, dives into the deeper ways Pirates utilizes them as core design rules (or guidelines), and demonstrates why remixing the genre with an unexpected element helps make the film feel fun, spooky, and surprising.
Episode 12: How Coraline Borrows from Ancient Forms of Storytelling
Air Date: October 22nd, 2020
Summary: Coraline borrows elements from some of the most ancient forms of storytelling itself. In this video, we examine how Coraline uses an underlying fairy tale structure to shape the protagonist’s journey, dissect how the film also incorporates grotesque imagery and classic ghost story elements, and discover how utilizing all these ancient forms lends power to the story by reinforcing one of its central themes.
Episode 13: A Few Good Men — Writing a Final Battle
Air Date: November 27th, 2020
Summary: We look at how screenwriter Aaron Sorkin constructs a battle by examining how the script establishes compelling stakes and defines both the battleground and weapons used to fight, and we dissect how increasing the pressure on the central characters results in an unforgettable climactic explosion.
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