My life changed in the summer of 1969 after seeing “Midnight Cowboy” at a downtown Chicago theater, compelling storytelling at it’s best. When I stepped outside the theater, I was in a lucid, bodily-felt altered state – an altered state that was triggered every time I...
“Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.” W. C. Fields We laugh when we witness comic characters being humiliated in a public or social situation. In this clip from “A Fish Called Wanda” we’ll see how this happens to Archie (John Cleese) while he’s doing a...
Great comedies like “To Be or Not to Be” are based on a serious, sound dramatic structure. One difference between comedy and drama is that the audience, prepared to watch a comedy, never really believes that the characters will suffer irreparable physical damage. Do...
We laugh when comic characters are knocked off their high horse, i.e., when their high status bubble of self-importance and entitlement is suddenly burst. Your comic character’s high status is based on an inflated sense of how they would like to be seen by their...
The comic premise is an expression of your main character’s dilemma. Dilemma is the choice between two things that have positive values and is dramatically expressed through the conflict between what your main character desires (outer plot goal) and what they need to...
What is the Driving Engine of your thriller? The Driving Engine — what propels your story forward — in most dramas is based on the back-story wounds and desires of your main character. It’s very different in thrillers. The driving engine in thrillers is generated by...
