All posts by Michael Welles Schock
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Hollywood’s Four Classic Narrative Types, Part II: Hero Versus the World
The four narrative types established in my previous article, Celebratory, Cautionary, Tragic, and Cynical have one thing in common: they all present characters who respond...
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Hollywood’s Four Classic Narrative Types, Part I: When the Bad Guys Win
Cinematic stories give lessons on human thought and behavior. This is their most basic social purpose. The story places a certain type of person into...
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First Draft: Conceptualize Courtship in Your Screenplay By Understanding the Romantic Subplot
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. It is a common narrative archetype found in all forms...
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First Draft: Understand The Humility Arc To Allow Your Story’s Heroes To Succeed
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. What quality makes a hero? What single trait must a...
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First Draft: What are Plot Patterns, and Why Should You Identify Them in Movies?
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. What if I told you Star Wars and The Godfather...
Summer 2019
Spring 2019
Winter 2019
Guide 2019
Summer 2018
Year in MovieMaker
Inside the Issue: Acting
Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker: Richard Dreyfuss
American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Stand By Me, Mr. Holland’s Opus… even while reading like a what’s what of cinema, those titles are just a handful...
1Inside the Issue: Directing
Cold Piece of Work: Richard Linklater Braves Greenland Hurricanes for Where’d You Go, Bernadette
Richard Linklater’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette opens with the answer to its titular question. In an impressively executed overhead shot, the camera gazes down onto placid Antarctic waters as...
Inside the Issue: How To
How They Did It: The Farewell Writer-Director Lulu Wang Shares Secrets to Turning Your Life Story into a Memoir Movie
The week before production started on The Farewell—my sophomore feature about a young woman (Billi, played by Awkwafina) and her family’s attempts to keep their grandmother’s cancer diagnosis hidden...