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Save the Cat!
Save the Cat! Goes to the Indies: The Screenwriters Guide to 50 Films from the Masters
In his best-selling book, Save the Cat!® Goes to the Movies, Blake Snyder provided 50 “beat sheets” to 50 films, mostly studio-made. Now his student, screenwriter and novelist Salva Rubio, applies Blake’s principles to 50 independent, auteur, European and cult films (again with 5 beat sheets for each of Blake’s 10 genres).
From international sensations like The Blair Witch Project to promising debuts like Pi, from small films that acquired cult status like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to Euro-blockbusters like The Full Monty, from unexpected gems like Before Sunrise to textbook classics such as The 400 Blows, from Dogville to Drive and Boogie Nights to Cinema Paradiso, here are 50 movies that fit both the “indie” label and Blake Snyder’s 15 beats.
You’ll find works from Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, David Lynch, Roman Polanski, Danny Boyle, David Mamet, Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman, Sofia Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, and the Coen Brothers, among other renowned writers and directors.
If you’re a moviegoer, you’ll discover a language to analyze film and understand how filmmakers can effectively reach audiences.
If you’re a writer, this book reveals how those who came before you tackled the same challenges you are facing with the films you want to write.
With these 50 beat sheets, you’ll see how “hitting the beats” creates stories that resonate the world over.
From international sensations like The Blair Witch Project to promising debuts like Pi, from small films that acquired cult status like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to Euro-blockbusters like The Full Monty, from unexpected gems like Before Sunrise to textbook classics such as The 400 Blows, from Dogville to Drive and Boogie Nights to Cinema Paradiso, here are 50 movies that fit both the “indie” label and Blake Snyder’s 15 beats.
You’ll find works from Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, David Lynch, Roman Polanski, Danny Boyle, David Mamet, Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman, Sofia Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, and the Coen Brothers, among other renowned writers and directors.
If you’re a moviegoer, you’ll discover a language to analyze film and understand how filmmakers can effectively reach audiences.
If you’re a writer, this book reveals how those who came before you tackled the same challenges you are facing with the films you want to write.
With these 50 beat sheets, you’ll see how “hitting the beats” creates stories that resonate the world over.
339 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 4, 2017
65 people are currently reading
190 people want to read
About the author
Salva Rubio
38 books110 followersSalva Rubio is a novelist and screenwriter and something else.
He works as a cinema screenwriter, having been nominated to the Spanish Goya Awards for Best Animation Feature.
As a graphic novel writer, he publishes mainly in the French-Belgian market and his work has been nominated to an Eisner Award.
He has also written classic musical essays and is the continuator of the bestseller screenwriting theory book series “Save the Cat!”
He is an associate member of the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America, West) and he is a member of the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España.
He works as a cinema screenwriter, having been nominated to the Spanish Goya Awards for Best Animation Feature.
As a graphic novel writer, he publishes mainly in the French-Belgian market and his work has been nominated to an Eisner Award.
He has also written classic musical essays and is the continuator of the bestseller screenwriting theory book series “Save the Cat!”
He is an associate member of the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America, West) and he is a member of the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 8, 2023
Nice and helpful.
November 21, 2024
Interesting genre studies.
August 20, 2021
I watched all of the films in this book and studied along with it. It is an invaluable guide to screenwriting. If you have it in you to write a screenplay, this book will give you the tools you need to do so.
And you'll also end up watching (if you're insane, like me) 50 really great movies. Some of my favorites films from this particular book were:
- The Lives of Others
- Funny Games (1997) (original version)
- Being John Malkovich
- Fight Club
- Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
- The Ghost Writer
- Lost In Translation
- The French Connection
- The Big Lebowski
- Get Carter
- Match Point
- Boogie Nights
- Glengarry Glen Ross
- Pulp Fiction
- Erin Brockovitch
- The Elephant Man
And you'll also end up watching (if you're insane, like me) 50 really great movies. Some of my favorites films from this particular book were:
- The Lives of Others
- Funny Games (1997) (original version)
- Being John Malkovich
- Fight Club
- Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
- The Ghost Writer
- Lost In Translation
- The French Connection
- The Big Lebowski
- Get Carter
- Match Point
- Boogie Nights
- Glengarry Glen Ross
- Pulp Fiction
- Erin Brockovitch
- The Elephant Man
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews