Dear screenwriters,
I’m getting lots of positive reviews from my readers on the e-book and the booster pack and I’d like to share some of them with you.
“I vowed I’d never look at another story map/plot plan/paradigm etc. again because they seem to throw me in a different direction each time I read one. But your examples guided rather than confined me, so I broke my own rule.”
-Beverley M. Read more
The Emmy Nominations are in. Major categories listed below; for the full list, see The Hollywood Reporter.
Writing noms are at bottom, highlighted in blue.
There’s some great choices this year. I’m most excited about these noms… Read more
Dan’s 2-Minute Screenwriting School brings you Part 2 of this expert panel of top screenwriters including Oscar winners Diablo Cody (Juno) and Dustin Lance Black (Milk, Big Love) as well as Josh Olson (A History of Violence) and Emmy-winning writing team Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Captain America, Chronicles of Narnia, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers).
In this clip, these professional script doctors talk about dealing with studio notes and interference. Read more
I had the opportunity to visit the set of one of my favorite shows on television: the sitcom “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” which shoots on the Fox lot. A group of us observed the shooting of a very funny scene in Paddy’s pub (I wish I could tell you the premise, but I can’t reveal any spoilers), toured the set and interviewed the cast. Read more
Even Spike "the Story Analysis cat" is not entertained by me.
Dan’s 2-Minute Screenwriting School is back in action with an expert panel of top screenwriters including Dustin Lance Black (Milk, Big Love), Josh Olson (A History of Violence), Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Captain America, Chronicles of Narnia) and Diablo Cody (Juno). These professional script doctors discuss the importance of writing multiple projects at once. Read more
Dearest Screenwriters: If you find yourself wanting to give a character a supremely obvious name, please heed my “Mike Teavee is the worst character name ever” Rule, which states as follows:
Roald Dahl can name a character who watches too much television, MIKE TEAVEE, which is pretty much the definition of on the nose, because he’s Roald Dahl. You can’t because you’re not.
-Dan Calvisi
p.s. If you would like to receive more life-changing pearls o’ wisdom like the above, then you must redeem your (non-existent) golden ticket for Story Maps: How to Write a GREAT Screenplay.
Dearest screenwriters: If you are thinking of giving two characters very similar names, please heed my “You are not J.R.R. Tolkien” Rule:
J.R.R. Tolkien can name two separate villains SARUMAN and SAURON, which is a horrible idea, only because he’s J.R.R. Tolkien. You can’t because you’re not.
-Dan Calvisi
p.s. If you would like to discover more nuggets of wisdom such as this, then you must enter the realm known only as Story Maps: How to Write a GREAT Screenplay.
Black Swan is a tight, merciless thriller that forges one, driving throughline that is supported by every character and element in the story. In order to become the Black Swan and achieve her dream of ballet perfection, Nina must prove to her director Thomas that she can transform herself on stage, fight off her mother’s attempts to stifle her and defeat her rival Lily, all while suffering from the rapid deterioration of her psyche. She loses the battle for her mind but she achieves her artistic dream, dancing a perfect Black Swan, at the ultimate cost of her life.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a flawless classic and my favorite film of all time. It is the benchmark of the action/adventure genre and features one of the most iconic heroes in cinema history.
My e-book Story Maps: 12 Great Screenplays includes a Full Story Map for the first Sex and the City movie, which is a great example of a well-written modern Romantic Comedy.
Sex and the City took proven, beloved characters from the television series and wove them into a classic Hollywood Romantic Comedy for the big screen. The first rule of the TV adaptation is “go bigger,” so they gave all of the women life-changing conflicts to navigate.
In an article titled “The Inside Story,” published in Psychology Today back in March, super producer Peter Guber talks about the psychological, emotional and transformative powers of storytelling and how they apply to the movies — WHY we love movies and what gets us engaged.
Stories… are state-of-the-heart technology – they connect us to others. They provide emotional transportation, moving people to take action on your cause because they can very quickly come to psychologically identify with the characters in a narrative or share an experience…
I couldn’t help but find many points in the article where Guber affirms the very same tenets that I put forth in Story Maps: How to Write a GREAT Screenplay. The quotation above, specifically the wonderful phrase “state of the heart,” immediately made me think of a line from my Introduction (excerpt here): Read more
Story Maps: How to Write a GREAT Screenplay E-Book is ready for purchase. Go HERE for excerpts, a sample story map and three options, including a “Booster Pack” with 12 new story maps!
E-Book now available for purchase - Click on image for Limited-Time Offer
“There is a lot of great advice here… Most important, as I read Calvisi’s Story Maps, I was inspired to rethink my current project. And that’s what it’s all about, right?”
-SCRIPT MAGAZINE
Learn the secrets to writing a GREAT screenplay from a major Hollywood movie studio Story Analyst who will show you how to BLOW AWAY THE READER! Master the structure and principles used by 95% of commercial movies by studying detailed breakdowns, or “Story Maps,” of several recent hit movies in all different genres, including The Hangover, The Dark Knight, The Wrestler, Juno, The Social Network, Black Swan, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Drag Me To Hell. It also offers lessons taken from classic films such as Sunset Boulevard, The Godfather, Gladiator and As Good As It Gets, to name just a few of the hundreds of great movies analyzed in the book.
Story Maps: How to Write a GREAT Screenplay cites examples from hundreds of hit films, several television series and includes samples from actual produced screenplays to show you HOW TO DO IT. The book provides detailed lessons on format, capturing voice and tone on the script page and developing great characters with powerful dialogue.
The book also includes exclusive insights from major industry professionals with whom the author has interacted with, including Robert Zemeckis… the screenwriters of Final Destination, Limitless, Armageddon, Antwone Fisher, Speed, Justified and Blade Runner… Elijah Wood… and the President of Production of Columbia Pictures.
You are learning from the pros by studying their work and reading their advice.
This is NOT a formula or just another structure paradigm — it is the view from behind the desk of the people evaluating your screenplay, what they want to read and what they will buy. With all the competition in the Hollywood marketplace, your script can’t just be good, it must be GREAT.
The Appendix of the E-Book includes the following Story Maps:
“Daniel Calvisi’s Story Maps is readable, insightful and exciting. It focuses on the hard work and narrative strategies the screenwriter needs to adopt to write a commercially viable screenplay, and is up to date and strategic in the clearest way. Dan’s book will help you do what you must do to succeed with your screenplay.”
-Ken Dancyger, best-selling author of Broadcast Writing, Alternative Scriptwriting, The Technique of Film and Video Editing and Writing the Short Film
“Loved it! Should be required reading in every film school.”
-Daniel Fazel, sold screenwriter and VFX Artist (Alice in Wonderland, Benjamin Button, I Robot)
“A brilliant example of what every aspiring screenwriter needs to know about the art of writing screenplays. Dan has a no-nonsense approach to screenplay analysis that cuts through the bull and delivers the goods. A must read for serious screenwriters.”
-J. Stephen Maunder, writer/director (Tiger Claws I, II, III, The Veteran, Shadows in Paradise)
“Writing a great screenplay is not easy. Dan has created a book that is straightforward and full of valuable insight and guidance for screenwriters at different experience levels. This book provides a simple way to approach your idea or rewrite for maximum results…and helpful to evaluate your work in whatever stage it’s at so you can make necessary improvements that will allow your unique story and vision to shine!”
-Laurie Lamson, co-editor Now Write! Screenwriting
Testimonials from Readers
Script Magazine Review
Excerpt from the Introduction
Excerpt from Chapter III “The Big Idea”
Excerpt from Chapter VI “The Full Story Map”
Sample Story Map Excerpt: The Wrestler
Sample Story Map Excerpt: Black Swan
Sample Story Map Excerpt: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Sample Story Map Excerpt: Sex and the City movie
Read more about Story Maps: 12 Great Screenplays
About the Author
(Note: the story maps in the books are text-only; they do not contain images from the movies.)
Story Maps: 12 Great Screenplays breaks down 12 GREAT MOVIES (NOW 13! Includes exclusive bonus map, only in PDF version, of the iconic thriller Seven, 1995) primarily from the past decade. These hit movies are fantastic examples of professional screenwriting and rock-solid structure in many different genres and budget levels aimed at varied audiences. I stand by each title as a strong example of its genre and as a primer to learn the screenwriting craft at the level that you need to be: the “submission ready” tier that makes a good script into a GREAT script.
The following films are mapped in this e-book:
Any book that gives lessons in the skill of blowing the reader away is a book writers need to read. From the Introduction to Dan’s closing, “Good luck and Happy Writing,” Story Maps delivers. Imagine sitting around a coffee shop or a bar and talking one-on-one to a movie-writing, storytelling pro like Dan Calvisi. A no-holds barred, no frills, tell-it-like-it-really-is, no sugar-coating conversation. That’s what reading this book is like.
HIGH-QUALITY PDF:
(note: An Adobe PDF file will open on any computer, Mac or Windows, as well as on most e-readers, such as the iPad and the Kindle. My PDF files feature full color graphics, super-fast bookmark navigation and print-style layouts. You can also print the book from a PDF in high resolution, if you’d like a hard copy.)
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All rights reserved. No parts of these books may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
The Story Map is not a formula; it is a story structure that is followed by almost every popular Hollywood film and scripted television series. It does not dictate your creative choices, it only provides a tried-and-true, industry standard framework to hold your choices. With this simple yet powerful exclusive worksheet, you can easily outline your screenplay to create a clear roadmap to guide you from the moment you type FADE IN.
With this low-price package, you will get the newest editions of the Story Maps books with bonus story maps, Dan Calvisi’s notes on two drafts of your original Story Map and a conference call to ask any questions you may have and to get Dan’s commercial assessment of your script’s potential in the marketplace.
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Please contact me to book your consultation.
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For better or worse, Hollywood is always close behind major news stories so it’s no surprise that Deadline.com posted this story only a few hours after President Obama’s stunning announcement of the death of Osama Bin Laden.
Could we see a movie about the hunt for Bin Laden sometime soon, and would it focus on the intelligence effort, the special forces operation, the politics behind U.S.-Pakistani relations or even the ground-level view from the various Middle-Eastern cultures impacted by the Al Qaeda leader? Whatever the focus, I hope that it’s made by top talent and not just a quick knock-off action movie.
This was a very funny discovery.
I bought some old comics from a used book store over Christmas for nostalgia’s sake (and hoping the Wolverine guest appearances might be worth something) and I came across this gem in a John Byrne Namor comic from 1991: Stan Lee announces the upcoming Spider Man movie directed by James Cameron!
Here’s the text, the bolds are mine: Read more
Continuing this Excerpt from Story Maps: How to Write a GREAT Screenplay (Part One here):
I love it when I see a movie or read a script and the writer is willing to “go there,” to take the story to the extremes of the dramatic conflict. Not afraid to shock, offend or make their audience uncomfortable, but to be true to the story and the dramatic elements that they have built.
In The Hangover, the guys tell Phil (Bradley Cooper) not to leave the baby in the car alone and he argues, “I cracked the window!” Awful…but hilarious.
In Million Dollar Baby, Maggie (Hilary Swank) is not just hurt but she is paralyzed from the neck down. Her condition worsens in horrible ways and she asks Frankie (Clint Eastwood) to euthanize her. There is no last-minute save; he must end her life to allow his arc to come to fruition.
In Sideways, Jack (Thomas Hayden Church) has already had one affair and got his nose broken in 3 places, but he still insists on sleeping with the waitress, leading him to get caught by her husband. It gets worse when Jack makes Miles (Paul Giamatti) go back to the house to retrieve his wallet, and Miles gets chased by the naked husband. This represents the ultimate test of Miles’ loyalty to his friend.
Or in Total Recall, when this happens to Arnie…
Now that’s good writing.
Excerpt from Story Maps: How to Write a GREAT Screenplay, coming soon.
Scott Rosenberg is a very successful screenwriter whose produced credits include Armageddon, Beautiful Girls, Things to do in Denver When You’re Dead and Gone in 60 Seconds. I had been a fan of his for years before I met him at the Austin Screenwriters Conference. Read more
Here’s my short, exclusive Q&A with Leslie Dixon, screenwriter of Limitless, The Thomas Crown Affair, Mrs. Doubtfire, Hairspray, Freaky Friday, The Heartbreak Kid and the upcoming Tower Heist. Read more
This exciting new screenwriting book is available now…
Design by Sonia Fiore
This book is the culmination of over twenty years of working with screenplays and screenwriters. Reading, analyzing, evaluating, studying, teaching and coaching. Read more