What Writers Get Wrong With Stakes

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What Writers Get Wrong With Stakes - Naomi Beaty

Рет қаралды 14,824

Күн бұрын

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Naomi Beaty is a writer, screenwriting teacher, consultant and owner of WRITE+CO., along with the author of LOGLINE SHORTCUTS: Unlock Your Story And Pitch Your Screenplay In One Simple Sentence and THE SCREENPLAY OUTLINE WORKBOOK: A step-by-step guide to brainstorm ideas, structure your story, and prepare to write your best screenplay.
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Пікірлер: 45

@cherirose6660 Жыл бұрын

This video helped me realize how important stakes are on many levels. I'm rewriting my screenplay into a novel so this has helped with my first draft! Thanks Film Courage❤️

@filmcourage Жыл бұрын

Best wishes!

@carltonbauheimer Жыл бұрын

So you... realized the stakes....

@Ruylopez778 Жыл бұрын

Great point that character based emotional stakes need more explanation for the audience to be invested compared to more obvious external stakes.

@Ruylopez778 Жыл бұрын

I think Everything Everywhere All at Once does an excellent job of setting up, layering and paying off stakes, and giving a deeper and more personal significance to the 'multiverse' elements than recent superhero/action movies do. It really felt like a movie written decades ago, even though it clearly draws on the trend for multiple dimensions and is inspired by movies like The Matrix. Humor, sincerity, imagination and charm amid the sea of hollow, mediocre sequels, remakes and reboots that say nothing and make me feel nothing.

@josephvanwyk2088 Жыл бұрын

Good watch! Stakes are not always so easy. One thing I could add, is - you always need to FOCUS your protagonist (like a thin blow torch flame). Focus their obsession, focus their super objectives and desires. If you do that, then those stakes (cause and effect) will be on the mark.

@bigike8739 Жыл бұрын

I really enjoyed her insight on character development and the importance of stakes...thanks for sharing!🎥🎬🥰

@kayskreed Жыл бұрын

I read 'steak'. 'Steaks' are important because... they're delicious. ;) Jokes aside, one trend I've noticed especially in action and/or superhero films which can sometimes lose the audience is the focus on raising stakes on the quantitative level. Sometimes the movie-makers choose to raise stakes on the external, quantitative level and sort of downplay the emotional stakes. For instance, how many times have we seen a film or series where the villain is plotting to destroy the world (or actively destroying it)? And then for the sequel: They are plotting to destroy the universe. Does it really matter to us, the viewer, imagining something on a scale that is barely recognizable? I always ask myself, "Why does it matter for the character? Why should we care?" Personally, I've found movies where the stakes are more limited and personal to be more effective at getting me to empathize with a character. It could be the story of a parent trying to save their child, or something to that nature. The stakes are measured, they are knowable, relatable and real. And because of that it's far more impactful than, say, the usual affair of the whole multiverse collapsing upon itself due to the machinations of the villain and the hero's need to put a stop to it. Even in ridiculously outlandish scenarios like that, you can still personalize it and make it real. If the multiverse is destroyed, the hero along with it, what are the stakes for THEM? Maybe they won't get to see their beloved dog anymore, or cat. Something small, something tangible, rather than on bunch of stats thrown at the viewer with the assumption that they will care. Remember, a few lives lost is a tragedy, but a bunch of NPCs getting killed offscreen will barely register as a statistic. Scale up by raising the personal and emotional stakes, not numbers.

@capuchinosofia4771 Жыл бұрын

Very well said. I think the same!

@filmcourage Жыл бұрын

What did you like about this video?

@theothercomicguy Жыл бұрын

Finding out why, what's at stake, is important to keeping the audience. Great explanations and insight. Thank you!

@jorahkai Жыл бұрын

Naomi’s videos are all so amazing and illuminating. As a novelist this channel is a gold mine for incredible wisdom and a font of confining inspiration 🎉

@jim5526 Жыл бұрын

Naomi

@subramanianramamoorthy3413 Жыл бұрын

she is very clear on stake process to be followed by movie creator. Nice to hear her ideas

@Damacles9 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for the great content and hard work you invest in it!

@filmcourage Жыл бұрын

Thanks Damacles!

@awillwithinawheel Жыл бұрын

Thank you, Film Courage and Naomi Beaty. So clear. So helpful.

@giffty 8 ай бұрын

Great one!

@bolobalaman Жыл бұрын

This couldn’t be more accurate to movie franchise like Fast and Furious. MCU was awesome once because we fear that we might lose Tony Stark

@Melanie-my6qi Жыл бұрын

Good information

@sayitjamon6237 Жыл бұрын

This!^^^ Thank you!

@jim5526 Жыл бұрын

Brilliant

@Hyplum Жыл бұрын

Such great insight about stakes

@Baukencur_ Жыл бұрын

I got really confused when i craft internal stakes/emotional stakes. Can somebody give me detail explanation or video about learning character vs character in emotional or internal way, please?

@Tightrope_Comedy Жыл бұрын

When in doubt, the world is at stake 😂

@larslarsen5414 Жыл бұрын

I wonder if movie experts can actually get sucked into a movie. Perhaps they are just sitting analyzing everything constantly? Or do they actually loose themselves in the show?

@AmityvilleFan Жыл бұрын

"sucked in" means emotion. Analyzing means logic. You CAN run both system in paralell, I assure you. Sometimes analythic can even enhance the experience - when the movie is done wrong, but you can calculate the intentions.

@larslarsen5414 Жыл бұрын

@@AmityvilleFan Interesting. Thanks.

@user-eq1ml3gq1u Жыл бұрын

'Thanks'... but how does an 'Absurdist' confess?... when there's nothing there to confess to?

@thefutureapocalypse Жыл бұрын

2:01 An Appalachian independent filmmaker born in the 80's has invested all his life pursuing Hollywood. Time, money, alot of money, sanity spent for one last chance for success. It means everything to him. In an ugly world it's the only freedom that he has. It's the only reason he continues waking up each day. If he fails, the world says 'Ah ha, see we told you, we were right and you were wrong!' If he succeeds, their world is wrong and crumbles down. People will sabotage you to save their world. The stakes are too high for us to die with a small vision. -Louie Giglio

@kuramobay2445 Жыл бұрын

Stakes can get a bit foggy in drama. Also, what's at stake in a romantic comedy? Not a great deal, but in action, thrillers and horror films, those genres wouldn't exist without high stakes.

@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t Жыл бұрын

Usually, the stakes in a romcom are, you know, "happiness". It's pretty important, if less cinematic that having your face eaten off by a Stan Winston fever dream.

@Ruylopez778 Жыл бұрын

I guess you could make the case that in a horror the stakes are worse than life and death - the unimaginable where death would be a way out. The same might be the case for the romance, depending on the tone, a life lived alone, or worse, with the 'wrong' person, also a fate worse than death. So this all becomes essentially, 'how to live a good life'. There's a lot vulnerability at stake. But then the rom com might also take a lighter approach. I'd say Groundhog Day and Pretty Woman both have significant enough stakes. Perhaps recent rom coms have become rather toothless.

@gilgamecha Жыл бұрын

Good positive suggestions but does not appear to answer the title question?

@ferminleon Жыл бұрын

Failing to meet those suggestions is what writers get wrong with stakes.

@G-Blockster Жыл бұрын

5:23 is the beginning of that answer.

@gvphdYT Жыл бұрын

Consequences

@talscorner3696 Жыл бұрын

I guess the stakes can be summed up as the price of failure? Or the stuff you kill vampires with. Your choice...?

@Sentinel3D 6 ай бұрын

For me, the lowest stakes are about "shining moments" with kids winning contests that won't be meaningful to their futures, like Juice, Saturday Night Fever, and Bring It On. Sure, I was in a great Kung Fu exhibition 40 years ago. Who cares? Bring it on was more entertaining, but the other two were about nothing. But still, they got made. 😑

@BionicDance Жыл бұрын

Stakes matter because otherwise the vampires will kill all of the main characters. Take a lesson from Buffy: stakes matter. **runs** 😁

@eminosose Жыл бұрын

If only Michael Bay can subscribe to your channel - it would definitely help his writing career

@AmityvilleFan Жыл бұрын

The bigger the explosion, the higher the stakes. Escalation: the explosions getting bigger in advance. The internal stakes for an explosion is to be as big as possible. MB is a genious, who long while mastered all this.

@gijane2cantwaittoseeyou203 Жыл бұрын

He's not a writer. Character driven movies are boring.