Insider View - Story or no Story?

Why we need McKee
Try taking a script meeting without knowing what Extra Personal Conflict is, or the Forces of Antagonism. What are you gonna say, 'Sorry guys, I'm a free thinker'. Oh yeah? 'Feel free to take the exit, hippy; we're about to spend a million of pounds of other people's money'.

McKee didn't invent the theories himself. As he points out, his principles are all there in Aristotle and have come to us down the centuries, tried and tested in the books and plays we love. STORY is the bestseller of the genre and if Hollywood screenwriters who charge a million dollars per script read it, so can you.

His book costs about fifteen pounds. An evening class in basket weaving will probably cost you more. So drink eight less cappuccinos and spend some money on your education!

"A rule says, 'You must do it this way'. A principle says, 'this works and always has through remembered time". That makes sense. And McKee said that, not Obi Wan Kenobi.

Who else can you turn to? Your mum? God help her, she already thinks you're a genius. Your English teacher? They'll probably say 'it's all in Shakespeare, my dear...', forgetting it's also in iambic pentameter.

Why we don't
Wong Kar Wai. He's cool, he wears aviator shades, and everyone wants to shoot like him. Does he sit in swanky Hong Kong noodle bars hunched over a well-leafed copy of STORY? No. He gets Maggie Cheung to wiggle down rainy streets in a tight dress. Now that's what you call an "inciting incident", Robert.

McKee claims his work is a 'diagnostic tool'. Right. That's medical speak for 'we can tell you precisely why you're script is pants and awaits the death of a 100 rejection e-mails but we do not have the medicine to actually make it better for you'.

Even if you deliver a perfect McKee screenplay, the money is going to make you shoe-horn in another helicopter crash/cattle round up/happy ending. So kiss goodbye to your beautiful structure and go your own way.

Ever heard people saying, 'that movie was so predictable'. 'I guessed the ending right from the start... etc? Only in every multiplex foyer in the world. Mckee might say, 'If these films are formulaic, they're not adhering to my principles'. Oh, but they are, Robert. It's just we've seen your 'principles' so many times...

If you think the Ancient Greeks were the fount of all knowledge, check out "The Birds" by Aristophanes, 'one of the most celebrated plays of its day'. It's about three men who attempt to escape city life by making a kingdom in the sky with the help of a raven and a jackdaw. If you don't want to kill yourself by the 'Second Act', you probably speak Ancient Greek.