Jeff Kitchen's Screenwriting approach?

10s

10s

Veteran
I've gone through many screenwriting Guru, workshops, classes, books and DVDs and have gleaned all sorts of great insights over the years. About a year ago I read Jeff Kitchen's book, "Writing a Great Movie" and got his 5 disc DVD set, WOW!, this guy has quite a different approach than the other writing coaches, so for me his contribution is very significant & powerful in helping me look at structure and cause & effect factors and the writing process. The Central Proposition concept is key and his interpretation & use of Dilemma is insightful. In fact, all his points are good, especially the Sequence, Propositon, Plot technique; it's a great tool for making tight cause & effect action. I really love the reverse cause & effect technique, it's fun to go through and catch the logic holes.

Has anyone studied Jeff Kitchen's approach?

I'd be interested in knowing how it has helped or hurt ;) your writing.
 
Did something very similiar with a screenwriting guru up here. He proved that most movies in fact are NOT always three acts. Some are even four or five. Then in outlining he showed that story problems usually are founded in levels above from recursive patterns of Setup, Complication and Resolution. Works that you write three to five sentences for story. Theses wind up as the acts. (SCR to SCCCR). Then for each act you write three to five sentences as SCR to SCCCR for each sequence in the act. Finally three to five sentences SCR to SCCCR for each scene which makes up the sequence.

Everything from the arc of a character(s), cause and effect, balance, etc. was shown to map this structure in story and that issues with the story were usually a problem with the level above.

Its helped me immensly.
 
craigbowman said:
Did something very similiar with a screenwriting guru up here. He proved that most movies in fact are NOT always three acts. Some are even four or five. Then in outlining he showed that story problems usually are founded in levels above from recursive patterns of Setup, Complication and Resolution. Works that you write three to five sentences for story. Theses wind up as the acts. (SCR to SCCCR). Then for each act you write three to five sentences as SCR to SCCCR for each sequence in the act. Finally three to five sentences SCR to SCCCR for each scene which makes up the sequence.

Everything from the arc of a character(s), cause and effect, balance, etc. was shown to map this structure in story and that issues with the story were usually a problem with the level above.

Its helped me immensly.
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That sounds really interesting, where can I learn more? I'm always a sucker for learning something new! -- especially when it can help me solve major challenges.
 
Jeff Kitchen is great. When I write, I've always used elements of his, along with Rob Tobin and Syd Field. Less Syd now and more Blake Snyder but in teaching screenwriting, I would put Kitchen's / Tobin's and Field's story outline formulas all up together and they worked very well together. Filled in the holes of each other.

I think it's a matter of finding someone that not only sparks an interest in another area of screenwriting that you were unaware of but also finding someone who just connects to you. There are formulas / ideas / concepts that just click sometimes. I'm not sure anyone person has all the answers.
 
One could make a point for the posted material being limited in quantity, and with credit given to the author, somewhat analogous to a writer/student quoting/citing material in a term paper.

brianluce said:
Is this legal? Posting copywritten material? Isn't the point to buy the book?
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Chenopup said:
Jeff Kitchen is great. When I write, I've always used elements of his, along with Rob Tobin and Syd Field. Less Syd now and more Blake Snyder but in teaching screenwriting, I would put Kitchen's / Tobin's and Field's story outline formulas all up together and they worked very well together. Filled in the holes of each other.

I think it's a matter of finding someone that not only sparks an interest in another area of screenwriting that you were unaware of but also finding someone who just connects to you. There are formulas / ideas / concepts that just click sometimes. I'm not sure anyone person has all the answers.
Click to expand...

Rob Tobin, never looked at his material. What does he offer?
 
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