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Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

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DZ-1: Do Screenplay Gurus win you Oscars?

Do Oscar-Nominated screenwriters follow the structural formulas prescribed by the 'gurus' and books?

AI✦Examines how Ron Woodroof’s character arc–from self-interested drug smuggler to advocate for others–structures the narrative independently of Save the Cat conventions, questioning whether the script’s plotting actually requires traditional three-act scaffolding.✦

⏱ 1h 40m

Structure · Character · Genre | 1 MAR 2014

Listen if you want to know whether Blake Snyder, Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler's structural theories actually apply to Academy Award-nominated screenplays

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In this, our debut episode of Draft Zero, Stu and Chas analyse two screenplays nominated for Academy Awards in 2014 – PHILOMENA and DALLAS BUYERS CLUB – to see whether they follow the structural theories espoused by Blake Snyder, Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler. We discuss character dynamics, structural challenges, and the complexities of narrative… →

Films: Philomena (2013) , Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Structure: Plotting , Act Two , Escalation

Character: Character Arcs , Character Motivation

Genre: Genre Conventions

"So little of this adheres to save the cat. I mean, there are things that you can kind of force or, you know, like that there is a save the cat moment. As an overarching script, I don’t think it does meet Save the Cat."

— chas | DZ-1: Do Screenplay Gurus win you Oscars?