Embedded Files
Singapore International Film Festival 2025
A plot device is best defined as any technique in a narrative used to move the plot forward. A well-conceived plot device — one that emerges from the concept, genre, story, or characters — can drive your plot forward and enhance your story and characterization. SCREENCRAFT.ORG
"Aristotle Poetics"
"Aristotle Poetics"
how writers can use them
how writers can use them
A summary of the iconic literary theory text, including the hierarchy of elements prescribed by the Greek philosopher and how writers can use them.
KEYWORDS: Plot, Charcater, Thought, Diction, Spectacle and Song, Aristotle Poetics
How To Setup and Payoff in Screenwriting
KEYWORDS: Screenwriting Technique, Better Story Plot, Setup and Playoff, Flashback, Suspense, The Blood Stain, The Baseball, The Knife Sculpture
An explanation of this maligned device and how to avoid it
KEYWORDS: Screenwriting Technique, God, Plot, Robert McKee, "lazy" writing, Save The Day, Protagonist, Story Structure, Coincidence, Ending
How to write an ending with examples of denouement from The Departed, Midsommar, The Shining, Inside Llewyn Davis, and Hell or High Water.
KEYWORDS: Screenwriting Technique, Plot, Climax, Ending, Third Act, Resolution, Untying, Conflict, Theme, The Shining, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, The Coen Brothers
What is exposition in screenwriting explained with some essential do’s and don’ts and various tips on how to deliver exposition the right way.
KEYWORDS: Screenwriting Technique, Plot, Dialogue, Setting, Biography, Plato, Allegory of the Cave, Do's and Don'ts, Show Don't Tell
Techniques to Mislead & Distract an Audience
KEYWORDS: Screenwriting Technique, The Whodunit, Unreliable Narrator, Emotional Effect, Historical Subversion, Casting, Marketing, Clue, Murder Mysteries, Multiple Suspects, Detective, Audience, Deception, Subvert
"FORESHADOWING" INDIRECT or DIRECT?
"FORESHADOWING" INDIRECT or DIRECT?
What is foreshadowing in films and how do filmmakers use it to build intrigue?
KEYWORDS: Direct and Indirect Foreshadow, techniques of using details like props, music and production designs.
Akira Kurosawa’s film hit upon a natural neurological phenomenon that goes well beyond cinema into our daily lives, how the effect works, and what storytellers can take away from it.
KEYWORDS: Screenwriting Technique, Unreliable Narrator, Alternative Plot Structure, Implicit Bias, Mysteries, Multiple Suspects, Deception, Subvert, Memory, Truth
"POSITIVE CHANGE" Character Arcs explained
"POSITIVE CHANGE" Character Arcs explained
How to write a character arc (specifically a positive change arc) based on "Creating Character Arcs" by KM Weiland.
KEYWORDS: Screenwriting Technique, Plot, Need, Want, Sacrifices, Ending
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