Sixty years ago. Lajos Egri penned "Save Words" in his book, "The Art of Dramatic Writing". It took McKee 60 years to come up with his 50% larger catch phrase of "Less is More". I imagine he took it from somewhere else and repurposed it. McKee's books are dated. They refer to contemporary films at the time of his writing, many that you may have never seen, don't care to, and need a Netflix subscription to come close to. It felt like he referred to a different film for each point he was making. Having read both authors, Lajos prose is much better and much more to the point. His examples are better and more universal.
Best Wishes,
Paul Sulsky
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Dodson" <davidadodson@sbcglobal.net>
To: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2011 10:16:06 AM
Subject: Re: [Avid-L2] Re: Becoming a better storyteller
McKee might be full of himself, but he also happens to be dead right on the money.
David
On Sep 28, 2011, at 6:09 PM, Mark wrote:
> Don't forget the grand daddy of all Hollywood story telling structure: Robert McKee.
>
> http://mckeestory.com/
>
> Never met anyone more full of himself, but his classes are legendary.
>
> Mark
>
> --- In Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com, Jim Feeley <jfeeley@...> wrote:
> >
> > > > Can't I just follow Hemingway on Facebook or Twitter
> > >
> > Sure. This (apocryphal) Hemingway story fits in a tweet:
> >
> > For sale. Baby Shoes. Never Worn.
> >
> >
> > Back on topic, one of the best books I've seen on storytelling is
> > Writing for Story by Jon Franklin. OK, it's about dramatic nonfiction
> > writing, but Franklin has won two Pulitzer prizes (for feature and
> > expository journalism) and has been a j-school prof for a long time.
> > He knows what he's talking about and knows how to talk about it.
> >
> > The book takes the old complication-resolution story structure and
> > applies it to nonfiction. Lots of emphasis on structure, pacing, and
> > stuff that applies as well to film/video as to text. Or so it seems to
> > me. An eminently practical book.
> >
> > Note that I haven't read it in many years, but I think upon re-
> > reading, my opinion would remain the same.
> >
> > Jim "wishes some films were six words long" Feeley
> >
>
>
David Dodson
davidadodson@sbcglobal.net
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