The Death of the Method?

The Death of the Method?


In the past, I've been a proponent of the Banes Method - really, the Save the Cat Method - of story construction and story improvement.

The method became all the rage in film production in Hollywood apparently - and has received some criticism as well, for being too formulaic and even damaging to potentially good movies.

It forces stories into a formulaic box, and were visionary filmmakers like Tarantino to have followed that method, their films would have lost everything that made them special. Everything that made them matter.

An example of a story that doesn't follow the formula is the classic Rocky. This movie is referenced in Robert McKee's "Story" as one that doesn't fit into the formula. I watched a video that ran with this, too, saying that Rocky would not have been Rocky if it had tried to conform to some silly rules.

Fair enough! I agree with that. A story has to be allowed to be what it is!

But I stand by the opinion that the Method is incredibly useful for figuring out stories, or figuring out what might be wrong with a story. I don't think of S.T.C. as "rules". It's guidance that can be taken, or somewhat taken, or ignored completely.

If you'd like me to go through the Method in a Newpost I'd be happy to discuss it again! It's been quite awhile since I've gone over it here.

Have a good one!

-Cat-Savin' Banes

Here's the youtube video that talks about Save the Cat and Rocky (it's a great channel):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TGwjiBV2w8