by
Film Courage: What makes you good at story and how did you get good at it?
Naomi Beaty, Writer, Screenwriting Teacher and Consultant: My big education with story was really when I worked with Blake [Blake Snyder — Author of Save The Cat] on his second book just because the thing that I had to do in that role as sort of his research assistant was watch 50 movies and not just watch them once, but watch them over and over again and break them down and figure out what the structure was and how they were working.
That was my crash course into story. Before that I worked in the entertainment business. I read scripts, I was writing coverage and talking about scripts with people but it wasn’t until I did that and had that immersion into just the rhythm of stories that I really felt like I absorbed it and it was in my bones after that.
That was a great experience. I think that was probably the biggest impact on my understanding of story.
Film Courage: Wow, this is really cool. So would he give you a list of movies to watch?
Naomi: Yes, so in the second book [Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies] there are 50 movies that are broken down…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
