Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

Dude, we’re shooting the shit about a TV show with dragons, tits and magic.

Yes, Clausewitz said 4:1.

Yes it’s highly situational.

From a military standpoint almost everything depicted on the series has been idiotic.

Stannis vs wildlings: wildlings staying inside the tree line would have negated Stannis’ heavy cavalry charge.

Dothraki vs Lannister loot train: Lannisters fought with the river behind them. Where were their scouts? Had they fought on the other side of the river bank the river would have stalled out the Dothraki cavalry.

Battle of the Bastards was too stupid to put into words.

The writers aren’t writing accurate conflict - they are creating set pieces to create drama and drive the story.

This is so basic it’s taught to aspiring screen writers in books like Save the Cat!

Hi u/TopherTheIncel - here are my filmmaking "desert island" books:

Screenwriting

• Save the Cat! - Blake Snyder

Filmmaking - General

• The Five C's of Cinematography - Joseph V. Mascelli
• Sculpting in Time - Andrey Tarkovsky
• The Reel Truth: Everything You Didn't Know You Need to Know About Making an Independent Film - Reed Martin
• The Total Film Maker - Jerry Lewis (You can get it free here)

Editing

• In the Blink of an Eye - Walter Murch

Limited Resources

• Rebel Without a Crew - Robert Rodriguez
• Filmmaking: Direct Your Movie from Script to Screen Using Proven Hollywood Techniques (This book was written by Jason Tomaric, who made Time and Again for less than $2000 and is now an Emmy winning Hollywood director)
• If you can find it, I also recommend Tomaric's The Power Filmmaking Kit: Make Your Professional Movie on a Next-to-Nothing Budget. This book is out of print, but is more of a practical "workbook" for movie production than Jason's other book.
• If you're on a budget and can't afford any of the other suggestions, I recommend 11 Simple Steps to turn a Screenplay into a Marketable Movie: or, How I got a $10k movie to gross $1 Million through Warner Bros - which is $0.99 for Kindle - by Vince Rocca, I have read this book - and it is worth a lot more than I paid for it.

Hope this is helpful and good luck on your filmmaking journey!

https://www.amazon.com/Save-Last-Book-Screenwriting-Youll/dp/1932907009

u/LeeroyM - here are my filmmaking "desert island" books:

Screenwriting

• Save the Cat! - Blake Snyder

Filmmaking - General

• The Five C's of Cinematography - Joseph V. Mascelli
• Sculpting in Time - Andrey Tarkovsky
• The Reel Truth: Everything You Didn't Know You Need to Know About Making an Independent Film - Reed Martin
• The Total Film Maker - Jerry Lewis (You can get it free here)

Editing

• In the Blink of an Eye - Walter Murch

Limited Resources

• Rebel Without a Crew - Robert Rodriguez
• Filmmaking: Direct Your Movie from Script to Screen Using Proven Hollywood Techniques (This book was written by Jason Tomaric, who made Time and Again for less than $2000 and is now an Emmy winning Hollywood director)
• If you can find it, I also recommend Tomaric's The Power Filmmaking Kit: Make Your Professional Movie on a Next-to-Nothing Budget. This book is out of print, but is more of a practical "workbook" for movie production than Jason's other book.
• If you're on a budget and can't afford any of the other suggestions, I recommend 11 Simple Steps to turn a Screenplay into a Marketable Movie: or, How I got a $10k movie to gross $1 Million through Warner Bros - which is $0.99 for Kindle - by Vince Rocca, I have read this book - and it is worth a lot more than I paid for it.

Hope this is helpful and good luck on your filmmaking journey!

Heh, save the cat.