The Value of the First 10 Minutes - Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books, and it has been recreated into cinema many many times. One of the 'newer' (I say newer because it is more new than the A&E 1995 version which I adore) versions in 2005 was something of a wonder to me. I was confused as to my feelings on the film, as it covered nearly the entirety of the book, however it did so at a speedy pace and without exploring thoroughly the emotion or character development of the major characters. Although they take care to explore the feelings of Lizzie, her sisters and her father are somewhat ignored and giving stagnant characterizations.

 My criticism set aside, I found that this film is a perfect example of the first opening image of films. The film begins with establishing shots of the scenery, Lizzie walking, and Longbourn. It takes a full 5 minutes for this establishing shot to be done. This may not seem like a long time but in this film every second is crucial and thought out. The film is very true to the book and the book is hundreds of pages long with extensive content that the producers, writers, and directors know the audience will expect to see their favorite sections. Every minute is necessary for propelling the plot forward and hitting as many points in the book as possible. This accounts for the speedy feel of the film. However, with this crucial scrutiny of every minute, how then did they allow 5 whole minutes of music with establishing shots and not a bit of dialogue?

 It is quite obvious if you consider the essence of film making. The most important part of the whole film is always the first 10 minutes. It is crucial to beginning the film with the most spectacular thing in the whole film in order to grab the audience's attention. I would say Pride and Prejudice fails in the splendor, but instead they focus on something they wish to communicate to fans: this film will be authentic with the book.

It begins with Lizzie's Character: walking and reading. Everyone who has read the books would instantly recognize her. And then it establishes Longbourne. It shows the great detail they spent on recreating the house in an authentic way. It is interesting to me that in in the various versions of Pride and Prejudice on the screen Longbourne often looks the same. It shows the creators' interest in creating an authentic recreation of a beloved book. This opening scene is meant to grab the fans who have read the book. It speaks to them, as a sort of love poem that says "Look at the care we took in making this for you."

Although the film has some short comings, which I briefly mentioned, the opening scene struck me. For the reason that it took 5 minutes and for the fact that nothing spectacular is happening. It is an example of how something outside of the typical expectations can speak volumes about the work.


Pride and Prejudice. Dir. Joe Wright. Universal, 2005. DVD.

Star Trek Into Darkness has the Perfect Narrative

J.J Abrams' 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness is a movie I consider to be a perfectly constructed narrative. It hits all the points in Snyder's beat sheet. The opening sequence is it's own adventure and yet carries repercussions that propel the rest of the plot. It begins with an attention grabbing image of the strangers running in the red planet, and then the reveal of the Enterprise under water. In the span of ten minutes a story unravels before the main plot. It presents the conflict of the whole film, which is Spock's conflict between emotion and logic and the fact that Kirk would do anything to save his crew.


The conflict created on the red planet comes to fruition when Kirk meets with Admiral Pike and he realizes that he lost everything he cared about. In this Kirk has jump started the dark night of the soul when we see him in a bar in Act 1. Pike then acts as a moral compass with Kirk and presents another theme of Fatherhood. This then propels into the main plot, which is the conflict with Kahn. Kahn begins the conflict by making it personal with Kirk when he kills Pike. Kirk has lost this figure of a father and that propels him to act irrationally in hope of revenge.

This propels the main action sequence pursuing Kahn. This seems to be able to end once Kahn is apprehended, but then the midpoint comes and there is a switch in antagonists. That midpoint is the revelation that Kahn's crew is hidden in the torpedoes. This new revelation makes Kirk suspicious of Admiral Marcus, and Kirk refuses to kill 72 innocent people, and not Kirk has become Marcus's most dangerous enemy.

This propels the conflict presented in the beginning to resolve. For Spock to come to terms with both his emotional and logical mindset when bargaining for Kirk and the crew to be returned to the Enterprise, and still foiling Kahn. Spock does a mild deception by taking Kahn's crew out of the torpedoes and giving Kahn active empty torpedoes. This consolation between emotion and logic continues to Spock's dark night of the soul when Kirk dies saving his crew. This resolves Kirk's personal conflict on always putting his crew before even his own life. Spock is overtaken with grief over Kirk's death and it propels act three, which gives the new emotional Spock a need for revenge. Spock then pursues Kahn through the streets of San Fransisco and might have killed him if his logic had not eventually come back to him in a hope that Kahn's blood could save Kirk.

In the end everything is resolved, and the last image is of the Enterprise flying off into space with the famous words that open each new adventure, symbolizing that their adventures are not over yet and now that each character has accepted the theme of the movie for themselves they proceed as even greater individuals. This is a very basic run down of the narrative techniques in Star Trek Into Darkness. In my opinion this movie has a perfect narrative because the action propels itself and everything is connected, there are no loose ends. Every minute of the movie is necessary and no time is wasted. It is truly a masterpiece.

Star Trek Into Darkness. Dir. J.J Abrams. Universal Pictures, 2013.

Ideal Structure of Screenplays

Blake Snyder's book Save the Cat gives one of the best breakdowns of what makes a screenplay fantastic. His structure is one I intend to use to analyze the writing in films so here is a breakdown of Snyder's film structure with terms, which can be found in Chapter 4 "Let's Beat it out" of Save the Cat, and my summary of their definitions:

Act 1:

1. Opening Image - this is the attention getter, to make sure the audience right from the start is interested in the story that is about to unfold. 
2. Theme Stated - Snyder believes the theme needs to be given to the audience right away
3. Exposition - any essential information that the audience needs right away. This is tricky because past information cannot always be given to the audience in a way that is natural to human behavior. 
4. Catalyst - Snyder's guide suggests that all films require a catalyst, that is a change from past life to new life. 

Act 2: 

1. Break Into Two - this the point at which an essential choice is made and this choice propels the action of act two
2. Midpoint (False Victory) - either the main character succeeds or fails, but both appear to be failures. If he succeeds he soon discovers that this is not exactly what he wanted.
3. Bad Guys Close In - Villains have a sudden boost of energy and defeat the hero's goal
4. All is Lost - Anything the character gained over the timeline is suddenly all lost
5. The Dark Night of the Soul - Main character hits a dark point of hopelessness and mourns whatever has 'died' (either dream, life goal, persson, etc). 

Act 3:

1.  Break Into Three - sage advice or a strange pull of courage makes the main character try again 
2. Finale - character then understands the theme of the film for himself 
3. Final Image - last image that confirms a change has occur

This is just a basic rundown of Snyder's description of the moments of plot or story that seem statistically common in most films. Not every film is going to follow this charted course, and willful deviations from this can carry artistic themes in itself. If you are interested in writing screenplays I definitely suggest you read Snyder's book.

Snyder, Blake. Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need. Studio City, CA: M. Wiese Productions, 2005. Print.

New Beginnings

My Dear Readers,

I know many of you will be reading this blog simply out of friendship for me, and I greatly appreciate all the support I've received over the years from you. There is even the strange possibility that someone I have never met will be able to read this. You are a most welcome guest in the workplace of my mind.

I wish to begin by describing the purpose of this blog. This blog is not meant to be laying the letter of the law about films, but instead is meant as a my own personal interpretations of films I have loved or hated or felt were just okay over the years. You are allowed to disagree with me, and any constructive criticism is welcome.

Lastly, I would like to clarify that I will not use images in this blog unless the image comes from the movie itself. I will site all things in MLA format at the end of each post. 

Please enjoy the wild thoughts I've put to paper.

All my Love,

T