Inside The Chaos: Breaking Save The Cat (Cinema Structure)

by Kierston Drier

Today, we are doing something that has been done by screenwriters everywhere at one time or another- but it is no small feat. People have been attempting to crack the holy grail of cinema structure, basically, since cinema has begun.

   Well, technically, it goes back to the beginning of storytelling itself. We could spend hours breaking down the Epic of Gilgamesh, or The Iliad and The Odyssey. But we digress. For the sake of time, we are going to move our breakdown ahead by a few centuries.

The history of film is long, rich and fascinating, but- to be very brief, the first films came to light in the last decade of the 1800’s and they were total novelties for the common audience member. Animation would appear right before the turn of the 19th century. Typically under a minute long and made without sound, the pull to…