Movies.

most movies in a nutshell:
1) we get the opening image. the "before" picture. the image that tells where we are... what's going on.. who we're dealing with
2) we get the opening hook. the theme introduced. we get more of a feel as to what sort of character we're dealing with.
3)now comes the catalyst... an incident which finally gets the movie going.. usually something is mentioned .. we get some sort of "news" as to what's going on
4) the setting starts to develop. we get images upon images of what the "ordinary world" looks like for the main characters
5)we're hit with a mini crisis. We learn what the movie is about. our character realizes what he/she must do.. he/she figures our his/her goal.
6) we reach the point of no return. our character starts out on his/her journey to his/her goal.
7) the "B" story begins... a "B" story is added to take our mind off the main goal, to slow things down... sometimes the "B" story is a romance.. or, as found in many recent movies, a "bromance"
8) there's a moment of testing for our main character.. the main character fails.. heshe goes toward his/her goal and FAILS.. tested and fails (this is usually mirrored again in the climax, except, in the climax, he/she succeeds)... OR we get our first indication of love if there's a romance involved
9)we reach the mid point.. the turning point..for the first time, our character does something completely out of character
10) we reach the big pit.. something is lost.. almost everything that can go wrong goes wrong.. although not EVERYTHING is lost, NEARLY everything is
11) we reach rockbottom.. our character is helpless.. it's worse than the big pit.. our character is alone.. isolated... everything is gone.. and then he/she reaches an epiphany in which he/she realizes what he/she must do to achieve his/her goal
12) climax to finale. our protagonist and antagonist face off to get to the goal.. our character is tested and he/she succeeds.
13) we are given a final image.. the closing image.. the "after" picture to contrast with the "before" picture that we were given during the opening image.
THE END.

so, i'm taking intro to film.. and now, when i watch movies, i can see this play out time after time after time.. with nearly every movie... it's like you can predict what will happen next... it sort of ruins the entertainment part if you think about it TOO much.. but yeah... if most movies follow this outline.. it's really almost like .. every movie is the same.. in some way. Yet, they're not. they're completely different.

and so, this leads me to believe that.. the most important person of the movie making process is... the screenwriter. it is, afterall, the screenwriter that comes up with/creates/develops the story.. it is the screenwriter who gives birth to the characters we come to love.. it is the screenwriter who brings to life the lines and quotes we come to love and repeat... it is the screenwriter who is able to take an idea and begin the process of making a visual representation of it for all of us to see... it is the screenwriter who presents the story in such a way that we're able to either relate to it or merely be entertained by it. horray to the screenwriters. horray for their ability to make movies worthwhile.

<3