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Phantom tall booth... one of the best stories I've read as a child. It just makes you remember what it's like to revisit a dream, but you never know if it'll happen again, ever

My favourite plot the device is a weakness in the character that causes/forces the character to make what someone would would consider a bad decision. For example, someone desperately making a bad choice only because they love someone else, when it is obvious that there is a very severe net loss in that choice. I love when stories play a lot with the weaknesses of characters, human nature.

For the first time, I have to strongly disagree. The "dead body" plot device is the more tiresome, boring thing ever. As you said, it typically kicks of some genres of stories, and I essentially skip over any story that is described as beginning with a dead body or murder. There are thousands upon thousands of them, and it's so incredibly lazy to use that plot device, in my opinion. In my opinion, a dead body needs to be *earned* by the story. It's too valuable to just throw out there as a premise.

Deus Ex Machina is the worst thing ever, and it shouldn't be as common as it still is! Also, House M.D. had a great "amnesia" episode, where the bust he wa on crashed and he's trying to remember who got hurt besides him.

Whenever I listen to music, I always get fragments of the supposed plot that I come up with, but never the full idea.

I’m kinda-but-not surprised you put the BS ass-pull twist of “I am your father” in the Good Twist category, when it’s clearly one of the worst ones based on the criteria set out at the opening. It comes out of nowhere and it’s purely there for shock value. Just because it’s surprising and shocks the audience doesn’t make it good. JJ Abrams is not a good or original filmmaker; all he does is repeat the movies of his youth, making slick yet empty copies of them. That’s why his Star Wars movies have banal and bad twists - he’s merely repeating the bad ones from the original trilogy. I’m not surprised it was classified as good because ESB is an egregiously bad movie that is revered all out of proportion to its quality. Same goes for Training Day. It’s a badly-written movie whose only saving grace is the acting by Washington and Hawke. But then Denzel has never turned in a bad performance; even in his first movie, Carbon Copy, he’s working way above that flick’s quality.

I thought I wanted to see Kylo and Rey together but as soon as it happened I was so uncomfortable 😂

I remember thinking I'd have liked to see Evelyn hide herself behind a social mask. A better attitude that matches her brother Winston's upbeat personality. Maybe even makeup! When she slapped the goggles on Mrs Incredible, have her makeup be smeared off, exposing her "true" self

When he said that Marla and Tyler were never in the same room with him

With a few exceptions, I hate nonlinear stories with a white hot passion. So many are done so poorly, emersion-breaking, and aren't necessary to tell the story. I don't mind an occasional flashback, but I am seeing an increasing amount of chaotic stories ruined by nonstop time travel.

Many thanks for these priceless informations you provide us.

The one I hate is a specific movie, probably not a cliché. It's the central plot point in "Chasing Amy" where Ben Affleck's character can't get over the past sexual escapades of Joey Adams' character. It seemed exaggerated to the point of unbelievability. He didn't just leave the Seminary, so why was this suddenly a major hurdle? I like Kevin Smith's movies, but this major turning point always seemed artificial and poorly written/scripted.

Humans are a cosmic horror, we ruin our own planet and instead of fixing it we want to travel to other planets to do the same to those planets. Carncer do loves to spread as far as it can.

Awesome video!!!

In Jurassic Park it's when Nedry meets Dodgson.

Deep Blue Sea, after Carter blows up the shark - LL Cool J: "Carter...bring me some sushi!"

This has to be among the most useful writing essays on CZcams. Earned my sub. Never saw a John Wick movie (way too much gore) but “Addy”, along with her excessive dialog, seems like she was also filmed with lighting and framing making her feel intriguing and important…makes me wonder about determinative directors are to the ultimate effect of a given screenplay.

It pisses me off when the author misses the first rule of a good storyteller.

3:37 Casually calling out anime flashback sequences that take up a chunk of the episode.

To anyone reading this. Repent and believe the gospel! There’s a loving God who wants to know you and save you. He gave his only son as a sacrifice for us so that we can spend eternity with him in peace and joy. Please consider the state of your soul! Jesus died and resurrected so you can be saved. Believe in Jesus and follow him so you may have salvation. Life is short, please make the right choice today!

Thank you

Go ku

I recently edited a novel for a friend. I was making comments with notes and realized after 15 pages I had told him to eliminate the word "that" over 40 times! I did a search and found over a 1,500 "that"s in a 400-page novel.

Shutter Island completly blew my mind, best plot twist ever for me. Discovering that everything you saw up to that point was false in such a crazy way is something I will always remember.

I do t think Training Day is a good example. Jake’s goodness is the theme. He helped that girl when Alonso told him not to, because Alonzo is corrupt. It’s the same reason the projects crowd turns against Alonzo at the end. It all fits the moral. He did save himself, he just did it earlier in the day by doing the right thing.

Thank you, Brandon, this video was really helpful. I was dealing with writer's block because I was feeling panicked to write perfect sentences and perfect paragraphs and this video helped me understand: that crafting the perfect sentence is one of the last stages of the process... It is better to write in a raw sense, following every instinct, and just let it out, specially since I will rewrite everything later... so it's important to enjoy the process. As they say, it's the journey that matters... And now I'm feeling once again comfortable in submerging and diving in the story. Ps: I think our dreams prove that our brains have the potential to tell powerful, symbolic and convincing stories without the self-flagelation about the how-it-is-told. They play the "show-don't-tell" rule like a fiddle.

SOMETIMES...you are too Subjective POV obsessed

I have a question regarding the Bailout twist. In the novel I am close to finishing I think I may have used it. Summarizing is not my strong suit but I will try. So, a secondary character who is 8 years old sneaks into the evil queen's chamber to see what she is hiding. she is then not seen for weeks. her best friend a simple minded servant becomes worried that he put his young friend in danger. he goes to the blacksmiths home (her father's home) to find her lying in bed but she is okay. My question is should I have given this little girl an ailment. did I cut corners by saying the only reason she disappeared is because she was depressed?

Kylo Ren is a bad boy so... she probably would. 😅

One of my monsters accidentally falls under the "unusual/dumb fear" lmao. He's basically a demonic looking hound that behaves more like a raccoon, just eating garbage and wanting to not be bothered by people. Sure, not shit your pants terrifying but you certainly wouldn't want him rummaging around outside your home

My villain is first mentioned at the start of chapter three right after the inciting incident and the group he leads keeps being mentioned, but you don't actually see him until chapter 7.

I'll always push back against Armageddon having that plot hole. Bruce Willis makes it clear that he believes that drilling is more art than science. It takes an experienced professional to be able to troubleshoot the constant unforeseen problems that can arise. Astronauts can be extremely experienced pilots and scientists, but that doesn't make them automatically capable of understanding the complexities of deep core drilling. Which is why they send a mixed team. The drill team doesn't need to know anything about being Astronauts orher than how to wear the suits. The rest of the time they are along for the ride And this setup is paid off in a logical way. Once they are on the asteroid, drilling proves to be insanely difficult, even with their experience, and it comes to complete disaster. You dont have to necessarily agree with the plausability of the setup, but it's not a plot hole

I got a question and I wouldlike to know if you could make a video about it I am thinking about my novel I want to write AndI do not know how to pick my characters names up How does a wrtier choose the name of his novel characters? Please would you help me? Thank you so much for your channel Always the best

Worst movie ending ever: Maximum Overdrive.

They kinda gave away the twist in Fight Club right away though. They meet on a plane, talk about soap, then his apartment blows up with a soap bomb. Theres only one way thats possible: he IS Tyler Durton. I thought it was obvious.

I was thinking about the movie Speed when listening to this video. I've come to the conclusion that the initial elevator scene is the hook and the bus exploding later on is the inciting incident. Which is brilliant, the initial hook introduces characters, builds the world and establishes the conflict between the protagonist and the villain but the main protagonist life doesn't get turned upside down until the bus blows up (inciting incident).

midpoint of Parasite, when they discover about a basement

Dolores Umbridge

In the Transformers Movie, when Megatron meets with Unicron and Unicron commands Megatron to destroy the Autobot Matrix. Mega basically tells Unicron to stick it up his tailpipe. Unicron is a transformer that is the size of a planet, but Megatron will still not be told what to do. That is like a mortal standing up to God himself. Also hearing Orson Wells say "Your bargaining position is highly dubious" is awesome. The scene has a little violence but it's just some headache beams

Best example for telling can be more powerful than showing is the introduction of Pai Mei in the legend of Pai Mei by Bill at the campfire.

Hey ...how to write a series like game of thrones ...can u make detail video on it

On the Resident Evil Dialogue, the remake in 2002 reworks the dialogue of the same scene almost exactly the way you did.

I’d like to add that the movie Bullet Train uses character introductions very effectively. I think it uses the “significant nobody” trope to great effect, as it makes you question who will survive, and why the main character is being targeted by these people, or sometimes it is used for comedic effect (such as an entire character introduction flashback for a bottle of water). It is also used as a tool to help unravel the mystery and we start to understand more clearly what is going on as we learn each character’s reasons for being on the train.

My protagonist’s goal is to bring her mother’s killer to justice because he was never caught. Her motivation is if the killer is brought to justice, she can finally get the closure she needs to move on with her grief and her life

I liked the video, you've got a great speaking style. I'm sure you already know your audience, but I thought I might provide some helpful "meta" feedback for the sorts of people who find and follow your channel. I'm neither a writer nor an aspiring writer. My guess is that your channel was recommended to me because I've watched lots of other videos that are about technical analysis of movies/shows. I really enjoy story and I feel that I enjoy story better when I have a better grasp of what's going on and what the author/director/whomever is trying to do. I like this channel because you use examples to make your points from movies and shows, and in doing so you wind up providing a sort of technical analysis of those things. I came into your channel through the "good/bad" series, and in that series you do a really good job of explaining *exactly* what line of dialogue or part of the scene related to the point you were making. I'm the sort of viewer who will keep watching your content so long as it is specific enough that I can follow you. The reason I say that is because sometimes your analysis is probably specific enough for a technical audience, but not for a non-technical audience like myself. For example, the last video I watched of yours was czcams.com/video/hNgilEe9Bk4/video.htmlsi=GAJN6nvuHvlUoi2b where you talk about writing great dialogue. At 1:30 you talk about the conversation between Michael and Kay and you say that there's "attack and defend" in that conversation. If I go back and watch it and try to look for that, I can sort of see what you mean. What would be helpful for someone like me is for you to say, when your voiceover comes back on, "Kay attacks Michael by ... and Michael defends with ..." It would probably only add a second or two per example to your video's runtime, but it would help people like me to get more from what you are saying. I should also say, I don't mind at all that I'm not your target audience and it seems it would be a mistake to lose focus on providing helpful writing advice for aspiring writers as your primary audience. I'm just suggesting a way that your videos might appeal to a broader audience. I haven't been on your Patreon (assuming you have one but I don't see a link?), but I'd expect your target audience to be more apt to sign up for webinars with live Q&A after or workshops. People in the demographic like me would be more apt to buy your book but not necessarily join a community or webinar. On that note, I'm surprised you don't talk more about your own writing on the channel? This is a talk about inciting incidents and, generally speaking, inciting incidents happen so early that telling the inciting incident is spoiler-free. You could throw in a line like, "In one of my books, 'The Half Murders', the inciting incident is X. It works because of Y. If you're interested in that book, I'll include a link in the description below," and then move on. Perhaps because books are written and this is a visual media? ChatGPT can make some pretty amazing photorealistic images to depict scenes that you could show during a line like that. Anyway, for what it's worth, thought the feedback might be helpful.

I'll give Raiders a pass because the plot hole kinda fills itself in; Indy is well-versed in mythology and religious lore, so he'd already be well aware that the Ark of the Covenant is not a toy. The issue I have is why Hitler thought having the Ark would help him win the war when one of his main goals is wiping out the people God originally made that covenant _with._ As if He's gonna look at the Third Reich and go: "You wanna destroy _who?_ Well, it doesn't really seem on the up and up, but you DO have my Ark, so..."

I think the worst is the romance that requires breaking up an existing, decent relationship. Particularly if the single or pursuing character is overtly disrespect to the character already in a relationship. It's not so bad, if the relationship is unhealthy (though, I still think there are issues being overlooked). It just seems off to treat relationships like they are a competition, rather than a process between people and their wider social circle.

How could you not use Aragorn's rally at the end of RotK against the Snow White baffles me. Even Theoden's speech before the Ride of the Rohirrim. lol "I bid you stand, Men of the West!" would make me throw away my popcorn and run at the Gates barehanded. For my favourite, of course I would choose Jaime's monologue in the baths. How could I not? And to think I loved the man before that 😅

I can’t believe you did not mention The Sixth Sense. Except for Fight Club, Sixth Sense has the greatest twist. Also Layer Cake has a brilliant twist at the end.

It's cheating to use Anakin as an example of bad dialog, because everything he said--and especially the way he said it (the acting)--is awful.