My Story Can Beat Up Your Story - Jeffrey Alan Schechter [FULL INTERVIEW]

0:00 - Why It's Bad To Sell A Screenplay For $1 Million Dollars
20:02 - 4 Act Story Structure Makes More Sense Than 3 Acts
31:18 - Every Great Story Has 3 Central Questions
47:23 - Every Great Story Has A Main Character That Goes Through 4 Archetypes
1:00:59 - If You Want To Sell A Screenplay Write A Sympathetic Main Character
1:11:10 - Why The Antagonist Must Be Unsympathetic
1:25:12 - Heroes Ask Questions And Villains Make Arguments
1:33:18 - An Intuitive Writer Versus A Logical Writer
BUY THE BOOK - MY STORY CAN BEAT UP YOUR STORY: 10 Ways To Toughen Up Your Screenplay From Opening Hook To Knockout Punch - amzn.to/3AC6MVk
After moving to Los Angeles, Jeffrey Alan Schechter quickly established himself as a versatile writer, able to work in all genres from action films to family comedies, from pre-school to adult drama, from live action to animation. His writing has earned him a Gemini Award as well as nominations for two Emmy awards, a Writers Guild of America award, a Writer’s Guild of Canada award, and a BAFTA award.
Over the years Jeff has worked with dozens of studios and networks including Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, ABC, NBC, The Discovery Channel, Nickelodeon, The Hallmark Channel, the BBC, VH1 Films, RHI, and The Walt Disney Company.
Jeff is the author of a book on story structure titled My Story Can Beat Up Your Story! and is a noted speaker and lecturer on screenwriting. Jeff is the founder/creator of WritersRoom Pro software, a digital writers’ room for secure, remote creativity and collaboration.
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[@deanpapadopoulos3314]

I find these people to be the most interesting people. And, their profession appears to be entirely meritocratic. You’re a great interviewer too. You really let them talk and amazingly you have your next question ready when they finish speaking while I’d be in Wow-land!!!! based on the insights they gave. I’d recommend 99% of other paid interviewers to listen to you in order to understand how it’s supposed to be done. Are we dreaming here…I can’t believe how great this stuff is here. Thank you!!!

[@Jimmy1982Playlists]

Movie people are the best! I've been lucky to meet absolutely wonderful people who were _incredibly_ helpful...

[@22cine]

Used to have his book, but lost it when moved. If someone wants to be a good storyteller, that book is a must!

[@dianamaysantero2075]

What's the title of the book?

[@22cine]

@@dianamaysantero2075 My Story Can Beat Up Your Story! Ten Ways to Toughen Up Your Screenplay from Opening Hook to Knockout Punch

[@andreiasales.]

⁠”my story can beat up your story”. That is the book’s title

[@enterthebruce91]

I've written a three part crime drama miniseries (1st episode was a University project) as well as a two hour feature film. Nothing's come of them as of yet but I'm proud to have finished them-Starting to work on some short stories and a novel next, I really hope it works out. Nice interview-Thanks Film Courage!

[@filmcourage]

What do you think about archetypes? Please leave a comment below.

[@andreiasales.]

I think is a best way to find the main motivation / scenery and vision of climax of a book, movie or brand.

[@kenneth1767]

Looks like Carol Pearson is still with us. I have her book The Hero Within. I think archetypes are great way to have context for motivations. Through life's journey, different demands will bring out resources that are embedded in the different archetypes. A flux. We are in a sense shapeshifters, and this is reflected in the stories we tell. Fascinating interview. Notes taken.

[@andreiasales.]

Yes she is! Love her books! Made a course of narrative intelligence with her in 2021

[@AnyDayNow360]

Thank you for your videos! Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to you both! I will be sure to watch this gold nugget shared with us!

[@filmcourage]

Merry Christmas! Blessings to you and yours!

[@latinthunder2707]

Great interview!! Thank you. I’ll be ordering his book this weekend.

[@imthebestdirector]

Great guy , great interview. Truly enjoyed.

[@anothercharacter]

I really enjoyed this interview. So many great insights and tips! The book is really good as well 😄

[@clint_oreilly]

Great lessons to learn from this video. Awesome insight.

[@LouCadle]

great business insights. Thanks, as always, for doing all this work.

[@TheFeelButton]

Great interview! Cheers Film Courage!!

[@ericwillis7063]

Great and inciteful information.

[@AnnamiDorothea]

I wish we'd heard about the un-produceable story. (1:07:00)

[@finallyanime]

Shout out to the agent holyyyy. That’s so fucking cool

[@kalebarancelovic]

53:00 for future reference 🙂👍

[@kowboy702]

If you’re missing a Stanley cup… you’re not the only one

[@matthewgordonpettipas6773]

The first nineteen minutes makes you wonder how many possible films are ruined by too many rewrites or too many writers on a project. I know its not going to happen, or at least not anytime soon, but I wish that the industry would do as little rewriting on scripts (unless absolutely necessary) as possible. Because, most of the time they just jumble things up, ruin good scripts, and then have to abandon it when its all destroyed.

[@formulaic78]

Snow White and the Huntsman is possibly the biggest screenwriting comp spec script sale of recent years. If you look at the rotten tomatoes verdict it says "confused plot". You won't be surprised to hear that the writer said after selling the script the production company made him rewrite it 11 times.

[@triberedeyetv5971]

SHEESH. Im manifesting for one week like that. Pitch by tuesday, millionaire by thursday. Years of hard focus ethic n work to get a lump sum return like that. Smh BLESSING indeed. If i can make less than $5,000 a year work as i have for the past few years, ik i could make waves with that. Motivating and inspiring indeed.

[@PvtSchlock]

Great guy, well read, successful but as much as I hate to, I have to object to the emperor in star wars as primary villain analysis. Vader is "bring order" guy. The emperor is more in line with the Italian Elite Theory analysis of power. It's political formula with him: de facto power counts, de jure power doesn't. Ask Donald Trump.

[@SGresponse]

When he starts talking "science vs. technology" and isn't able to correct himself for 5 minutes straight - that's when I realized the guy does not ever listen to anything he's saying. He's just word-saladding the listener to the point of utter bafflement, so that he does not get questioned.

[@cosmicfxx]

weird