Have you ever wondered how Hollywood can make you fall in love with some of the most despicable characters?
People you wouldn’t have anything to do with in real life, much less have a beer with or pay to babysit your kids (by letting them watch your show on TV every Tuesday night).
Or, in the light of the recent school massacre – how does Hollywood put such evil ideas into the minds of our children? Adults are immune. We’ve built up a natural resistance, like getting a shot for the flu. Kids are innocent victims, their minds wide open, curious, and absorbent as a sponge…
Dexter the murdering psychopath? Criminals are heroes, gangsters even more so. Every species of social deviant can be twisted into a – well, somebody you admire, or at least somebody you’re rooting for; almost certainly somebody you’d like to have sex with.
Hollywood has taught us to love criminals, gays, drug addicts, whores, alcoholics – to secretly lust for incest, adultery, forbidden sex with forbidden people. The seven deadly sins are money in the bank for Hollywood.
Why do we even watch that garbage? Why can’t we resist the insidious way Hollywood gets into our brains and reprograms us? Why are old shows so effing boring?
The answer is actually quite simple. It’s so simple that teenagers can and often do write screenplays. Scripts that sell for six figures, that win academy awards.
The answer is structure, and this little book will tell you exactly how it’s done.
Structure is how the action is formatted. Act One gets you comfortable with the main character – her public persona, her life; hints of foibles and some inner conflict.
A series of turning points challenges this mundane, almost boring reality of our protagonist’s life. We all have turning points in our lives – disasters, triumphs, surprises, disappointments – and so we can relate to the main character, at some visceral level, no matter how evil or grotesque they may be.
(Of course, even these evil types are gorgeous, which helps, because beauty is more than skin deep in Hollywood. It’s everything!)
Once we empathize, it’s all over. A steady stream of external obstacles ensues through Act Two, resolved after soul searching and a climax in Act Three. We’ve seen the same pattern in a thousand variations. We go for the ride every time, giving away our emotions to the drama – trusting our psyche to the film. Trusting.
Then there’s the infamous Five Act structure of TV shows. Every commercial break is preceded by a small climax. We’re left in a state of heightened awareness, with a new expectation. Our pupils are dilated, and we’re on the edge of the seat…
Then boom! “Buy this product! Phone now, our callers are waiting.”
We’ve been primed for this message. It jets straight down to our subconscious, locking onto our very soul. It’s the bullfighter’s sword after a clean hit, slicing straight into the raging bull’s heart. Structure. Our children are the helpless victims of structure.
Read this book. Immunize yourself.
Immunize your kids.
The above poster is a new millennial version of Apocalypse Now.
