Hidden Rules of Great Films

Unveiling Hollywood’s secret success formula

Hollywood is under threat. The shift to online streaming poses great opportunities as studios and technology firms shift production from movies to series, in an effort to monetize on content addiction. As competition heats up, the golden question becomes: What makes movies great? Hidden patterns that target our subconscious.

Science

Call it the technical side or the “code” of a product. Marketing plays a role, but a major reason why Hollywood dominates the world market is because it follows a formula. The foundations are described in Syd Field’s Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting (this book started James Cameron’s career), where decades of experimentation have turned the art of movie making into a science- disregard these rules, and profits will likely suffer.

Here are some examples:

• Hook: Within the first ~12 minutes (Act 1) or 10% of the movie in minutes, if you cannot tell three things: the main characters, the setting, and the plot- like an “elevator pitch”, the movie has failed to grab your attention.
• Plot points: By 25–30 minutes, there should be a critical event or ‘inflection point’ that propels the story or plot forward (to Act 2). By 85–90 minutes, there should be another one to end the story (to Act 3).
• Three act structure: These patterns are universal rules that form creative writing, following cognitive and emotional cues deep within the human psyche, regardless of culture.

The Three Act Structure. Source

These rules sound simple, yet you will be surprised how many movies don’t follow them, especially international and indie films. Analyze your next movie using this standard (by the minute) and you will start to see patterns.

Art

Great engineering is not enough; if a product does not solve a problem, need, or pain for a specific customer, then it is bound to fail. For movies, the need is to uphold righteous values (ex: justice, honesty, courage, etc). This is why superhero movies work, because they portray an ideal for us to follow.

Great movies contain a moral — how true this resonates with the audience can mark its success.

This is the artistic, subjective nature- because it varies with different value systems. To give you some data, specific screenplay elements are explained in Weiland’s book Creating Character Arcs:

• Stories play a fight between Lie vs. Truth experienced by our hero, with the Midpoint (~60 minutes or half of the story) being the revelation of the truth — this happens even in series.
• Character Arcs: There are positive (bad to good), flat/testing (constant), and negative (good to bad) character arcs which reflect the shift in morals throughout the story. Examples include Lion King & Frozen; Gladiator & Captain America; Scarface & Joker respectively.
• Just as events do not happen in isolation, characters are seldom completely good or evil, but are driven by motivations that move the plot-line forward. If the main character is evil, always possesses some good; if good, always some weakness. This is done to create empathy with the audience, so we can relate to them as protagonists (explained in Snyder’s book Save the Cat)

Moral

And the moral of the story is…

Great movies carry meaning — they convey a message, subconsciously affecting our culture.

It can serve as a communication or marketing instrument. But most importantly, it is a mirror of what society values: good vs. evil, truth vs. lies.

Take the comparison of two movies with a common theme but opposing viewpoints: The Painted Veil vs. Gone Girl. While one depicts the sanctification of marriage, the other, its corruption. The later might illustrate a shift in our society’s view of the institution. Netflix did a great job depicting divorce in Marriage Story.

Examples of movies containing a moral include:

• Frozen: True love means sacrifice.
• Captain America: True strength comes from righteousness.
• Joker: The desperate can be driven to evil by an unjust world.

If you are not convinced that great movies contain a central message, take a look at this in-depth analysis of the franchise Aliens (from Ridley Scott himself) or the comparison between Justice League 2017 vs. 2021 (the latest director’s cut contains the elements above).

Not every film contains a moral, but great ones often do.

These patterns will allow you to analyze with a critical eye to improve your product experience or at least, be cognizant of the subtle meanings behind “entertainment”.

Recommended book: The Truth Formula