Robert Mckee on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

[MajorArcanaTV]

Robert Mckee is a God-send!!! Every writer should read "Story". It will seriously save your butt :O)

[Ladygagsalot]

"And God help you if you use any voice over in your work my friends, God help you..." lol

[dpthomas37]

The interviewer's last name is ridonculonculonculously loooong. 

[2milho]

omfg imma take his course may 15th! pretty anxious...

[TheJesusSucks]

A Beautiful Mind won Best Picture in 2001, not 2004. I know it's a minor mistake, but it always bothers me when an interviewer makes a mistake. Hurts the credibility of the interview.

[PANZYUTUBEIS]

queer

[TheJesusSucks]

@PANZYUTUBEIS If you don't like what I said, you can tell me so, but I don't think it's appropriate to make homophobic statements.

[jaggedsymmetry]

I'm currently reading his book, about half way through the book, and it's been extremely helpful and enlightening. I totally recommend to anyone who is interested in writing a story...be it short or long, screenplay or novel. Go to your library or bookstore. it's totally awesome.

[cazacriter]

i take your advise,the problem is how to get that material to thouse who are in charge and that s make things discoraging.i wil read it anyway.regards

[mark1800]

No fucking way! Can't believe Robert McKee actually fiddled the script! It all makes sense now - the last third of "Adaptation" randomly turns into a really generic actiony/thriller completely uncharacteristic of Spike and Kaufman. Man, hard to believe they'd give in to that. Ah well still a decent film.

[cheesesailor77]

not exactly, the screenplay is being written as we're watching it. Charlie starts out confused and on tangents and introduces characters that he doesn't know what to do with (the first half), but he eventually asks his brother to help him, who introduces drugs, intrigue, crocodiles ;) Donald represents all the "structure" writers Charlie despises, but he created him to help guide him through this unfilmable adaptation. Donald's death is also symbolic as Charlie has grown and no longer needs him

[Trelli28]

yeah, he messed up the end.

[emjay882]

How do you know the film had 3 acts? Mckee just stated he fiddled with the third act, what makes you think the film opted for a 3-act structure.

[mark1800]

"they knew they had act 3 problems."

and

"they reworked act 3 accordingly"

[emjay882]

3-act structure; third act is the final act.

The previous poster states the last half of the film was tweaked by Mckee, assuming it's a 3-act structure thus assuming the third act is the last act.

Perhaps it was a 5-act structure, and Mckee didn't fiddle with the scene he was refering to.

[baillou2]

It's a great film. The generic/actiony thriller turn was made intentionally. Can't you see that? But most importantly Kaufman (both real and in the movie) redeem themselves by the end.

[VicLabs]

They did everything in the third act that the Andy Kaufman character explicitly said within the first 5 minutes that he would not write into the movie. It's tongue in cheek.

[thomasgoodin]

@VicLabs exactly. i dont get how so many people including robert mckee missed it

[LordNapalm]

Amazing book.

I would recommend it to anyone trying to write anything.

[buttercupcake27]

George you have a beautiful smile ;)

[Sorcoral]

I have always though HBO brought out some great material, glad to see McKee agrees

[Trelli28]

I wondered why Mckee would say "bloody" in his rant, then I realized that Brian Cox is british.

[tonyirwin50]

Outstanding! I saw him in London and as well the outstanding quality of the stuff he was teaching, part of the fun of it was that he's such a character. Pure New York! It was great to see this clip - even seeing the guy's confidence and the way he holds himself is inspiring. Writers aren't wimps, they're people who will sacrifice all to tell the story society refuses to hear. What's scary is that the older I get, the more I become like this guy!

[october4891647]

Yes, a DVD volume of a complete seminar would make for a very happy christmas.

[RobertMcKeeSTORY]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. We've posted some seminar clips on our official YouTube page. And we'd love to hear your thoughts about online courses and what kind of memberships you think would be worthwhile for him to offer (just drop us an e-mail through YouTube).

[demboys18]

Good Lord, what I wouldn't give for someone to put his entire seminar on youtube, lol. Wishfull thinking. Or...what if someon had a websight totally dedicated to Robert Mckee's seminars and class...I'd pay a couple a bucks a month for membership to that site.

[dubnobasswithmahead]

I agree with this statement. Having missed his Canadian seminars twice last year, and lacking the necessary fundages for a plane ticket out to L.A./New York, I'd definitely pay a monthly for such a website. Wouldn't even hesitate. Screenwriting tips are a time a dozen online, yet they can be quite misleading. I trust McKee's advice and his wisdom could sure help a lot of us folks on the interwebz!

[thasexeone]

@demboys18 Mr. McKee has a website called STORYLOGUE. I think it's a monthly paysite, but has weekly seminars, etc.

google storylogue, I can't put weblinks in here

[womblewandering]

@demboys18

I agree.

A good teacher is not someone with credits and status. A good teacher is someone who teaches you wise things and makes sense

[Fezz]

@demboys18 from what I've heard the seminar contains pretty much the same stuff that the book has. I guess he would write a sequel if he had lots of additional goodies. But this is just what I've heard so don't trust this opinion too much :)

[BrainSpecialist]

@demboys18 That website's up now! It's called Storylogue. It's about $50 a month tho!

[JayFGrissom]

@BrainSpecialist

Thanks for sharing this! What a great way to learn more from McKee!

Stumble around in the dark for years (maybe more) or pay $50 a month... I'd rather pay the $50.

(Plus it's expensive to run a site like Storylogue...)

I'm sure anyone who's read "Story" would agree that he deserves to be paid well for what he teaches.

For anyone who can't afford the site membership the book is only $20 in hardback, right?

Thanks again for sharing the site name... you rock!

[JayFGrissom]

@BrainSpecialist

Thanks for sharing this! What a great way to learn more from McKee!

Stumble around in the dark for years (maybe more) or pay $50 a month... I'd rather pay the $50.

(Plus it's expensive to run a site like Storylogue...)

I'm sure anyone who's read "Story" would agree that he deserves to be paid well for what he teaches.

For anyone who can't afford the site membership the book is only $20 in hardback, right?

Thanks again for sharing the site name... you rock!

[Mapley]

@demboys18

Hey, check out the wesbsite Storylogue, it's a bit expensive, but I'm considering signing up.

[Banes500]

That was excellent...it could have been a full hour. What a great teacher McKee is...and George is an excellent interviewer.

[Onest52]

This is fantastic! It definitely gives more insight into the man and where he is coming from, and jives with what I think is the overwhelming opinion of well read America; that writing is becoming shit as far as movies are concerned. HBO seems to have the right idea; I wonder if they are planning to move into movies in a big way any time soon?