Jacob Krueger is a WGA Paul Selvin Award Winner, founder of the Jacob Krueger Studio and host of the popular podcast “Write Your Screenplay.” This decorated veteran of the final draft promotes a philosophy that takes a detour from the traditional screenplay formulas and instead fosters the childlike creativity of the subconscious. But to break down these tired “standards,” Krueger needed to start at the beginning — or at least 32-ish years ago.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Krueger jokingly kicked off his presentation with, before launching into a full deconstruction of Syd Field’s “Screenplay.” Krueger said if you ask any writer “how’s it going,” they will say they are lost in the second act. Field sets up the three acts with 30 pages in the first and third, but 60 in the second! Krueger said that 1) modern films are now only 100 pages, further emphasizing how out of date Field’s model is, and 2) it’s too many pages to keep straight. The screenwriter then demonstrated each act as steps, taking normal steps for acts one and three, but a comedically overemphasized one for the second act. Continuing with this allegory, if acts are steps, scenes are the baby steps that fill in the gaps between the story markers.
When it comes to creating these micro-movements, Krueger said it’s about adding and removing obstacles for your characters to a point where they have to move, have to change, have to make a journey. Krueger points to “The Big Lebowski,” which he views as a brilliant allegory for the first Iraq war about an easily manipulated generation being taken advantage of by the government, as a prime example of how to get a character moving. While Jeff Bridges’ character is an abiding hippie, after his head gets dunked in a toilet and his rug that “really ties the room together” got peed on, he eventually agreed to track down this other Lebowski to get the money he needs for his carpet.
In creating what it takes to get a character in motion, Krueger said it’s a balance between the conscious and subconscious minds. Where the subconscious mind can create the narrative, it needs the “editing” or “conscious” mind to rein it in. Likewise, the conscious mind is often too strict on giving the subconscious the freedom it needs to actually play in the world you are trying to create. Krueger compared it to a dad teaching his kid to play baseball — the kid will either lose passion for it and quit or even worse, do what dad says and reproduce formulaic garbage, not what feels natural to them.
Creating the story that means something to the writer is where the idea of Krueger’s “Me Draft” comes in. When filming “21 Jump Street,” Krueger said Phil Miller used one million dollars on a joke the audience just would not laugh at. After countless failed test screenings and the studio telling him to cut it, Miller finally got it, and the truck full of chickens blowing up became the best joke in the film. Krueger said this idea of keeping something in the final draft for the sole purpose of making you laugh or you cry, is the idea of the “Me Draft,” writing a story that appeals, not to the audience or the producers, but to you.
And this might not always be achieved through the three-act structure because in life, Krueger said, people don’t change in three easy steps — a first act, a second and a conclusion. It’s also not a constant flow of positive to negative because life is always more chaotic than that, Krueger said. Writing in these formulaic ways are unintuitive because, as Krueger said, they don’t mimic real life; the writer can’t pull from any relevant experience. It is the job of the writer to spark an empathetic response from the viewer, even the craziest Marvel movie reproduces the human experience somewhat, Krueger said.
These formulas, such as Field’s three-act structure or the over-exposed plot triangle, while good for their time, do nothing but flatten out the writer’s voice, Krueger said. To get your script read, you have to do what no one else is, and after breaking the myth of the three-act structure, Krueger believes it all comes from the writer’s ability to sell, not their third act conclusion or second act twist, but their unique voice line by line.
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Featured Image Courtesy of Austin Film Festival