“BODY BLOW! BODY BLOW!
Dialogue from Punch-Out! arcade game
When I was 23 and just a year out of film school, I had steady work as a freelance photographer but supplimented my income by doing deliveries one day a week. At the end of my route to a convenience store somewhere in Southern California, I would treat myself to playing the Punch-Out! arcade game.
In the game, every time your character got hit hard you’d hear the announcer say, ”BODY BLOW! BODY BLOW!” I think I only did that delivery gig a few months, but the phrase “BODY BLOW! BODY BLOW!” is seared in my mind. So much so whenever I hit a rough patch in life I think “BODY BLOW! BODY BLOW!”
The last two months have been kind of like. Noting life changing, but it did derail my plans of doing two YouTube videos a month. That, and I went down a Toy Story 3 rabbit hole in March that I just crawled out of. The results are a new 10-minute video on what Oscar winning screenwriter Michael Arndt calls the six tentpole moments of Toy Story 3. (He’s clear to say this “tentpole” concept isn’t the only way to write a screenplay, but it works for him in writing a mainstream movie. In the video below, I condense about 10 hours of his teaching I’ve listened over the last couple of months into just under 10 minutes. Check out Arndt’s great 70 minute video Toy Story 3: Mistakes Made, Lesson Learned to flesh this out more.)
My plan in June is to get back to making two sub-3 minute videos in June on my YouTube Channel. And since creating YouTube videos is a growing part of working in production, I’ll start passing on some insights I’ve learned doing this blog solo. (Did you know there is a job now called YouTube Channel Show Runner?) Even if you can write, shoot, edit, etc. there is so much to learn. On this video alone, I had to edit seven versions before I got one that didn’t get blocked for copyright reasons.
I hope the video is helpful to you and your writing and filmmaking. (I’d appreciate it if you subscribed to the channel.) And for those of you who prefer reading, I will get a transcript of the video on here by tomorrow.
Scott W. Smith
Finally found my life goal: YouTube Showrunner!
Keep ’em coming, Scott! 🙂