Save the Cat! Goes to the Indies: The Screenwriters Guide to 50 Films from the Masters

In his best-selling book, Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies, Blake Snyder provided 50 “beat sheets” to 50 films, mostly studio-made. Now his student, screenwriter and novelist Salva Rubio, applies Blake’s principles to 50 independent, auteur, European and cult films (again with 5 beat sheets for each of Blake’s 10 genres).

If you're a moviegoer, you'll discover a language to analyze film and understand how filmmakers can effectively reach audiences.

If you're a writer, this book reveals how those who came before you tackled the same challenges you are facing with the films you want to write. Writing a “rom-com”? Check out the “Buddy Love” chapter for a “beat for beat” dissection of Before Sunrise, The Reader, Blue Is the Warmest Color and more to see how Linklater and Krizan, David Hare, and Kechiche and Lacroix structured their films.

Scripting a horror film? Read the “Monster in the House” section and discover how 28 Days Later and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre are the same movie – and what you need to do to write a scary story that keeps audiences on the edge of their seats.

Want to execute a great mystery? Go to the “Whydunit” chapter and learn about the “dark turn” that’s essential to the heroes of The Big Lebowski, The French Connection, and Michael Clayton.

Want your protagonist to go up against an evil “institution”? Consider how Mamet handled Glengarry Glen Ross and Tarantino framed Pulp Fiction.

Writing a “Superhero” story? See how Susannah Grant structured Erin Brockovich, Anderson & Baumbach worked out Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Gilliam & Stoppard & McKeown laid the foundation for Brazil.

With these 50 beat sheets, you’ll see how “hitting the beats” creates stories that resonate the world over for these outstanding writers—and how you can follow in their footsteps.

Salva Rubio, born in Madrid, Spain in1978, is a screenwriter and The Indie Analyst. For 10 years he worked for Spain s foremost independent distribution, exhibition and production company, Alta Films. There, he analyzed scripts by Eric Rohmer, Gus Van Sant, Walter Salles, Jane Campion, the Coen Brothers, Christopher Hampton, Amos Gitai, John Turturro, Marjane Satrapi, Larry Clark and David Cronenberg, among others. He has also analyzed scripts for Spain s Ministry of Culture (ICAA), Instituto Cervantes, Fundación Carolina and Casa de América. He is a professional writer, working in several media. As a feature film screenwriter, he co-wrote the animated movie Deep (2017) and has been hired to work on three more feature films plus several animated series and shorts. As a graphic novel writer, he works in the French-Belgian market (Le Lombard Editeur), having published such projects as Monet, Nomad of Light, and the novel Zíngara: Searching for Jim Morrison, and is currently writing the novelization of the successful Spanish TV series El Príncipe. He is a Licenciado in Arts History (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and has a Master s Degree in Film and TV Screenwriting (Universiddad Carlos III de Madrid). He teaches screenwriting and narrative, and also likes to draw, paint, play guitar and recently has somehow found time to take up the trumpet.