Producer and Director. DGC production manager – Influencers, Spiral, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Director of The Drop. Founder @SetTracker. Vancouver.
Vancouver BC
Joined December 2008
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Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
Christopher Nolan shot Batman Begins (2005) entirely on 35mm film, and has refused to use digital cameras ever since.
He told American Cinematographer magazine, “Film is the best way to capture the texture & gravity of light.”
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
Watch that AI fight choreography video. Now go rewatch the bathroom fight scene in Mission Impossible Fallout. We'll be okay.
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
> Skiers are usually type A personalities hyped on ambition and precision and perhaps a bump or two of the white stuff (not the snow, mind you).
> Boarders are nomadic potheads in oversized pants, shredding the gnar and letting the vibes flow as they drift through the slopes.
Society only functions if there is Pareto distribution of skiers to snowboarders: 80%-20%
Any more than 20% of boarders means civilization collapses
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
Thinking about the Jurassic Park (1993) stop motion test where velociraptors hunt Barbie and Ken in the kitchen. Somehow scarier than the actual movie.
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
After 29 years of writing screenplays professionally, here is my rewrite process for every action line.
1. What emotion do I want to evoke from the reader?
2. Does the line evoke it?
3. If not, rewrite it until it does.
4. If no emotion is intended, is it as succinct as possible?
5. If not, rewrite it until it is.
6. If the line is not emotionally or visually needed, cut it.
𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹: clarity of intent and emotional truth. Never sacrifice either one.
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
The inciting incident isn't just about the plot. And it's certainly not just about the page count.
Design an ordinary world that is uniquely disrupted by this event. What did the protagonist expect they would get, and how does the inciting incident give them something else?
Make sure it leads us to the dramatic question.
Most of all, make it emotional. Evoke in us the same emotion the protagonist feels.
Do it right, and it goes beyond plot; it's a trampoline bounce of dramatic momentum and emotional pull that launches us into the story.
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
It's the story that matters. Know what it is. Define it.
Whether you're writing a horror film, a comedy, action or suspense, make it personal.
Make it emotional.
Ideas are great. But don't get trapped in them. We don't need more intellectual ideas.
We need more humanity.
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
You don't want the audience waiting for what happens next.
You want them in anticipation of it.
They know a result is coming. They need to know it; they just don't know what it will be.
This means controlling the narrative momentum, stakes, and tension.
It's your job to keep them engaged.
Don't ask for their patience. Very few of them will give it.
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
Characters sounding the same in your screenwriting is less about how they speak and more about how you've defined them.
Give each character a clear WANT.
Give them a distinct POV.
Let them react truthfully.
Do this, and the problem of sounding the same takes care of itself.
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
Confidence is a difference-maker in your screenwriting.
If you don't think this is a great story worth being excited about, we won't.
Practice being confident in your screenwriting by making strong choices. Be decisive with your characters and what you want in each moment.
Then execute it to the best of your abilities.
Early on, they don't even have to be the best choices. Just train yourself to make them.
If you get into the habit of making choices, you will get better at the choices you make.
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
William Friedkin’s Sorcerer (1977) was buried by Star Wars on release but it has aged into a masterpiece. The bridge scene where the trucks crawl across a collapsing bridge in the rain is one of the most nerve shredding sequences ever filmed.
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
cersei blowing up the sept in the season finale was peak got.
xitter.cf/hbooutofcontext/status…
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
breakdown (1997) is a relentless thriller where kurt russell’s road trip turns into a nightmare of paranoia and survival. one of the best thrillers you forgot existed.
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY was released 34 years ago this week. Acclaimed as one of the great blockbuster action films, and among the best sequels ever made, it remains a hugely spectacular movie with a making of story to match…
1/42
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
Don't just ask what needs to happen in the scene. That's important, sure. But get more specific in your screenwriting.
Ask what needs to CHANGE.
What is true at the end of the scene that wasn't true in the beginning?
Who does it affect?
How do they feel about it?
How are they closer to who they will become?
How are they farther away?
This helps you stay focused on the emotional journey, not just the plot.
Remember, the plot is just a device. It's a tool to generate what we really care about:
The emotion.
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
The most common problem I see with action movies is this. No matter how badass your hero is you need to make them give them some vulnerability or we simply will not give a shit. No matter how many kitty cats they rescue from trees or puppy dogs they pet along the way. It's why Superman has kryptonite. Why Batman is the best comic book character because he has no superhuman powers aside from tremendous wealth. And why most Marvel movies end up sucking because they forgot this simple fact.
As an actor Harrison Ford is a master at this. Everybody cites THE FUGITIVE but there's one scene that's always stuck in my head from the 1988 movie FRANTIC when he's scrambling down that rooftop in Paris. Now do we honestly think he's gonna lose his footing and splatter his brains all over the French concrete in the first hour of the movie? Of course not. But we feel it viscerally because he's so vulnerable in that moment. He does a lot of it with his eyes – that indelible look of panic. Also I have a fear of heights. Don't tell anyone.
I'd love to see a return to that type of grounded action movie and I'm not the only one.
Now compare this with another action movie: JOHN WICK. Don't get me wrong, I like these movies just fine. But Wick is essentially a superhero with a gun. He never misses and that's the fun of it. But sometimes when I'm watching a movie like that I mentally check out. Because I have no emotional connection with the character in that moment. At no time do I really believe he's really in danger. And as the franchise goes on you'll notice the action sequences have to get bigger and bigger to a ridiculous degree. They need to outdo the last movie but at that point it's diminishing returns. I feel the same way about the FAST & FURIOUS movies which seem to defy the laws of physics more and more as the franchise goes on.
It's the difference between watching a Game 7 of the NBA finals and a highlight reel. One has tension, suspense, and drama – all elements we want to see in your screenplay. And the other is just pure spectacle. Nothing wrong with that, of course. I like a shootout, car chase, or explosion as much as the next guy or gal.
But if you can find a way to marry the two – spectacle plus emotion – then you've got us right where you want us.
Kyle McCachen, DGC retweeted
If DOG DAY AFTERNOON was made today I bet it'd be called DOG DAY, which is not nearly as good of a title.
Actually, if the movie was made today, it'd probably be called ROBBERY.
But I doubt the movie would be made today, unless the Pacino character turned into a werewolf.