How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

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  • How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

    ...while still charging $250 for his daylong course and $645 for four-day seminars?

    http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/...t-mckee-200911
    @TerranceMulloy

  • #2
    Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

    The power of Brand Name.

    Also, first mover in the seminar business. It helps. And a lot of people talk about him in podcasts etc and also, his book/course is heavily marketed based on the number of people who went on to win Oscars/Write blockbusters who attended his course.

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    • #3
      Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

      Folks will accept all kinds of nonsense as long as you speak it with complete conviction.

      And I really, really mean that...
      "Only nothing is impossible."
      - Grant Morrison

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      • #4
        Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

        I believe 100% what you just said.

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        • #5
          Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

          Agree with instant karma. Hitler being a prime example.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

            Headline: Journalist/Wannabe Screenwriter bashes McKee.

            I've read story and attended his seminars. I don't always agree with McKee and he can be a pain. But he does this so you remember his seminar and it works.

            Get what you can from all the books and gurus and then move on from there.

            STORY has a bibliography of several hundred books. Not like he's written the book without citing all the references and to say there's no validity in analyzing story structure is absurd.
            "I talked to a couple of yes men at Metro. To me they said no."


            http://wagstaffnet.blogspot.com/

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            • #7
              Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

              Vague, general advice that's widely believed because it's occasionally correct is closely related to the Forer Effect:

              Originally posted by Mind Hacks
              I've just found a classic study online where psychologist Bertram Forer gave a personality test to his students and then asked each person to rate how the accuracy of their 'individual personality profile'. In reality, all the 'individual profiles' were identical but students tended to rate the descriptions as highly accurate.

              In fact, on a scale of 1-5, students rated the accuracy of their profile, on average, as 4.2. This is the profile Forer used:
              You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Your sexual adjustment has presented problems for you. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your major goals in life.
              The tendency to see ourselves in vague or general statements has since been called the Forer effect or, alternatively, the Barnum effect, after the famous catchphrase attributed to the travelling circus impresario P.T. Barnum: "There's a sucker born every minute!"

              It has been cited as the basis for palm reading, fortune telling and the like, and in the original article, Forer notes that he was inspired to conduct the study because he was "accosted by a night-club graphologist who wished to 'read' his handwriting".

              Forer asked the graphologist what evidence he had for the accuracy of his readings and he replied that his clients usually confirmed that he was correct.

              Forer felt this was rather poor evidence but decided on an interesting tack: rather than attempt to validate the test, he decided to study the psychology of agreeing with vague personality profiles.
              Steven Palmer Peterson

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              • #8
                Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

                Back when I was a student in a screenwriting program, a professor had Story as one of the key books to read for his class. This guy was a staff writer for several major TV shows, so everyone trusted his opinion.

                I think the book is most helpful for beginning writers to help give them any direction instead of just putting words to the page. I only read it once, but it was just as good as any of the other screenwriting books I've read. I guess the most important thing is to just not take it as gospel.

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                • #9
                  Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

                  You can read Aristotle's Poetics for free at the library. He and other self-proclaimed gurus will be in business as long as people believe in a silver bullet. All you need to do is read scripts and write scripts, eventually, you'll pick it up.

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                  • #10
                    Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

                    Probably by believing his own bullshit. Does he actually think he is making a difference?
                    Last edited by Typewriter; 11-22-2009, 10:45 AM.
                    The Best Impersonation of Christian Bale Freak Out!!

                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd5631H6KuE

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                    • #11
                      Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

                      I had a a lecturer in film school who had no formal training in screenwriting, he hadn't really written much himself, but MY GOD could he motivate the students. His classes would go on for hours. You couldn't ask questions. He would just talk and talk about everything from the year dot, somehow linking stuff like Mussolini and facism into screenwriting, AND IT MADE SENSE!

                      In hindsight it doesn't make any sense, it's laughable. But this is how good this guy was at whipping you up into a frenzy and getting your brain ticking. You left his lectures ready to take on the world. I totally understand why this guy was there now - to give you that jolt in the arm and kick in the arse that so many of us need to just sit down and write. This lecturer was very conscious of what he was doing and the affect he was having. I'm thinking McKee is coming from a similar angle.

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                      • #12
                        Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

                        I read through some of his book once. I can honestly say I didn't really understand a thing he was talking about. Screenwriting looked like a foreign language or advance calculus or something lol.
                        Quack.

                        Writer on a cable drama.

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                        • #13
                          Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

                          If I remember correctly McKee admits to not getting comedy and it shows. I like Synder he gets/has humor.


                          Oh yea and that +, - thing. McKee's a Space Alien.

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                          • #14
                            Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

                            does it really matter how?
                            how many bad flicks get made every year? spending millions to make a bad flick is a worse offense but it happens all the time. in fact, some are so bad that it makes you want to cry if you think too much about it.

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                            • #15
                              Re: How does McKee get away with being repeatedly wrong?

                              Originally posted by ducky1288 View Post
                              I read through some of his book once. I can honestly say I didn't really understand a thing he was talking about. Screenwriting looked like a foreign language or advance calculus or something lol.
                              I felt the same way. LOL. It felt like I was listening to a foreign language. (I got it on cassette from the library.) He uses his own made up terms for stuff & he did a lousy job explaining those terms, so it mostly left me confused.


                              A big problem with McKee is that, like a lot of other "gurus", he never worked as a professional screenwriter before writing his book-- and it shows. He may know something about storytelling in general, but he doesn't seem to know much about writng a MOVIE specifically.

                              Most of his stuff is after-the-fact analytical, as opposd to learned-by-experience practical.

                              "Trust your stuff." -- Dave Righetti, Pitching Coach

                              ( Formerly "stvnlra" )

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