But you need something to apply to your everyday work. I’m a historian, so I like all kinds of theory. Some screenwriting books are written by theorists, which I am totally OK with, but when a working screenwriter shows me what works, it means something. What I first liked about it was that it was written by an actual screenwriter. When you read Save the Cat for the first time, what resonated with you most about it? I kept in touch with his team, and at some point I offered to write this book.

It was a great time.īlake and I remained in touch, exchanging emails as he liked to do. At some point I heard that Blake Snyder was going to come to Barcelona and I thought, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet this man. It was so clear and so easy to follow to help you develop your own work. Then at some point I came across Save the Cat, and it was a game-changer. It started about ten years ago, when I was first considering becoming a professional screenwriter. Salva Rubio Can you tell us how you first became acquainted with Save the Cat and Blake Snyder? Now Rubio’s passion for both the tenets of STC and independent films come together in a new book, Save the Cat Goes to the Indies.Ĭreative Screenwriting spoke with Rubio about why writing beat sheets is so helpful to screenwriters, how any movie can be broken down using STC beats, and how STC has remained so popular and useful for screenwriters.

Rubio, a graphic novelist and screenwriter from Madrid, Spain, worked for Spain’s foremost independent production company, Alta Films, where he analyzed scripts by the Coen Brothers, Eric Rohmer, Gus Van Sant, Walter Salles, and Jane Campion.Īfter reading Save the Cat and connecting with its method, Rubio met Snyder during a week-long Save the Cat (STC) seminar in Spain, and continued to stay in touch until Snyder’s death.

That is, until Salva Rubio discovered that Snyder’s beats worked just as well for an auteur film as it does for an action flick. Many screenwriters can’t help but spot the moment when “Bad Guys Close In”, or the “Dark Night of the Soul” whenever they sit down to watch a Hollywood movie.īut although the method has been regularly used and recommended for Hollywood blockbusters-including by Snyder himself-it wasn’t really thought of as a useful tool for indie films. Since its inception over twenty years ago, the methodology of Blake Synder’s Save the Cat has been as synonymous with storytelling as Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey and Syd Field’s Paradigm Worksheet.

Monet by Salva Rubio