I was hoping to get clarification about the differences regarding 'story' and 'plot' which sometimes get a little hazy in my mind
On the plot vs story distinction I use the following --
Plot is what happens.
Story is the protagonist's journey.
The only reason I make this distinction is because it's useful to separate out the two things and see them as different things. Where so many scripts fail is in the fact that there is a lack of distinction between plot and story.
I think this is also where people often go wrong when pitching ideas -- someone says "Tell me the story" and they reply by reeling off the plot points from the beat sheet "Well, this happens, and then this happens and then this happens and then this happens... etc" When in fact the information they needed to get across was something like:
"After battling with his alcoholism for thirty years, football coach Brad finally regains his self respect by coaching a little league team of downs syndrome kids to cup victory"
That's the story, the protagonist's journey, as opposed to the plot.
Most good loglines are story based rather than plot based, and where many scripts fail is that although they have plot, they often fail to have a story -- it is this lack of protagonist's journey that leaves many films without anything for the audience to connect to.
In other words the film becomes a series of events with no emotional impact.
The advantage of a compass logline is it makes you nail the protagonist's central question before you start writing and therefore you don't end up with an unpitchable completed film.
This was the main mistake I made with No Place -- insufficient pre-production work on nailing the story -- sure I made a few plotting errors, but the killer mistake was the lack of story.
In the writing process story comes before plot and evolves out of character development.
So if you see the entire process laid out it becomes:
1) Idea - concept (which can be either a character, story or plot point that attracts you)
This often expressed as a "what if" -- kind of like "what if a vampire fell in love with an angel"
2) Then this moves to detailed character development (so you ask yourelf what is this vampire's story, who else is involved, what is their story)
This stage is about locking down the four cardinal characters (protagonist, antagonist, stakes character, ally) and exploring what it is in their personal histories that motivates them to act in certain ways.
3) At this point the story gets locked and you write your "compass logline"
The four phrases then become the foundation for your plot.
4) The story gets plotted using whatever structure you understand best (Four acts - forty five sequences)
5) Finally with all the prep done you sit down and write. (Should come out at 100-115 pages effortlessly)
6) Having completed draft one the script goes out to your readers -- you get notes back
7) Rewrite drafts until everyone looses the will to live! (Draft eight is the earliest you can reasonably quit without the shame of being a lightweight!)
