Movies that feel like they were written with Dramatica

#1

Hi Everyone,

I am new here to the user group but I have gone through all of the user group podcasts.
What I find interesting is that there are some movies with storyforms that fit so perfectly they
feel like the writer was using Dramatica when they wrote the screenplay.

I was wondering if it would be possible to come up with a list of such movies to help beginners (like me) understand Dramatica better.

I have just listened to the user group podcast for A Few Good Men and it seemed to fit perfectly.
If you have any examples I would happy to hear them.

#2

What about A Few Good Men stood out to you as a tight fit with Dramatica? (The script pre-dates Dramatica, btw.)

#3

A Man for all Seasons? There is a discussion about it on this site. I can’t remember exactly what we came up with, but my memory says a complete storyform. You know how that goes, memory is constructive as my cognitive psych teacher said.

#4

I felt the main character choices (including the ones chosen by dramatica) were all bang on.
Reduction for the OS and MC concern fit perfectly in my opinion. Kaffee’s was great at bargaining and reducing sentences.
Also the unique ability of expediency as he was always looking for the fastest way out of a problem.

I’ll have to go back and relisten to the podcast but I was very impressed how well it all fit together in the storyform.

What I am looking for is more movies like this where the storyform works well so I can analyze them and understand dramatica better.

I haven’t watched Inside Out yet but I have heard that is another good example.

#5

Thank you for the recommendation. I will check it out!

#6

So, here’s the thing. There are lots of movies and books that work in the way that you liked A Few Good Men.

Scour Dramatica.com for a non-exhaustive list.

If you’ve made it through all the podcasts, I recommend trying to do your own analysis of something. You’ll start to get a feel for what (likely) fits and what (likely) doesn’t. And come here to test our what you’re learning, because you need feedback to get through this process, which can get ugly.

I have found that really learning is best done by 1) the podcasts, then 2) your own attempts at analysis, then 3) doing your own story design and then ultimately 4) writing. (But always be writing. Don’t wait until you pass step 3.)

Comedies are the least likely to have a tight fit. That doesn’t mean they’re bad movies, but not great for learning how to find a storyform.

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#7

This ^^ 100%

Second this also. The biggest pitfall of Dramatica is to use it as another means of procrastination (we’ve all been there).

In addition, something instructive for me has been looking at the structural similarities of stories in a certain genre. This is both a logical and intuitive process. You have to get a feel for the personality of a story. Some patterns and parts of the model will be easier to grasp than others. Personally, I love thrillers, especially psychological thrillers. So I see OS Psychology/Conceptualizing everywhere now. Physics/Learning stories are a little harder for me to identify.

Once you get a feeling for genre patterns, then you can look at outliers – films that appear to be in the same genre, but have a different structural arrangement. For example, if you like superhero movies, try to get a feeling for what makes the “personalities” of The Incredibles and Into the Spider-Verse different from your typical Marvel action movie.

If you liked A Few Good Men, it would be interesting to compare it to other courtroom dramas (though I’m not sure how many have been analyzed). Twelve Angry Men is one that I believe also has an OS in Mind, which intuitively makes sense.

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