Robert McKee interview: Part 6

Interesting 7-part interview between a young entrepreneur Sramrana Mitra and screenwriting guru Robert McKee. The questions have a business slant to them and yet McKee always pulls through them the commerce side of things and back to his central focus: Story.

Here is an excerpt from Part 6:

SM: I read your book before taking your story seminar, but when I did take the seminar what I found impressive was the level of clarity of the framework of storytelling that you present. The way you have approached the framework of storytelling is unique. I don’t know many people who have been able to get to the essence of a framework. I have worked with a lot of frameworks that help build businesses and bring products to market. I am a big admirer of good frameworks, and I have the training to recognize one when I see one.

RM: That is very kind of you. A framework of story, as I try to make it clear, is in a way like the last to a shoe. From that last you could make a pump, running shoe or a wing tip. It is a last. Storytelling is a form. It is not like a last in that you can take a last to China, set up a factory, and make shoes. It is a structure and is something I understand. I also understand that it is a form of a work of art. There are two kinds of that form, the honest ones and the dishonest ones. The honest ones are extremely hard to write; the dishonest ones are a piece of cake.

To be honest, I’d never heard of a “last to a shoe.” So I turned to my new best friends at ShoeSchool.com and asked, “What is a shoe last?” And here’s what they say:

Q: What is a Shoe Last ?

A: The solid form around which a shoe is molded…

The fit of a shoe depends on the design, shape and volume of the Shoe Last.

The shoe last must represent the anatomical information of the foot, at the same time giving the finished shoe a pleasing and fashionable appearance.

Chart showing the main parts of a “ Shoe Last “

Each “shoe last “ is designed for a particular heel height, toe shape, and type of footwear.

Many styles of shoes can be made on the same shoe last , but the toe shape and heel height will be the same for each pair made on that shoe last.

If you want to have shoes with different toe shapes, then it is necessary to create more than one pair of shoe lasts.

A proper fitting pair of shoe lasts is a solid investment, and the first step towards creating proper fitting and fashionable footwear.

3 Different Shoes
 Made on the same “ Shoe Last “

Notice how each Shoe Last in this collection is designed for a different Heel Height & Profile.

Examples :
 Top Left = Western Boot
 Bottom Right = Flat Moccasin

In this picture, each drawer contains a complete size run for that style of shoe last.

Traditionally, shoe lasts were made of hardwoods, such as Maple or Beech.

Modern day shoe lasts are made of high density plastics, that are 100% recyclable.

Craftsmen’s Shoe Last Collection 
“A solid form around which the shoe is molded.” Compare to McKee’s statement above, “Storytelling is a form… it is a structure.”

So the form is rather uniform, but using its structure, a writer can ‘mold’ around it various genres of movies. Per McKee, let’s extend the metaphor:

A “pump” — let’s call that a rom-com.

A “running shoe” — that’s got to be a sports movie, right.

And a “wing tip” — sounds like a political drama to me.

An endless variety of stories using a basic ‘form’ as the story’s structure.

The trick, of course, when using a form is to not write a formulaic story. And that’s where creativity comes in.

For more of Part 6 of the McKee interview, go here.

For Part 5, go here.

For Part 4, go here.

For Part 3, go here.

For Part 2, go here.

For Part 1, go here.

Tomorrow in Part 7, the final part of the series, McKee argues that video games have limitations per storytelling because they are not art.

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