Hello and Welcome!
My name is André van Haren, and this is my first post on this blog. It’s going to be about movies and about a way of looking at them, using Contour.
Contour is a software program created by Mariner Software and is based on a movie structure approach by Jeffrey Alan Schechter.
I am not a screenwriter, nor am I part of the above mentioned company. My reason for starting this blog is completely out of love for movies and my love for seeing how they tick, why they work, and after trying out a lot of story structure systems I decided that for me, Contour is the one I want to work with.
In my daily life I work as a composer, arranger and music engraver, which takes up a lot of my time. Because of that, this blog will not be updated daily, but I hope to post at least one movie breakdown a month.
Movie breakdowns will be posted one section at the time, when ever I can find a free moment in my busy life and will follow the work flow as used in the Contour software:
Questions – Archetypes – Formula – Orphan – Wanderer – Warrior – Martyr.
I am curious to see how movies will fit in the Contour story-structure approach. Although Contour can in my opinion deliver a good structured story, not all stories are made with Contour what probably will leave me with empty or half filled in Plot Points in the Acts Sections in Contour. So be it.
I am open to discussions with other Contour Users and Film Lovers, so just drop me a post when ever you see something that could be/should be/Really Should Be broken down different. Also, because I will post a movie breakdown piece by piece, jump in whenever you feel like it and make comments on the section I am working on.
Now let’s have fun…
Contour and Movie talk 
riserdrummer
July 24, 2012 at 1:45 pm
Hi Andre, check my other blog out, riserdrummer.wordpress.com as I tried to explain why spoof movies and RomComs work, and why they sometimes don’t. It’s a low tech approach to what you are discussing above.
Oh, and thanks for following me!
André van Haren
July 24, 2012 at 1:47 pm
Hi, I will have a look. Btw. I am new at blogging, is it OK to use pictures from other movie sites to include in my own posts?
Sprocket
October 20, 2012 at 3:03 am
This is like Goldilock’s porridge – not too easy, not too hard, not too complex, not too lard. Just right! It is a great help to see the finished movie applied to the software that could have written it. When I first saw Contour it struck me that it could be applied to adaptation of books for screenplays – you get to choose only the salient bits and it would look almost exactly like this reworking of Men In Black (if the source were a book rather than a movie).
In a nutshell, intelligent and accessible at the same time.
(lard: as in ‘larding it on’)
Zoe FitzGerald (@FatBlood)
August 5, 2014 at 9:45 pm
I’m just starting to break films and books down too, its always tricky. Also don’t forget the story structures and scenes change once in the hand of an editor. So a script or Contour break down might have parts of yes no questions or acts switch’s blended together and or happening at the same time. I mean that’s what post is for; to accent or heighten the story in post production.
André van Haren
August 7, 2014 at 1:32 pm
Yes, of course, it all depends on what works best for the story. But I think Contour gives a really good guide to put the material together.