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What is Theme — 5 Ways to Layer Theme into a Screenplay

Theme is the hardest element in screenwriting to discuss without waffling, and this makes it tractable — working through John Truby's character web, theme carried by setting, and the use of motifs and symbols, then reading the theme of Nope.

StudioBinder · 19 min · Intermediate · SCR · Screenwriting · 2023

What you take away

Theme is not a message you insert; it is an argument the characters conduct with each other, and the antagonist has to be able to win it.

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