We all love heroes... We all love to hate villains... But how well do movies create characters that we love and hate? Psychologist Scott Allison and writing expert Greg Smith present a new way of understanding heroes and villains. Inside this book you'll find: * An innovative new classification scheme of heroes and villains * The key to good characters in the movies: Transformation * The Eight Great Arcs of Transformations in heroes and villains * How heroes and villains transform morally, emotionally, and physically * How the hero's journey differs from the villain's journey * 50 reviews of movie heroes and villains in 2014 "Allison and Smith have deftly crafted THE premier text of heroes and villains in contemporary cinema. A shiny portrait that brilliantly dissects the hero-villain dichotomy through a dense mixture of passion, knowledge, and humor to offer profound insights into the hero-villain relationship." -- Jason Roy, The Hero Construction Company
Author Biography
SCOTT ALLISON is Professor of Psychology at the University of Richmond. He has published over 100 articles and books on social behavior. His work has been featured in media outlets such as National Public Radio, USA Today, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Slate Magazine, MSNBC, CBS, Psychology Today, and the Christian Science Monitor. His HEROES blog (blog.richmond.edu/heroes) has attracted over a half-million visitors. He loves chocolate, golf, all things Star Trek, and ballroom dancing, in roughly that order. Scott can be reached at sallison@richmond.edu. GREG SMITH founded the Agile Writer Workshop in 2011 with the mission of finding a new approach to helping beginning writers complete a first-draft novel in 6 months. Greg created "The Agile Writer Method" based upon the writings of experts in mythology, screenwriting, psychology and a little project management. His seminars on the Agile Writer Method have informed and delighted hundreds of writers, scholars, and university students. Since 2011, Agile Writer authors have completed over 30 first draft novels, 5 published novels, and several members have been nominated for the coveted James River Writer Best Unpublished Novel Contest. Greg loves improv, crab legs, comic book heroes, tango, and computer software. Greg can by contacted at greg@agilewriters.com.
