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- Film director SydneyPollack invented a term for one aspect of a story: its '''spine'''.
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- The spine is the central theme of the story, ''even if that theme is unstated''. Here's an example, from an interview about ''Tootsie'':
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- :The most difficult part was figuring out how to keep it from being a one-joke movie....All the work we did was in coming up with something that had a spine or a center to it, so that after the third time of him putting on a girdle you don't get tired. After the same joke, it's not so funny. Finally, we were able to make it without losing the fun of it--to make it feel like it was heading toward something, which is that there was a real change in him.
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- :There is the line "Michael, being a woman has made you weird." I thought if the line was "Michael, being a woman has made a man out of you," then we don't even need it, as it's the point of the film. I had to start with a guy whose area of weakness was going to be strengthened. Don't sacrifice any humor for that, but make sure that every scene is part of that change.
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