Breaking Down Barbie with the 12 Sequences

A Detailed Look at Each of the 12 Sequences in Our Favorite Pink-Colored Film

In April I wrote a Screenwriters Almanac article here on Substack about the film, Barbie, and its nuances, meanings, and more. I want to revisit that breakdown in today’s special article, and share with you the detailed document I created - with time stamps, examples focusing on the 12 Sequence approach to writing, images, quotes, etc.

I hosted a lecture at the Wisconsin Screenwriters Symposium in April and went through each of these slides for an audience of about 40 people. It was a lot of fun since I was also able to share scenes and moments on a big screen from the film itself. I won’t be able to do that here, but I can share the PDF with my paid subscribers!

I want to do more of these kinds of articles on Substack and support my paid subscribers…because you all support me! I am so grateful, and promise to give back in equal measure or more. So, here go…

If you’d like to become a paid subscriber, consider signing up! If you have questions for me about not only the Substack subscription, but also my Story Farm Community on Circle.so, email me: max@thestoryfarm.org We’re building a big community over there, and you can sign up for free, share your work, thoughts, musings, and more all in a dedicated social platform (much like Facebook but without the annoying algorithm). Here’s the link - we’ll keep the light on for you: https://thestoryfarm.circle.so/c/forum/

And now on to the show…