Film Courage: Can you talk about how characters
must have a super objective and what happens if this goes away?
Steve Douglas-Craig, Owner/Teacher at The New Screenwriter, Financier,
Screenwriter and Producer: Yes, this is one of my favorite subjects and I do a little bit of
teaching so I come from this especially from the development world some of the for me some of the
more effective films they follow a character's main want so by super objective for me there
are people who are not structuralists I would call myself a structuralist and I believe in a
three act structure and I believe that you that that that structure exists for a reason not just
in film but it's transferred into TV into even seasons of Television have a three act structure
if you really break them down and that's for a reason and screenplays have big beats they
have a pulse those big beats are designed to be in there for a reason and they usually got a lot
to do with the main point of view or your main character for me if I was to get very technical
about it by page 10 when I'm reading a script I'll know if the script's any good and I'll
know if the person can write and it's usually because around that point you're looking at an
inciting incident and for me what usually the function of an inciting incident does is it
explodes the main character or main point of VI's entire journey into two parts one is what do they
want now they could want little things along the way in each scenes or each sequence of scenes but
what's the main objective what are they trying to do Michael Douglas in Falling Down if you’ve ever
seen Falling Down (Joel Schumacher's best film) he wants to just get home, he gets caught in traffic,
has a semi breakdown, he just wants to get home. That's his main want. What he needs to understand
that he can't see is that the restraining order his wife has against him is still in effect,
he's not allowed to go home right, he can't he’s, not supposed to but he's like no I'm going home so
these two things pull against each other right one of them the main character can see that's
what they're pursuing the other one is that need that they don't necessarily see straight away but
we do right or we are a party to that so these two things pull at and they explode and they fracture
at the inciting incident to me that's what I mean by a character's super objective what do they want
most of all in your film they can't want justice that's too generic they can't want freedom and
world peace that's not a want it's not dramatic enough to push their story along what do they
want to get out of this and so I guess that's for me that's that's the important part of of
that of of what your question was was the super objective is what drives the story them pursuing
that at every moment is what drives the story as soon as they stop pursuing that at any point we'll
stop watching and we'll stop empathizing because now we you've pinned us to this one thing that
you want and now it's gone and so that's I guess that's why super objective is important to me what
is the main want of your character and can this be the same in horror as well absolutely I think
any good film has this transcends so it should it doesn't always happen but I mean in The Exorcist
who's who's our main character it's Ellen Burston, we're experiencing the story through her what does
she want more than anything what does she want her little girl she wants her little girl back
as soon as she veers from that we'll lose all care and and we will stop watching she must pursue that
objective all the way through the film until it becomes impossible and our job as writers is to
set up obstacles to that all along the way and they get worse and worse and worse as she gets
closer it gets worse and worse and worse so that's her super objective that's what she wants I just
want whatever's in my daughter to go I want my daughter back to the point where she gets
exorcists in and she's got doctors and she's got she's willing to do whatever it takes and
she never stops pursuing that ever until the end and we'll watch to the end because of it doesn't
matter what film it is and so Silence of the Lambs Clarice Starling, what does she want? She wants to
be the best FBI agent she can. She's living in the shadow of her dad, she wants to be the best right.
What she needs to understand and she doesn't see is who she gets in bed with could destroy that she
doesn't see it so those are the super objectives ones a want ones a need me all the films that I
love have those because for me that's why I'm with them the whole time what if a writer is struggling
to find out what their character wants and needs well that's where I don't start an outline I'm a
chronic outliner I have to have an outline I have to have my big beats in place I have to know what
is that inciting incident what happens in that inciting incident right what happens and I use
Blake Snyder's book too which is pretty good his idea of the debate sections and the set up and
the the fun and game sections and all that stuff it's helpful to help you formulate a definition of
what those portions of the script are but I think that for me there is along with the outlining you
must know your character you must know what they want and you can't start a screenplay or a script
unless that so I do I do character biography work I have a series of of questions or an inter
I interview my character so as a screenwriter I'll sit down with with my interview questions
and I'll ask them a question who are you what's your name okay why what do you want out of the
screenplay what is your main want who's trying to stop you getting that why why are they trying
to stop you getting it so I ask these series of questions which I do in my classes as well it's
a way of getting out building the character first which gets a little Stanislavski but I'm from the
theater so that makes sense but I can't ignite a character's journey in a screenplay until I know
them and I know what they want what do they want more than anything in this story but what don't
they see I don't ask them that because I need to know that as the writer but an extensive character
biography and the ability to rewrite that for instance if I was to break it down into writing
a screenplay over one year right I spent nine months on the biography and the outline carefully
rewriting and rewriting and getting to know them and finding new characters in the outline that
service them that help them or hinder them right I have to know that character and what they want
all the way to the end and know whether they're going to get it and why until I've sorted all of
that out I don't touch a word on the script at all then the last three months of the screen of the
writing the screenplay is the script work where I do give myself a little bit of leeway to discover
new things but more than anything it's making sure that I hit those big beats and if I don't
why I have to go back and rewrite the outline something's not right but even before the outline
I really want to know the character and out of the characters biographies come the big beat outlines
so by that I mean inciting incident ending one midpoint end of back two into the confrontation
and the end what happens in the end do you find some of your students are resistant to this they
just want to get right to it or no I'm wrong in that assumption not generally I did a workshop
online not long ago actually last year and I did find a couple of the students had spent a long
time in one particular Facebook screenwriting group and had been told a whole bunch of things
and they were not willing to move from that until we started to look at their screenplays and like I
said read watch write and my workshops were all read watch write we're always watching a movie
We're then identifying the big beats of that movie and why they work while we're writing our own and
I think that the resistance comes from having heard one thing and thinking that's all there
is even I don't advocate that what I teach is the only way I'm only bringing 14 years in a movie
studio to the table in development and my own writing because of that that's all I can bring and
an understanding of the process but I think that the resistance comes from sometimes not wanting
to do the work which I know sounds strange but one of the things I found in grad school and film
school was I don't know why we lost three or four screenwriting students that year but when people
find out that the real work starts after you finish the first draft it can be soul destroying
because so much work goes into that outlining and writing the script that what do you mean this is
only the beginning now I've got to rewrite it but but I'm finished it I'm going to send it to
an agent no you're not and I think that that can be disheartening so wanting to get things right
straight away I find to be quite common but that's not how I learned that's not how I become better
and better I learned by picking up new things and being open to listening to new ideas and if I can
get that into a student then more than anything that's a win how can you tell if a screenwriter
does not know their main character usually in the first 10 pages if the dialogue is is not developed
enough or is too similar to other characters or the characters sound the same and you'll
usually know in the setup whether a character is developed properly if they don't know their
character it's not going to be developed very well which means we we have them doing actions contrary
to what was set up in the beginning you I might read through to page 20 just to see whether the
inciting incident is there and what that means to their main point of view and whether they
know what they're doing it's very obvious in the beginning in that's why I say first 10 pages that
that if you don't set up a character properly with regards to who they are what type of person they
are or what type of animal they are how whatever you're writing what are their attitude to the
world around them a lot of the mistakes I see are world building where are we setting our action
and a lot of people forget that we it's a visual story so they'll go on swaths of like description
on about their character and who they once were so it's more about putting us in the moment and
what is your character doing how are they revealed through action and dialogue the only for me the
only functions of dialogue is to reveal character or to push the plot forward if they're not doing
one both one or both of those you have to cut it's there's no function dialogue is a secondary for
me a secondary part of screenwriting now are there very talky indie movies that are based around that
that are very theatrical yes but for me dialogue should be as spare as possible unless it's
necessary unless you're revealing a relationship or revealing a character or there's a moment where
the action and the visuals can't convey what I need it to then a character speaks and give the
rest of that information so I think that's that's the important part of that first 10 pages I got
to hear the character speak and I'll know whether what your character is or who they are and what
they want by page 10 on how they're speaking how they're operating in the world what their world
is and how you've built that do you think the more someone knows themselves the more they're willing
to dive into this character that they're building maybe those who are cut off from themselves in
some sense their characters are reflecting that I think that could be specific to a story if you're
writing from your perspective or writing about you it's I find it very difficult when I'm creating a
character or writing a character not to put pieces of myself in there absolutely I don't see how you
escape that because you are bringing your own unique perspective on not only that story but
why you want to tell that story so there always pieces of me and the characters that I create and
I always find that with writers too that I'm working with is they're generally bringing a
certain amount of experience or their own life to a reason they want to tell the story and that's
through the main characters so yeah I mean do you come across writers who would like to write
characters as in order to live through them sure absolutely unless you're doing things like Top
Gun or Mission Impossible which I think are just Tom Cruise I think it's just who he is someone
else is writing that for him maybe a little Risky Business a little bit of Risky Business I would
love to see a remake of that can you explain the process of developing plot through a character
yeah I had this argument I had this argument with a professor of mine at AFI who insisted that a
plot didn't need character that plot came first and then character I just was never able to find
that to be true for me from the movies that I like anyway it all comes from character it all comes
from that the ignition of that main point of view and what the conflict is in that in with within
their world or within what they want compared to what they need it's that conflict for me that
drives a film forward to separate that from the idea of plot trajectory I've never been able to
do that I think that plot comes from character can you have one without the other no I don't
believe they work in a symbiotic relationship but generally even if I think of an idea for
a story and it comes from something that's not necessarily character-based I still have to go and
find a character or a main point of you to help me explore that plot somehow because that's how
we can connect with it as human beings I connect with other human beings in the way they feel about
something whether it's horror or romantic comedy or whatever it is you identify with
that human experience through that story or even secret life of pets you're still latching onto
something that's anthropomorphic and so I think plot for me comes from the the crises and those
characters and their worlds and the relationships they make and the relationships they lose and the
relationship they're trying to get and the things they want the things they can't have that's that's
how I that's for me where plot comes from it doesn't come independent of character.