Film Courage: Why is transformation of the main character important?
Naomi Beaty, Writer, Screenwriting Teacher and Consultant: I think we go to movies really to
see transformation. Transformation means that the story had an effect,
the series of events that you've watched, it had some consequence it had an effect
on the character that went through them. That's one reason and then I think also
even if nobody talks about it this way, we look for that transformation as like
a inspiration or you could call it a guide for living a good life. It's this person went through
this experience and came out the other side can give you hope it can give you a little bit of a
guide guide on how to live and be a better person but that's like what gives the story meaning in
the end how does transformation relate to theme well I think that most often we see the theme of
the movie through the character's transformation so whatever that lesson is that they learn
from going through this whole experience that's basically the theme of your movie
the the theme is like the organizing principle of your story and everything connects to the
theme and everything falls under the umbrella of the theme and the way your movie plays out proves
the theme to the audience and so a big part of that is the way the protagonist goes through the
story and what happens to them how they transform because of what they've gone through so we see
the theme the meaning or that takeaway message of the story we see that through the way the
character transforms most often for some reason I'm thinking of like Goodwill Hunting just popped
into my mind it's been many years since I've seen it yeah the transformation of that character yeah
and the theme would be what just I know you said helped earlier yeah well I think that it themes
tend to fall into like a couple of categories or patterns one of them can be hope for living
and then another category I think is like there's beauty in the struggle like themes
fall into these different categories but specific themes for particular movies
most often I look to the characters transformation or the lesson that they learn to understand what
the theme is in Goodwill Hunting it's been a while since I saw that movie but I guess let's
see how does he transform from the beginning to the end well so he's he's angry he gets in
fights he's got this job that he's looked down on a pawn but he's definitely smarter than and maybe
some of the students around him there and he meets a girl yeah I was gonna say I think the lesson has
to do with the that big choice that he makes at the end so he he learns over the course of
this story that he's not doing himself or anyone else any favors by not living up to his potential
again it's been a while since I saw the movie so hopefully that's accurate but I would say that
that if you look at his transformation and the key lesson that he needs to learn or that he does
learn by the end of that story then that's the key to your theme I would say that that lesson is
basically the theme you could reword it a little bit and then if if if that's accurate say for for
Goodwill Hunting if the lesson that he learns is life is about living up to your potential
for example I don't know if that's true but we'll say that that's the lesson he learns in Good Will
Hunting I would say that the theme of the movie would be very close to that so the overall message
that that story would send that you would maybe walk away from the movie understanding is living
up to your potential is what life's about or it's how to live a good life is to to try to strive to
live up to your potential or what have you what does the audience need to see in each Act in order
to understand the protagonist transformation oh well I think the the transformation has
it has an arc of its own so in the same way that like the plot has a setup and a build and
a resolution I think the characters arc also has those those parts so in act one we need to set up
that arc by understanding what the character needs like what is their deficit or what lesson do they
need in their life what are they doing wrong or how are they seeing the world in a way that's
not serving them and what effect is it having on their life so we need to see that they need
a lesson and we need to see we need to understand that they do need it and usually that's by seeing
some negative effect that not understanding that lesson is having on their life and then in act two
that's where we see the the the story of this arc play out so we need to see the things that he the
protagonist experiences in the story forcing him along that growth arc forcing him to realize the
lesson that he needs to get closer to accepting it or to maybe the character is resisting learning
this lesson and the things that he's going through are forcing him closer and closer to that breaking
point where he's going to finally understand what he needs to learn from this whole this whole mess
so act two forces the the plot events and the experiences that the character has
forces him closer to understanding the lesson that thematic lesson and then in act three that's where
we get to see the character embrace this lesson or not in most movies that we watch that have
transformed characters and happier endings usually they accept the lesson and embrace it
and incorporate it into the way they approach the world and then that's that's how we see that arc
resolve how does character lead to plot oh well I think you can you can use character to lead
you to figure out plot by related to character arc so understanding what lesson your character
might need to learn or what transformation you want this character to have this is coming at
it from a like a meaning point of view instead of a an external plot point of view so coming
from inside the story to figure out the plot so if you start with character and you think about
what lesson do I want this character to learn or what transformation can I imagine this character
going through that interests me that can lead you to plot because that the plot that they experience
needs to create that change in the character those events have to force that character to
learn that lesson so you can reverse engineer the plot from the transformation that the character
is going through thinking about okay here's the transformation that interests me I'm I'm curious
about a character who maybe goes from being an independent single guy who's determined not to
have any any ties or or serious relationships to being someone who is is committed and surrounded
by close relationships with friends and family so that's his transformation just for example
if you're interested in a character that makes that transformation then you can reverse engineer
the plot to think about like well what events would force somebody to make that change to
learn that lesson and transform in that way do you see that from time to time with new writers that
there's not a real lesson that that's that's learned with their character and then having
to go back and rework it yeah I I do because I think that not all not all the time but a lot of
newer writers and not even newer writers a lot of Writers come that story from interesting plot from
interesting what-if situations that are cool or fun and then developing the character to go to go
along with it and there's certainly nothing wrong with that I I think about story in that way too A
lot of the time but I think for newer writers then the challenge is understanding that the
the transformation or the character development side of the story is is still needed is important
and we talked about earlier that like writing a screenplay is really getting a handle on lots of
different skills it's a bunch of different skill sets that you have to employ all at the same time
and I think character development tends to be one that maybe not for not as forgotten but gets
pushed to the side because the plot is the thing that you need to have in order for your story to
for your movie to begin and eventually end that you have to like work out the steps of the plot
but character you can have characters show up on the page and go through this plot without
making a change and you've still written you can still write a complete screenplay that way
so then that's like another skill set to master I think or to to learn about and
so yes with newer writers I think a lot of times not not even a lot of times but often you'll see
a complete story and the story is there and maybe they know that the character should
learn something across the the course of the story but they haven't fully gotten every step
of that transformation worked out in there sure so maybe too worried about just how the overall
story is and then not really seeing this change in the character at the end yeah and I think that for
again because it's so many skill sets it's it's not even it's it's certainly not deliberate of
like oh I'm not going to worry about character and it's also not I guess it's a very easy
thing because you're trying to juggle so many moving parts when you write a screenplay that
it's I totally understand and not not maybe doing all of the character development up front that you
could so it's just part of the rewrite process like you you go through it many times and then
hopefully you get the character there too yeah hence the second set of eyes yeah yeah exactly
you said there's so many skill sets to writing a screenplay can you just clarify what some of
those skill sets are yeah I just think it's we usually think about writing a screenplay
as just it's just one thing it's one story that I'm putting down on paper but when you when you
try to write a screenplay well you probably eventually realize that there's understanding
structure there's understanding plot and how to escalate conflict there's understanding character
and character development theme and how theme works with transformation and that's just like big
stuff and then you also think about like the on the page craft writing action lines well writing
dialogue well like there's all these little not little but there are all these different skill
sets that go into making a really good screenplay and I think it's a lot more than writers realize
maybe at first when they come at writing a script because you you you have an idea and you love your
story idea and you start putting it down on paper and that's great I think that's the way
the best way to learn is to through experience and through trying it but eventually I think
anyone who's written a script or two realizes oh this is this is harder than I realized
it was going to be because there are so many different things that I have to be good at in
order to make the whole thing good so if someone just erases a paragraph on page 68 it's going to
change things maybe on page 10 that they didn't oh wait a minute I just realized if I do that
that's a major thing I have to then go back yeah for sure everything's interdependent and I think
also this is what this is what makes the rewriting process so fun and so challenging is that because
you can be good at one thing or have one thing figured out one area one skill set or whatever
worked out and still be struggling with other areas and because they're related they they will
probably affect each other or a lot of times like we were just talking about character gets short
shrift while we're trying to work out the plot because we're there's so much to think about in
how do I structure this plot and how do I escalate the conflict and how do I make sure that there
it's logical from beginning to end and so then in the rewrite you're gonna have to bring that
character development to the front of your mind and pay attention to it as you're rewriting it but
yes everything's interdependent and I think even when you have like some of those skill sets really
worked out you the plot's great or whatever when one of them isn't working like say the character
development or say the dialogue you just haven't paid attention to and it needs a lot of work
it it just it you realize how much work goes into a screenplay how many different skill
sets you need in order to complete that thing in a way that like can be appreciated as a whole.