Film Courage: What is ‘meaningful conflict’ and why do so many screenwriters get this
wrong?
Erik Bork, Author/Screenwriter: So meaningful conflict…conflict to me is synonymous with
problems.
So I remember early in my screenwriting endeavors I remember people saying to me “Your script
doesn’t have enough conflict.”
And I was like “I don’t understand what that means?”
I thought like that just meant people fighting and arguing or beating up on each other.
But then I came to understand that conflict and problem mean the same thing so in any
story the audience is most interested and engaged when there is some active problem
that someone is actively trying to resolve, That’s pretty much like Scene Writing 101
/ Story 101.
You always want to be focused on that.
And when there isn’t a problem to be solved or whenever no one is trying to solve it (even
if it exists) audiences emotional engagement tends to sag a little bit.
So meaningful conflict just means conflict that is related to the overall goal of the
story.
Every story begins with something that makes us go “Oh…here’s what needs to be solved.
Here is the outcome that is being pursued that I’m hopefully emotionally invested.
I want to see them reach that outcome.
So meaning conflict would be conflict in scenes then which have to do with that outcome and
how’s it going trying to get to that outcome because you could have conflict that doesn’t
really relate to the larger story goal, it would just be conflict that wouldn’t be
so meaningful.
It would just be conflict for the sake of conflict.
Ideally it’s conflict that matters to the story and you might also have a “B” story
like there’s a conflicted relationship with somebody who is the ally or the love interest
and so you might have meaningful conflict that is advancing the “B” story.
It doesn’t always have to be about what the “A” story or goal is.
But to me the most important thing is you do need constant conflict which means constant
problems and it should be meaningful to whatever we’re all there to try and see and work
out.
Film Courage: What about when people put too much conflict right away.
I know using this film is really dating myself but the movie STAYING ALIVE.
It was great to see…it’s just such a great film I just have to go there…when John Travolta’s
character is sort of strutting down the street and he bumps into Sylvester Stallone’s [cameo
appearance] character and it shows okay this is New York city and it’s tight and you’re
up against all of these people and a little bit contentious but it works because it shows
this.
But then I’ve seen shows where there is an argument which doesn’t belong.
How do you balance this?
Erik: My feeling about the beginning of a movie is that you’re mostly trying to get
the audience to understand the main character in their status quo life and emotionally get
invested in who they are.
What there basic life situation is before the big problem has emerged which will then
occupy the rest of the story.
That big problem tends to emerge as the catalyst or the inciting event or the inciting incident,
maybe about 12 pages in if you use the Save The Cat [Author Blake Snyder] page count.
Once that thing happens that rocks their world and sets them on a mission ultimately for
the rest of the story to revolve whatever happened in that catalyst.
Prior to the catalyst you are just introducing the audience to the main character and their
world.
And you’re hopefully getting them understanding enough about that character that they can
start to feel that they know them and they know their situation.
Writers often have issues with this where they don’t really do that very well.
They don’t stay with the main character and take the time to illustrate what their
current life is and make them emotionally accessible to the audience, make us have a
reason to want to follow them.
That term ‘save the cat,’ the idea that if they save a cat in the first 10 pages we
will care ago them is kind of half joking but the idea that we get invested in the character
for some reason that the audience is led to by the writer.
Give us a reason to care because we tend to not care about some stranger in a movie unless
you make us care.
So that’s the writers most first and foremost job, make us care and so it starts at the
beginning.
To me the opening scenes of a movie the first ten pages or so should have conflict in them
because every scene should have conflict in them.
But that scene should have the normal conflict of that character’s everyday life kind of
up until the catalyst hits.
Even a movie like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN which opens with the biggest conflict you can imagine
(the storming of Omaha Beach) ultimately that is just illustrating what Tom Hanks’ life
was like right before the catalyst of the movie.
The catalyst being he gets the order that you’ve got to go save Private Ryan, right?
That sets I motion the real story problem for the rest of the movie (the outcome that
we all become invested in).
Prior to that we’re all seeing well what’s Captain Miller’s life and his unit’s life
like before they get that order?
How do we get up to speed with who he is and what he’s dealing with and what’s going
on in his life right now?
He’s got a very special version of that but that’s kind of the same thing for every
movie.
So you can have conflict, you should have conflict but sometimes people want to open
with something really big where they are already launching the story on page one.
In other words like the catalyst even is already happening at the very beginning before we
have any idea who is who or what the world of the story is and I think that tends to
be a mistake because the audience needs some time to get up to speed and get invested first.
Film Courage: Right and even with let’s say BIG LITTLE LIES you have Reese Witherspoon’s
character and it’s a very manicured life but there are these little dilemmas throughout
like going through the school carpool and someone is in her way and she’s not getting
what she wants from her child and you see these little mini-conflicts being set up even
though it doesn’t seem like the same intensity as a war scene.
Erik: Yes, conflict but not the one big conflict that’s going to drive the rest of the story
from that point forward.
And in a story like that you’re also doing that times four different characters I think.
Where each one of those characters gets some of those scenes in the beginning which makes
us go here’s this person.
Here is their life situation, here’s the basic conflicts for them.
Here’s their basic desires and what’s the way of those desires.
Nothing huge has done anything to rock their world and start the story but I know who they
are.
I get who Nicole Kidman is, I get who Shailene Woodley is, etc.
That’s part of why writing a pilot can be harder because you have to set up multiple
characters and you gave to do it quickly.
So you have to find the right way to make the audience go “I get who they are and
I’m kind of intrigued and I kind of care about them a little.
I want to see where life is going for them.”
Whereas in a movie you usually only have one main character and just 10-12 pages to do
it just for that.
You don’t have to do it for anyone else.
In fact you shouldn’t be trying to spend times on scenes for other characters in the
first 10 pages in my view because the whole goal is to get us caring about the main character
because we’re going to subjectively their point of view.
So it’s not about showing us those other people and what is going on with them, it’s
about get us inside of their world and their psychology looking out through their eyes
as they live their life.
Film Courage: Right so going back to STAYING ALIVE, so John Travolta checks in “Any messages?”
He’s staying in this weekly motel where he’s a struggling actor/dancer.
And of course the guy [at the front desk] is “No messages.”
So it just shows here is this guy [our main character] humble and broke and that sets
off his world because that’s basically before he meets the Finola Hughes character [the
main star of a Broadway show].
ErikL Yes, it’s this is my normal life and here are the problems in my normal life that
are just the status quo situation and it makes you care about him because he’s got this
undeserved misfortune (you always feel for the underdog).
The person who wants something that they can’t have where they are working toward and nobody
cares.
So that’s classic way to make an audience want to invest in those opening pages.