Film Courage: What is the normal world?
Steve Kaplan, Author/Instructor/Script Consultant: In the Comic Hero's Journey
which was my second book I tried to translate The Hero's Journey into narrative for a comic
film and so the the Hero's Journey talks about the Ordinary World so I in the normal world is
kind of like that but what's important about the normal world in in a in a comic narrative is that
your hero does not have greatness with them and and like in Star Wars Luke Skywalker has greatness
within him it just has to be released in a comic narrative in your normal World your hero is as far
from has is as far from having greatness within as is humanly possible your hero is a nerve nerd
or or a dweeb or a knucklehead or a jerk he's he's he or she has some missing part of there's
a hole in your character but they don't know it because if they knew it they do something about it
but in in comedy after comedy you there you there's a character who is blind to their own
flaws in the beginning of the movie and if the if the inciting incident if the WTF what
the focaccia moment doesn't happen that's the way their life would go in 40 Year Old Virgin
he's kind of given up he's accepted and and as a result he's accepted the fact
that he's cannot he doesn't have a a mature adult relationship and as a result he's in
this kind of stasis of paralyzed immaturity and so you see him at home and he's playing
he's playing uh video games and he's has little figurines and and he's dancing to some Xbox thing
and if the WTF doesn't happen that's that's his life now we in the audience can see oh
that's that's not good but they can't see it Bill Murray Phil Connors doesn't see what a jerk he is
and how that's not working for him in the in the beginning of Groundhog Day in Bridesmaids Kristen
Wiig is clueless to the fact that she's wasting her time trying to sleep trying to get John Hamm
to let her sleep over once because he she she goes for a booty call and he has her leave and
so just to climb over the gate to get out and if and if the inciting incident never happens
that's that's who Christian Wiig is going to be and bridesmaids she's just going to run after
worthless guys who don't deserve a minute of her time so in the normal World your character
a couple there are a couple of important things your character has flawed or absent relationships
they either don't have a girlfriend or a wife or if they do it's not working somehow it's it
needs to be healed now in movies where they're eventually going to work it out you want to see
that that the relationship has has hit a snag in in date night that's the movie with Steve Carell
and Tina Fey you they've gotten to the point where where if he if Steve Carell gets home
a minute too late she's in her sweats and then no sex there that's over and and he's always leaving
the draws out and so they're at this point where they're annoyed and annoying and it's not quite
fulfilling but they're not going to break up so so the relationships are either flawed or absent
I usually encourage or suggest to writers don't give them a girlfriend in the beginning
why do I want them to be alone and miserable no how about give them an opportunity to discover
somebody to discover a relationship because the most important moments in a narrative are
not necessarily the the big joke and the big gags the most important moments are
moments of realization Discovery Primal moments and if you are if they already
have a girlfriend well then that's one moment you've taken away from them in in their Journey
so their Phil Connors is in Groundhog Day and he's not going to get involved with
Rita because I have a girlfriend I'll be there with her eventually
you know the the other important thing about the normal world is that whatever your theme is that's
where you need to introduce the theme right away what are we talking about because you're not going
to wait for the big impossible lie the big event because it's it's about the movie is about from
the from the beginning from the normal world what are we talking about you have to set everything up
the theme as well as all the discoveries has to be set up within those first 10 15 pages
I forget the name of the guy who who directed The French director who directed the artist that
the silent film he was quoted as saying I could have had a Tyrannosaurus Rex in my movie if I had
introduced it before page 10 because whatever whatever you need to have happen try to figure
out a way to get it to get it into the normal world or or as quick or as soon after as possible
in Groundhog Day the first script the first draft had him start in the middle of Punxsutawney on
day three panicked Harold Ramis told Danny Rubin I love that it gets us right into the
action I'm never changing that's the first thing they changed because how can you pay
off any of his progress or lack of progress if we don't see that whole day beat by beat
so that so that it's got this long First Act this long normal world before the inciting incident
longer than normal or longer than usual in the normal world all your all your act 3 problems are
Act One problems in fact all your act two problems are Act One problems that that you have to set up
payoffs you can't just pay off something you have to set it up one of the best examples of that is
the beginning of Back to the Future in which in the very first pan of the movie we get even
though we don't stop and explain what all these pictures mean and what all this devices we get
that he's we're in the presence of a mad scientist who seemingly has some plutonium under the table
and then he goes to to school and he meets his girlfriend and some person says fix the clock
and they give him the piece of paper that he's going to use when he goes back to the past to
realize that's when I have to so everything's set up in the in the first five minutes him
him playing wanting to play for his school band and being rejected and just giving up
because that's what needs to change for Michael J. Fox in that movie he needs to not just give
up this whole family is a family of losers they they have to do something about that
so so that's the normal world now in the normal world you have the initial goal
the initial goal is what your character thinks they want
and thinks that's what they're going to spend their time in the movie getting
the the initial goal is usually selfish and or short-sighted because there's a discovered goal
after we go through the second part which is the inciting incident the comic premise the WTF
they're in an impossible or improbable situation
and what happens to them is they begin to transform
outside of their outside of their desires against their wishes they have to transform because the
situation has transformed and they have to they have to do something about it as that happens as
their transformation happens there's a discovered goal the discovered goal is a process of
the transform character realizing that what he or she wanted in the beginning is not what he
or she wants now and that becomes the focus for the development of Act 2 and act three
of the examples that you gave it sounds like the only one character who really
needs to change for others is Phil the rest of them all needed to change for themselves
whether it's a Annie in Bridesmaids whether it's well does any change she doesn't change well does
she develop a little more self-esteem oh no no I'm sorry I thought you meant the the character that
Maya Rudolph plays okay maybe I'm thinking of the Christian Wiig character sorry okay so she needs
to develop more self-esteem because she's she's sabotaging herself same thing in the 40 year old
virgin is he's not really hurting anybody but he's in this juvenile state would you want him
to stay there no but but with Phil he's really like offensive and rude and he's narcissistic and
hurts people yeah but but he but here's the thing once in 40 year old virgin once his secret is out
he's either got to quit he tries to run away he's either got to quit
or do something about it because those guys are not going to let him go sure so he's so he's so
he's in a bad spot he he either has to quit his job and he says that's what I'm gonna do I'll just
quit my job because he doesn't want to change but he has to change because these these co-workers
are gonna make him change because one of the things that happens in the development
of the narrative is connections because what's happening is that these isolated characters
who start off with absent or flawed relationships gather a family around themselves
and so as they go forth in the narrative they go forth with this gang that's that's of of
allies that are helping him or helping her in unexpected ways when the best turns that I love
in Bridesmaids is that they transform Helen into an ally you see in a lesser movie she'd be an
antagonist and she'd be the antagonist all the way throughout but wonderfully
they they make it so that because of everything has happened because of Annie's Behavior the Maya
Rudolph has has run away and the whole weddings on in in Peril and so Helen has to come to Annie
to save the day and so that's I mean I thought that that was that was such a smart move on their
part because you don't need antagonists in comedy you can have an antagonist you don't need one
you don't whereas in an action film you got to have an antagonist you know every Marvel film
is is as good as the villain they have in the Marvel film but in comedy who's the antagonist
in Groundhog Day himself who's the antagonist in in in Bridesmaids well Helen but but maybe
it's also it's also Annie herself so you you have you have these families that come together Annie
in the beginning has one friend one friend and no prospects by the end she has Melissa
McCarthy coming to her house and biting her on the butt in order to get out of her depression
this is life Annie this is life is biting you on the butt it's such a smart script and it's
because the script is written with with equal equal amounts of compassion and observation
sure and if you see the Rita character she's she's level-headed she's kind and so she's
a great contrast to Phil right she's she's not even bothered that he's she's the magical object
of Desire in in many romantic comedies you have a magical object of Desire Meryl Streep in Defending
Your Life with with Albert Brooks is the magical object of desire that's that's a a man or woman
who transforms your character in romantic comedy love is is itself a magical power because you
talk to a psychiatrist psychiatrists will tell you people don't really change yeah you hope
they change but they don't really change you marry a jerk 30 years later you have
a fatter bolder older jerk but in romantic comedies characters transfer jerks transform
dweebs and nerds transform because of the power of the love it's what
Jack Nicholson says in As Good As It Gets you make me want to be a better man
make me want to be a better man.