Film Courage: Should screenwriters know the ending of their story before beginning writing one?
Screenwriter/Professor and Creator of Gointothestory.blcklst.com Scott Myers: Well again, you know no writer is the same and every story is different I'm
reminded of the Writers Guild strike in 1988 which is the longest strike to date
I broken in 1987 and within a year we were on strike and that strike lasted I
think 26 weeks half the year and it was a bummer because he couldn't earn money
but what I did was I would go on these picketing the picket line and I would
tag the older writers and cuz I wanted to hear about the old Hollywood days you
know the studio system and whatnot and I remember at the Fox lot there was a
conversation I had with this guy from New York and I remember his name but he
was very funny very outspoken and he at one point said to me Scott he said you
got to know four things to know before you start writing the script what's the
beginning of the story what's the end of Act one was the end of act 2 and what's
the ending of the story he said you don't got that you don't got dick that's
what he told and so one of those is the ending you know again going back to that
bridge analogy if you know where you're going even if you can't see maybe you
can see the distance that light house you know because you know where you're
going and I also another reason why if you work with the protagonist and their
disunity oftentimes that indicates that unity state if you just go 180 degrees
from where they start boom like my favorite movie is the apartment with
Jack Lemmon and at the beginning of the movie he finds himself in a really weird
situation he gave his key to his apartment his bachelor to an upper level
management guy who just asked him for a favor one night to carry out a tryst
turns out an extramarital affair so at the beginning of the story we see CC
Baxter Jack Lemmon we're there these four upper level management guys who are
using his apartment almost nightly and so he's living in a state of disunity
and that he's not even able to live in his apartment moreover he's basically a
decent guy but the reason he's doing that is because these guys all say the
same thing like after every night hey buddy boy we got a review coming up
gonna give you good marks hopefully get that promotion because he works in this
like C of accounting people with you know no there weren't even cubicles it's
like he's just a little desk and he's bought into the corporate mentality he
wants to go up the corporate ladder not necessarily because he's greedy he just
wants to get into a better wait station in life but that's his state of disunity
and he's also enamored of Fran cupola that was shirley maclaine the elevator
operator but he can't screw up the courage to ask her out as it turns out
she's having an affair with his boss mr. Sheldrake fred macmurray and so that
crushes him when he finds out worse Sheldrake asks for the key which means
that he's now having an affair with the woman that Baxter loves in Baxter's
house apartment and in his bed right so just a horrible situation well if you
look at where he is he's enamored of the corporate thing and yet he's in love
with this woman and we know he's basically a decent guy he can almost see
where eventually he's gonna have to reject the corporate thing which is what
he does but there are things he needs to go through along the way he needs to
bond with Fran Kubek she has an attempted at his place and so
they're together for two or three days so they have a chance to connect with
each other he's got a next-door neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss who's the mentor figure
everybody in the apartment building thinks that Jack the Baxter is having
all these parties all the time you know the doctor says when
I want to donate your body to the University we want to see that how you
did that you know but so dr. Dreyfus gets to him and says what do you need he
says you need to be a mensch you know what that is Baxter a human being and
he's given that advice so at the end of the day when Sheldrick he's now at this
point by the end of the movie Baxter is now in the office next to Sheldrick on
the 26th floor so he has completely achieved like the ultimate in corporate
life he's right there right next to the boss well the boss asks for his key
again because he had to throw it out because he's a fair guy he's now
separated from his wife and this whole thing and Baxter doesn't give it to him
he gives him the key to the executive washroom instead and Sheldrake is like
what are you doing is this a that your old pal that won't work with me he says
you know what I become a mensch a human being so he takes those words so
you can see by the fact that he starts off in the state of disunity where he's
bought into the corporate mentality but if he's gonna achieve unity he's gonna
probably reject that so I do think that that knowing the end of the story is
critical but it's often time indicated right there just by virtue of what you
learn about your protagonist at the beginning which is interesting because
the Graduate is kind of a twist on that it's where he doesn't want to be part of
the corporate world and he's still having an affair but it's it's almost
out of desperation because it doesn't know what to do with this life and he's
got all this pressure and you know plastics that's what you know it's just
interesting cuz that's kind of a yes absolutely
he's completely lost and floundering he doesn't buy into the bin Benjamin he
doesn't buy into the plastic existence of his parents and their friends and
that whole thing and that generation and he turns to this affair with Mrs.
Robinson you know just because it's something to do and it's not really that
he becomes at all even approximating what is his authentic nature until he
meets Elaine Mrs. Robinson's daughter and that's when he finally gets on board
but even that's a little bit fraudulent because it's like he's so desperately
yearning for some meaning in his life he projects that onto her which is why at
the end when the director said did not say cut in the bus he just let that keep
rolling and you see them sort of they're excited at first and then they're just
kind of sitting there and they don't know what they've done really you know
remember 500 Days Of Summer where they say at the beginning Tom um you know
Hannah I figured Tom had a bad notary but you know what a flawed notion of
what romance was due to his his his bad interpretation of the ending of of the
Graduate you know cuz he thinks they fall in love how beautiful and really
it's not that way at all it's like he just did this out of desperation and
wanting to rebel and find some meaning and I think he really necessarily loved
her and she she wanted to rebel too you know so that's a bad and she runs off
with him so yeah that's another case of the
characters totally starts off in a state of disunity and sort of moves toward
unity but not really
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