Film Courage: What elements make up a great story?
Pat Verducci, Writing Coach, Teacher and Mentor: Well I think when you're writing and you sort
of have an idea and you go Wow, will this actually make a great feature film or not?
I usually think about Okay, are these three elements part of the idea or could I find
a way to sort of embed these three elements? One is that it needs to have a main character
who wants something really badly. The second one is it has to promise lots of conflict.
When we imagine the story and we imagine what the character wants and what they're going to have to
do to get it, we already start to kind of imagine all the crazy obstacles that that person's going
to have to face in order to get what they want and then we get really interested right? Then third I
think a way to tell if your idea will make a great movie is does it have human emotions in
it that we can relate to you know even if you're writing about science fiction or you're writing
a horror movie or something set way in the past where you really have no immediate connection to
the time or place or characters there have to be those human feelings and desires and fears
that we can relate to you know so I always think those are the three criteria that make
a great movie or tv idea and obviously if you're writing a tv show you know the idea has
to promise lots of story you know when you're writing a feature it's a contained three-act
structure right so it has it's a contained story with an end so you know thinking about that idea
all those elements still have to be at play and then in addition when you're writing a tv limited
series or a tv show with multiple seasons you know how are all those characters and all those
conflicts going to spool out and promise lots of conflict to come yeah great great three tips first
off how would we know that the characters want is really strong enough that it warrants us being
invested in them right well as a story consultant I mean I work with a lot of screenwriters I work
with professional screenwriters who are working in the industry and I also work with beginning people
and people who are kind of in the middle of their journey toward being a professional screenwriter
but even with the professional screenwriters that I work with it's always the same it's like every
time I read the script it's like what do they want and the writer looks at me like I have no idea
like they've written a whole script and they're just they still kind of don't understand
what the main character wants and so when someone is thinking about their their main character
you know I always like to break down what they want into two parts like they have an emotional
need like to find love or connection or for revenge or power or whatever and then there's
a specific immediate goal that they pursue in the story that satisfies that emotional need
so if you don't have those two things and know them pretty clearly you're probably going to write
a lot of pages that you don't end up having in your final version of the script because
you know I don't I don't know about you but i've written full scripts where I literally
have no idea what they want and this happens this happens this happens and then I look at the script
and i'm like what is this like what is this thing why should I be invested in watching this story
so I think a way to know if you if your character has enough of an engine to drive
a feature or a television show it's like they have to have a very specific emotional need
and then they have a very specific goal that they're pursuing in the story to satisfy that need
now when they start the movie or the tv show that immediate goal that they're pursuing could be like
the wrong thing right and their goal changes but usually the emotional need stays constant
as they sort of grow then they may change that that immediate goal to kind of reveal their their
growth as a character or whatever but like you know do you know what your character emotionally
needs and wants and then what is it that they specifically decide to do to satisfy
that need and once you have that lined up then you're good you're good to go and start writing
with conflict how do we know how much house like is it too much too soon or there can never
be too much conflict too soon like you know some people think they have conflict in their story and
it's actually not it's it's too it's too meek it's not it's not enough right that's a great
question about conflict for me like even if you're writing the most small specific character-driven
movie that takes place in a very kind of small location with just a few characters
there has to be lots of conflict there needs to be internal conflict and external conflict
of some kind however that doesn't mean your your movie has to start with like conflict
conflict conflict conflict too much conflict because after a while it's like whoah what is
this what's happening here what's this about so one way to sort of think about conflict and how it
works especially when you're when you're writing a feature film is that you know at the beginning of
the story your character may want something that they don't have right and they're just kind of
living their life but we get the sense that they want something that they don't have and then there
is this inciting incident or call to adventure where maybe they have the chance to get what they
want but it's like super scary right like there's something emotionally dangerous about that call
or physically dangerous and so they go nope i'm going to refuse that call because i'm too afraid
and then something usually happens to kind of force the person to take action and heed
the call to adventure and go on the journey at the end of act one so it's not like you
have to have conflict conflict you know it's like like usually most really great stories
depending on what genre you're writing in I mean if you're writing an action movie there should be
something big up top right and then it creates a question we're like what happened and then we
slow down and we start to go meet up with the character and what they're trying to figure out
so you can have sections of your script that are quiet where we're just kind of revealing character
and they're still trying to get what they want but the conflicts are smaller and more internal
but in the climax of your movie whether you're writing a tiny movie or you're writing a huge
movie you know where there's car chases and explosions or whatever that is the
moment where there has to be big conflict either emotionally or physically so conflict is something
that you have to kind of modulate throughout the script right and there are moments in the story
that are quieter where maybe we get in act two we have a moment where everything kind of slows down
and we have a scene with two characters connecting on a deeper emotional level that then create
bigger stakes so that when they move into the next section of conflict the stakes are even higher
just because we had this really tiny quiet little scene that had no conflict in it so
each scene has to move the story forward and conflict will kind of ebb and flow
but there always has to be tension in the story and the reason for that is that you know
every every movie every tv show every story creates a dramatic question
you know and the dramatic question is will the person get what they want or not and that's what
holds us to the story and so if somebody has a goal and they go after it and they get it
we're like okay the story's over like you know but if they want something
and it's really hard either emotionally or physically we're gonna keep watching
because if we are if we have empathy toward that character and we understand what they want and why
we generally want them to get it and so we're with them and that question of will they get it or will
they not get it is what holds us to the story and in order for us for that question to kind of be
dramatic and suspenseful we need conflict yeah and so what if the character gets what they want
early in the film but it turns out that didn't really fulfill their desired need
and we as the viewer go on this journey to see them get it and we want to root for them and think
oh wow they have it but then it turns out to be either a disappointment or you know traumatic to
their lives and so then we follow the rest of the film of them trying to sort out this this
goal right so so yeah like that that happens a lot in storytelling right where the character
remember when I was talking about that idea that they that they have this emotional need
and then they have the specific goal and they pursue the wrong goal like for example let's just
take a rom a teen rom-com just because that's an easy genre to talk about so so a trope in rom-coms
especially in the teen sort of world is that that let's say we have a female character and
she loves the wrong boy she loves Kevin. Kevin is the popular boy Kevin has the swoopy hair.
Kevin has the letterman's jacket right? And she wants Kevin so bad and we the audience are going
actually it's Joe the nerdy guy that's for you but but she has to figure it out herself so let's
say she gets together with Kevin and and she's with Kevin and she's starting to realize like oh
this isn't really good like I don't really like like him or I don't really like being part of this
this crowd or whatever you know she's starting to realize who she really loves which is Joe
but like she rejected Joe way back there so now Joe is with sally and now she has to try to get
Joe back like it becomes it because it can become part of you creating an arc for your
main character and they sort of get a deeper understanding of what it is they really want you
know that's related to their emotional need for love and connection I don't know if that answered
your question yeah it does it does and i'm sorry the third part was are there enough emotions do we
feel empathetic toward the character yeah okay so so do we so creating empathy I mean for those of
your your viewers who are writing you know we all know that the one thing we really need to create
between the audience and the main character is empathy and empathy to me empathy is sharing the
feelings and understanding why someone's doing something and recognizing those motives as human
in yourself so even if you have an antagonist who's like doing despicable disgusting horrible
things if we know why that person is doing it they feel like a real person right and they're
humanized and they don't feel stereotypical or villainy you know like twirling their mustaches
and with a main character empathy is is really important too because again if we're sharing
the emotions of our main character main character in the story they're actually the window through
which we're experiencing the journey so you know the the function of the hero in storytelling
is for the reader or the audience to actually be in that person situation and experience that
journey through their eyes and so in order to do that we have to feel a connection to that person
so a lot of times you know students or writers ask me like I want to write an anti-hero like
my my main character is not likeable I don't care they're not gonna be likable and i'm like great
they don't have to be likable but they do have to be empathetic in other words we have to understand
their motives why they're doing what they're doing and so most main characters are likeable you
know like we we like them and we want them to get what they want but there are some main characters
like in The Talented Mr. Ripley I don't know if you've seen that movie but
Tom Ripley is does terrible things and I don't want to do spoiler I think everybody needs to
watch this movie it's one of my favorite movies especially if you want to have a main character
who who does bad things but we're still connected to him and we're still watching him going
don't do it tom you know it's just like don't but we know what he wants because it's set
up so clearly at the beginning that we feel for him and we understand him and we are riveted by
his journey because as he does one terrible thing after another we keep wanting him to have a chance
to take it all back and to make the right choice and so even though he's an anti-hero we're like
please don't do anything bad please make choose the person who loves you he didn't choose you know
it's just it's a brilliant movie because we we hate the guy but we have complete empathy
for that person and you know if we're connected to the character
that way we will follow that person to the end of the movie or the end of the tv show because
we're interested we and we care and we understand why they're doing what they do.