Film Courage: How does a writer create conflict?
Naomi Beaty, Writer, Screenwriting Teacher and Consultant: Conflict is created by two
opposing forces. If we're talking about the main conflict in a story, that's the protagonist trying
to pursue their goal and then whatever main force of opposition is getting in their way.
It can manifest in a lot of different ways but it's whatever that main thing is that's stopping
the protagonist or not allowing them to easily and quickly achieve that goal and it seems like let's
say with Hustle movie [Netflix] which we've talked about earlier the Adam Sandler it's a pretty clear
idea of what that conflict is. But if you look at let's say Forrest Gump [1994] an older version of
a movie it's not actually that clear there's many things he's encountering and that's another reason
that I would call Forrest Gump an advanced craft story right because it's pretty non-traditional.
It's you have one guy and I don't know that I would say he has a very clear end point that he's
working toward it's a little bit episodic we're watching him go through history different notable
points in history and accidentally showing up in the right place at the wrong time or whatever
so that is a that's one of those stories that I think would be a difficult one for a newer writer
to try to make work because if you don't have that like standard framework of character pursuing a
goal to give you that spine and that main conflict to rely on then you have to use other tools in
your toolkit to create enough conflict and enough engagement to keep us invested right to keep us
engaged in the story and not checking out and turning it off so I think Forrest Gump does that
through like just the novelty of the character right like he's what's that guy going to do next
like where is he going to show up and what what famous moment in history are we going to show it
see him pop up in so I think that's part of the appeal of that story and then also within within
each little segment of story I do think that there is conflict it's not like I'm saying that
it has no conflict but I think it happens in like instead of happening big picture across the whole
movie if I'm remembering it correctly it happens more in self-contained segments and then you also
have these store these like longer story lines of like his love for Jenny right his relationship for
Jenny which weaves in and out of the other stuff that's happening if if I'm remembering that right
yeah no that's excellent and and then if you look at crash which I know we brought up earlier that
is like nothing but conflict yeah which is the through line of basically the story that ties all
the characters and different stories together yeah so that one has so many I think it has like three
or four intersecting storylines right and each one has its own main conflict that we're following
and then part of the appeal of that too is seeing how those story lines intersect because that's
the the point of the story or the concept of it how can goals of the protagonist and antagonists
oppose each other to create conflict well there's a lot of different ways I think that if you look
at if you look at the movies that you like you'll you'll probably see that they the main
conflict falls into a few different categories it's not always the same from movie to movie
sometimes the protagonist has a goal and the antagonist is trying to stop them sometimes
the antagonist has a goal and the protagonist is trying to stop them sometimes they both want
the same thing and so they're competing for a prize or a thing that only one of them can have
and then sometimes they just happen to be the protagonist and antagonist are just two characters
who each have a goal that happen to conflict with each other so they're getting in each other's way
those are the ones that I've noticed are the are the most common versions of that
sure and then did we go back to bridesmaids that there is it seems like all of them have a common
goal which is to be accepted amongst their peer group yeah well if we're talking about the story
goal the more like plot specific thing that the protagonist is trying to achieve so it's
actually the antagonist is Helen which is the Rose Byrne character [Bridemaids] right and she
wants to take over our protagonist's friendship so she's the rival for this best friendship right
that Annie our protagonist has her lifelong best friend so when Annie discovers that
about the Helen character that's when she forms her goal to stop the antagonist right so it's just
it's a little bit of it might sound very technical or very like theory heavy but I think these are
just tools that help you understand your own story and understand how your particular story works so
it's not that I'm I certainly don't mean that you have four different types of conflict and you have
to use one of them I think if you if you've come up with an idea that you're trying to develop
trying to look at it through these four types of conflict right or these four like conflict
dynamics if you can see that your conflict falls into one of those categories it just helps you
understand like oh okay so if mine is like this then that means it gives you it gives you a little
bit of guidance in terms of okay so that means the antagonist has to come up with their goal first so
that then the protagonist can find out about it and form her story goal right and that gives you
a little bit of guidance in terms of like okay so that's the order that things need to happen in so
I can break down the plot of my movie that way and it helps you write it so right and it seems like
in some films the antagonist doesn't really turn out to be the antagonist at all or maybe that's
just how I'm seeing it and then others it's clearly that was the antagonist and they were
defeated or they they win whatever way so Silence of the Lambs we know that definitely he's the
antagonist but in in Bridesmaids it's not maybe Helen is not totally it's just that they both
had their own needs and they were just getting in the way yeah and I think that that you can look at
that too as being like appropriate to the tone or the style of what you're writing right because it
might have felt weird if Helen that antagonist was had seriously like evil designs on Annie
and all that stuff right so the humor in that keeps it that that's also a guide in terms of
like what types of conflict are going to work in this so those two characters you probably have a
little bit more empathy for for Helen than you do for Buffalo Bill you'd even though you learn
why he's doing what he's doing Helen is more of a real character and the comedy comes from the
these like wacky situations that our protagonist gets herself into sure and we look at maybe Helen
it's more about vanity and serving her own ego and yeah but but then you find out that actually she's
very empty and so it's not it's you feel for her in the end yeah you want to hate her and then you
realize I don't actually hate you yeah they do a good job actually of revealing that she is not the
I mean she is shallow and and focused on status and and all that through the movie but they do
reveal that she has a an emotional need of her own she's lonely and she's in an unfulfilling marriage
and so you end up growing I think to at least feel for her if not like her more by the end and she's
still the when we're talking about protagonist and antagonists we're really just talking about like
the mechanics of the story not necessarily that she needs to feel like a villain or like a an evil
character or even that you can't like her you can like the character who is the antagonistic Force
we're just talking about the the way the elements of the story work together to create that that
story engine or that that spine of the story that we were talking about earlier I think we
spoke about this briefly in our last interview but what are the four common ways characters
challenge protagonists oh well I usually think about that in terms of like the supporting
characters that are around the protagonist and again these are not not limited to four there
certainly could be many other ways but I think that these are the patterns that I've noticed
a lot of times the supporting characters will help the protagonist through conflict right like they
create some conflict with the protagonist but that conflict or that pain that they're bringing into
the protagonist's life is one of those forcing mechanisms that that force that protagonist to
grow and learn the lesson that they need to learn right so the four that I've noticed
are like I think I call them like aspirational models so giving your conflict or sorry giving
your protagonist a a model of what they would like to do or like to achieve or like to be and that
can create conflict because it creates a situation where your protagonist is unhappy with where they
are and they're striving for more there's also the cautionary tale so creating creating it's
almost the opposite of the of the other one where it's showing your protagonist what could happen
if they continue down the road that they're on right so this is like that that side character in
and this is such a minor minor role but in Crazy Stupid Love that sad divorced dad at the bar right
like that's the cautionary tale he does not want to become that guy so he's going to continue on
striving to be the womanizer that he's being groomed to be because it's that that cautionary
tale it's a reminder to him and then there's also I forget what I've labeled them but
you have the Mentor character or the person that helps your character learn that they're capable
or they have it in them to do the thing that they're trying to do and that doesn't always
have to be a nice Mentor it can be someone who pushes through tough love or through conflict
through challenging your character but it's but the ultimate effect is that it's forcing them
to grow and to accept that they are strong enough capable enough smart enough whatever
and then what's the fourth one actually oh so a new world view oh yeah so that's challenging the
way your protagonist sees the world right so a lot of times the transformation that your character
goes through is is a is an it starts internally and then it manifests externally so sometimes
there's a supporting character that demonstrates the new way of thinking that maybe ultimately your
character will adopt or it challenges their own way of thinking enough that they grow and they
make that change that they need to make to have a new attitude about the world or A New Perspective
a new life philosophy that that was the the point of the story right that was the growth
that they needed at the beginning yeah so I think in Bridesmaids is Melissa McCarthy that one scene
yeah that's so great so she gives her a kick in the pants and and does it in a a sweet tough love
way yeah yeah that's a great scene so she comes in and she's like what did she say it's something
like the world isn't gonna like hand it to you you have to go out there and take it the world's
telling you it's here to be taken or something like that I can't remember the exact words but but
yeah she she gives her that it's very funny but it's also the exact like tough love message that
Annie needs at that point sure and she's literally on the couch yeah not just metaphorically only
touch she's on the couch feeling sorry for herself and she's I think she picks her up doesn't she
even throw her over her shoulder or something but yeah and then with Hustle movie I can't
really remember I feel like there were Mentor characters that were helping the Adam Sandler
character yeah well what's interesting I think in Hustle movie is that you don't have to have a I
guess like archetypal Mentor for this to for this like role to come into play any character yeah any
supporting character that helps your protagonist along that Arc of growth right can can fill any of
these roles so what's great about Hustle movie is those two guys it's really their relationship they
learn from each other so even though they're not like technically what I would call like a mentor
to each other that's not their role throughout the whole movie maybe in terms of helping each of them
grow and and get to the point that they need to be in order to succeed in the movie they do learn
from each other like the basketball player learns that there's some people you can rely on you can
actually depend on someone they're going to come through for you and I forget what Adam Sandler
learns from the basketball player but it's I think it's complementary to that right it's like if
you keep trying keep working you can like succeed and not let people down or something like that so
talking about that Melissa McCarthy character quick quick point about that
what's great about that character is that that speech she gives right to Annie doesn't come out
of the blue so that was the last thing I wanted to mention about her was that that character has
that world view from the beginning so she Melissa McCarthy has that attitude about you go out and
you grab life you you do it you take what you want or you take the life you want you don't sit
back you don't sit on the couch and like let it pass you by if you want something you go out and
you try for it if you fail no big deal if you look like a fool no big deal but you you have to try in
order to get what you want and so I think if the bad version of that relationship and that movie
would have been if Melissa McCarthy was just a nice bridesmaid who came along at the right moment
in the end to tell Annie what she needed to know right that would have felt unearned and tacked on
but because we saw that we didn't know where that was going from the beginning but we saw that that
Melissa McCarthy character was that person all the way through so when she delivers that message to
Annie right when she needs it it makes sense it feels emotionally true sure sure and just going
back to Hustle movie real quick it seems like also too they both respect each other because they
know their families are very important to them yeah and so I think they both have earned that
and they become almost mentors to each other yeah in some ways yeah I think they do they they
because they each go into it I think with certain preconceived notions about the other right like
our basketball player thinks that Adam Sandler is just this rich American who can like he's got the
the wallet of the team behind him and he can do whatever and over time they learn they learn how
desperate each one is but they learn what's really motivating each of them and they bond over that
right because they each have a family to like you said each have a family to support they learn that
they each are like on their this is this is it this is is the last chance that they have to like
make this big thing happen so as those truths are revealed about each of them it bonds them it makes
them grow closer which helps that like partnership and help helps them accomplish the thing yeah.