Professor, Screenwriting Option, Graduate Program Coordinator, Eric Edson (CSUN - California State University Northridge): I'm just I'm delighted to be here this evening with you guys and meet you for
the first time I really am and I'm looking forward to working with you
because on the outside we are so different there's so many of us in so
many ways are different different cultures different I mean there's people
here from other countries right are they're not right yeah right
and yet on the inside we are all so similar and it is those similarities
that bring us here to this room together right we feel too much and too deeply
and we wound too easily we seek out a lot of time alone that we
tend to enjoy and that makes other people think we're pretty weird and all
of us are obsessive compulsives are we not or we wouldn't have chosen you know
be drawn to the work that we do but anyway I am looking very much forward to
it and thanks you know for being here and being on time and all that stuff I
really appreciate it but I would like to introduce our guests here Karen and
David are collectively
an incredibly fine YouTube channel called film courage if any of you ever
been there or seen it right film courage I just I just checked guys and they now
have over 200,000 subscribers roaring on their way to quarter of a million and
that is a bloody remarkable and what they are doing just you know as an
academic and all that stuff they are creating a library of our time that you
just kind of happened into to here the way you began anyway right they're
creating this library of our time here this slice of life on planet Earth in a
look into the creativity and just plain hard work of film and TV
that's what they're doing there all these interviews and now sometimes you
know classes like this one will be its I have a feeling it's gonna be like samuel
peeps diary then do you know what anybody know what that is I mean no
they're too obscure ok it was a samuel peeps was a guy in the mid 1600s in
london who was a compulsive diarist and every day he wrote until akun entire
bookshelf ultimately with you know twelve volumes or however many it is but
what he was doing was recording and he loved theater he absolutely loved it and
he's got every detail of all the shows and the plots and what went on what
people looked like it's all there and it is a treasure trove of for academics now
to look back and really see and understand what life was like then and
what theatre was like and that's what you guys are doing whether you know it
yet or not okay my first task here as a class overall is
do what I can to get us all on the same page this is a room full of talent and
talented people but the experience of that talent as it ranges it ranges from
to the to the end of near novice or just getting started to working professional
screenwriters they're all here and what I'm going to show you here the journey
we're going to take through through screen story structure is can be looked
at several ways for some of you it'll be new stuff for all of you I've got
something new don't worry about but for some of you there'll be a lot of new
stuff and for some of you it will be review
but there is another way of looking at it - you guys are proposing and are
pursuing to get your MFA in screenwriting and a master of fine art a
42 unit degree Master of Fine Arts is what is called a terminal degree and
that means in that field beyond that degree there is nothing no other degree
that's higher than and that means as many of you know the Master of Fine Arts
and screenwriting is a kind of a license to teach in every college and every
University not only in the United States of America but also generally in the
world and that's something worth having I mean I was doing them when I was a kid
and I was I didn't want to leave college I just loved it too much and the world
was scary and I'd early on I was getting this stuff and I got these degrees and
then life rolled on and I've just stuck him in a drawer and then a time came
when you know an offer came and I was qualified I had this stuff so these this
is this is a can be a powerful and important degree to you really so and
and therefore since you're putting the possibility of teaching in your closet
stashing it away somewhere another way to look at everything you see us do your
instructors your mentors here for the next two years you it can become a study
in how certain things are taught each of us is different and each of us has a
certain different approach right but pay attention all the hand I'm going to have
I'm a handout person and you'll get them as we go forward
save your handouts have these notebooks for yourself for each topic because the
day may very well come and I think it will for many if not most of you when
you will be teaching and you will have this reference material right there and
you won't have to be starting from scratch okay brace yourselves
I am going to be pursuing and showing mostly not all but mostly mainstream
commercial Hollywood well one hero we'll talk about that
later motion pictures that were huge hits at the box office worldwide that is
what we're going to be discussing and the only reason that a huge box office
in that the the size of the box office at the amount of money any particular
movie made the only reason that's important for us is that it tells us
these were effective emotional undertakings that touched the hearts of
millions of people all over the world and that's what we're going for
what we do is emotional what we do is convey emotion to an audience because
that's what they have come to experience you go to the movies to feel deeply and
so we'll look at how you cause that to be how you bring that about okay first
things first historical perspective once upon a time long ago there was a
playwright called name Sophocles and he was a very very hardworking playwright
in his life contemplate this Sophocles wrote over 100 plays I mean Shakespeare
only wrote what thirty seven a hundred plays that's a lot of plays and only
three or four of those come to us today what's called extant you know in in its
whole form but thank goodness that what are those plays is that abyss Rex
Oedipus Rex in Sophocles day was his big smash hit it was the biggest hit play in
his own lifetime that he had and they loved it and they
put on other productions of it going forward kind of stuff and he was honored
for it in many ways and that tells us something and here's my point in
starting here the audience's that responded to Oedipus Rex so strongly and
so emotionally for its own culture and time are exactly the same people with
the same thought processes and the same functions of processing story as today
human beings the body the month we haven't changed in 2500 years we haven't
really you want to go back 200 thousand that's a different story okay but no
fables that worked the structure that worked and I've studied Oedipus Rex
obviously for that to nail down the structure it is all there it is all
there and relative to what we're going to be seeing here tonight so a lot of
people think or newcomers anyway think excuse me the structure is somehow
superimposed and it's not it's not it speaks to how the human mind processes
story
we arrived on this planet craving meaning that's how our brains our brains
our physical things computers and they search a bit well genetically they have
been trained to search for meaning in all things 150,000 years ago you know
the vague scent on a slight breeze or or the echo of an echo on the other side of
a canyon or something knowing instantly what these things
meant could be the difference between life and death so through the millennia
it get it got baked into the human brain we all seek meaning and that's what
stories give us life is chaotic life is ambiguous but we all love the ritual of
story turning that into meaning and that's what structure does yeah
the point being obviously structure is your friend there's not to be dismissed
as dangerous to your creativity or something like that if you feel that way
fine because I've worked with a lot of grad students who feel exactly that way
and it's up to me to convince you otherwise
I know that's part of my task and I take it on you know willingly and we will
have those discussions and and arm wrestling's if you like that's fine with
me too but the bottom line is structure is your friend and if you want to write
art movies and you can't stand Hollywood films we don't care and the and the
point here being that
now in the organization of elements and stuff like that I get Sun Tzu The Art of
War know your enemy know this stuff and then
if you want to go off and write independent cinema and all that's great
great God with all of our blessings yes we need filmmakers and writers like that
too but know what it is you are not doing it's important to know what you
are leaving out do it intentionally and not just you know by mistake okay first
let's construct a specific story organizing the elements and that's what
structure does alright like I said we're going back to the basics here okay
there are three things that need to be established in your head when you say oh
I got a great idea for a movie or when you somebody at a cocktail party comes
up bend your ear it has to have certain elements to actually be a good idea for
a movie it's not just a place where it's not
just a particular character you have to have a hero yes a sympathetic active
hero sympathy there are there are nine this is all in the book - there are nine
basic sympathy tools that allow you to create a character any kind of character
you mean even if you like writing about sleazy people that's fine do it but they
need still even that those folks need certain qualities that make them
empathetic at the very least sympathetic so that we the audience very quickly and
at the beginning of Act one in the beginning of your movie can identify
with this hero we have to become emotionally involved and that's the
window that's the window that you have to let your audience in on and a hero
must be physically active they must be that's the kicker here at the end but
we'll get there how the conscious way that you can build and keep a hero
active throughout two hours two hours a visual storytelling that's a lot and
there's a lot that needs to be going on in there
okay and a little aside a hero the word hero I use the word hero in the original
Greek sense I don't know if you guys know where that came from hero was the
name in Greek mythology hero was the name of a high priestess of Aphrodite
actually hero was originally the name of a woman and hero had a lover but by the
name of what was a Leander and every night you know the High Priestesses
lived on this island and every night then there was this little channel of
ocean between and every night Leander would swim across the channel so he
could spend the night with hero one night when he was swimming across the
big storm hit and he started to flail and drown hero saw this so the myth goes
and she jumped in and swam out in an attempt to save him unfortunately in
this myth the both drowned it was very Romeo and Juliet I guess but
the point is it is not gender specific in its origins it got twisted later on
perhaps but I'll please let me use the one word collectively it's it's women
men and and personify and animated creatures personified animals one word
hero okay okay the second thing you got to have is a physical visible
high-stakes goal this is the difference between novels we'll talk about this
next week in another you know approaching it from a different angle to
the difference between novels and movies visual storytelling is about Cree
adding visual metaphors for interior emotional states that's what we write
people can't just stand around feeling they've the way emotion and character
are revealed in in visual storytelling is through behavior people make
decisions and they take physical actions in pursuit of the goal whatever that
decision leads to so visually in that sense I'm jumping ahead a little bit
here but in that sense plot and character are the same thing a plot in
film in visual storytelling only exists so that a hero and other people can
behave in a certain way pursuing something visual that allows us inside
and allows us to know what emotionally is going on inside of them there's no
narrator you know like in a novel telling us what's going on inside of
them we have to see it okay all of these and the reason these three are key of
course oh and then a powerful adversary sorry powerful adversary and I say
powerful adversary you adversary is the character who is most committed to
stopping the hero from getting what they want whatever the goal is or whatever
the genre is as and so forth and it is the adversary that creates conflict you
know the hero can't just say I think I want that chair I'll walk over there and
get that chair no you haven't got a story until there's a big brutish
somebody or some thing and obstacle keeping the hero from the chair they
want and that and the conflict must be as high as you can jack it up under any
circumstances
okay that was kind of a quick very quick sketch of hero and adversary they for
any story you must have a hero and you must have an adversary that is because
that is what creates conflict right that is at its most basic but there are
you're going to trust me for a while on this there are 14 character categories
that work in visual storytelling only 14 and that's not a bad thing actually it
simplifies your plot planning to know and know these categories well because
each of these categories prove provide characters that must serve the function
of either hindering or helping the hero in the pursuit of their goal if you have
a character that doesn't do either they are not meaningful to the story and
unless they're just atmosphere people which are props in essence get rid of
them they can't just hang out there although these categories get a rather
broad and I'm gonna get highly specific next time we meet on the character
categories you really need to get your head around how to use these because one
of the things I see coming in through the students in the first years and
stuff when they start writing and creating their own plots is a paucity of
subplot it is the character category list that gives you on a silver platter
sub plots and subplots can take so much pressure over off of your plotting when
it's just a hero in just the adversary on and on and on and on you have to keep
changing the nature of the conflict and these other characters are going to help
just for now I threw it in here so if you take a look okay that's them those
are the carrot categories you don't have to rush and jot all these down I'll have
handouts not tonight but I'll have handouts it's in the book also it's all
in the book but just kind of an overview of what it
will take to build a plot that works for audiences and stays focused there are
the categories all right now you have your idea and now we begin to build a
screen story structure two hours worth and and that's biting off a lot let's
see first of all you have to have an idea has discussed three key elements
all of them must be in there to make your idea viable for conflict going
forward with a story the second thing you have to come up with is an ending a
lot of people novices specifically they say leave me alone I'm just gonna take
these people and I'm gonna run with it I'm gonna start writing and making
scenes and and they'll tell me where they want to go and usually not always
but usually those scripts end I mean are abandoned about page 48 and dropped in a
drawer because they get lost I mean the writer gets lost in the weeds and that's
another reason why getting organized is so darned important there are tools here
it's like you know lumber an electrical cable that you're being offered the
tools for building a house it's kind of hard to just dismiss them out of hand I
would think the ending to law in large measure screenplays are written from the
back forward or at least they're constructed from the back forward where
do you want it to end you got an idea for a character and a
conflict what is the emotion you want to go for what is the feeling of that final
climatic scene and where is it going to take place that is important for you to
think through and pick something and write it down in your outline as you
build your outline here that's for now the ending and
listen all of these things you're not tied to them obviously if you're get
into this and you say you suddenly find something that's a better idea for you
and you want to go in that direction fine rewrite your outline all I'm saying
is you need the basics lined up so that you're going somewhere and you because
that's that's if you don't know the ending or and possible ending that you
are going for you are inviting writer's block
you really are and that's how people get lost in swamps out there and until they
just you know they can't face the headache and they yeah and they put it
away okay the ending stunning surprised one
it's stunning surprised too I'm gonna spend a little time this evening
with examples of stunning surprise one and stunning surprise two now these this
is my my name my my title for these key moments you probably know them as it
they happen at the end of Act one and at the end of Act two they are the biggest
reversals in your entire story and you need to know where you're going for them
up front you need to know soon planet because sometimes you have to work on
them to really get him juicy and big I used the words what is it Syd field I
think said it was the first plot points one and two that's it that's what he
called it and even Joseph Campbell said it's crossing the first threshold was
you know stunning surprised one all of which is true and all of which is great
but I think those are abstract terms and I prefer terms that are not abstract
even if they're a bit over the top like stunning surprised because that should
be the impact of that moment that you are creating for your audience really
impactful it should be emotional visible and very impactful on the hero okay
we're going to get to that just right away here and of this first or
of business and in what you're lining up you also need to decide early on you
know before you start writing script pages weight on script pages because
once you write script pages it gets harder and harder to throw them away but
we'll get on that you need to know where the beginning goes where are you going
to start you know where it ends you know approximately what some of the big
moments will be who is doing what to whom the nature of the conflict now
where do you start because you can still blow it there too you know and then if
you start too soon you know if you start too late even by a couple of scenes you
push it because you want to get it moving and rolling you haven't given
your audience enough time to connect emotionally with your hero that's really
important that stuff that happens upfront and unless it's an action movie
you know it was a James Bond or something like that which always starts
his ordinary world yeah is running and chasing and shooting I mean that's what
he does so okay that's his ordinary world and you begin there but you have
to give your audience a few moments some scenes for them to connect emotionally
with your hero before you can really get rolling and have them come along for the
ride and I've seen a number of European films British films for some reason
specifically not all of them but I've seen them start way too early and they
can go on for 20 minutes or so there's there was one called the layer cake it
was that it's a great gangster movie but I don't know if your ice I remember the
beginning it just is it lays there I mean they're just talking and hanging
out and it goes on and on and on and you're waiting for the movie to start no
picking your your beginning I mean yes your beginning the beginning is really
important after that you got three acts and you I
think it's helpful to view your three acts or think of them as three worlds
and that's why I broke it down this way by
way of example act 1 traditionally is called the ordinary world or the hero's
life yesterday what the hero's life has been like up to very close to but not
past just before this kicks in what you're doing
the ordinary world in act 1 after the inciting incident the hero will have a
general goal a general goal in act one of an ordinary world for instance I'm
gonna use Shrek here in just a second as an example but the ordinary world of
Shrek how many of you have not seen Shrek okay I figured that would be the
case what I mention these and I use them as examples please jot down the titles
of these movies you really it is well worth your time and effort to get these
films and make time to spend time with them and view them they I pick them
because they're really good examples of one thing or another but Shrek is an
ogre who lives in a swamp and he's happy he thinks before character growth but
then Lord Farquaad drives all these fairytale creatures into his swamp and
all of a sudden he just is going nuts he's got to get rid of these fairytale
creatures because he wants to be left alone in his swamp that is his general
goal of act 1 and he marches off to Duloc right to find Lord Farquaad and
demand he gets rid of them this is all act 1 stuff it is the hero pursuing a
general goal and then something happens at the end of act 1 to drop the curtain
on that and raise the curtain immediately on act 2 where now the goal
has become highly specific highly specific and it's it's often called the
special world act 2 because it is a world that the hero has never
experienced before by the nature of the circumstances some
times it's a physical difference but a lot of the times it's just I mean like
if it's a real-life contemporary thing you know it's still in Manhattan but
what the hero is now facing makes it incredibly different and special and
life-or-death ish in act 2 and then act 2 the hero forms a plan and pursues the
plan throughout act 2 cobbling it together as it gets keeps getting torn
apart and then as at the climax of act 2 as you roll into stunning surprise to
the plan gets totally blown out of the water and destroyed and all of a sudden
there is no plan it's the biggest reversal in the entire movie and then
that throws the hero in to act 3 where they must improvise there is no longer
any plan but the best I think really useful way to see your three acts is
this is adolescence this is your hero's adolescence I don't care how old they
are physically but this is emotional adolescence and then you get into the
special world where they realize they darn well better grow up are they're
never going to be emotionally or they're never going to be able to do what they
need to do to get to their goal and then Act three is their maturity now they're
an adult now they get it now they have overcome some of the emotional reticence
within and they are ready to face the adversary for all the marbles I break
one down here as as an example okay this is collateral I don't mean to nail
people but how many of you have not seen collateral oh okay good it's okay write
it down okay this is a thriller actually a relatively big-budget American
thriller that was a hit all over it got some CAD imme Awards - I do
yeah there's a lot to study there in fact we may we may be looking at it
ourselves later on in the class okay the hero is a one hero movie and the
hero is max max the cab driver ordinary max but in act 1 his ordinary world he
has been planning and dreaming of starting his own limo company for 12
years which you know he doesn't get the fact that that's ridiculous that he
should have launched it years ago but he's afraid to take that risk the plans
got to be perfect so basically the underlying problem
emotionally that max has is he has no courage then stunning surprise one
happens and all of a sudden boom rear-end over teakettle he flies into
act 2 and he's been kidnapped by a hit man being forced to drive him around for
the rest of the night as he kills people and all of a sudden the lack of courage
thing becomes the month of the monstrosity stumbling block between Max
and being alive by tomorrow morning if he doesn't get the guts to do something
to confront this killer and take the risk on concomitant and all that he's
not gonna live the night so now there are reasons where he's better started
growing up fast and he does and it's really great by the time he gets to act
3 believably the arc is so beautiful the character growth arc and believably in
act 3 max becomes a genuine hero you know not a super hero but he's fighting
the bad guy because he's trying to save the woman you'll see you'll see but
that's another way of looking at it and as an example of basic structure that
particular film ok inciting incident these are the dramatic tentpoles
acts 1 2 3 and that the whole point is they need to keep rising you know
they have to or are you gonna lose your audience they can't just float along two
main things happen in act 1 the inciting incident and stunning surprise 1 which
ends the act there's some of these things I'm not going to go into tonight
but the inciting incident a lot of people mix up the inciting incident was
a stunning surprise one and you will talk about that going forward and we'll
see a lot of examples but for instance the inciting incident for et the
extra-terrestrial most of you I'm sure have seen et that's why I'd like to take
my examples from a few years ago assuming that most of you have seen
these things what is the inciting incident of ET the
extra-terrestrial any thoughts hmm yes yep yes yes it comes to that but
first yes oh well we're not in the shed but close real close yeah the thing is a
lot of people have said that well it's it's it's when ET is left behind and a
spaceship takes off that launches this story the definition for the inciting
incident is it begins this story and no other well it's not that's not the
moment because number one ET is not the hero as you know many of you have
already nailed ET is not the hero ET is what's called the endangered innocent
elliot the boy is the hero and the inciting incident that starts all of
this is when the thing in the shed and all this and he goes off looking for
something strange in in the high grass and the weeds and they open Louise and
they see each other face to face for the first time inches apart and they're both
terrified and scream and turn and run around
run away that's the inciting incident for et because then from that point on
Elliot is obsessed with finding that wonderful strange-looking puppy dog and
making making that his pet and there's the sole in terms of the character
growth arc he keeps talking about et as if it was a puppy dog and then stunning
surprise one all of a sudden when he asked CT where do you come from and all
the globs of play-doh rise and with power of mind he is showing him things
in the air and you know pointing at different planets and stuff like that
and at that moment and that's why I think of what he says what Elliot says
is of all the things he could possibly say he says oh no in other words what he
had was all wrong his assumption about e8e this is not a dog this is the
smartest most advanced incredibly powerful creature currently on the face
of the earth that's what he's got himself into
and that takes Elliot kicks him you know rear end over teakettle into the second
act where the focused goal becomes get that creature home save his life and get
him home so there's one example okay that's the nature of the inciting
incident studying surprise well let's see what's next
yeah okay stunning surprise these are the basic factors of the stunning
surprise the usual usually there's wiggle room here folks but usually 25 to
35 minutes it usually depends on how long the movie is if the movie is two
hours 20 minutes you know it can be 44 minutes into the movie it depends 25 to
35 minutes into the movie it must happen to the hero and it takes place in an
instant it's one of those it's not a scene that develops and reveals it takes
place in an instant it shocks and surprises the hero and us
and the audience and it presents what the storyline is going to be about just
like eat Elliott when he gets you know kicked into the second act it very
quickly becomes apparent that he knows and we know the storyline is going to be
about saving ET alright okay this is from this is from get out that this
amazing film an amazing launch of careers here it really was but that is
kind of the moment of stunning surprise it is frequently eyes large mouth open
it is a true shock it has to be a shock to the hero going in okay here's an
example so shrek has gone off he's really ticked off about the fairytale
creatures and he storms off to go find Lord Farquaad he goes to do Locke
nobody's in the town and then he hears people cheering in the arena inside the
palace so he heads in there to find why is this hmm
there's some sort of contest about to take place and any C's Lord Farquaad up
on top of his draperies or whatever and but shrek being shrek he's not afraid of
anything or anyone he just goes barging on in there to take his complaint to
Lord Farquaad get rid of the fairy tale creatures but remember as soon as Lord
Farquaad sees him he says oh that gruesome ogre how horrible how ugly new
plan the knight who kills the ogre will be champion of course shrek is
completely unfazed because oh can't we discuss this over a pint whatever it was
and so all the knights come after Shrek and shrek turns it into a very comical
sequence very nice and a perfect climactic action sequence to end an act
ax rises even Act one you rise to a climax and then he Act two rises to a
bigger climax there has to be a climax to the act and the audience is having a
great time they're cheering him on and they're in the ladies that give him the
chair the reference is the references to professional wrestling and all that kind
of stuff one by one and three by three he dispenses knocks out all the guards
and then the people are cheering and shrek is having a great time and not
eating it up and so his donkey donkeys proud too but then suddenly a reversal
bunch of crossbows get cocked and pointed at them that changes the
situation oops and then the captain the guard says the Lord Farquaad
you know so I give the order sir hmm being the consummate politician that all
schmucky authoritarians are he says wait I got a better plan and he gives the
audience what they want people of Duloc I give you your champion
what ah say what there's the look it is the reversal eyes mouth the classic
stunning surprise one look and what is that done now
Shrek's general goal of get rid of the fairy tale creatures has just become the
very next scene and he and very quickly he's told by Farquaad that if you go to
the dragon's keep and you bring the princess to me i will give you your
swamp back boom now his desire to get rid of the fairytale creatures in
general has become a specific thing go to the dragon - Dragon's keep save the
princess and bring her back to Farquaad highly specific what he now has to do
that is the function of a stunning surprise one and all of these apply to
Shrek twenty five thirty five minutes into the movie I believe it happens at
26 minutes must happen to the hero always always must and it does takes
place in an instant I give you your champion huh yes it takes place in an
instant shocks and surprises of the hero heavens and heavens yes and presents
what the storyline will be this stunning surprise one does all of it fulfills all
the requirements okay here's another one just one more for stunning surprise one
OK cab driver Max is a sweet guy and very sympathetic on a number of levels
and he's our know he's one of the most time accurate cab drivers anybody has
ever met his cab is immaculately cleaned this is something else about your hero
whatever they do you know nuclear physicist
to a cabdriver make them tops at it they have to be highly skilled in what it is
they do now I don't care what it is that they do yeah I don't on all levels
that's it's a subtle thing but it's really important they can't just be a
screw-up schlub you're not gonna hold an audience that way okay so another guy
has gotten into his cab he doesn't know yet that Vincent is a killer but if he's
just dropping him off took him affair and he's dropping him off but then
Vincent comes up with his $600 offer and I said you stick with me for the rest
and I drive me around I got a few more places to go and then get me to the
airport in time in the morning right and Max kind of hems and Haws it's
against regulations but he says okay it's it's for him one shift night you
know 600 bucks is pretty good plus a bonus when he gets in there so he takes
the deal in this movie that is the inciting incident when max unknowingly
though but in retrospect we will see when he takes the deal that binds him to
Vincent and that leads to stunning sir pipe not stunning surprise two very
quickly I'm one very quickly he says go around and wait for me in the alley and
like a good hero he doesn't waste any time the hero should always be doing
something so he uses the wait time to eat his lunch and look at need to turn
this bit and look at his catalogs for the cars he's going to take on lease for
his limo service he's been doing this for 12 years he hasn't launched it yet
but as he is deep into his revery out of nowhere kaboom something big and squishy
hits the top of his cab and it happens to be
I keep pointing it at the screen instead of the computer it happens to be a human
being who is squished well the effect that has on Max is quite strong and he
immediately goes into shock and is he's terrified and he fumbles and stumbles
and gets out of the car falls on to the ground crawls away trying to make sense
of it this is not stunning surprise one it is not stunning surprise one yet the
reason is this stunning surprise one has to change everything change the hero's
life forever going back to Shrek he's going off to
fetch a princess he thinks just you know to get rid of the fairytale creatures
that journey will change his life forever ultimately he's gonna fall in
love for the first time in his life and that will change everything right here
he's a cab driver and that's pretty outrageous to have dead body fall on top
of your cab and it's kind of scary but realistically it is not outside of what
normally happens in a city he could you know go have a great tale maybe it'll be
written up in the newspapers and tomorrow night he'll be driving a new
cab his old life would continue yeah it's spooky and it's big and it's
dramatic and loud but it does not yet change his life so Vincent comes
mumbling out very self-controlled and Max is all rattled and he said it's Ron
I think he's dead good guess Vincent plays it low-key and at that moment the
thought finally crosses Max's mind you killed him I think Vinson says you
know I shot him it was the bullet in the fall that killed him I mean it's a kind
of cynical snide guy he is for a killer right and even this is not the stunning
surprise yet because he has to get that linked up with one more factor before it
changes his life forever and it's this
Vincent try to stop him from running away point pulls the gun points a gun at
him ago and now he gets it
this is stunning surprise one and look at the expression it is the stunning
surprise expression because now he knows the full story which is he is the
captive of an assassin and that mean and he knows I mean he could be seen his
face he said conversations with the guy assassins don't let such people live so
he now sees that this is called you know ass over teakettle here and into act 2
because now for the first time he is in the special world of being a hostage of
a man who kills people for a living that he has to drive around for the rest of
the night and the possibilities of max coming out the other side of this you
know by morning getting away from this guy are
practically no practically impossible so now Max has faced a situation he's
never faced before and that is called a special world indeed how is he gonna
pull this off mild-mannered and Max is gonna confront this guy with life and
death act two begins and the difference here
is where is it there it is five minutes in in collateral I think Act one is
nineteen minutes nineteen minutes long pretty shit pretty
short for Act one yes but think about why this story is about a cab driver Act
one his ordinary world almost fall takes place inside of the cab this is a
thriller the movie is a thriller you've got to get something going you've got to
get the story pumped up and running quickly not in 25 minutes know people
aren't gonna hang around you've got to do it as soon as possible
a lot of stuff is set up in act 1 and in that 19 minutes and we're gonna take a
close look at this coming up in a few weeks
oh the brilliance with which this thing was composed
this first act but that's why it has to be shorter and that is another statement
of the paradigm being flexible in some ways okay
that was stunning surprised one then there's midpoint we're not going into
the midpoint tonight the midpoint is juicy and there's a great deal to be
discussed about the midpoint the midpoint is not a moment like a stunning
surprise it's not just one moment of shock it is it's a series as if not
always but as a rule it's a series of short scenes in which several key things
that advance the story happen including them one of them is is it's a key
character growth moment and we'll talk about that another time but now I want
to jump to the other key one most important one which is stunning surprise
to some of the same things and some new things in stunning surprise to this this
is the climax and and the curtain dropper for the end of act 2 and a lot
goes I mean the bulk of your movie I mean act 2 can be 70 pages even more of
of your screenplay and that's why it deserves a lot of attention and a lot of
thought and planning and we'll get to that it is the biggest reversal in the
whole movie this is the biggest dramatic event in your whole movie takes place in
an instant yes shocks and surprises yes but here the hero's plan is destroyed
that means at the beginning of act 2 the hero kind of picks themselves up dust
themselves off and now they have a very highly specific and difficult task ahead
of them a goal so they start formulating a plan and sometimes they start
gathering allies as Campbell says sorting out enemies and allies in that
first section of act 2 and getting their feet on the ground forming a plan and
moving forward with it and toward the end of Act two yeah you
know as as the action is rising toward the end of the Act and the climax it
just just might be possible for the hero to pull this off it's looking more and
more like it's feasible and then BOOM stunning surprise two hits and the plan
is totally obliterated the plan no longer exists and it is called the
heroes darkest hour now it looks like the hero is finished and let let me
remind this it sounds a lot sometimes like I'm only talking about action
movies that's not the case this in variable degrees is all genres family
dramas this is what they are - it's just that these things these contests these
conflicts become between two people one person trying to dominate another or
convince them of something all of this is true for all genres that work that
work for audiences okay and it becomes often called the heroes
darkest hour but I throw this in because I've got an example coming up to you
again to show you a variation about five or ten percent of all the movies that
work have a reversal to the positive in other words by the end of Act two the
hero is kind of down and then it has to be the biggest reversal you can't go
super down your honor if you're already kind of down and it goes up and the big
difference is when you do that and that's fine I mean there's a lot of
romantic comedies and and and others and dramas and other things like that
bridesmaids is like that Erin Brockovich is like that but what that means is Act
three has to be very short because the hero is already one C so the obligatory
scene and a new mall you get on with those and you wrap it up
and your you're out your story is over okay let's take a look at an example ah
not yet this is stunning surprise two of the matrix okay this is a more
traditional stunning surprise okay how many have not seen the matrix okay
write it down alrighty good Megan oh this this was
this was a genre changing movie I mean we've seen all kinds of movies like it
now and the you know the twists and the concepts that were used in the matrix
but when the matrix came along who it had impact it was fresh these story
ideas the concepts in the way they were executed they ultimately affected
science fiction forever as a genre so okay this is a one hero movie as all of
these are and the hero is neo and he just saved the life of his mentor
Morpheus and and he was helped by by the love interest character Trinity and he
got them to a phone booth and that's how the the the technician on their ship the
Nebuchadnezzar on the the rebels ship that's how tank gets them out of the mat
and the matrix back on onboard the ship and he got Morpheus and Trinity back on
the ship but then the bad person shows up the
adversary Agent Smith shows up and they have a big fight and it's like a fight
to the draw and neo is making a run for it but he had the cell phone so he's
still talking to tank and tank is sending him to another place where he
can be extracted by telephone okay they're running the robots are running
after him too and ha one of the better adversaries in film Agent Smith is also
closed on his closer than neo actually realizes their
cannons are being shot to zinging and oh yeah this - mm-hmm
this is what I mean about visual metaphors we we spend a couple seconds
going back to the Nebuchadnezzar which has also been scientist imal taneous Lee
attacked by these robotic spiders that are just evil looking through and
through and they are literally tearing the seals off of it the siding off of it
and they are seconds from storming inside and killing every human being in
the Nebuchadnezzar one of the few groups of human beings still alive in this
world what this does though what this does is remind us the audience visually
that it's not just neo trying to save his own life
neo is responsible for all of these people and that's what makes him a hero
a true hero he is doing yes he's in danger but he's got to get back for the
protection of other people and they're the definition of hero there it is okay
he's running down a grungy halt remember that those of you who have seen it it's
an interesting climaxes visually quite striking - he's running he's running
he's being chased and he hears a phone ringing behind the door I guess it's
just where tank told him it it would be any better get there fast and he goes up
to the door I wonder why they picked room I mean 303 usually when a filmmaker
puts a number like that it has significance
maybe it's Trinity's you know - Trinity's I don't know but the phone is
ringing and he throws the door open oops agents with Smith is waiting for
him with this hand cannon pointed at his chest it's over there is no escaping for
it for neo under this circumstance so but what what wait a minute
go back see he's the small his face is smaller but look at the expression eyes
wide mouth open stunning surprise one yes neo you're dead that is pretty
stunning surprise II then he braces himself to take it like a hero and he
shot six seven eight times I forget it's just the way they've sound the juice to
the sound to make those sound like cannon shots blasting out of that gun
it's very powerful and ouch and then there's another cut back to the
Nebuchadnezzar to remind us visually we have to be shown physically and visibly
that's how we get our information in movies in visual medium we are once
again reminded that if you die in the matrix you die for real and that's what
this little cut is reminding us and this is shot Sakura he's got sparks going on
in the background there was some you know as the the little spidery things
are coming it's like the whole place is falling apart but there's heavenly
sparks also and Kabang he keeps pumping them in and there he is the blood smear
on the wall fading going going and oh yeah poor Morpheus because Morpheus is
the mentor character and he had all his bucks you know he was convinced that the
neo was going to be the one the prophesied person who would come and
save humanity from the machines right that's a thing running running through
the whole film it's this it's very religious you know it's like a Christ
metaphor truly the whole film is and he can't believe it my god how can you be
wrong if if Mia was dead neo hits the floor dead he's shot so
many times he has to be dead he falls to the floor
he looks pretty dead and then Agent Smith has one of his guys check him so
he goes up he's gone he's as dead as they can make
him right we get it he's dead goodbye mr. Anderson okay biggest
reversal in the whole film you betcha it takes place in an instant yes shocks
and surprises of course heroes plan is destroyed I would say so if you're dead
that kind of does in your plan and it's often called the heroes darkest hour it
is somebody's darkest hour there I would say so so and it was very shocking in
the theaters I don't know if you guys know the first time I saw it what how
can they just kill off the hero you know but they did and then did something very
interesting from there but that is tiny surprise - here is my second hang on
hang on I know it's it's tough just give me a little longer I go with this one
more example and then I'm gonna show you some stuff you're not gonna hear
anywhere else so how crazy is that hmm okay a second example in a completely
different kind of movie in Erin Brockovich right she's been told she and
Edie the the mentor character the her attorney have been told they need a
hundred and sixty four or a hundred and sixty seven more signatures they're
going to have it decided by a judge rather than a jury which takes years
they said okay yeah you're gonna arbitrate with a judge so they find
she's finally got all the signatures she needs but what she doesn't have is
smoking gun the absolute proof that PG&E you know Pacific Gas and Electric as it
was based on a real story that Pacific Gas and Electric knew that they were
poisoning the residents of Hinkley that is what the smoking gun is in this
particular story and nobody has come anywhere near that she goes you get
signatures no smoking gun so end of a very long day
she's gotten her signatures so she goes to a local bar and coffee you know
coffee shop please but she's still deeply worried about not having any
smoking gun and then down the bar there's mr. sleaze
remember Charles Embry I think was the character's name
he's been kind of stalking her for a little while since the mid point just
this kind of sleazy guy in the background just looking funny and
Ayyanar funny and he starts to chatter up the guy tries to start a conversation
this is not a good time place or circumstance for Erin she needs like
this like a hole in the head and then he moves in a little closer whose's down a
couple of chairs right slides closer tries more compliments says things like
I think you're the kind of person I can talk to you know the intent it's double
entendre of course you know but it's nice how they play up to one thing and
then reverse it as they are about to and of course she's trying to cool him down
show his little interest the reverse interest the lack of it but he doesn't
let up so she grabs her stuff and she's taken off and when she's actually
leaving she's not gonna be there to talk with him anymore
suddenly Charles Embry bursts out with would it be important to you if I told
you when I worked at the Hinkley plant I destroyed documents what bingo
sounds like a smoking gun to her right and next watch what happens next though
that is stunning a surprise too but watch how it is played out she's getting
rattled with Charles can you wait with you just wait here
wait here I got to go to the bathroom I'll be right back I promise you and she
goes running out of the bar and she goes tries to get her phone and of course the
phone doesn't have any power and she tries to get change out of her purse and
her purse drops and the coins fly and finally she's so nervous and so
excited what happened yes okay
and she gets that on the phone the attorney you know and she gets him all
excited to know well just dah dah don't push him don't let him talk you know
people like to tell us and both of them very very excited and then she goes back
in for a calm conversation with Charles Embry but the thing is this these extra
moments Susannah grant wrote the screenplay here of Erin Brockovich and
it is bloody brilliant she does a number of things little things like this this
is a stunning surprise but it is very quiet it is exactly what the hero needs
but it's kind of downplayed and quiet so all of a sudden we take her excitement
as the hero and she runs off and shares her excitement with the mentor and the
moment is built to show us the the depth and breadth of what it means to what
they are doing this is it we have won and it's added you know to give us a
sense of that rising excitement and very wisely very very wisely so now back to
this problem the unexpected has struck
wait a minute why does it come back sorry just give me a couple of seconds
here because I got finally get to the juicy stuff what wouldn't you know
stunning surprise to the plan is blown apart
it's the heroes darkest hour as soon as I get this back up again I got to take
you through this stuff you have been so patient and you've hung in so well and
yes all of this is going to a destination and it's an important
destination and I hope you'll be intrigued by it we shall see
getting warmer mmm the wheel of death I don't know okay but did you stretch not
much of a stretch no you don't let let you get away with much around here okay
this is the summary of type B okay biggest reversal yes
takes place in an instant shocks and surprises but here the hero's victory is
delivered you win there is still an obligatory scene to come and a highly
unusual and extraordinarily emotionally fulfilling one too when she goes back to
the office and she lays into that in a comical way lays into the two
stuffed-shirt attorneys they've gone into business with and all kind of stuff
so she gets another victory she gets a social like victory that is on top of
this one but this is the fact act three better be short when this happens you
get a short two more hero goal sequences and we'll talk about that right now all
right
take a breath there are two things that drive all screenplays that work all of
them visual stories - one is conflict you got to have lots and lots and lots
of it and if you have weak conflict or not very interesting conflict you're
going to lose your audience but the second one is a bit of an abstraction
that haunted me for years which is you also have to have change the story flow
absolutely needs to be changing as you go forward it has to be developing going
forward and I found it impossible to teach that you know that wasn't either
it's one of those things you use there's an instinct you have or you don't have
kind of thing but it infuriated me I've always felt that there was something
there that could be teachable so that's when I went into the weeds and the
jungles for a few years and started watching movies over and over and over
and over trying to find a pattern in change that had not yet been codified I
know that's pretty outrageous thing to say and to be looking for and I was
shocked more than anyone when I actually
realized I was looking at one there is a pattern to change in these films in the
way they speak to the human mind and emotions and process this information of
story to make it emotionally fulfilling there is a unit of change that you can
get your hands on and it seemed to me if you could truly codify the length and
content of one unit of change you might really have something in terms of
the most useful tool for outlining a feature film I've I've ever seen
anywhere else and I try to stay on top of these things define the size and
content of the units of change in successful screen stories and you can
build a more effective way to write screenplays and this is a fact and the
unit of change that I found I named hero goal sequences again because it that
refers to actions rather than abstraction here are the definitions I'm
going to read these I don't want to you know
Muffit so I'm gonna read it a hero goal sequence we're talking about a unit of
change a hero goal sequence consists of three to seven pages of screenplay
there's wiggle room there I've seen them at two pages I've seen them at nine
pages generally three to seven pages of screenplay wherein a hero pursues one
short-term physical goal as one step toward achieving the overarching goal of
the whole story then the hero discovers in pursuit of that one short-term goal
some form of what I call fresh news some sort of information or object that they
happen into that is one of that you've got to have so many surprises for an
audience in a spin in a feature film it is one of the small surprises and you
say hmmm that's interesting and that fresh news puts an end to the current
short term goal and offers up the next short-term goal and the next hero goal
sequence begins
this is a schematic of it I mean I started it why not you know okay so you
come here you've got a goal you're searching for the goal and then BOOM
fresh news it is a mini mini mini stunning surprise
you know mini it's not the big thing and all of a sudden this goal comes to an
end it's not needed anymore or it's completed or whatever and boom you're up
to the next level of involvement and interest and growing tension in the
story here's an example concrete time gravity how many of you have not seen
gravity okay well I think we're going to look at gravity in here
because there's so much to be learned from that film but here is where it
starts hero goal one in gravity is the ordinary
world of the hero the hero of that movie is Sandra Bullock who plays dr. Ryan
stone who is in space working on Space Station because of a deep deep wound
that she received when her four-year-old daughter fell off of a jungle gym and
died she lost her daughter and her meaning of life in a freak accident and
she is so profoundly in grief what she has done is gone as far away from life
and the earth as she can possibly get into total silence the depth of silence
of space so she is up there she's doing her work and her goal is to work in
space without thinking or feeling fresh news and that that sequence also
establishes other members of the crew and it establishes her her mentor
character the George Clooney character Kowalski I think was his name
and fresh news after X number of minutes is Houston suddenly calls and says abort
mission return immediately a wide swath of space junk is heading
right at you now they're scrambling and trying to get inside with the other
astronauts there I think there's three of them out there working at the time
and she's caught up in what she's doing she's trying to finish and reboot you
know she's being focused on that and and and Kowalski keeps saying get inside now
and you can't move too fast in spacesuits and all that and fresh news
so get inside the space spacecraft and return right away and fresh news become
becomes that they don't make it the debris storm hits and they're right in
its path then that becomes a hero goal sequence 3 which is do everything you
can to survive the debris storm you see those are actions that's pile up on each
other this is just one taste I mean this is I'm gonna have your head spinning
with perhaps you think too much of this stuff going forward in the course but
this is the ticket guys this is a secret and here's the weird part this is what I
wanted to get you finally thank you for hanging in through technical disaster
and all okay this is what act 1 looks like act 1 this
I'm still astounded but this is true act 1 in any motion picture that works for
audiences and was a big hit act one of all of them no matter their genre have
six hero goal sequences in it six not five not seven six and stunning surprise
one always appears in here ago see six always
it never fails if the movie doesn't work then that's not the case I mean I mean
Minaya and I've done a lot of it to you you've got to watch bad movies too but
from now on when you see bad movies I don't want to hear just I didn't like it
it stinks you got to tell me why it stinks
where did they fail in in their mission to bring you emotion how did they blow
it I want you to be able to spot an you will soon enough be able to spot exactly
why it didn't work okay and the weirdness continues here's
the graph of act 2 act 2 is broken in half by the midpoint sequence the first
half of act 2 contains another 6 hero goal sequences and the midpoint sequence
in every good movie has a really good midpoint sequence and that's saying
something because these aren't easy at all and the midpoint sequence always
appears in here oh goal sequence number 12 always and in the second half second
half of act 2 as another guess what another 6 hero goal sequences and
stunning surprised too always appears in hero goal sequence 18 not in 19 not in
17 or 16 in 18 in every movie that works emotionally for audiences act 3 is the
only place it can very act 3 contains between 2 and 5 hero goal sequences
there's a minimum of 2 because remember there is the obligatory scene and the
day new ma 2 things are critical and they have to happen in act 3 and they
each need their own goal sequence so that's why the minimum is 2
and the maximum is five but hear me please there are a few really good
movies I mean my favorite romantic comedy of all time as good as it gets it
has five but it has to wrap up so much and there are so many important
relationships that have to be wrapped up in act 3 okay we cut it some slack I am
asking you short of begging do not go with five
hero goal sequences in your act three it makes the act too long and your
audience gets Restless it did those stories on movies we go to and we feel
that they have repent that keeps ending over and over and it's still ending kind
of thing that is the feeling you're in danger of creating keep act three short
that is what it's meant to be the average for a successful Hollywood movie
that is loved all over the world the average is 21 in other words three hero
goal sequences in act 3 here's here's a graph of the entire thing and here is
your challenge this I believe is extraordinarily good news for you you
now know in advance exactly how much story your screenplay is going to need
if it is to be a hit with audiences if it is to affect them and connect with
them emotionally this is what it needs to be and I mean believe me I'm setting
out to prove it to you and I will prove it to you this semester in spades that
it's true and it's true across all genres because this is about you know
this takes us back to Greece this is about speaking to how your audience
absorbs stoat the ritual of story that's what it's speaking to but here's the
problem with it I mean is really I think enormous ly useful and
valuable knowledge but take a look at the number of little surprises you have
to come up with I've had grad students you know working on you know some of the
actual writing courses and working on stuff and I only got four sequences in
the second half of Act two that's all I can think of that's all I got
can't I just have four in in the second half of Act two and the old taskmaster
shakes his head no I'm sorry if you could only come up with four that means
you have to go back in your story to find why that is true it's telling you
that your earlier story has not been built in such a way that this can be
provided as you go forward you have to go back to your basics that kind of
thing so in other words this is your challenge this is an incredible
challenge to wrestle with so grit your teeth because that's the facts guys and
here's what it is accomplished by knowing this which i think is enormous
ly useful it shows you in advance exactly how much plot you need exactly
how many times you know sequences of change you're going to have to arrange
and invent yeah one of the things about it it's in the book and we'll talk about
this stuff too later but for instance another thing about the hero goal
sequences you cannot repeat you cannot have two hero goal sequences that are
basically the same if you have one that is sort of the same of something that
has preceded you then have to add to it something major that changes it and
makes it unique before you can use it it shows you exactly how much plot you need
and sometimes this is cold chills at night because it's a lot of plot it
ensures that the hero will always be the active one of the two or three most
deadly things that killed so many scripts from neophytes is a passive hero
think the kind of story that things happen to the hero and the hero doesn't
happen to the story driving the story forward on their own it doesn't work
like that if you do this the hero is always active 21 times they are in
pursuit of a physical goal they can never be passive and what's interesting
is that's what happens in movies that connect with audiences the heroes are
not passive ever they're doing something that moves the story forward the story
will never sag that's built in and what we know is that this is the best you are
building something for the best possible emotional involvement of your audience
this we're talking psychology here really that's truly what it is this is
kind of a finger on a certain kind of absorption of other ritual this is what
brings the emotion and pleasure to an audience and that's that's what you have
to wrestle with oh yeah and this is good too a lot of people talk about this
there's a lot of the grad students go back to their closets and pull out old
stuff you know you got a half a script here and there you gave up and in high
school there's something like that add you thought your we're going to go
somewhere and or you pull out old scripts you finished a draft maybe a
couple of three drafts but just never quite worked didn't never sail you know
a couple people read it and you know they weren't in to put it away take it
out take this paradigm and imply you know lay it over your older screenplay
and it will show you exactly why that script didn't work it'll show you only
two or three interesting things happen in act one you know well maybe only
three or four interesting things happened in act two no that's not enough
I think that's you're finally off the hook you know okay you're right
say you survived thank you for your patience through glitches and all and
allowing me to get through this I know it was a lot to to sit through questions
any questions we're gonna take a break you finally get to go to the bathroom
and and when you come back it'll be just us and and and we can relax a bit and
talk about some of this stuff and any questions you'll want to throw out have
at me okay so thanks break time