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Michael Hauge on: The Foundation of All Screenwriting
Hollywood Symposium board member Michael Hauge is a producer who has served as vice-president of creative affairs, staff producer, and executive story editor for several major motion picture production companies. His award-winning book, Writing Screenplays That Sell, is considered a definitive reference among industry professionals. Michael conducts his award-winning screenwriting seminar all over the world, and has received accolades from the screenwriters of films like Sleepless In Seattle, Iron Will, Patriot Games, MacGyver, Murder She Wrote, Columbo, Working Girl, Junior, Meet Joe Black, and the director of Clear and Present Danger, to name but a few. Check out his web site, www.screenplaymastery.com. We at the Hollywood Symposium just call Michael The Sage.
--Michael Hauge This time I want to discuss the four
elements that form the basis of all movie stories: character, desire, conflict and
courage. Ninety percent of the rejected scripts in Hollywood lack these four
essential components.
Think of a screenplay as a pyramid.
Character, desire, conflict and courage are the four corners at the base of the structure;
they form the foundation that will support all that happens in the movie. The point at the
top of the pyramid represents your ultimate objective: emotion. Every element of
any screenplay is designed to maximize the emotional involvement of the reader and the
audience. Without all four of the necessary components at its base, the structure will
collapse, and the screenplay (or movie) will fail.
Please notice that I use the terms reader
and audience interchangeably throughout this article, since your objective as a
screenwriter is the same for both.
The CHARACTERS are the point of entry to
the movie for your audience/reader. While all the people who populate your story are
important, it is the hero or protagonist who is your real concern. Other characters will
serve to support the hero's desire or increase the conflict, but it is your main character
who serves as the vehicle for any reader's emotional journey.
Without a hero whom they can identify
with, root for and worry about, an audience may watch a movie, but they will never
experience it emotionally. They might see, hear and think about what's going on, but they
will never feel it. And unless you can get a reader to feel the power of your
screenplay, she will never recommend it.
The questions you must ask when developing
your characters, especially your hero, are: Why will the audience care about
these people? Are they going to like them, feel sorry for them, or worry about them?
Why would anyone want to spend two hours with them? Are they funny, unique, or
fascinating? Do they seem real? Are they three dimensional, with qualities that
extend beyond their mere occupation or function in the plot? And most important, is
my hero someone the audience can identify with? Are they willing and able to become
my hero on a psychological level and experience the story as if it were happening to them
personally?
In a later column I will discuss this
issue of character identification in greater detail. But for now I want you to understand
how crucial it is that your story be populated by characters that fully involve the reader
in your story. All the action and spectacle money can buy won't make up for characters the
audience doesn't care about.
DESIRE is the power that drives your
story. All movies are about people who want something. The more interesting,
compelling and desperate their desire, the more involved the audience will become.
Most successful movies present heroes
whose desires are clear and visible, with clearly implied endpoints: the two cops in SEVEN
want to stop a serial killer; in GET SHORTY, a Miami shylock wants to put
together a movie deal in Hollywood; Jim Lovell wants to get his space capsule safely back
to earth in APOLLO 13.
But in some movies, the heroes' desires
grow more out of situation and relationship: in UNSTRUNG HEROES the young boy
wants to deal with his mother's illness by living with his eccentric uncles; the married
couple in FORGET PARIS want to resolve their relationship; in biographies like CHAPLIN
and GANDHI, the title characters go through a series of adventures as they pursue
their overall desires for success in Hollywood or independence for India.
These types of screenplays are much more
difficult to sell, because the desire is not as visible, the action is not as apparent
from the story description, and the movies depend far more on character depth and
execution. Nonetheless, the stories are still driven by the characters' desires.
And there is another level of desire that
adds character growth and theme to many movies: the hero's inner desire for hope,
acceptance, self worth and love. The emotional depth and texture of movies like RAIN
MAN, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE and FORREST
GUMP grow out of this deeper level of need and longing.
The most important question you will ever
ask yourself about your screenplay is "What does my hero WANT?" How will
you show this desire on the screen? How desperately does your hero want it? Will his life
never be complete or fulfilled without this? Why will the reader care about this desire?
Is it unique, compelling and big enough that it will draw an audience into the theater,
and into the story?
And finally, "How are my
characters' desires in opposition?" Because it is out of opposing desires that
your story will develop CONFLICT.
If desire is the force that carries your
story forward, conflict is the element that will elicit emotion in the audience. Almost
all of the peak moments in any movie will be those where the heroes (or other primary
characters) must face the seemingly insurmountable obstacles to achieving their desires.
The thrill, excitement, surprise or terror of a race, a gunfight, a car chase or a monster
grow out of physical confrontation; the pain, sadness or catharsis of an argument, a
separation or a death emerge from the characters' emotional conflicts.
The conflict within your characters
will also increase the emotional power of a script. The hero's own needs, fears,
insecurities, jealousy, ignorance and lack of self-esteem will multiply the obstacles to
be faced, and will further involve the reader in the story.
Equally important, the anticipation of
conflict accounts for even more of the reader's involvement in any screenplay. Fear
and suspense grow out of the anticipation of danger, worry is the anticipation of loss,
and hope is the anticipation of success.
In comedy, the tone is shifted so that all
of the same emotions are stimulated to create humor. When arguments involve wit and humor,
when physical comedy portrays pain and suffering, and when a hero's weakness, mistake or
imposture are about to be exposed, the audience laughs. And when obstacles that seemed
impossible to overcome are conquered, the audience experiences delight, satisfaction or
joy -- the bad guy is defeated, the lovers are reunited, the underdog has won and the
world is made right again.
So the questions to ask about your own
screenplay must insure that the conflict your hero faces is unique, powerful and
emotionally compelling: Why does it seem impossible for my hero to achieve her
desire? Is the conflict as original, as interesting and as overwhelming as is
realistically possible? Do the obstacles she faces increase as the story
progresses? Are the other characters in the movie pursuing their own desires in
opposition to the hero? Are the obstacles anticipated to build suspense, excitement
and/or humor? Do my hero's inner flaws and conflicts increase the conflict and
emotion of the story? And is the resolution of all these conflicts believable and
satisfying?
The ultimate test of all the conflicts
thrown at the hero is whether they require COURAGE. If the reader is truly to care about
the plot and characters, the hero must be forced to put whatever she values most in life
at risk. If she isn't scared to death as she struggles to achieve her ultimate desire,
then the conflict isn't big enough, and the audience will be watching the movie
rather than feeling it.
Action movies and thrillers require
physical courage. The heroes lives are literally on the line as they rush to stop or
escape the killers. But in most comedies and all love stories and character dramas, (and
in the more layered, character-driven thrillers), the heroes must find emotional courage,
or they will suffer the loss of whatever is most important to their fulfillment as human
beings. The heroes of SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE are just as terrified of the emotional
risk required as the heroes of SPEED and DIE HARD are of the physical
risk. It is out of the struggle to find this
courage that characters grow, and that movies develop their underlying, universal themes.
But it is only when the visible desires and conflicts of the plot involve the audience
emotionally that the deeper levels of meaning will effectively reach the audience.
So the final questions to ask about your
own screenplay are: What is really at stake for my hero? What truly terrifies her? What
will she lose if she fails to achieve her desire? Why does losing that really matter? What
forces her to put everything on the line to get what she wants and needs? How does she
find the courage to do that? How does my hero change as she ultimately finds this
necessary courage? And how will this growth and transformation apply to the everyday lives
of my audience? When the movie is over, will the audience feel that THEY have found the
same level of courage through their identification with my hero's desires and fears? In
other words, has my story truly touched and changed my audience?
It is only by mastering the elements of
character, desire, conflict and courage that your writing will ultimately reach an
audience, touch them emotionally, and move them at the deepest possible levels.
* * * * * For detailed information on any of my seminars, if you want to be on my personal mailing list, or if you would like any information on critique and consultation services, please e-mail to mhauge@juno.com.
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