Question: "What are the essential screenplay character archetypes?"
Answer: I am a huge fan of a book by Carol S. Pearson entitled The Hero Within, which explores the six archetypes that real-life people live by: innocent, orphan, magician, wanderer, martyr, and warrior. Ms. Pearson's theory is that people make certain choices about how to live their lives and how to respond to various issues based on their defining archetype.
One of the more stunning realizations about storytelling I’ve ever been party to was that in every successful film, the main character moves through four of the six archetypes from opening moment to final fade like clockwork. These four archetypes are: orphan, wanderer, warrior, and martyr.
ORPHAN – In Act 1, the main character is already an orphan or is about to become one. Sometimes a real orphan; sometimes a figurative one. Luke Skywalker is really an orphan, as is Peter Parker. In E.T., Elliot’s father has abandoned him and the family in favor of a younger woman. Forrest Gump's father is long gone, and Forrest is an outcast because of his low I.Q. Woody becomes orphaned from his social group after the arrival of Buzz Lightyear.
And then towards the end of Act 1, a crisis happens to your hero that throws his or her life out of balance and sends your hero on a journey to answer the Central Question, which is the question that, once it is answered definitively “yes” or “no,” the film is over. Will Luke save the Princess? Will Brody kill the shark? Will Marty go back to the future? Once the Central Question is clearly known, your hero is no longer an orphan, but must now become a...
WANDERER – It’s now the first half of Act 2, and your hero becomes a wanderer in order to answer the Central Question. He or she goes hither and yon looking for clues, meeting helpers, running into opponents, overcoming obstacles. It’s the learning phase where your hero picks up the skills and tools he or she thinks is needed to answer the Central Question.
Look at Star Wars: Luke goes to Mos Eisley space port, gets past the Stormtroopers, has an altercation in the bar, meets Han Solo, gets to Han’s ship, blasts out of the space port, jumps into hyperspace, practices the force, comes out of hyperspace, chases down a Tie-Fighter, gets sucked into the Death Star, hides with everyone in the cargo compartments, disguises himself and Han as Stormtroopers, blasts his way into the control room, and discovers through R2D2 that Princess Leia is being held in a detention cell. Whew, that’s a lot of wandering! But look what Luke has accomplished by wandering: Luke has begun to learn the Force, picked up Han Solo and Chewbacca, learned where the Princess is being held, and is now as ready as he thinks he needs to be to become a...
WARRIOR – At the mid-point of the story, page 55 or so, your hero has acquired most of the helpers and all of the skills and items he needs in order to resolve the Central Question in a way favorable to his desire. Or maybe time is just running out. Either way, it’s now time to act. It is time to become a warrior.
Luke actively fights to get to the Princess and save her. Brody goes out on the boat to fight and kill the shark. Jack Dawson and Rose are in love but must now fight to get away from Cal and off the Titanic which just struck an iceberg. Fight, fight, fight! One step forward, two steps back. Things are looking up. Things are looking down.
Until near the end of the Act 2, when everything goes to hell in a handbasket and your hero realizes that something’s been missing from the fight: his or her own willingness to sacrifice all. This is what forces the hero to switch from being a warrior into becoming a...
MARTYR – Act 3 is all about the hero’s willingness to lose it all in order to win it all. Only by giving up what the hero thought he or she wanted can the hero be rewarded with what’s needed.
Luke has to be willing to fly into the Death Star and shut off his targeting computer, showing that he truly believes in the Force. Ripley, in Aliens, has to be willing to venture into the alien nest in order to save Newt. Oscar Schindler has to use the money he so desperately coveted in order to buy the lives of 1,200 Jews.
Orphan. Wanderer. Warrior. Martyr. It works in dramas (Titanic), it works in comedies (Home Alone), it works in action films (Iron Man), it works in science fiction (Star Wars), it works in thrillers (The Sixth Sense), it works in animation (The Lion King).
A combination of Joseph Campbell’s mythic structure and original work, Truby’s Twenty-Two Building Blocks lot structure loosely conforms to a three-act structure. Truby is a proponent of the idea that Plot is what Character does, and Character is defined by actions. As such, his plotline is a combination of a Hero’s actions motivated by his internal Need and an external Desire (goal). The actions of various Opponents and Allies counterpoint the Hero’s efforts. The plot has an inciting incident, ends with a new equilibrium, and has several revelations and reversals along the way.
Hollywood is interested in one thing: a script with blockbuster potential. Why? Because the revenue from films is now global. The typical hit film makes more money from foreign revenue than it does from the U.S. Couple that with the exorbitant cost of making and selling a film and you've got an entertainment community that won't even look at a script unless it has blockbuster written all over it.
That's a big problem for most screenwriters. Most writers, if they have any training at all, never learn the techniques for writing hit films. In fact they don't even know such techniques exist. They go off to write their standard three-act script and think that blockbusters happen when you're lucky enough to get some big star attached.
No question about it, big stars help. But the list of big star vehicles that bombed at the box office is a long one. And if you look at the best selling films of all time, you'll notice a surprising number have no stars at all.
Blockbuster films don't come from big stars. They come from blockbuster stories. They come from writers who USE FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES THAN OTHER WRITERS.
I'd like to point out just a few of the key elements found in the best-selling films of all time. These are elements that you can use in your script. They won't guarantee you'll have the next hit film, but they will radically increase your chances of selling your script to a hungry market.
A word of caution: These techniques don't guarantee that you'll write a great script. On the other hand, don't assume that these techniques force you to write a bad script. There doesn't have to be a contradiction between what is good and what is successful.
1. Blockbusters use the right genre for the story idea.
To see why this is such an important blockbuster technique, you have to understand the first rule of Hollywood. Hollywood doesn't buy and sell stars. It doesn't buy and sell directors. It doesn't buy and sell writers, much as we might wish it did.
The first rule of Hollywood is: it buys and sells genres. A genre is a type of story, like action, love, thriller, detective, etc. There are 11 major film genres and scores of sub-genres. A genre is a brand that the audience recognizes. With genres, the studios and the audience don't have to reinvent the wheel for every film.
Key point: you can't write a hit film without mastering at least one, and usually two, major genres.
And for most writers, there's the rub. I've worked with thousands of writers. And I have found that 99% of scripts fail at the premise. Right at the one-line story idea. It's not that the writers failed to come up with an original and commercial story idea. The writers failed to use the right structure/genre to develop the idea from a one-line premise to a two-hour script.
You may have great characters and write terrific dialogue. But if you have chosen the wrong genres to express your idea in story form, none of the other craft elements will matter. The story will die.
Blockbuster scripts always choose the right genres for their story idea. The right genres highlight the inherent strengths of the idea and hide the inherent weaknesses.
Finding the right genre for your idea is not easy. You don't want to make a snap judgment. Often the same idea could be expressed in five or even ten different story forms. The trick is to find the one or two best forms that will bring out the 'gold' in your idea.
2. Blockbusters use the myth genre or some variation.
Myth is one of the 11 most popular genres in movies. Like all genres, myth is a special story structure with unique story beats.
A surprisingly large number of hit films are based on the myth genre. Why? Because myth travels better than any other form. Many of the key beats in a myth story transcend cultural and national boundaries. This is why ‘Star Wars is as popular in Japan as it is in the U.S. We see myth elements in such films as ‘The Lion King,’ ‘Jaws,’ ‘Batman,’ ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ ‘Titanic’ and even ‘Forrest Gump.’
But you should keep in mind a key qualifier. Blockbusters almost always combine the myth form with at least one other major genre, and often two. The other genres help to modernize the myth form, and also overcome many of the weaknesses inherent to this tricky genre.
3. Blockbusters hit the genre beats, but do them in an original way.
Writers of hit films know their forms cold. They never underestimate the complexity of their genre. Each genre is a system, with a number of unique story beats, a special hero, opponent, symbols and themes. Hitting all these unique elements of the genre is essential to success. It's what the audience pays to see. It's where you pay your dues to be in the game.
But writers of hit films go a step farther. They know their genres so well they hit the genres' unique story beats in an original way. Originality is what sets you apart from all the other writers working in your form.
Let me give you a couple of examples. ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ and ‘When Harry Met Sally’ are both love stories, romantic comedies to be exact. Love stories are among the trickiest of all genres, with no less than 12 special story beats.
These two films are very different love stories. Yet each one hits all 12 of those key love story beats. The writers paid their dues.
But they went farther and did those beats in an original way. Conventional wisdom said you couldn't tell a love story where the lovers don't meet until the last scene. Which is why no American film had ever done it. (A French film did it about 25 years ago, but that doesn't count). But the writer of ‘Sleepless’ found a way to hit all the genre beats of a good love story while keeping the unique element of the lovers not meeting until the end. Result? Smash hit.
Conventional wisdom said you couldn't do a love story in which the two leads are friends for ten years before they become lovers. The leads are supposed to have an immediate spark followed by a rush to love where the man chases the woman. But the writers of ‘When Harry Met Sally’ were able to do the key love story beats while letting the lovers get to know each other in a slower but deeper way. Result? Smash hit.
4. Blockbusters have a strong, single cause-and-effect line with a single, clear character change.
Hit films always have a strong spine. A strong spine comes from a single cause-and-effect line: having a main character who takes a series of actions to reach a goal. Action A should lead directly to action B, which should lead directly to action C, and so on until the end.
Look at your own script, or the script of a film that was not a blockbuster. You may be surprised at how often the actions of the hero are not linked in this relentless kind of way.
But linked action is not enough. Audiences want to know how a hero's actions lead him/her to change. Hit films always have a clearly recognizable character change. For example, in the hit movie ‘Outbreak,’ the hero goes from being an arrogant, insensitive, egocentric control freak to someone who learns how to love and how to value others in a more intimate way.
This clear character change doesn't have to be positive. In ‘The Godfather,’ Michael changes from being unconcerned, kind, mainstream, legitimate and outside the family to being the tyrannical, absolute ruler of the family.
I always recommend that writers spend a lot of time exploring their premise line. One of the best things about a premise is that it allows you to see clearly whether your idea has a single cause-and-effect line. If it doesn't, it is easy to fix.
But the most important thing to find out when exploring your premise is your hero's probable character change. It is embedded in the idea. If you can tease it out, the rest of the writing process will be a lot easier. And you'll have a much better chance of writing a blockbuster script.
Don't be fooled by the notion that no one knows anything. Buyers may not know if a particular script will make over $100 million, but they have a pretty good idea of certain major story characteristics found in most blockbuster scripts.
The top professional screenwriters -- the ones who get all the jobs -- know what they are, too.
While the vast majority of screenwriters are off pounding out their simple three-act scripts, top screenwriters are using fundamentally different techniques.
Three-act structure is designed to give you the same script everyone else is writing. Plus it tells you nothing about what Hollywood wants to buy. So using the old three-act structure paradigm virtually guarantees failure.
Blockbuster techniques are story structure elements that Hollywood wants to see. That doesn't mean you are writing 'bad' or pre-fab scripts when you use these techniques. Many blockbuster scripts are extremely 'well-written' in the classic sense of the term.
Blockbuster techniques simply allow you to be more attuned to the popular audience you must serve if you want to sell your material.
One of the most important blockbuster elements is what I call the 'double track line.' Hit films always have a character line and an action line, or, to put it another way, a personal story and a case to be solved.
The character line, or personal story, refers to some kind of struggle the hero must go through to make a character change and grow as a human being. The action line, or case, involves the trouble the hero must deal with to save the day.
The audience wants to see both of these lines play out over the course of the story. Having only the personal line gives you a 'character study.' Having only the action line gives you a 'plot piece.' Neither will be a popular success.
Caution: some writers try to write a hit film by going strictly for the action line. They figure they'll cut out the slow personal stuff up front where the hero's weaknesses are expressed and go right to the non-stop action. They've just made a pact with the devil. While they may gain some speed up front, they have just blown the payoff of the movie.
The audience doesn't care that much about a hero temporarily saving the day unless it is accompanied by permanent personal change. The personal line is what makes the action matter. If you strip the guts out of your story, the best action scenes in the world won't make any difference.
Let's look a little more closely at character.
In blockbuster movies, the hero is almost always a rogue, charmer or trickster character. I cannot overstate the importance of this element in smash hit films.
There are hundreds, even thousands, of possible heroes in a story. Yet in the vast majority of blockbusters, the hero is some kind of trickster.
This blockbuster element originated long before film. The trickster is found in cultures all over the world going back to the oldest stories on record. American movies have been especially adept at showing this character in many guises.
What makes a rogue/charmer/trickster character? First, and foremost, he is someone with great confidence. The 'con-man' comes from this quality. Audiences the world over love seeing someone brimming with confidence. A confident person goes through life walking on air.
The trickster also has a way with words. He is the most verbal of all characters. In the mouth of a movie star, the glib words of the trickster are especially sweet.
Invariably, the trickster uses his ability with words to accomplish a scam. A scam is a plan that involves deception. The plan is one of the seven major story structure steps found in every story. The more the hero's plan uses deception, the better the audience likes it.
Eddie Murphy and Bill Murray almost always play a rogue/charmer/trickster. Han Solo is one. So is Indiana Jones. So is the kid in 'Home Alone.'
Most screenwriters know the importance Hollywood places on a 'high concept' premise as the basis for a blockbuster film. What most writers don't know is the fallacy of the high concept.
A high concept premise is a story idea with a fun (and marketable) twist. The problem with high concept is that it gives you only two or three great scenes when the twist occurs. The rest of the movie is often a complete bore. Which is why most high concept scripts are dismal failures at the box office.
Blockbuster films are usually based on a high concept, but they also extend the high concept through theme and opposition.
Theme is your view of the proper way to act in the world, as expressed through your characters. Blockbuster writers find the moral problem at the heart of the high concept and then play out the various possibilities of the problem in the body of the story.
The way they play out those possibilities is through the opposition. The opponent is another of the seven major structural steps in any good story. A blockbuster writer looks for the deepest conflict inherent to the high concept and fashions a group of opponents who can force the hero to deal with this conflict.
A perfect example of this blockbuster technique is 'Tootsie.' There have been scores of 'switch' comedies in Hollywood history where someone switches places with someone else. They're all 'high concept,' and they almost all fail.
'Tootsie' was a switch comedy that was a huge popular hit. Why? Sure, it was fun seeing Dustin Hoffman walk down the street the first time dressed as a woman. But the reason the movie was a smash hit was that the writers found the key moral theme -- how a man treats a woman -- inherent in the fun twist of a man dressing as a woman. They then created a number of opponents who could highlight the different ways a man treats a woman by the way each attacks the hero.
One of the simplest blockbuster elements has to do with the stakes, or consequences, of the hero's action. The audience must care whether the hero succeeds or fails to reach his goal. That is true for any piece of writing.
A simple rule of thumb for blockbusters is: the bigger the stakes, the bigger the hit. If you are going to get a vast number of people out of the house to come see a movie, you must make it an event. National or international consequences to the story do just that.
For example, what's at stake in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' is nothing less than Nazi takeover of the world. In 'The Lion King,' it's the kingdom. In the 'Star Wars' movies, it's control of the universe and the future of the Republic. 'Forrest Gump' appears to be just a small personal tale, but it also tracks American history of the last half century.
You can't understand what makes a blockbuster movie without looking closely at genre. I have long believed that the first rule of Hollywood is: it doesn't buy and sell writers, directors or even stars; it buys and sells genres.
Genres are the lifeblood of Hollywood. Bad writers don't bother to study the genre they are working in. Average writers study their genre and hit every beat, just like the other writers working in that genre.
Blockbuster writers hit all the beats of their genre, but they twist each one so that the story seems original. The reader gets the pleasure of the genre beats, but also the pleasure of surprise and creativity.
I'll talk about more blockbuster elements in future articles. You don't have to consider these elements if you only want to write a good script. But if you also want the best chance of selling your work in today's Hollywood, these techniques are crucial.
In past articles, we’ve talked about the story elements found in most blockbuster films. But what about the obstacles that prevent us from writing a hit film? I’m referring to the misconceptions many writers carry with them that make it almost impossible for them to write a successful script.
One especially egregious myth that kills writers is the idea that their script will succeed if only they get the right agent or make the right contact. We all know that thousands of scripts are written every year. So we think the answer to winning this intense competition is to get special access to the powers that make the films.
Makes a lot of sense. But it’s dead wrong. The vast majority of scripts fail because they are not good enough scripts, which means that your main competition is not with the fifty thousand other writers who will write a script this year. Your main competition is with yourself. If you master all the skills that go into great fiction writing, you will get access to every studio in Hollywood. If you don’t, the best access in the world won’t make a bit of difference.
Want to hear another truth that may shock you? 99% of writers fail at the premise. As you probably know, the premise is your story stated in one line. The premise is the core of the script. Everything else depends on it. You can create a great hero, write scintillating dialogue, weave in a deep theme. But if you choose the wrong premise, or fail to develop it properly, none of that will matter.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen writers start with a great idea, or more often, the makings of a great idea, and ruin it. Here a little knowledge often wreaks havoc. We’ve talked before about how dependent a blockbuster movie is on the ‘high concept’ premise, the catchy, highly marketable idea that makes an audience want to come to the theater even though they haven’t seen the movie yet.
What most writers don’t know is that the ‘high concept’ premise will kill you if you don’t know what you’re doing. Why? Because a high concept premise typically gives you only two good scenes, which are the scenes before and after the ‘high concept’ kicks in.
That often leaves you with 100 minutes where nothing is happening! You have to develop the premise so that the high concept is played out dramatically and structurally throughout the entire script. And that is done primarily through the opposition and the theme. Let me give you an example. There have been scores of ‘switch’ comedies over the years. A character flips bodies or changes identity and then struggles to make the change work.
These movies are all high concept premises. And almost all of them bomb at the box office. One of the few switch comedies that was a blockbuster hit, both commercially and critically, was ‘Tootsie.’ Sure, we’ve got the great switch scenes where Dustin Hoffman is suddenly breezing down Broadway in a dress and heels, and then accosts his agent at lunch in his new disguise.
But what made that film so successful was that the writers knew how to extend the high concept through deep structure. They created a set of opponents who relentlessly attacked the hero’s deep need in a different way. And the plot played out a larger theme of how men often treat women.
Developing a hit premise involves a number of steps. First and foremost is taking the time up front to extend the line of the idea so you can see what the probable structural roadblocks are. To a trained eye, a premise line will immediately suggest deep-seated structural obstacles that you will have to overcome to make the idea work. Perhaps the desire line is weak. Or you may have trouble spotting the natural opponent.
The point is to uncover these roadblocks when you have only written one sentence instead of after you have written a full script.
Here’s another fact that may surprise you. The typical 100-page script has only about 50 pages of story. Obviously, that means you have 50-plus pages of padding, and that script won’t sell.
There are many reasons why writers radically over-estimate the strength of their story. One is that most writers still rely on the old 3-act structure method to construct their plot. I refer to 3-act structure as the Training Wheels School of Drama. It’s great when you’re a beginner intimidated by the thought of writing your first script. But if you want to ride’ faster than two miles an hour, if you want to compete professionally, you need to get rid of those training wheels and use plotting techniques that produce a much denser plot.
Another reason writers over-estimate their story is that they underestimate plot. I believe plotting is the most underestimated of all the major story-telling skills. If you ask most writers where they put their emphasis they will tell you either character or dialogue. They figure plot is something they know how to do naturally.
In fact, plot requires a very advanced set of skills that the vast majority of writers don’t know. Plot comes from the choreography between hero and opponent, and the intricacies come from how you weave the various opponents as they attack your hero.
Which leads me to another one of those misconceptions about writing that kills writers. Have you ever noticed how many writers say, ‘I’m having second act problems’? If everyone is having second act problems, doesn’t that tell you right away that this method of dividing up a script is useless when it comes to actually writing it?
But the bigger problem with this comment is that it’s simply wrong. Sure, you may have all kinds of problems in the middle pages of your script (vaguely known as the ‘second act’). But I guarantee you that 90% of the time the SOURCE of those problems is found in the opening pages of your script.
If you don’t know how to set up a story, and if you are looking in the wrong place to fix the weaknesses, you’re going to have ‘second act problems’ for a long time.
Here’s another one of my favorite misconceptions about writing; How many times have you heard someone say, usually in deeply reverential tones, ‘Writing is rewriting’?
Whenever I hear this old chestnut, I’m always tempted to ask, ‘If you were building a house, would you say that building is rebuilding?’ The big problem with this idea is that it seduces writers into thinking they will fix their story weaknesses in the rewrite. They fail to do the hard, up front story work and then find that work is much harder to do once the story is embedded in a 120-page script.
The other problem with this approach to writing is that it ignores a shocking fact: most second drafts are worse than the first. If you think this only happens to you, think again. It’s a dirty little secret in the scriptwriting world, and it is the source of huge frustration for writers. Not only do they fall into a cycle of endless rewrites, they get depressed that things are actually getting worse.
Why does this happen? Most writers do not know how to rewrite. (Yes, rewriting does have to be done). Just as some writing processes are better than others, so are some rewriting processes. One crucial technique is knowing the right SEQUENCE for rewriting. For example, the first thing most writers fix in the rewrite is dialogue. It should be the last. One simple reason for this is that when you begin by fixing the structural weaknesses, you often cut out entire scenes and the dialogue that goes with them.
I could go on and on because the misconceptions about writing are endless. Fiction writing is about solving life problems, so it’s much easier for people to think about writing in grandiose terms and phrases that don’t mean anything.
But fiction writing is above all a craft. It has many very specific techniques that produce the powerful emotional effects you want in the audience. Writing a blockbuster screenplay is never easy. But if you do a spring cleaning on those old misconceptions and focus on the real craft, you have a much better chance of writing something that will go all the way.
Writing for Hollywood requires more than a good premise and strong storytelling ability. You also have to write what Hollywood wants to sell.
In today's entertainment business, that means a script with blockbuster capability. If the buyers don't think your script will appeal to a massive worldwide audience, they won't buy it.
What may surprise you is that the elements that buyers think will appeal worldwide are found in the deep structure of a script.
DESIRE LINE
One element essential to good storytelling is a strong desire line. The main character wants something very specific and with great intensity. This desire line serves as the spine of the story.
In blockbusters, this desire line is almost always positive; the hero wants to solve something or create something of value. In 'Star Wars,' Luke wants to save the Princess and restore the Republic. In 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' Indiana Jones wants to find the Ark before the Nazis use it to become invincible and take over the world. In 'Forrest Gump,' Forrest loves Jenny and wants to marry her. In 'Outbreak,' the hero wants to defeat the virus and save the town.
The reason this is an important element is that the desire line is the track on which the story train rides. The desire is one of the ways the audience identifies with the hero. Through the hero, the audience invests its time in the goal. So the more positive it is, the better.
To be honest, the positive desire line is not very predictive of a smash hit movie. Like the happy ending, it is also found in most of the films that make no money at all. Its presence alone won't guarantee a hit. A better way to look at this element may be: avoid the negative desire. For example, getting off drugs. A negative desire line in a movie virtually guarantees it will not be popular with audiences.
22 BUILDING BLOCKS
Another crucial element found in blockbusters is that they invariably hit all 22 building blocks of a great script. The 22 building blocks are the single most powerful tool for creating stories that I have ever encountered. That's because they are the key dramatic steps of a story in the approximate best order they should occur.
The 22 building blocks are not a formula for writing, the way, for example, that genre is. They are nothing less than the underlying grammar of drama. The 22 building blocks never tell you what to write. They tell you how to SEQUENCE what you write for the most dramatic effect.
Blockbuster movies almost always hit all 22 steps, but, and this is an important caveat, they follow the steps in a unique order. This points up a key lesson for writers. Use the 22 steps to give your story a tight structure, but be flexible. Each story is different. The point is not to write so that you can show off your structure. The point is to use structure to bring out the best in your original story.
REVEALS
A third characteristic of blockbusters has to do with the reveals. A reveal is a surprising piece of new information given to the hero. Hit movies typically have 7-10 major reveals.
Notice this is quite different from average scripts that have only 2- 3. One of my big complaints about the so-called '3-act structure' is that it says you should have 2-3 'plot points' (which, in reality, are reveals). If you have only 2-3 'plot points,' you have a lousy plot. And there is no way you can compete with a writer whose script has 7-10.
PLAN
Another story technique found in many blockbusters, especially comedies, has to do with the plan. One of the seven basic story structure steps, the plan is the strategy your hero will use to defeat the opponent and reach the goal.
In blockbusters, the plan is usually a scam, which is a strategy that relies on deception. Scams are extremely popular with audiences.
First, because they highlight the trickster qualities of your hero. You may recall from one of my earlier articles on blockbusters that the presence of a rogue/charmer/trickster hero is probably the most important characteristic of hit movies.
Notice that the scam is not a single trick your hero plays on the opposition. It is a campaign of trickery, a complex sequence of tricks that surprises not only the opposition, but also the audience.
And therein lies the second reason audiences love scams. A scam gives the story more plot. The more that is hidden away, the more reveals and surprises the audience gets to enjoy.
STORY STRATEGY
One of the most essential blockbuster elements has to do with the overall story strategy. Hit movies usually start by establishing a real character, then thrusting him into a unique situation and world.
The rationale for this strategy comes from the nature of the film medium itself. Film is the medium par excellence of making fantastical worlds real and detailed. Also, to compete with television, film must give audiences a reason to leave the house.
By starting with a 'real' character, the story gives the audience a character they can identify with. They say to themselves, 'that's a regular person just like me.' Once the audience is hooked, the story takes the hero and the audience to a world, realized in magnificent detail, that they cannot experience in real life or in any other medium.
This is one of the main reasons why straight dramas are rarely blockbuster hits. Dramas give us real characters, but they don't take us to fantastic worlds. The movie 'Forrest Gump' appears to be an exception to this rule. Here is a drama with a real main character (with less than average intellect). But Forrest also goes on a fantastical journey where he encounters or contributes to every major event of the last 40 years of American history.
DIFFICULT PREDICAMENT
A more complex blockbuster element has to do with putting the hero in a difficult predicament. The predicament is a very precise story tool and is usually misunderstood. Although connected to the opposition in the story, it is really a technique that comes out of the desire line.
The difficult predicament isn't simply some trouble your hero finds himself in. You place the hero in a predicament by creating a second desire line. The first desire line, the main track of the story, is what your hero wants. The second desire line, introduced in the early to middle part of the story, must be in direct conflict with the first desire line. In other words, if the hero goes after A, he will lose B. If he goes after B, he will lose A.
The reason this technique is found in so many blockbusters is that it is a great way to put extreme pressure on the hero throughout the picture. And that's a big deal. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that the three secrets that determine the success of the middle of a hit film are: pressure, pressure, pressure.
This brings up a related element of smash hit films. They put the hero in early and constant danger. Even though your main character should be driving the action, he or she should be under relentless attack.
There are a number of ways you can intensify the attack on the hero. One is to increase the number of opponents, so that you get a machine- gun effect where one opponent after another blasts away at the hero.
Another is to use the technique called 'stacking.' Stacking is where you shove everything forward. You keep cutting out scenes in which the hero is not under assault.
Obviously, using all the blockbuster elements mentioned above won't guarantee your script will sell. But they will certainly increase your chances considerably.
If I were to summarize the keys to being a working writer in Hollywood, I would say, first, learn all the structure tools so that you can execute as many of these blockbuster techniques as possible. Second, specialize in one or two genres so that you become known as the best in your form. Finally, exercise the discipline and put in the practice necessary to master your craft.
If you follow these tried-and-true techniques, I believe you will be a working writer in Hollywood.
Secrets of Blockbuster Movies
Blockbusters use the right genre for the story idea.
Blockbusters use the myth genre or some variation.
Blockbusters hit the genre beats, but do them in an original way.
Blockbusters have a strong, single cause-and-effect line with a single, clear character change. (the hero goes from being an arrogant, insensitive, egocentric control freak to someone who learns how to love and how to value others in a more intimate way. But the most important thing to find out when exploring your premise is your hero's probable character change.)
One of the most important blockbuster elements is what I call the 'double track line.' Hit films always have a character line and an action line, or, to put it another way, a personal story and a case to be solved.
The character line, or personal story, refers to some kind of struggle the hero must go through to make a character change and grow as a human being.
The action line, or case, involves the trouble the hero must deal with to save the day.
In blockbuster movies, the hero is almost always a rogue, charmer or trickster character.
What makes a rogue/charmer/trickster character? First, and foremost, he is someone with great confidence. The 'con-man' comes from this quality. Audiences the world over love seeing someone brimming with confidence. A confident person goes through life walking on air.
The trickster also has a way with words. He is the most verbal of all characters. In the mouth of a movie star, the glib words of the trickster are especially sweet.
Invariably, the trickster uses his ability with words to accomplish a scam. A scam is a plan that involves deception. The plan is one of the seven major story structure steps found in every story. The more the hero's plan uses deception, the better the audience likes it.
The opponent is another of the seven major structural steps in any good story, A blockbuster writer looks for the deepest conflict inherent to the high concept and fashions a group of opponents who can force the hero to deal with this conflict.
One of the simplest blockbuster elements has to do with the stakes, or consequences, of the hero's action. The audience must care whether the hero succeeds or fails to reach his goal. That is true for any piece of writing.
A simple rule of thumb for blockbusters is: the bigger the stakes, the bigger the hit. If you are going to get a vast number of people out of the house to come see a movie, you must make it an event. National or international consequences to the story do just that.
DESIRE LINE (this desire line is almost always positive; the hero wants to solve something or create something of value.)- (The reason this is an important element is that the desire line is the track on which the story train rides. The desire is one of the ways the audience identifies with the hero. Through the hero, the audience invests its time in the goal. So the more positive it is the better.)
A third characteristic of blockbusters has to do with the reveals. A reveal is a surprising piece of new information given to the hero. Hit movies typically have 7-10 major reveals.
PLAN
Another story technique found in many blockbusters, especially comedies, has to do with the plan. One of the seven basic story structure steps, the plan is the strategy your hero will use to defeat the opponent and reach the goal.
In blockbusters, the plan is usually a scam, which is a strategy that relies on deception. Scams are extremely popular with audiences.
First, because they highlight the trickster qualities of your hero. You may recall from one of my earlier articles on blockbusters that the presence of a rogue/charmer/trickster hero is probably the most important characteristic of hit movies.
STORY STRATEGY
One of the most essential blockbuster elements has to do with the overall story strategy. Hit movies usually start by establishing a real character, then thrusting him into a unique situation and world.
DIFFICULT PREDICAMENT
A more complex blockbuster element has to do with putting the hero in a difficult predicament. The predicament is a very precise story tool and is usually misunderstood. Although connected to the opposition in the story, it is really a technique that comes out of the desire line.The difficult predicament isn't simply some trouble your hero finds himself in. You place the hero in a predicament by creating a second desire line. The first desire line, the main track of the story, is what your hero wants. The second desire line, introduced in the early to middle part of the story, must be in direct conflict with the first desire line. In other words, if the hero goes after A, he will lose B. If he goes after B, he will lose A.
There are a number of ways you can intensify the attack on the hero. One is to increase the number of opponents, so that you get a machine- gun effect where one opponent after another blasts away at the hero.
Another is to use the technique called 'stacking.' Stacking is where you shove everything forward. You keep cutting out scenes in which the hero is not under assault.
