Story Design

by Richard Michaels Stefanik

  If a movie has multiple protagonists of different genders, then some can be considered to be the love interests of others. Pirates of the Caribbean has three protagonists: Liz, Will, and Jack. Liz could be considered to be the love interest of Will and Jack (plus Norrington) while Will is the love interest of Liz. Jack is definitely not the love interest of Liz, nor is Norrington. "Love quadrangles" get complicated.

  Although Neytiri is the love interest in Avatar, she also saves the life of the protagonist, Jake, and kills the villain, Colonel Quaritch, in the climax scene.

  Writing Assignment: Write a one-page description of

  the love interest for your story. Cast this role with a contemporary bankable Hollywood actor or actress.

  THE CLIMAX SCENE OF THE MOVIE

  Once a writer creates the climax scene to the story, he will then be able to work forward from the opening scenes to design an emotionally satisfying experience for the audience.

  The climax scene of the movie is always the most exciting and emotionally engrossing scene for the audience. This is the "obligatory scene" in which there is a battle between the protagonist and the antagonist.

  In popular movies, the survival of the love interest will also be achieved by the actions of the protagonist in this scene. The outcome of this battle will determine the fate of the unique object that is the primary objective of the story. Only one of the two characters will survive the conflict. In the climax scene, the following questions are resolved: What happens to the primary objective? Who obtains the unique object?

  Below are descriptions of the climax scenes found

  in some of the megahit movies. These scenes should all be studied in order to understand how to design a scene in which "the audience gets what they want, but in an unexpected way."

  Lord of the Rings- Return of the King

  Frodo struggles with Gollum, and the Ring is destroyed in the lava river inside Mount Doom. The Eye of the Dark Lord Sauron collapses from the tower and is destroyed.

  Avatar

  Jake Sully and Neytiri fight and defeat Colonel Quaritch in the final climax scene, after saving the Tree of Souls.

  Pirates of the Caribbean:

  Liz, Will, and Jack kill Barbossa. Liz forces Barbossa to point his gun at her, then Jack shoots him as Will drops his and Jack's bloody coins into the Aztec chest. This makes Barbossa mortal again so that he can die.

  Writing Assignment: Write a one-page description of

  the climax scene for your story. Have the protagonist and antagonist fight for control of the unique object that only

  one of them can possess, with the love interest caught in

  the center of the battle.

  THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE AUDIENCE

  The screenwriter who wants to create popular movies must get the audience to love the protagonist and hate the antagonist as soon as these characters are first shown on the screen. Audience empathy for the protagonist must be created as early in the story as possible. This is necessary so that the audience will care about the hero, his dreams, and his primary goal. The audience must also feel terror and hatred towards the villain because of the things they see this character do when he first appears on the screen.

  The writer needs to understand the psychology of the audience. This means understanding the emotional reactions that members of the audience will have to the characters, actions, events, and situations that they see on the screen. The members of the audience have come to watch the characters on the screen in order to fulfill their own fantasies. They want the characters to do the things that they themselves have always dreamed of doing. The characters

  in popular films must both be bigger than life, yet still be emotionally accessible to the audience. This is accomplished by revealing the protagonist's dreams; dreams with which the audience can identify.

  But the writer must also show how far the character is from achieving these dreams. In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's dream of finding a place where problems do not exist; "somewhere over the rainbow," is the most obvious example of this. Each scene should be written in terms of the emotional effect that the scene has on the audience. The audience's emotional reactions to the characters in situations of jeopardy should be the prime consideration of the writer. The writer should always be aware of how a specific action will increase, decrease, or modify the audience's empathy or enmity for a character.

  People in the audience will care about characters

  with which they can identify and with whom they share some human concern. One way to accomplish this is to show the protagonist when he is weak. Write a scene showing him in his moment of weakness, when all hope is gone, and he is most vulnerable. It is easier to generate empathy for a character when he is helpless than when he is powerful. That is why the antagonist must be more powerful than the protagonist in the beginning of the story. This also explains why stories about underdogs who eventually prevail over their opposition are very popular.

  A hero's humanity is best shown in his private moments, when he lets down his defenses and reveals himself. If the antagonist then invades this privacy and humiliates the protagonist, tremendous sympathy for the protagonist and hatred for the antagonist will be generated.

  A prime example of this technique is found in Wizard of Oz. Dorothy has been captured by the Wicked Witch of the West. The sand is running through the hourglass, and time is running out. Dorothy, in her moment of total helplessness and desperation, cries out for help from her Auntie Em, whose image then appears in the crystal ball. This image transforms into the cackling, mocking face of the Wicked Witch of the West, who then mocks Dorothy and ridicules her desperation. At this moment, the audience becomes emotionally locked into empathy for Dorothy and hatred for the Witch.

  Another example can be found in Raiders of the Lost Ark, in the scene where Indiana Jones must run for his life while being pursued by natives intent on killing him. His enemy, Belloc, laughs with glee at Indiana's desperate situation.

  One way to make the audience care about the protagonist is to show other characters unjustly mistreating him. Showing an injustice done to the protagonist by the antagonist is the surest way to establish the appropriate audience reaction. If the depicted injustice is accompanied

  by brutality, the scene will create sympathy for the victim and hatred for his antagonist. The first scene in which we

  see the antagonist of Star Wars, Darth Vader, shows him grabbing a rebel soldier by the neck, lifting him up off the floor, and choking him to death.

  Abandonment or desertion also will generate audience empathy for a character, especially if the character is perceived to be small or weak and abandoned to a strange and hostile world. This technique is found in many popular films, including E.T. and Wizard of Oz.

  A situation in which a character is trying to tell the world some important truth, and the audience knows that he is telling the truth, yet he is not believed by the other characters in the story, and perhaps even ridiculed by them, will create empathy for the character. Elliott is in this situation in the movie, E.T., Molly in the movie Ghost, and David Levinson in Independence Day.

  The writer should make the people in the audience believe that what is happening to the characters in the story could happen to them. In crisis situations, show characters having the emotions that the audience would have if the same thing were happening to them.

  A protagonist displaying self-doubt will generate empathy in the audience. Make the protagonist fallible. Show the character reaching rock bottom; at his lowest point. Reveal his suffering and desperation. Show the character's vulnerability.

  All human beings tend to feel vulnerable at different times in their lives. Show what the protagonist fears most in the world. This fear makes the hero more human and easier for the audience to identify with. Use this fear in the story as the final obstacle that the protagonist must overcome before he can obtain his objective. This will help create more empathy for the protagonist in the audience.


  In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jones' fear of snakes is used in this way. In the opening sequence, he appears fearless as he overcomes every obstacle in his path and escapes certain death. It's only as the plane takes off that he reveals his terror of snakes. The payoff to this setup comes later in the story when Jones has to overcome his fear of snakes as

  he descends into the Well of Souls to obtain his primary objective, the Lost Ark.

  In Titanic, Rose must overcome her fear of disap- pointing her mother before she can be with Jack. In Jaws, Brody must overcome his fear of water before he can search for the great white shark.

  The audience's emotions intensify to their highest pitch when the lives of the characters they most care about are endangered. Danger increases excitement in the audience that identifies with this character. It is in these situations that the audience becomes most involved with the protagonist and the story.

  Besides creating empathy and enmity scenes for the protagonist and antagonist in the beginning of the story, many of the most successful films also have another major empathy scene. This is to ensure that the audience will emotionally bond with the protagonist and hate the antagonist before the final battle.

  The audience should hate the antagonist to so great an extent that they want to see him destroyed. Examples of this is the cackling witch mocking Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz; Bruce Wayne remembering the murder of his mother and father by the young Joker, before he engages with the Joker at the Gotham celebration; and the second humiliation of the Grinch by the Mayor who gives him an electric razor at the Whobilation Ceremony in the movie, The Grinch.

  Underlying the classic Hollywood Three-Act Structure is a plotting structure that is used to take the audience on an emotional roller-coaster ride that ends with them having a satisfying emotional experience. Many popular movies begin by hooking the audience with scenes that terrorize them: a beautiful young woman on a moonlit ocean swim being eaten alive by a shark in Jaws; a powerful man being dragged into a metal cage and eaten alive by a raptor in Jurassic Park; a family being mugged in Gotham City in Batman; a librarian being terrorized by a ghost in Ghostbusters, and a little girl with her dog being pursued and terrorized by an unseen villain in Wizard of Oz. These situations "hook" the audience and emotionally engage them; They are also designed to elicit curiosity, since the source of evil behind these fearful moments is usually not revealed.

  The emotional roller-coaster ride can be guaranteed by correctly structuring the relationship between the unique object, the protagonist, the antagonist, and the love interest throughout the three acts. At the end of act one, the audience sees the protagonist prevail over the antagonist by preventing the antagonist from gaining possession of the unique object and the love interest. This is an emotional high point for the audience: they feel happiness in the belief that the protagonist, for whom they have empathy, will win and obtain his desires.

  At the end of the second act, the situation is reversed. The antagonist has possession of the love interest and the unique object, and the protagonist's situation appears to be hopeless. The audience now shares the protagonist's feelings of desperation and despair, for it appears to them that there is no way the hero will prevail. This is the emotional low point in the rollercoaster ride of the story. Then in the start of the third act, there is another major scene that elicits empathy for the protagonist, like the Wicked Witch in the crystal ball laughing at Dorothy, or Bruce Wayne realizing that the man who murdered his father and mother is Jack Napier, or when Peter Parker visits his Aunt May in the hospital and realizes that the Green Goblin knows he is Spider-Man. The audience shares the protagonist's pain and wants the antagonist to be destroyed.

  The audience then cheers the protagonist in his battle with the villain in the climax scene and become ecstatic when he overcomes impossible odds and finally defeats the antagonist. The hero triumphs, but in an unexpected way. The audience joins in with the members of the community in the movie as they celebrate the hero's victory and union with the love interest. The joy expressed by the people in the resolution scene of the movie is shared by the members of the audience. This is how to create an emotionally satisfying experience in the audience.

  In conclusion, to create empathy in the audience for the protagonist, show situations where the protagonist suffers from jeopardy, terror, neglect, loneliness, unfairness, unkindness, injustice, desertion, abandonment, humiliation, frustration, insecurity, misunderstanding, desperation, or not being believed when he is telling the truth. Empathy scenes found in some of the megahit movies are described below.

  Spider-Man:

  In the opening scene, we see Peter Parker being forced to run after the school bus while the students and driver in the bus laugh at him. Empathy is created for him when the Green Goblin attacks and terrorizes his aunt, and finally when the Green Goblin forces Spider-Man to choose between saving the woman he loves, MJ, or a tram filled with children.

  The Lord of the Rings-The Return of the King:

  Gollum betrays Frodo and leads him into the cave of the spider, Shelob. Frodo fights Shelob, but is poisoned by her stinger. She wraps him up in her webbing with the intention of eating him alive.

  Matrix Reloaded:

  Neo has nightmares watching the death of Trinity. This makes him vulnerable and sympathetic for the audience.

  Pirates of the Caribbean: Captain Jack Sparrow sails into the harbor in a sinking ship. Will Turner loves Elizabeth Swan, but cannot show his love because he is not of the noble class. Liz's father wants her to marry Norrington, a man that she does not love.

  Writing Assignment: Study the scenes from the megahit movies listed above. Write a separate empathy scene for your protagonist and love interest. Then write an enmity scene for the antagonist in your story.

  CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

  Keeping the Audience Involved

  Identification and Empathy

  Personal Objectives: What Characters Want!

  Character Motivation: Why They Want It!

  Decisions: Making Hard Choices

  Relationships: Between Lovers and Friends

  Codes of Behavior: Is it the Right Thing to Do?

  Transformations: Character Arcs and Changes

  Personalities: Idiosyncrasies and Style

  Supporting Characters: Friends and Enemies

  PERSONAL OBJECTIVES

  The audience needs to know the dreams and goals of the major characters in order to take interest in what happens to them. Their dreams and the object that could satisfy these hopes determine each character's primary objective. The audience wants to see characters that have dreams like their own: love, fulfillment, success, freedom and power.

  In many of the popular films, the protagonist's primary objective becomes an attempt to either return home (The Wizard of Oz, E.T., Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc.) or to safeguard the home from destruction (Shrek, Star Wars, Independence Day, The Phantom Menace, Jaws, The Lion King, Batman, Men In Black).

  Both these objectives exist in Home Alone: Kevin's mother's objective is to return home, while Kevin's objective is to safeguard his home from destruction. Explicated in terms of character psychological motivation, "Home" is that place where the characters feel safe and secure with those who love them. This is an objective with which many people in the audience can identify.

  Avatar

  Jake wants to get intelligence on the Na’vi so that the Colonel will then send him home to get a spine operation.

  Lord of the Rings Trilogy

  Sauron wants the Ring. Frodo wants to destroy the Ring.

  Pirates of the Caribbean

  Barbossa wants the Aztec Gold coin. Captain Jack Sparrow wants his ship, the Black Pearl. Will Turner wants to save Elizabeth. Elizabeth wants to marry Will Turner.

  Writing Assignment: Write a one sentence description of the personal objectives for each of the three main characters in your story: protagonist, antagonist, and love interest.

  CHARACTER MOTIVATION

>   In order to maintain audience interest, it is necessary that the audience becomes emotionally involved with the characters. For this to happen, the actions of the characters must be believable. This means that the members of the audience would feel the same way and act the same way, if they were in the same situation as the characters in the movie. Once the audience understands the motive a character has for pursuing his primary objective, and the audience accepts this as reasonable, the character then becomes believable, and the audience will care.

  Abraham Maslow, in The Psychology of Being, developed a motivational theory that focuses on the person striving to reach their full potential. He acknowledges a hierarchy of needs, where needs lower on the hierarchy are stronger and must be satisfied before needs higher on the hierarchy are activated. After the basic physiological needs of hunger, thirst, and sex, humans have a need to feel safe. The desire for security is one of the primary motivations of characters in popular films. Next on the hierarchy is the need for love and the feeling of belonging to a person or group. An example of this is Elliott's need to be accepted by Michael's friends in E.T.

  Popular movies are stories about characters who have needs, not characters who do not know what they want or who want something only half-heartedly. Characters must have the fortitude to overcome all the obstacles that will be thrown in their path. If they are weak-willed, the audience will lose interest in them.