For Dorothy, the Wizard responds that the only way to get her home is for him to take her there himself. The Wizard reveals that he's an old Kansas man himself, a balloonist, who one day floated down into the Land of Oz and accepted the job as Wizard. He'll take her back in his balloon.
[This is the completion of the second major subgoal, and it also ends in a “plot twist,” because although they brought back the Witch's broomstick, they did not achieve their individual objectives in the manner expected.]
THE WIZARD'S BALLOON:
A gigantic hot-air balloon sits in the center of Emerald City. A large crowd, dressed in blues and greens, surround the balloon. Within a gold-green basket (perhaps the end of the yellow brick road) stands the Wizard and Dorothy, with Toto in her arms. The Wizard makes a speech in which he tells the residents that while he's away, the Scarecrow, by virtue of his brain, the Tinman, by virtue of his heart, and the Lion, by virtue of his courage, shall rule Oz.
Toto sees a cat being held in the arms of one of the residents, and jumps out of Dorothy's arms. Dorothy jumps out of the basket in order to get Toto. Suddenly, the ropes holding the balloon become loose and the balloon drifts away. Dorothy call out to the Wizard to wait for her, but he explains that he can't control the balloon. He waves goodbye as he floats away. Dorothy is depressed. She depended on the Wizard to get her back to Kansas. Now that he's gone she'll never get home. Suddenly, the Scarecrow looks up to the sky and points to Glenda floating downward within her rose-colored bubble. Dorothy asks Glenda for her help, but Glenda replies that she doesn't need to be helped any longer, and that she has always had the power to go back to Kansas. Glenda didn't tell Dorothy before because "she wouldn't have believed me." She had to find out for herself.
"What have you learned, Dorothy," asks the Tinman. "Well,
I think that it wasn't enough to want to see Uncle Henry and Aunt Em, and that if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard, because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with.
Is that right?"
"That's all there is. You had to find that out for yourself. Now those magic slippers will take you home in two seconds," says Glenda.
Dorothy says goodbye to her friends. Tinman now knows that he has a heart because it's breaking, the Lion never would have found courage if it wasn't for Dorothy, and
of the Scarecrow, Dorothy will miss him most of all.
Glenda: "Close your eyes, tap heels together three times,
and think to yourself, "There's no place like home, there's
no place like home."
[This is the resolution of the Oz section of the story. Here all problems are resolved and all conflicts end. It ends with the message that “there's no place like home.” This in itself should make it obvious why the film is a classic and in perpetual demand. It's the type of film that parents will always want to see with their young children, if for nothing else, but this important message. As long as the humans survive, and there are parents with children, the Wizard of Oz will always be one experience that parents will want to share with their children.]
DOROTHY RETURNS HOME:
Dorothy re-enters the vortex of the falling house and ends up back in her bed in Kansas, mumbling "there's no place like home." Aunt Em places a cold compress on her head.
Dorothy wakes up and sits up in the bed. Uncle Henry comes to her bedside. Professor Marvel comes to the open window. He tells that family that he heard Dorothy was hurt by the Tornado, and he wanted to see if she was all right.
Dorothy tries to tell them about her adventure in Oz, but they all interpret it as a dream. Then Hunk, Hickory and Zeke come to her bedside. Toto jumps up next to Dorothy.
Dorothy: "But anyway, Toto, we're home, home. And this is my place. And you're all here. And I'm not going to leave home ever, ever again, because I love you all, and, Auntie Em, THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME."
THE END
In Logic, there is a method often used to prove the truth of a proposition called Reductio Ad Absurbdum. It uses the assumption that for every proposition, either it is true or its negation is true. You assume the truth of the negation of the proposition that you want to prove then demonstrate that the negation leads to a contradiction, and therefore cannot really be true. Since for every proposition, either it is true or it's negation is true, and we've just shown that the negation is false, we've proven the original proposition to be true.
The structure of the Wizard of Oz can be interpreted to follow a similar process.
To prove the premise:
THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME.
Assume the negation:
THERE IS A BETTER PLACE OVER THE RAINBOW.
Demonstrate:
WORST PROBLEMS COULD EXIST OVER THE RAINBOW.
Therefore:
THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME.
Dorothy's dramatic objective is the security of a home where there are no problems. Being at home, surrounded by people who love you, normally provides one with a sense of safety.
But there is jeopardy in almost every scene of the story. Either Dorothy is in danger, or someone she loves, such as Toto or the Scarecrow. These are all life-and-death situations. It is this constant jeopardy which keeps the audience engrossed in the action.
Another motif in this story is the joy and happiness the characters share along the road of life. They have fun while on their quest. These are characters with whom the audience enjoys spending time. They are humorous and good-natured. They display loyalty to each other while pursuing their individual objectives. Dorothy especially displays the traits of decency, kindness, generosity, fairness, obliging when another is in need, and doing what is right.
It may ultimately be true that others cannot give you what you desire; they may only be able to help you obtain it. This may be the true message of the Wizard's inability to give the characters what they want. Ultimately, each character has to accomplish his objective on his own, and can't expect another to give it to him.
Dorothy, Lion, Tin Man, Scarecrow all suffer from the same basic problem: a lack of confidence in themselves and the understanding that they already possess those attributes which they seek. They just need the right situations or conflicts under which these qualities will become manifest.
The power of belief-in-self will help you solve your problems and get you wherever you want to go, even home, if it is accompanied by intelligence, compassion, and courage. Belief-in-self is also that which those who wish to control and have power over you, must steal.
The abstract value associated with the RUBY SLIPPERS:
THE POWER OF BELIEF-IN-SELF.
This is not arrogance, nor blind self-confidence, but the belief that one has the ability to solve his problems and accomplish that which he sets out to do. And it is this which the Witch hopes to steal from Dorothy. Her objective is to gain control of the Ruby Slippers, which will give the Witch ultimate power, the power over others belief in themselves.
It doesn't matter whether you are in a “dream” or “reality.” The values that you utilize when dealing with others under extraordinary conditions are what's important. There will always be new experiences, new environments, new conditions of life. To be grounded in reality throughout these alterations means to function according to a set of principles of interpersonal behavior that sustain life.
AVATAR
James Cameron
20th Century Fox
$760m U.S. Box Office
$2.78b Global Box Office
OPENING IMAGES
Capture the minds of the audience. Place them into a trance state so that they will focus completely on the images on the screen and lose awareness of anything else in the room…a hypnotic state.
Starting from a black screen the director has complete control of the images and sounds that he is projecting into the mind of the audience.
Purpose is to get the audience emotionally involved in what is happening on the sc
reen, for the theater screen is now the mind of the audience.
Images of flying through clouds into a tropical landscape. Primitive tribal music and drum beats. Voice over narration of Jake Sully talking about laying in a VA hospital with a big hole blown through the middle of his life, he started having dreams of flying. He was free! Pace of images quickens then fades to black. “Sooner or later you always have to wake up,” says Sully.
[Awakening of consciousness to “reality.” Visual motifs are introduced to the audience. Blue, the color of the avatars and the Na’vi beings of Pandora. References the “iconic myth” of the blue people, the blue beings: Hindu gods, BraveHeart, “true blue protectors”; the prominent color of police security protectors and medical professionals (doctors).
[Foggy images forces the audience to focus and intensify their efforts to understand what they are seeing. Strange sounds, tribal drumbeats, danger, jeopardy, force more intensification of focus by the audience.]
[Audience empathy generated for the wounded veteran. Jake also expresses his primary objective, to be free, and his dream of flying. He will achieve both by the end of the movie.]
CLOSE UP OF BLUE EYE OPENING
Sully becomes conscious.
[The opening of an eye begins the movie, and ends the movie. It is the awakening of consciousness in Sully as a human, then as an avatar. Transformation of consciousness is the primary theme of Avatar. The protagonist goes through the character arc of a human soldier at war with the natives of Pandora to a "Na'vi" tribal member integrated with nature.]
CLOSEUP of SULLY’S FACE bathed in BLUE
Jake wakes up in cryo after a six-year space journey to the planet Pandora. His sleeping berth opens up into the main bay of the spaceship, revealing the many others who have shared the journey with him. This journey had not been originally intended for him, but for his brother, Tommy, who had trained for the mission, but unfortunately had been killed during a holdup. Sully looks at his brother’s dead body as two mission operatives stand next to him.
[High technology structure cages humans in a metallic un-natural environment. This is the world in which the humans now live. This will be visually contrasted with the Na’vi who live in harmony with nature, in a lush, vibrant environment.]
[Images of metallic coffins in which the humans are transported, and are the link units for Jake and the other scientists who transfer their consciousness into the Na’vi avatars.]
[Exposition (backstory) about Jake’s brother, Tommy, is now provided to the audience. But exposition is given in a visually exciting way. Jake’s first transformation will be to become his brother Tommy: to take over the role of Tommy for Resources Development Administration (RDA) and their Na’vi experiments. This foreshadows his transforming into another being later in the movie: his Na’vi avatar.]
SPACESHIP APPROACHES PLANET PANDORA
As Sully watches his brother’s coffin being incinerated, he is given the offer to replace Tommy in the mission. “A fresh start, on a new world. And the pay is good, very good.”
[Theme of becoming someone else is achieved in the final scene of the movie as Jake again becomes someone else when his consciousness permanently merges with the body of his Na’vi avatar.]
A PLANE LEAVES THE SPACESHIP
AND DESCENDS TO PANDORA
[As the spaceship approaches Pandora, the size of the ship
is minimal against the background of the planet and space: this gives a proper perspective of the role of humans in the universe.]
[Mystical religious sound track reinforces these spiritual themes of transformation.]
Inside the plane’s cargo hull personnel put on their oxygen masks as they prepare to arrive at Pandora.
[Jeopardy and danger are introduced in this scene in order
to create tension in the audience. Air on Pandora is not breathable and will kill humans. Humans are again constrained in mechanized compartments.]
The plane flies over the lush tropical jungle to reveal barren strip mined desolation, the result of the corporate mining operation on Pandora.
[Images of man-made scarred landscape of Pandora, destroyed by the RDA mining operations. Giant earth moving machines dominate the image and dwarf humans who walk next to them.]
PANDORA-HELL’S GATE
Dust rises up into the air and the huge machines ravage the planet’s surface. The plane lands inside a fenced in militarized industrial complex. Sully looks at his brother’s burning coffin and says, “One life ends, another begins.”
[Here we foreshadow the closing image and emphasize the theme of this movie.]
[The strong environmental ideology and feminist ideology explains the popular success of Avatar in the global marketplace. It supports the political opinions of many people throughout the world.]
[Sound design reinforces the cinematic message: heavy vibration industrial sounds that dehumanizes the environment and makes the experience detrimental to humans. Designed to have emotional impact and to create certain emotions in the audience that are then associated with characters in the scenes. Humans become hybrid mechanical beings in order to survive on Pandora.]
Soldiers line up to leave the plane. Sully is last because he is crippled and must leave in a wheel chair. “No such thing as an ex-marine. You may be out, but you never lose the attitude,” Sully narrates over the images.
[This expresses the resolution of the protagonist; his complete commitment to his objective. This is needed in all protagonists; they must be relentless in pursuit of their goals. They will never give up. Perseverance is always required from the protagonist.]
Sully rides the wheelchair down the ramp. Army soldiers who back home were fighting for freedom, on Pandora,
are just hired hands, working for the money
[Empathy generated for Jake by watching him in a wheel chair and isolated as he moves down the ramp. He is also mocked by the mercenaries.]
Sully stops to let a large earth moving machine pass in front of him. Native arrows have been shot into its wheels.
[The director engages the audience through curiosity as they see and wonder about the long arrows in the wheels of the machine. Mystery is an important device to use to keep the audience engaged in the story. They want to learn more!]
[In cinematic storytelling you are not writing an essay, but creating a sequence of images and sounds to give the audience an experience which will persuade them to accept your point of view. The film maker is emotionally persuading the audience to accept his point of view.]
MEETING HALL
“You’re not in Kansas anymore,” announces Colonel Miles Quaritch, head of security. “You’re on Pandora.”
[This is an Inter-textual Reference to Wizard of Oz]
We do not initially see Quaritch’s face, just his boots as he walks across the room. Then his waist with pistol strapped to his side, then the back of his head with scars cutting through his hair. Scully wheels in and listens to the “old school safety brief.”
[Ominous sounds and images introduce the antagonist to the audience. Hiding the face of the villain allows the members of the audience to personalize their fear: they project from their own experience the most horrible and terrifying image onto the unseen face of the villain.]
[Shots are designed sequentially to have this impact on the audience, plus how the other characters in the movie react to the villain. This is shown through the reaction shots, which determine how the audience should be emotionally reacting to the character. The Colonel creates fear and terror in the soldiers: everything on Pandora wants to kill them!]
[Jake is isolated from the other soldiers: he sits alone. The Colonel tells them about neurotoxin arrows that will kill the soldiers: stop their hearts in one-minute. The natives are very hard to kill!]
HALLWAY TO BIOLAB
Norm Spellman follows Jake down the hallway and introduces himself. Norm went through avatar training
with Jake’s brother. Norm, along with Trudy and Ma
x, will become protagonist supporters for Jake.
BIOLAB
Metallic structures enclose the characters in the Biolab. Jake wheels to the glass containers holding the avatars in crystal clear blue water.
Sully voice-over narration explains that he and Norm “drive” these avatars who were constructed using both alien and human DNA. Sully is shown his avatar, and Sully tilts his head which visually merges him with the avatar. Blue light from the water tank bathes Sully’s face, foreshadowing the merger of Sully with his avatar.
VIDEO-RECORDED DIARY
Jake records a video of his thoughts: “The concept is that every driver is matched to his own avatar, so that their nervous systems are in tune.”
[The Video Log device used for exposition; it replaces the “best friend” or “dog” as someone the main character talks to in order to convey information to the audience.]
Story Design Page 17