Act Two Part One - Fun and Games

(SPOILERS:  Pretty Woman, Lars and the Real Girl, The Visitor, Bruce Almighty, Star Wars, Some Like It Hot, Avatar)

I’m going to break Act Two down into three parts for my ongoing analysis of story structure.  Today I’ll discuss the period that comes right after the Act One Break.  Next I’ll discuss the middle including the structural beat of The Midpoint, and then the end including the Act Two Break.  So, what commonly happens in the early stages of Act Two?

Fun and Games

Screenwriters sometimes refer to this section of the script as the “fun and games” section.  This is the time to explore all the interesting possibilities of your premise.  One question that good writers ask themselves is, “given this set up what would I like to see in the movie?”  The answer will be those “obligatory scenes” that you need to have so the audience isn’t left unsatisfied.  Many of these scenes go here.

For example, in Pretty Woman (written by J.F. Lawton) we see Vivian the prostitute from Hollywood Blvd. get to live the glamorous high society life, enjoying a Rodeo Drive shopping spree and fancy dinner.  Or in Lars and the Real Girl (written by Nancy Oliver) this section of the movie is filled with comedic scenes of the townsfolk trying to adapt to a delusional young man who believes a life size sex doll is a real person.  In The Visitor (written by Thomas McCarthy) Walter learns to play the drums and learns about a different culture as he bonds with his new friends.

In movies where the character gets some kind of super power this is where they explore what they can do with it.  For example, in Spider-Man (screenplay by Devid Koepp), Spider-Man swings around New York in his new costume stopping crime and becoming famous.  And in Bruce Almighty (story by Steve Koren & Mark O’Keefe, screenplay by Steve Koren & Mark O’Keefe and Steve Oedekerk) Bruce plays with his newfound powers of God by parting the traffic like the red sea and pulling the moon closer for a romantic moment with his girlfriend.  It’s playtime – the downside of the powers hasn’t revealed itself yet.

Exploring the Special World

In the Hero’s Journey story structure spelled out by Joseph Cambell in The Hero With A Thousand Faces (and excellently applied to screenwriting by Christopher Vogler in his book The Writer’s Journey) the end of Act One usually coincides with the character entering the Special World.  This could literally be a different and unfamiliar place or it could be a metaphorical world – the character has left their comfort zone and is trying something new.  The fun and games period at the beginning of Act Two is when they explore this special world.

So Neo learns how to manipulate the matrix in The Matrix (written by Andy & Lana Wachowski) and Jake explores Pandora and learns about Navi culture in Avatar (written by James Cameron).  In Some Like It Hot (screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond) Joe and Jerry discover the world of women.  They engage in girl talk and a late night party in Jerry’s train bunk.  At first they try to be prim and proper to fit in, but they soon discover to their surprise that the women in the band are not like that at all.

Allies & Enemies

Another stage from the Hero’s Journey structure is Allies and Enemies.  Frequently in the early part of Act Two the character meets the people that will help them on their journey and those that will stand in their way.  So Luke Skywalker teams up with Han Solo and Chewbacca and encounters Storm Troopers in Star Wars (written by George Lucas).  And Dorothy meets the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz (screenplay by Noel Langley & Florence Ryerson & Edgar Allan Woolf).

After about twenty minutes or so of screen time the special world and initial premise will start to feel a little tired.  It’s time to shake things up.  That’s what the Midpoint is for.  And that will be the topic of my next post.

Act One - Part Two

(SPOILERS:  Star Wars, The Matrix, Some Like It Hot, The Visitor, Zombieland, Avatar, Silence of the Lambs)

Last post I talked about the first part of Act One, essentially everything leading up to the catalyst (or almost everything – more on that in a minute.)  As I’ve said, the Catalyst is one of the most crucial parts of the story, not to mention Act One.  So that’s where I’ll start today.

The Catalyst

The Catalyst is the point at which the main character and their dilemma are made clear to the audience.  It’s when the Dramatic Question gets asked.  You don’t have to spell out every aspect of the impending plot here, but the audience needs to understand what the story is about.  It is in essence the real beginning of the story.

In Star Wars (written by George Lucas), the catalyst is when Luke Skywalker sees R2D2 project the hologram of Princess Leia and decides he wants to help her.  The audience knows that Leia is being held by Darth Vadar and that Vadar is looking for R2D2.  So the Dramatic Question becomes “Will Luke beat Darth Vadar?”  Note that Luke doesn’t even know about Vadar yet and that the audience doesn’t know the Death Star will eventually come to threaten the rebel base.  We don’t need all these details, we simply need to understand what the core of the story is going to be about.

In The Visitor (written by Thomas McCarthy), the catalyst is when Walter finds some immigrants living in his New York apartment.  Someone scammed them by illegally renting them the normally unoccupied apartment.  This creates a dilemma for Walter – he feels bad for them but it is, after all, his apartment.  We know the story is going to be about how he deals with these two very different people.

Zombieland (written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick) has an interesting catalyst.  The movie starts with our hero, Columbus, in a post-zombie apocalypse.  The catalyst comes when he flashes back to his first encounter with a zombie.  But more importantly this zombie was an attractive woman that he had started to fall for.  Because the Dramatic Question of the movie is not whether Columbus will defeat the zombies but whether he will find love.  The zombies are just the backdrop.  So the catalyst is Columbus realizing he wants love – but then being faced with a world where the chance of finding a living woman is slim.

Conventional wisdom says you want the catalyst to come about ten minutes into the movie.  If there’s a prologue, that might push the catalyst back further – prologues are outside of the main structure of the story.  So in The Matrix (written by Andy & Lana Wachowski), the catalyst is when the agents arrest Neo – that’s the point at which he has a problem and establishes the dramatic question of, “Will Neo defeat Agent Smith?”  That doesn’t come until about sixteen minutes into the film because the prologue with Trinity takes about six minutes.

Generally it’s good to establish the dramatic question quickly so that the audience doesn’t start to wonder what the movie’s about or if it’s about anything at all.  There are exceptions.  The catalyst in Some Like It Hot (screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond) – when Joe and Jerry witness the St. Valentine’s Day massacre – comes almost twenty-five minutes into the movie.  How do they get away with that?  Because what comes before is highly entertaining.  Remember, the only real rule in screenwriting is “don’t be boring.”

Domino

The Domino is a term of my own creation to help distinguish the events that set the action in motion but don’t rise to the level of catalyst.  For example, in Star Wars the Domino is when Leia puts the Death Star plans in R2D2 and sends the ‘droid down to Tatooine.  That’s the action that sets the whole story in motion, but it’s not the catalyst because it doesn’t involve our main character, Luke Skywalker.  The Domino in The Visitor is when Walter is sent to New York to deliver a paper.

Note that the Domino by definition comes before the catalyst – I’m addressing it out of order because I define it in relation to the catalyst.  I use the term Domino because you can think of a story like a line of dominos.  The first one falls and hits the next one, causing a chain reaction.  The Domino story beat is like that first domino in a chain.  Sometimes the Domino is the same thing as the Catalyst.  I actually don’t think it’s that important to figure out what the Domino is in your story – but it is important to correctly identify the Catalyst.

Build to Act One Break

So if the catalyst traditionally comes about ten minutes into the movie, and Act One is supposed to be twenty-five to thirty minutes long, what occupies the rest of the time?

There are a couple common things that happen.  First, I like the beats described in the Hero’s Journey story structure spelled about by Joseph Cambell in The Hero With A Thousand Faces (and excellently applied to screenwriting by Christopher Vogler in his book The Writer’s Journey).  In the Hero’s Journey the character gets a call to action at this point but resists that call.  Then something changes and he accepts the call.

So in Star Wars when Ben asks Luke to come with him, Luke’s first response is he can’t – he’s got to stay and help out on the farm.  But then the storm troopers kill his aunt and uncle.  Now there’s no reason for him to stay.  And the stakes just got personal. 

In The Visitor, Walter at first kicks the immigrants out of his apartment.  But then seeing them on the street with nowhere to stay, he invites them back in until they can find a place.

The hero doesn’t resist the call in every story, but it’s a useful beat because it shows that the character is a little hesitant to go on the journey.  It’s risky.  It’s going to challenge them.  The stakes are high.  Their reluctance to jump in headfirst demonstrates how significant this challenge is to them and how important this story is to their life.

Another thing that often happens here is the elimination of alternate solutions.  Sometimes the hero will try to find an easy way out of their dilemma.  For example, in The Fugitive (story by David Twohy, screenplay by Jeb Stuart and David Twohy), Dr. Kimble first tries to convince the cops that the one-armed man killed his wife, then tries to convince a jury in court that he is innocent of the murder.  It’s only after that fails and he’s convicted that he goes on the run.

This is important in stories where there is an obvious solution that would end your movie before it gets started.  You have to explain why the hero doesn’t take that course of action.  This happens a lot in mysteries where the investigator is not a professional cop or detective.  Most people don’t run their own investigation when a loved one is killed; they call the police.  You have to explain why your character behaves differently.  Dr. Kimble has to find the one-armed man himself because the police don’t believe he exists.

Act One Break

The Act One Break is the point at which the character actually embarks on the journey of the story.  It’s sometimes known as the “point of no return.”  I think that’s a good way to look at it – from here on out the character has no choice but to see this through to the end.  If the character can walk away from the story without losing anything there isn’t much tension.  At the Act One Break you have to trap them in the story.

The Act One Break in The Matrix is when Neo takes the red pill.  In fact, Morpheus literally tells him that if he chooses the blue pill the story ends and if he takes the red pill there will be no going back.  That’s a pretty good description of the Act One break!

In Star Wars the Act One Break is when Luke goes with Obi Wan to Mos Eisley to find a pilot to take them into space.  In Some Like It Hot it’s when Joe and Jerry join Sweet Sue’s band dressed like women.  In Avatar (written by James Cameron) it’s when Jake is welcomed into the Navi.  In Silence of the Lambs (screenplay by Ted Tally) it’s when Buffalo Bill kidnaps Catherine Martin adding stakes and a ticking clock to Clarice’s questioning of Hannibal Lecter.

In all these cases if the character walks away from the story after this point they will fail in their goal and suffer for it.  They are locked in.

The Hero’s Journey structure describes this moment as “Entering the Special World.”  In other words, the hero has entered a new realm, whether literally or figuratively.  So in Some Like It Hot Joe and Jerry have entered the world of women while in Avatar Jake has entered the world of the Navi.  And in Zombieland Columbus has entered the world of love – a metaphorical world that he has not previously experienced.

Next post I’m going to look at Act I of Fargo in detail.  I’ll break down Fargo step by step as I go through this process of in depth analysis of story structure.  After that, it’s on to Act Two!

E.T. Analysis Part 3 – The Mythology Structure

(SPOILERS: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial)

This post I’m going to analyze the mythology structure in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (written by Melissa Mathison). I think of the mythology structure (often referred to as “the hero’s journey”) as a character based approach to story building. Elliot is the hero of E.T., so as I look for the stages of the journey I will be looking for how they affect Elliot’s character. It may be useful to note at this point that E.T. is a story about a coming of age journey.

The Stages of the Journey:

Inciting Incident: E.T. is stranded. This is the incident that will lead to Elliot’s journey.

Call to Adventure: E.T. throws the ball out of the shed. This is an invitation from E.T., an invitation for Elliot to embark on an adventure. And how does Elliot respond?

Resisting the Call: Elliot responds by fleeing from the shed to get help. He doesn’t accept E.T.’s invitation.

Accepting the Call: However, Elliot’s family and friends don’t believe him. This changes the situation. When Elliot hears strange sounds late at night in the field behind his house, he goes to investigate, thus accepting the call to adventure.

Allies and Enemies: The allies and enemies stage works its way throughout Act I. We meet Michael and Gertie, Elliot’s primary allies. We meet Michael’s friends who will become minor allies. Elliot sees Keys (the name in the script for Peter Coyote’s character) looking for E.T. up in the woods. And we have Mary, his mom, who functions both as an ally and an enemy at various times.

Entering the Special World: Elliot lures E.T. into the house. The special world in this case is the world of aliens. Though Elliot hasn’t physically left his normal, suburban location and lifestyle, that world becomes something entirely different when Elliot introduces E.T. into it. This is a good example of the normal and special worlds being defined by the character’s experience of life rather than physical location.

Meeting the Mentor: E.T. is the primary mentor for Elliot. He is going to help Elliot become more mature.

Visiting the Oracle: I don’t really see an oracle scene in E.T.

Innermost Cave: Elliot enters the innermost cave – the deepest part of the special world – when his psychic connection with E.T. begins to affect his life. This is shown when E.T. gets drunk and it causes Elliot to be drunk at school. The implications are made clear a few scenes later when Michael notes that E.T. isn’t looking so good and Elliot responds, “we’re fine.” At this point Elliot’s relationship to the alien is as deep as it will ever be.

Supreme Ordeal: In this metaphorical Innermost Cave Elliot faces the Supreme Ordeal of sneaking E.T. out of the house and up to the mountain to build his radio on Halloween.

Seizing the Elixir: The “elixir” Elliot needs to save E.T. is the call for help. By succeeding at the Supreme Ordeal and completing the radio, the rescue that will allow Elliot to ultimately win is set in motion. Neither he nor the audience knows whether the call has been heard, but it’s common that we don’t realize the character has their metaphorical elixir until much later in the movie.

Death and Resurrection: Pretty obviously E.T.’s apparent death and resurrection. And importantly, when E.T. appears to die the psychic connection with Elliot is severed. A part of Elliot has died. But the new character born out of that is now capable of meeting challenges on his own.

Return to the Normal World: When Elliot separates from E.T. he returns to the normal world in the sense that he is now a regular suburban kid again.

Final Conflict: Sneaking E.T. out of the house again – but this time with government agents all around – and getting him to his rescue ship.

Master of Both Worlds: Elliot has saved E.T. (thus mastering the special world) and won the respect and faith of his family that he craved in Act One (thus mastering the normal world).

Character Archetypes:

Hero: Elliot

Shadow: Keys – a serious adult with little evident personality for most of the movie…who turns out to be more like Elliot than we would have guessed.

Shape Shifter: Mary (mom) – she’s on Elliot’s side in life, but she is also part of the adult world who cannot be trusted with knowledge of E.T. Ultimately she tries to defend Elliot from the government and is swayed to his point of view.

Trickster: Gertie. Elliot’s little sister mostly serves as comic relief.

Mentor: E.T. E.T. prompts Elliot to become more mature and helps him on the way.

Herald & Oracle: You could call E.T. a herald but he really serves more as a mentor. There aren’t really strong Herald and Oracle archetypes in the movie.

Threshold Guardians: Mary frequently serves this purpose. Elliot and his siblings often have to hide E.T. from her or get by her to move to the next stage – most obviously on Halloween. On a smaller lever you could call Michael a threshold guardian early on when he requires Elliot to prove E.T.’s existence. And Keys and the government men are sort of Threshold guardians at the end when they have to escape the house.

I’ll continue with the analysis of E.T. in the next post. Soon I’m going to start delving into a sequence by sequence study of the movie.

Mythology Structure in Little Miss Sunshine

(SPOILERS: Little Miss Sunshine)

Last post I analyzed Little Miss Sunshine (written by Michael Arndt) using the three-act structure. Now I want to analyze it with the mythology structure. Let’s start with the phases of the hero’s journey (Remember, Richard is our main character).

Inciting Incident: Olive gets the call that she’s been accepted into the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.

Call to Adventure: They need to get Olive to California. Richard’s the only one who can drive the van.

Resisting the Call: Richard doesn’t want to go. He’s hoping to hear back from Stan Grossman about a book proposal based on his nine-step program.

Accepting the Call: Once it’s clear the only way Olive can get to the competition is if Richard drives, he elicits a guarantee from her that she thinks she can win. Once he gets that, he agrees to the trip.

Meeting the Mentor: It’s a little difficult to identify the mentor character in this movie. Grandpa acts as somewhat of a mentor, challenging Richard’s misguided beliefs and comforting him when he fails. But so does Olive by demonstrating the importance of passion and acceptance of oneself – things Richard definitely needs to learn. Olive wants to win, but she’s more concerned about the joy of competition and rocking her own unique dance routine. So I’d say both these characters are mentors.

Allies and Enemies: In this story Richard meets his allies and enemies – his family – before he enters the special world. (This is unusual, but one of the things to keep in mind about the mythology structure is that it’s very flexible.) The one exception is the van which is introduced upon entrance into the special world – and is very much a character.

Entering the Special World: The family embarks on the trip. The special world here is represented by the van. It is a world of family togetherness, something not present in the opening scenes when we see each character involved in their own worlds, barely communicating, unable to even sit at the table together for more than a couple minutes. The multi-state journey crammed together in a little yellow van is a very different “world” for this particular family.

Visiting the Oracle: I see Stan Grossman as an oracle in this story. Richard makes a journey to Scottsdale to confront Stan about the future of his nine-step program. Stan tells Richard that the program is not going to be bought. The important message for Richard is that he has failed – and he better figure out a way to deal with that.

Innermost Cave: The hospital. This is the location of one of the most intense elements of familial relations – the loss of a loved one. Richard has to deal with the reality of this.

Supreme Ordeal: Stealing Grandpa’s body when the death counselor tells them they cannot continue to California until they make funeral arrangements.

Seizing the Elixir: The elixir in this movie is Richard learning to care more about his family than about winning and losing. By stealing Grandpa’s body and continuing the journey to California, Richard is making a commitment to Olive, one that trumps what might be in his own interests.

Let me pause here for a minute and say I'm a little torn on the last three. I can see Richard's journey to Scottsdale as an alternative Innermost Cave where he faces the Supreme Ordeal of learning he's failed at his nine-step program and Seizes the Elixir of accepting that he doesn't have all the answers. But the reason I'm placing the innermost cave at the hospital is that the cave is meant to be the deepest part of the special world. Scottsdale is more a part of the old, normal world for Richard. In Scottsdale he's left the family to pursue his misplaced dream. So I'm calling that a visit to the oracle.

It's a point worth arguing, though, in terms of story analysis. However as writers we could pick whichever interpretation is most useful to us. I might even consider it a double innermost cave where Richard receives two separate pieces of the elixir he needs to find happiness.

Death and Resurrection: The hospital scene. In addition to Grandpa’s death, we see Olive's hopes for pageant success apparently die – and then be reborn when Richard demonstrates his character change by stealing the body. Remember, the purpose of the death and resurrection stage is to metaphorically reflect the death of the old character and the birth of the new.

Return: The family arrives at the competition and is released from the van.

Final Conflict: Olive’s dance performance. Richard is faced with his daughter’s unique performance, one sure to lose her the contest, and must deal with the anger of the pageant organizers. Richard chooses to join Olive on stage rather than succumb to the contest’s ideas of success and failure.

Master of Both Worlds: By joining Olive, Richard has mastered the special world of family togetherness. And he has also mastered his original world of success and failure, one it turns out he was not as much a master of as he thought.

Archetypes:

Hero: Richard. He is the one going on a journey of change.

Shadow: Olive. In this case the shadow is not a villain. But Olive’s innocence and joy is in direct contrast to Richard’s cold evaluation of success and failure.

Mentor: Both Grandpa and Olive as mentioned.

Shape shifter: Sheryl. Though she loves him, she is at times an unreliable ally.

Oracle: Stan Grossman, as mentioned.

Trickster: Frank, the suicidal brother-in-law with a wry comment always at the ready.

Threshold Guardians: The mechanic, challenging Richard’s commitment to the journey. The death counselor at the hospital who tries to prevent his progress in the innermost cave. The pageant worker who won’t enter their information because they are a couple minutes late for registration on the threshold of the Final Conflict.

Mythology Structure in Silence of the Lambs

(Spoilers: Silence of the Lambs)

I’ve been talking about the mythology structure the last few posts so let’s look at how it works in a film that’s not an obvious “fairy tale” type story: Silence of the Lambs (screenplay by Ted Tally).

Our hero is Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee. The FBI Academy is her normal world. The special world she’s going to enter during her journey is the world of investigating a real life serial killer.

The inciting incident is Clarice getting assigned to interview Hannibal Lecter. Lecter is the mentor character in this movie – and what an unusual mentor he is! But despite his obvious evil, he is the one who trains her in the ways of serial killers, who teaches her how to survive the special world. So the Meeting the Mentor stage comes when Clarice goes to interview Lecter.

The Call to Action comes from Lecter himself when he gives Clarice the Miss Mofet clue that leads her to the severed head in the public storage facility, which is a link to the Buffalo Bill case. Clarice doesn’t resist this call but embraces it. (Actually, in some drafts of the script, she simply passes the clue on and goes back to school until Crawford reprimands her for not following up.)

She enters the special world when she is invited by Crawford to help with the Buffalo Bill case.

We aren’t given a lot of Allies and Enemies. We have Dr. Chilton (Lecter’s warden), Jack Crawford (Clarice’s boss at the FBI) and Clarice’s friend Ardelia.

We do have an Oracle scene – when Clarice goes to visit the entomologists to identify the moth they found in the victim’s throat. They are typical oracles – they have special information and Clarice makes a journey to acquire it.

The Innermost Cave is when Clarice agrees to a quid pro quo with Lecter. She agrees to open up about her past in order to get his help on the case, something we’ve been told it would be very dangerous to do. Now she’s in the heart of serial killer land.

The Supreme Ordeal is when she tells Lecter the story about the lambs, laying bare her soul to this dangerous man. The Elixir she eventually wins for that confession is the case file with his notes and the instruction that “everything she needs to solve it is inside.”

The metaphorical Death and Resurrection is when Clarice and Crawford are pulled off of the case. Clarice's investigation has seemingly died. But now Clarice acts on her own, against the rules, to visit Lecter and save the next victim. We see that Clarice is no longer the student; she’s now a true investigator.

The Return is when Clarice, after receiving the file and getting kicked out of the building where they’re holding Lecter, returns to the Academy. And there, with the help of Lecter's notes, she figures out Buffalo Bill's identity.

The Final Conflict comes when Clarice, sent on what everyone thought was a routine background interview, realizes she’s actually in Buffalo Bill’s house. She has to fight him alone, the power cut off, and rescue his intended next victim. She succeeds by killing Bill.

Which makes her Master of Both Worlds. She’s solved the crime, saved the victim, and in the end we see her celebrating graduation – she’s mastered the student part of her life as well. She even receives a "congratulatory" phone call from Lecter.

In terms of archetypes, I’ve already mentioned the hero (Clarice), mentor (Lecter), and oracle (entomologists). The shadow is Buffalo Bill. Where Clarice is analytical, organized and sure of herself, Bill is slovenly and deranged. Plus, she's a cop and he's a criminal.

The Shape Shifter is Dr. Chilton, someone who is technically on the side of the law but betrays Clarice for his own glory. You could make the case that Lecter is also a shape shifter – a highly unusual shape shifter/mentor combo. Though personally I tend to think of Chilton as the primary shape shifter and Lecter as mostly a mentor.

Chilton also seems to do double duty as the trickster. He’s a buffoon and the source of the little bit of humor in the movie. (This story is pretty tight with few characters so it isn’t surprising that some do double duty.)

Crawford serves as a Herald bringing Clarice news from the world of the investigation but not really mentoring or assisting her very much.

Among the Threshold Guardians, I see Lecter himself – testing Clarice repeatedly to see if she’s up to the challenges of the journey. One example is the Miss Mofet clue; another is his demand that she reveal personal information. Chilton also does additional duty as a Threshold Guardian that Clarice must get past to see Lecter. And then there’s the cops she must trick to visit Lecter later after she’s been kicked off the case.

Even though Silence of the Lambs is a gritty crime story, the mythology structure still fits. And I think it’s useful to look at the story as a journey of a young FBI trainee entering the special world of a real serial killer case. The mentor-mentee relationship is a particularly myth-rich aspect to the movie. All of which illustrates how the ideas of the mythology structure transcend genre.

The Mythology Structure - Part 3

(SPOILERS:  Star Wars)

The past couple of posts I’ve talked about the stages of the hero’s journey structure.  Another important element in the mythology approach is archetypal characters.  Here are the key archetypes (I’ll continue to use Star Wars, written by George Lucas, as an example film):

Hero:  The main character, the one going on the journey.  In Star Wars it’s Luke.

Shadow:  A character of opposite nature to the hero.  Often but not always the antagonist.  In Star Wars it’s Darth Vadar.  Where Luke is naïve and emotional and swathed in light colors, Darth Vadar is worldly, mechanical and dressed in black.  The shadow is meant to be the thematic opposite, but often is also opposite in personality and visual look.

Shape Shifter:  This is a character whose loyalties are unclear.  They may seem at one point to be helping the hero on their journey but at another point hindering them.  They can ultimately be either good or bad.  For some reason the love interest often plays this role.  In Star Wars Han Solo is the shape shifter character.  It is unclear whether he will be there for Luke when push comes to shove or is only out for himself.

Trickster:  This is a character who primarily acts as comic relief.  In Star Wars it’s C3PO. 

Mentor:  The Mentor character helps the hero learn about the special world of the movie.  In Star Wars it’s Obi Wan Kenobi.  Important to distinguish this archetype from an oracle (for more on the oracle and the special world, see the previous post, The Mythology Structure – Part II)

Herald:  The Herald brings the hero messages from the special world or from the shadow.  The herald is not necessarily aligned with either the hero or the shadow.  In Star Wars R2D2 serves this purpose, most notably when he projects the hologram message from Leia and also when he discovers Leia’s imprisoned on the Death Star.

Threshold Guardian:  There can be many of these.  They are characters who challenge the hero’s readiness to move on to the next stage of the journey.  There are several natural thresholds along the journey where you might find these characters – the entry into the special world, entering the innermost cave and the return.  They also crop up in other places from time to time.  In Star Wars the two alien goons at the bar who harass Luke are threshold guardians testing whether he’s prepared to be in that rougher environment.  So are the storm troopers who guard the detention level of the Death Star.

Like the stages, the archetypes in mythology structure are flexible.  Sometimes characters can perform two roles and sometimes a role will be filled by multiple characters.  For example, the mentor often doubles as a threshold guardian, such as a drill instructor who requires a young soldier to complete an obstacle course before he goes off to war.  I would not, however, call someone a mentor just because they give the hero one piece of advice.  Look for what the character’s primary purpose or purposes are in the story.

So how is this useful in the writing process?  Once you identify the archetypal roles your characters are playing look to see if any archetypes have been left out and ask yourself if your story would be improved by including a character to fulfill that function.  And often recognizing a character’s function can give you ideas for strengthening their role.

The Mythology Structure - Part 2

(SPOILERS:  Star Wars, The Matrix)

Last time I talked about the stages of the mythology structure that tend to fall in Act I.  This time I’ll discuss the ones that usually fall in Acts II and III.

If you’ll recall, Act I ends with the hero entering a “Special World” that is unfamiliar to the hero.  This special world can be an actual place (the dangerous realm of Imperial controlled outer space in the case of Star Wars – written by George Lucas) or an emotional state or even an ideological situation.  Once in the special world, we reach the stage known as… 

Allies & Enemies:  The hero goes through an initial period where they explore the special world and learn about it.  This includes meeting allies and enemies that will help and hinder them along the course of their journey.  In Star Wars, Luke meets Han Solo and Chewbacca and personally encounters Storm Troopers for the first time.

Visiting the Oracle:  In some movies the hero makes a visit to an oracle.  Don’t confuse this with a mentor character.  An oracle is someone with information the hero needs, but not someone who is really coaching or guiding the hero.  The hero has to journey to the oracle and sometimes even pass a test in order to get the information.  Star Wars doesn’t have this stage, but one of my favorite Oracle scenes is in The Silence of the Lambs (screenplay by Ted Tally).  In it, Clarice must go to a museum to get some entomologists to identify a cocoon that is a crucial clue.  Those entomologists are oracles!

The Innermost Cave:  At some point the characters enter the deepest heart of the special world.  In a romantic comedy this might be the love interest’s bedroom.  In Star Wars it’s the detention level of the Death Star.  In Imperial controlled outer space, the prison at the center of the most powerful Imperial space ship is the most dangerous place imaginable.

Supreme Ordeal:  In the innermost cave the hero faces a supreme ordeal.  Personally, I don’t care for this term because it implies it is the biggest moment in the movie and that should actually be the climax.  But the idea is the hero faces a big challenge.  In Star Wars, that challenge is rescuing Princess Leia and fighting off the Storm Troopers. 

Seizing the Elixir:  When the hero succeeds at the supreme ordeal, he is given a reward.  This reward is the thing he will ultimately need to solve his problem.  He may not realize that fact at this point, however.  The Elixir can be an item but it can also be a crucial piece of knowledge, a person, or an emotional revelation.  In Star Wars the elixir is Princess Leia.  She is what Luke needs to get the information out of R2D2 that will reveal the flaw in the Death Star design.

Death and Resurrection:  Somewhere in here the hero experiences some kind of death and resurrection.  It can be a near death experience or a metaphorical death, such as a loss of virginity, the destruction of a home or the hero passing out.  The point of this scene is to reflect the character’s change.  It’s the death of the old character and the birth of the new.

In Star Wars this stage comes in the trash compactor scene when Luke is dragged underwater and we fear he might be dead.  In Star Wars the death and resurrection are purely metaphorical, but sometimes the death scene is actually tied to the character’s change.  For example, in The Matrix (written by Andy & Larry Wachowski) Neo actually appears to die but then comes back to life as the One as a direct result of the experience.  Other times the character may have to demonstrate or prove their changed thinking to “resurrect” themselves.

Return to the Normal World:  Act II ends with some kind of return to the normal world.  In Star Wars, Luke and company escape the Death Star and reach the rebel base.  This isn’t the normal world Luke started out in, but it is a safe, friendly environment where he fits in.  This is often the case - the character doesn’t exactly go back to the beginning, but goes instead to some similarly comfortable place or state of mind.

Final Conflict:  The hero must now face the final challenge which will mean ultimate success or failure.  This is the climax of the movie.  In Star Wars, Luke must destroy the Death Star.

Master of Both Worlds:  When the hero wins the final conflict he now becomes master of both worlds - the normal and special.  In Star Wars, Luke has become a successful space adventurer and also has formed a new family, which we see in the denouement at the end when he is united with Leia, Han, Chewie, and the robots at the medal ceremony.

Next time I’ll discuss the archetypal characters of the hero’s journey.

The Mythology Structure - Part 1

(SPOILERS:  Star Wars)

I’ve discussed three act structure frequently in this blog.  I find it incredibly useful, and it’s the language of the industry so if you want to work in Hollywood you better learn it.  But there’s another approach to structure I find equally useful:  The Mythology Structure.

The mythology structure is based on the work of Joseph Cambell who identified an archetypal myth that seemed to cross cultures and times.  I was introduced to the concept through the book “The Writer’s Journey” by Christopher Vogler who put Cambell’s ideas into a practical methodology for writers.  If you like what I say here, I highly recommend the book. 

There are other books and classes that cover the structure in their own way, some good, some less so.  I’m going to describe the concepts I find most useful and describe how I apply them in screenwriting, using Vogler’s book as my jumping off point.  Because the discussion is long, I’m going to break it up into several posts.  I’ll use Star Wars (written by George Lucas) as an example film.  Other films that clearly follow the mythology structure are The Matrix and Wizard of Oz.

I liked mythology structure because it’s a character based way to approach plot.  In fact, the structure is also called “the hero’s journey.”  It is really a structure based on character arc.

The mythology structure is a little different than three act structure.  It’s more flexible, for one.  Some of the stages can be left out or done out of order or repeated, for example.  Also, the journey the hero goes on does not always have to be physical.  It can often be a journey of the mind.  For example, in a romantic comedy this might be an emotional journey.  The stages are often more metaphorical than literal.  It’s important not to feel constrained by the mythology structure.

With all of that in mind, I’ll start with the stages of the hero’s journey that generally fall within Act I of a screenplay. 

Inciting Incident – Something happens that sets the story in motion.  In Star Wars it’s Luke seeing the hologram of Leia.

Call to Adventure – The hero is asked to undertake the journey.  In Star Wars Obi Wan tells Luke he should come with him to Alderaan to return R2D2.  In a romantic comedy it might be the main character meeting the love interest.

Refusing the Call – The hero’s initial reaction is often to refuse the adventure.  In Star Wars, Luke tells Obi Wan he can’t leave – there’s too much to do on the farm.  This beat of reluctance can show us what’s influencing the character not to change.  Often screenwriters will leave this stage out of their initial story development (and sometimes this stage is left out of the final movie).  I always at least consider what impact having the character refuse the initial call to adventure will have on my stories.

Acceptance of the Call – If the hero has resisted, something happens which changes the situation.  In Star Wars this is Luke discovering that his aunt and uncle have been murdered by Storm Troopers.  The hero can’t avoid it anymore… he is going to have to go on this adventure.

Entering the Special World – I think the special world concept is the most important idea of the mythology structure.  The hero is going to enter an environment that is unfamiliar.  It can be an actual location, an emotional state, or an ideological situation.  Whatever it is, it is going to change the character.  In Star Wars the special world is the adventure of outer space.  Luke enters it when he goes to Mos Eisley, which is a sort of outpost of outer space adventure on Tatooine.  In a romantic comedy it might be when the loner embarks on a relationship.  Identifying the special world in your script is crucial to understanding the adventure your hero is going on.

Meeting the Mentor – The hero meets someone who teaches him about the special world.  This stage often shifts position.  In Star Wars it comes before the call to adventure when Luke meets Obi Wan (the mentor who teaches him about the Force and the politics of the galaxy).  It can also come after the acceptance of the call or even after entering the special world.  In a romantic comedy, a mentor might be a best friend who is wiser in the ways of love than our hero.

Next post I’ll cover the stages of the journey that usually fall in Act II.