We Love Trouble by WILLIAM C. MARTELL
I note in my Secrets Of Action Screenwriting book that the bigger the Villain’ s Plan the bigger the movie. The greater the conflict, the more exciting the story and the more satisfaction the audience gets from the protagonist resolving that conflict. Audiences love it when people they care about get into trouble. The deeper the trouble, the more we love it!
Let’ s take a scene where our hero changes a flat tire on his car in his driveway. He pries off the hubcap, he loosens the lug nuts, he jacks up the car, he removes the wheel, he puts on the spare tire, he replaces the lug nuts, he lowers the car, he makes sure the lug nuts are tight, then he replaces the hubcap.
Boring. Do we care about the hero? Do we thing he’ s skilled? Do we think he’ s heroic? Do we think he’ s accomplished anything by changing the tire? Are you emotionally involved in the story?
Now let’ s take that same scene- but this time the car with the flat tire is on the side of a very busy freeway with trucks zooming past at 60mph. The trucks come within inches of our hero. And it’ s raining... hard. The rain is coming down so hard that our hero can hardly see the lug nuts... can the truck drivers see him on the side of the road? He pries off the hubcap, he loosens the lug nuts, he jacks up the car, he removes the wheel, he puts on the spare tire, he replaces the lug nuts, he lowers the car, he makes sure the lug nuts are tight, then he replaces the hubcap... while dozens of trucks zip past, almost hitting him. He’ s splashed with water again and again.
That was the exact same scene- just with more conflict. Do you worry that the hero will get hit by a truck? Do you think he must be skilled to change the tire in these conditions? Are you emotionally involved in the story? When he gets back in his car and drives off, do you feel like he’ s really accomplished something by changing the tire... and surviving? Was this a victory?
The second scene is more satisfying and emotionally involving because our hero has to overcome a greater challenge in order to succeed. The bigger the problem, the more we want to cheer when the hero resolves it.
I really liked SCHOOL OF ROCK- it’ s the rock and roll version of DEAD POETS SOCIETY. Jack Black is a funny force of nature, and the movie gives us some genuine emotions. You don’ t expect to cry at a film like this, but it manages to really tug at your heart strings. But the film could have been even better, if they had made the hurdles in front Black’ s character even more difficult. We got a flat tire on the driveway instead of the raining-freeway version of the story.
We didn’ t need an evil villain with a plan for world domination or higher stakes or explosions- the story could be exactly as it is now. The same exact conflict, just no easy way to resolve it. The film has a bunch of easy solutions to difficult problems. The main sources of conflict in SCHOOL OF ROCK are the principal and the parents- and both just melted. Instead of Jack Black having to struggle to solve these problems, they instantly disappeared. The mean dad- I kept thinking of Kurtwood Smith in DEAD POET’ S SOCIETY- hears the band play at the end and stops fighting. This makes no sense! That conflict was underdeveloped in the first place- it would have made the story better by really beefing it up, and it should have been resolved in a logical way. Not just- he hears the music and the kids are alright. The Parent’ s Night conflict and the Principal conflict and the Teaching conflict( unusual teaching methods)- all just disappear without much work on Jack Black’ s part. The problems are too easy to solve!
STRONGER CONFLICT = STRONGER EMOTIONS
Let’ s look at the story as it is and see how we can intensify the conflict by going DEEPER into the story( instead of just grafting on explosions or car chases). In SCHOOL OF ROCK Jack Black is a slacker musician who gets fired from his own band and is about to be kicked out of his apartment by his Substitute Teacher roommate( screenwriter Mike White) because he’ s behind in his rent. What Jack needs is a job! But he has no skills at all.
94 | WGSA MAG June 2013