In the Advanced Screenwriting class I’m currently teaching, the first lecture introduced students to my own version of a screenplay paradigm: Narrative Throughline. Here is a follow-up post about another aspect in this concept:
There is another layer to the Narrative Throughline paradigm that can be helpful for the writing process, particularly for those stories where there is a central Protagonist character and they go through some sort of transformation process (as is the case, I would argue, in most mainstream movies). And that is to rethink the idea of the Protagonist’s goal.Years ago, I read somewhere (or heard a writer say) this articulation of three important questions a writer must ask him/herself about their story:
* Who is the Protagonist?
* What do they want?
* Who is keeping them from that goal?
The value of these three questions is immediately evident:
* By identifying the Protagonist, you start to define the core elements of the story
* By identifying what the Protagonist’s goal is, you provide an end point to the story which helps to shape the trajectory of the plot
* By identifying the Nemesis character(s) who are actively opposing the Protagonist, you set into motion the core conflict of the story
Zeroing in on the second question — What do they want — on the face of it that seems like a legitimate way of framing the exploration process to determine to the Protagonist’s goal. However “want” signifies a goal about which the Protagonist is conscious. As we see in the first act of so many movies, the Protagonist will actually state their goal: I want that promotion / I want that girl / I want to win the big game / I want to catch that bad guy.
But what happens a lot is the Protagonist’s goal seems to shift as a seemingly second goal emerges. I would argue this is not a new goal, but rather the coming to the surface and recognition of a goal the Protagonist innately has in their Internal World — not a want, but a need.
External World — Want
Internal World — NeedThe Protagonist’s Need reflects the sensibilities of the the character’s core essence — that part of him/herself ‘inside’ which has been suppressed or ignored. In Act Two, as it emerges from the darkness into the light of the External World — demonstrated by it bubbling up into the Protagonist’s consciousness — it becomes a partner with the Protagonist’s Want in re-shaping the nature of their goal.
You can see this dynamic in tons of movies — for example, where the Protagonist begins as a work-obsessed character, then transforms into a whole persona by tapping into their creative / loving / human core essence. Movies like:
* Baby Boom (1987): The life of super-yuppie J.C. (Diane Keaton) is thrown into turmoil when she inherits a baby from a distant relative. She loses her job.
Her Want: To get her job back
Her Need: To accept her role as a mother
Denouement: She turns her back on her old job to do another version of work that allows her to be a mother.* Working Girl (1988): When a secretary’s idea (Melanie Griffith) is stolen by her boss, she seizes an opportunity to steal it back by pretending she has her boss’s job.
Her Want: To succeed in business as a white collar woman
Her Need: To embrace her blue collar essence
Denouement: She wins at work by using her blue collar skills.* Liar Liar (1997): A fast track lawyer (Jim Carrey) can’t lie for 24 hours due to his son’s birthday wish after the lawyer turns his son down for the last time.
His Want: To get a promotion
His Need: To accept his role as a father
Denouement: He has stopped living the ‘lie’ of being a good father by finding the appropriate balance between work and family.Another movie which takes the work-obsession out of the office environment is Tootsie (1982): An unemployed actor (Dustin Hoffman) with a reputation for being difficult disguises himself as a woman to get a role in a soap opera.
His Want: To succeed as an actor
His Need: To confront his chauvinism by getting in touch with his feminine side
Denouement: “I was a better man with you, as a woman… than I ever was with a woman, as a man.”With the two world construct of Narrative Throughline — External World (Plotline) and Internal World (Themeline) — there is an interesting way to look at the transformation of the Protagonist character — sorting out what their Want is and what their Need is. As those two motivations merge in Act Three, they help to effect the transformation that leads a Protagonist from Disunity to Unity.
Can you think of other movies where there is a shift from Want to Need?
Great stuff and very timely for me. My protagonist, in the script that I'm currently working on, is undergoing a shift and it's been a little tricky to work with.
Great information. Using "The Silence of the Lambs" to demonstrate your "Narrative Throughline" is great. This made me think a lot about my own project!
I think Legally Blonde is a good example. Elle Woods heads to law school because she wants to get her boyfriend back, but by the end of the movie her goal has shifted and she finds herself pursuing a legal career and no longer has any interest in the shallow boyfriend.
Alissa, Legally Blonde is a perfect example.
Great post, Scott. I find stories more satisfying when the writer stops to really develop that inner need, and we've been focusing on that in the last few scripts we've worked on. We're developing thrillers, all with an external need of "vengeance", but in building on the internal needs (not only of the Protagonist but the Antagonist as well), the stories go that much deeper and resonate when they're over. This usually comes out in later drafts as we work through.
Mike, you make a good point. Consider Die Hard, arguably the paradigmatic action movie of the last 20+ years, spawning "Die Hard in an airplane" (Air Force One), "Die Hard on a Navy ship" (Under Siege), etc. The movie goes through considerable effort to establish the conflict between John McClane (Bruce Willis) and his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedalia) from whom he is separated. So yes, there's all this stuff going on in the Plotline involving Hans Gruber holding all the people in the office hostage, the operation to steal the goods, the negotiations with the cops / FBI, and McClane as the Lone Cowboy screwing with the Bad Guys. But there is this other stuff going on where McClane and Holly realize how life is a tenuous thing, they may never see each other again, capped off with McClane's "I love my wife" monologue over the walkie talkie.
Is the relationship between McClane and Holly the main point of focus in the movie? No. But it provides an emotional touchstone for the movie, and when they get together at the end, and Holly calls herself "Holly McClane," reclaiming her married moniker, it provides a nice end point to their mutual transformations.
So even in action movies, there can be some measure of change (emotional / psychological) in the primary characters.
The Professional. Leon wants to be left alone. Needs to care for someone. And be cared for.
In Bruges. Colin Farrel wants safety for life (initially). Needs redemption/forgiveness.
Star Wars –
"I want to be a Jedi, like my father."
That's why the reveal at the end of Empire Strikes back is so poignant.
Holy shit — my father is fucking evil! It's a conflict on all levels.
Scott,
In the setup in CHINATOWN, Jake tells his client that the only way you can get away with murder is if your rich.
He wants to figure out who set him up, gets caught into thinking "this time will be different" and the rich guy/town arent going to get away with murder.
The cop at the end tells him to forget about it, its chinatown.
So he needs to let it go. He was right when he said the thing about rich people but let himself fall into a state of denial.
Is this how you see want/need in this film?
H, I've never used the want/need lens on Chinatown. I tended to look at Jake's arc as a 'negative' one — he starts out thinking he has the world pretty much figured, a cynic whose created a niche that not only allows him to make a living – albeit on the broken lives of his customers – but also, through what he sees everyday in his job, reinforces his cynicism.
But then, he gets lured into actually caring about someone (Evelyn Mulwray played by Faye Dunaway) which eventually leads, as you point out, back toward his original cynicism, probably even worse off because of his experiences.
So with that as the framework, let's ask what does Jake want? To solve the case. What does he need? It's not totally clear, but certainly it has something to do with Evelyn and her daughter – perhaps to do something right by this mother and daughter.
Of course, when Evelyn is killed, it crushes something in Jake, the little flicker of humanity that may have been burning a bit brighter over the course of this case now dimmed. The Powers That Be in LA, they control things here. There's nothing we can do about it. Jake the Cynic should know this. He thought he did, but had to go through all this stuff to have that cynicism driven even deeper into his soul. Hence the 'negative' transformation. Jake's Unity state is him accepting his cynicism, the way things are in the world, the control of The Powers That Be.
BTW, I use the phrase The Powers That Be in reference to David Halberstam's great book of that name. The section on the history of LA is eye-opening. Chinatown and Who Framed Roger Rabbit have treated LA's overlords and their greedy actions quite well.