Screenwriting structure Part 13 The Protagonist’s call to action dilemma
You may or may not have heard about this… Most of us have heard about the Protagonist’s “call to action” which is followed by “refusal of the call.” And I personally believe in the Protagonist’s call to action — refusal of the call but what about right before the call to action? Remember the inciting incident? Remember how it totally kicks the Protagonist off that balance beam we call his or her ordinary world?
Well right after we make him or her lose their balance and take that fall, they’re stunned. They weren’t expecting this to happen to them. Their ordinary world is now disrupted to the point that they’ve got to stand back and take a breath… They don’t know what the fuck to do…
Time to regroup.
The Protagonist is going through a call to action dilemma. No, this ain’t the big dilemma that you might want to throw at your Protagonist later on down the line… This is a small one but to me, it’s really important. In fact, I look for it in every script and guess what?
I rarely see it.
Most books and gurus never seem to mention it but don’t let that keep you from understanding it. Most scripts that I read definitely have the call to action — refusal of the call and wow… They seem to slap that right in our face, don’t they? It’s almost like the screenwriter is saying, “Look Ma, I’m using the Hero’s Journey!”
In other words — it ain’t too subtle. No it doesn’t have to be but it just happens to be one of my pet peeves.
Oh well.
The Protagonist’s call to action dilemma is your chance — early on in your story to show us how fucked up your Protagonist is… Or maybe how fucked up your Protagonist, ain’t. That all depends on you and your Protagonist.
But make no mistake, showing us how your Protagonist handles this dilemma is important stuff. It helps clarify what kind of person your protagonist is. It’s okay to show us how fucked up your Protagonist is before the call to action dilemma because now you can redeem him or her if you’ve a mind to.
Or not.
Sure, we almost always see the Protagonist refuse to get involved in a new adventure… Geez… At this point in our lives and with all these movies — haven’t we pretty much come to expect it? They can’t get involved because they’re needed at home. They can’t get involved because it’s not their job. They can’t get involved because their pee-pee hurts.
Ho hum. Fine. Then all of a sudden their pee-pee doesn’t hurt anymore OR what the hell… Even though it still hurts like a motherfucker, they’re gonna go.
Sever that predictability by concentrating a little more on the actual dilemma that the inciting incident brings to the game. Take this opportunity to let us learn more about your Protagonist. His or her real fears and flaws. Now’s the time to show us. Now’s the time to tell us if this guy or girl is worth our investment of time, popcorn, and soda.
Don’t pass it up.
Unk
Funk email…
Dear Unk,
First of all, great blog. I really love it. It seems like the first half hour of our weekly screenwriting group talks about what we learn from your blog. Thanks so much for that.
So here’s my funk.
I moved to Los Angeles 5 years ago. I’ve written 13 screenplays and I still can’t get an agent or manager to represent me. I’ve actually had a couple of indie film writing assignments where I successfully script-doctored those screenplays before shooting. But these jobs are so few and far between. I do have a day job but I’m really growing tired of the daily grind of it.
I really thought that by now I really would have nailed down a halfway decent screenwriting career for myself but I keep finding out how difficult it is. Like one of your frequent visitors, Josh says, “I think I got game.” But now I’m really starting to wonder if I actually do have game.
That is why I’m attaching 5 of what I think are my best pages. Please don’t feel like you have to jump on this right away.
Whenever it is convenient for you.
Do I have game?
Okay, I get a lot of emails like this… Unfortunately, most of them attach the entire screenplay. LOL. I am holding back the author’s handle but I did write her back after I sat down and read her five pages and even asked her if she’d mind if I posted this email since I get so many of them like this.
She said, “No problem but please don’t post my 5 pages.”
No problem.
Oh woe is me… Let’s call the author of the above email, Sandy.
Sandy,
First of all, let me just tell you that it takes balls to just go ahead and send an attachment like you did. I don’t know if I admire your tenacity or just feel like it’s another rude intrusion into my oh so boring life… i.e., I ain’t got nothin’ better to do than to read your 5 pages.
The good news?
At least it was only 5 pages.
I also like that it seems to be the first 5 pages of your screenplay so at least I can get a feel for your story but I didn’t. So let’s go through it best I can on such short notice… I don’t know… I guess I’m old school because I really like reading the following two words at the beginning of a screenplay:
FADE IN:
I don’t know… There’s just something about those two simple words that somehow prepare me for what follows… It tells me I’m not reading a poem, an article, a short story, or a letter… It tells me I’m reading a screenplay.
But hey, everybody’s different and by no means is sticking ‘FADE IN:’ at the top of your screenplay a hard and fast rule.
One reason I’m really glad to see that these 5 pages are the first 5 pages of your screenplay is because just within these 5 pages alone, you’ve skipped ahead and made me read about 3 different characters without first introducing them to me. And from the names you’ve given them, I can’t tell if two of them are male or female but maybe that’s what you intended?
Naaah. I doubt it but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. You introduce them later, right? LOL.
Sandy, I can’t even tell from the dialogue whether or not those two characters are male or female. The names are interesting however. Very bohemian, so I give you points for that.
And since this is only 5 pages, all I can tell is that everything takes place here:
INT. HOUSE - DAY
LOL. Is it a shitty little house? Is it a mansion? Is it in an average little neighborhood? What city is it in? Town? You start off with the location but then you orphan that location slug and get right into so and so character’s dialogue.
I’m still wondering where in the fuck they are and is this a crack house? Mommy and Daddy’s house? I can’t picture anything about this house at all because you didn’t give me anything to picture.
Same with the characters. 5 pages of fucking TALK TALK TALK.
Talking heads with a VENGEANCE!
Maybe you could give these fuckers something to do while they fuckin’ talk their asses off? Maybe one of them keeps changing the channels on the television with the remote and the other two get pissed at him or her… Maybe one of them picks their nose — rolls it up until it dries, and flicks it away. Yeah, then let the other two male or female characters get pissed at him or her for that.
Maybe one of them is looking at a porn magazine and is so entranced by what he or she is seeing that he or she’s having a real hard time communicating with the other two characters.
Which brings me to the dialogue.
You start off with one of the characters talking about his or her job… I will say this… You sure as hell didn’t leave anything out! I know nothing about this character but I know everything about where he or she works. Strangely, it even feels as if there’s a slight agenda going on here. As if this character is speaking for YOU personally. If I had to make a bet, I would bet that this particular character is based on yourself just from reading your emails thus far.
Since I couldn’t read past page 5, I have to wonder if your screenplay is about where this person works or… Is it about that person? Is it about that person and where that person works? At least then, this would make a little more sense to me. If so, I am assuming you are setting this all up so that the rest of the story follows this person around more or less.
*NOTE: As it turned out, Sandy emailed me back and told me that her screenplay was NOT in fact about that character NOR where that character worked.
But wow… If your story doesn’t follow this character and where he or she works, I gotta wonder why you put so much effort into these five pages. On top of that, you’re telling me that these five pages are your BEST. I do like some of the dialogue but geez… Did you really need to keep going back to UrbanDictionary.com to find slang that we’ve never heard of before? I think just a little too much… So much so that it’s almost too clever.
In fact, if these 5 pages don’t have much to do with the rest of the screenplay, then in fact, it’s way over the top.
And of course… Aside from the spelling errors and a couple of typos, the formatting is basically okay except that you seem to have a lot of orphan formatting in such a short amount of space so please watch out for that and IF you don’t know what I’m talking about…
Then no… You ain’t got game.
Unk
Share your funk…
Okay… Here you go. This is your chance to share your funk. I’ve been in a funk lately and you guys truly are helping me get out of it… I woke up with more energy today than I’ve had in quite a while. Things are clearer today and I even woke up to find out that we have a major star that’s going to be in one of our flicks. We’ve been trying to find a lead for over two years now and today was the day.
So maybe… Just maybe there’s something to sharing this shit with others who share the passion of screenwriting and okay… Other writers too… LOL. Hear that Ann?
I don’t care what it is… If you wanna share, here’s your chance. Just drop that SHIT right here in a comment. Get it off your shoulders. Let us fuck with you about it… LOL.
Wanna tell off your boss? A parent? A sibling? Me? Go ahead. I can take it.
I don’t care how fuckin’ long it is…
Go for it.
Unk