Don’t Overthink Your Movie Idea
Movies are stories. They are journeys. They are about an individual or group of individuals — usually led by one person — going through a unique experience.
Every story has a Main Character. That person has an objective that he or she pursues throughout the story. The basic story question that each tale poses is: Will the main character achieve his or her objective?
For example, in the John Wayne classic The Alamo, the main character Davy Crockett does NOT achieve his objective of holding the Alamo as a stronghold until reinforcements arrive.
Whereas in the John Wayne classic True Grit, the main character Rooster Cogburn does achieve his objective of tracking down the murderer of Mattie Ross’s father.
Every story also has a Spine. The spine is the motivating force behind the Main Character’s want. That force is usually what the Main Character needs or wants on an internal, emotional level. This desire is what propels the Main Character forward — whether that character is aware of it or not.
In The Alamo, Davy Crockett’s want is a need for the fight.
In True Grit, Rooster Cogburn’s want is not actually to catch bad guys, but instead to be needed.
In combining Main Character and Spine, every story has a Plot. A plot is a beginning, middle and end in which a Main Character wants something, encounters obstacles trying to purse their objective, then either does or does not achieve that objective.
Every story has an Antagonist who wants to prevent the Main Character from achieving their goal. The Antagonist’s main goal should not be to stop the Main Character. The Antagonist should have a goal of their own; but the Antagonist must thwart the Main Character in order to achieve what the Antagonist wants.
In The Alamo, the Antagonist is General Santa Ana’s army. The army’s goal is not to kill Davy Crockett. Their goal is to claim a crucial military base in a hotly contested territory on the US/Mexico border. The army must go through Davy Crockett to do it.
In True Grit, the initial thought for Antagonist is Tom Chaney (and his associate ‘Lucky’ Ned Pepper) because they are bad guys on the run. However, the real Antagonist is Mattie Ross. Her goal is to catch the bad guys who killed her father. To achieve this objective, she must whip Rooster Cogburn into shape using his want for her to need him.
To tell a story, you must be able to answer these questions. Each with a simple sentence or two.
- Who is your Main Character?
- What do they want?
- What do they do to try and fill that need?
- Who is your Antagonist?
- What do they want?
- What do they do to try and fill that need?
- What does the Main Character do when faced with the obstacles created by the Antagonist?
- What is the inevitable final confrontation between the Main Character and the Antagonist that the Main Character must face?
- What is the answer to the question posed at the beginning of the story: Will the Main Character get what he or she wants?
- What does the Main Character learn from this experience?
