Contour At The Movies

Blog reader “Twilight” asked the following question:

“I must ask something here about who is the main character in Titanic. All the time I though it was Rose, because she is the character who drives the story, or?

I also think I have read from others like Michael Haug that Rose is the Main Character.

So please tell me how you think.”

This has been a topic of some discussion for me for several years. I used to believe that Jack was the main character based on certain principles, but I’ve heard people argue (effectively) that Rose is the main character. It’s fascinating to me that it’s even a question in my mind.  I’ll outline the principles I use to help determine main character  so you can see why this is the question for me that it is:

Principle #1 – The final battle of every good story is always “The Good Guy vs the Bad Guy over the Stakes.” In TITANIC it’s Jack and Cal over Rose, meaning Jack’s the main character. THE WINNER — JACK. 

Principle #2 – The main character is the one who changes the most from the start of the film to the end. Jack appears to change the most; he goes from a loveless drifter to committed boyfriend to dead, which is a pretty big change. However, Rose also changes from someone trapped in her life and stifled to liberated. THE WINNER — A TIE. 

Principle #3 – The main character is exactly like the main opponent, but with a moral center. The antagonist is who the protagonist IS IN DANGER OF BECOMING if he or she loses that moral center. And often, the antagonist is doing EXACTLY what the protagonist WISHES in their darkest of hearts he or she could do but doesn’t because of that moral center.  In DIE HARD, John Maclean’s dark wish would be to kill his wife’s boss, take her by force, and blow up her office building…which is exactly what Hans Gruber is doing.  In RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, Indiana Jones is so much  like the bad archeologist Belloq that even Belloq calls him on it.  Is Batman really THAT different than the Joker?  

In TITANIC, if Cal is our antagonist, who is like him but with a moral center?  Rose is like him in status, but Jack is like him in desire.  He wants Rose and is as committed to being with her as Cal is, however Jack is moral and Cal isn’t.  Could Jack ever become like Cal if he loses his moral center?  The scene where both he and Cal stand together after convincing Rose to get on the lifeboat sticks in my mind because Jack is just as guilty of being protective of her as Cal is, neither taking into account HER feelings.  Could Rose become like Cal if she loses her moral center?  No, because she’s ready to kill herself before that can happen.  THE WINNER — JACK.

Principle #4 – The main character drives the action.  Jack and Rose take turns driving the action.  It’s his decision to save her life when she’s ready to commit suicide.  It’s her decision to be sketched in the nude.   It’s her decision to get off TITANIC in New York with him.  It’s his decision to martyr himself.  Still, she makes some of the most major plot decisions.  THE WINNER — ROSE, BY A HAIR.

Principle #5 - The main character usually gets the biggest martyr moment at the end.  While Rose gives up a life of leisure, she doesn’t give up her life as Jack does.  THE WINNER — JACK.

So, who’s the main character?  To be honest, I’m still not sure that it’s clear in my mind. Empirically it seems that the evidence points to Jack more strongly than it does to Rose, yet…

Is it possible that Rose is the main character and Jack is the ‘traveling angel’ who changes her life?  Is it possible that Jack is the main character and Rose is the innocent who needs rescuing? Is it possible that they’re both the main character?  

Even with all I’ve written and all I know I’m not sure of the answer, and that intrigues me.  Some very smart people say that Rose is the main character.  They might be right.  My head says Jack, but my heart says Rose.

The real question is ‘what can we, as writers, learn from this?’

TITANIC was a cultural phenomenon.  It was the right movie, at the right time and was a stunning ode to the art of movie making.  What hardly anyone thinks is that it was a well-written script.  In fact, many of the reviews were scathing about the writing.   Of course, success is the best revenge so nobody should feel too badly for Mr. Cameron.   But is it also possible that the lack of clear focus on the main character is a failing and not a virtue?  Is it conceivable that the movie could have been even better with more clarity on the main character?

To me, the biggest takeaway from this question is that if we were writing TITANIC, we should clearly choose either Jack or Rose as the main character and run with that choice.  Not being clear is not an option when you’re trying to launch your career.  

As you can see from all I’ve written, I’m wide open to thinking and rethinking about this question, so…what do YOU think?

WHICH WAY IS UP? (pages 35-45)

Give the protagonist a series of successes and failures as he or she “wanders” and starts to master the skills needed to ultimately answer the Central Question.

• Dr. Cole makes progress in getting Cole to tell him what his problem is. (THE SIXTH SENSE)
• Kevin gets groceries, orders pizza, and starts defending his house. (HOME ALONE)
• Jack starts conquering the class divide and begins his relationship with Rose. (TITANIC) 

Want to read all 12 steps to the Contour Guide? CLICK HERE

Overall Impression – Despite the evidence, Eastwood never gets old.

THE FOUR QUESTIONS

Who’s your main character? – Walt Kowalski.

What’s he trying to accomplish? – Professional: save his Hmong neighbors from the local gang.  Personal: teach Thao to be a man.  Private: find a reason to keep living after his wife’s death.

Who’s trying to stop him? – The gang and, to a lesser extent, himself.

What happens if he fails? – The gang will tear the Hmong family apart, if they don’t kill them first.

THE FOUR ARCHETYPES

Orphan – Walt is a widower who wants nothing to do with his two disrespectful sons, whom he doesn’t consider good men.  He’s also a racist living in an increasingly Hmong dominated community.

Wanderer – Walt catches Thao (the teenage Hmong boy next door) stealing his Gran Torino as part of his forced initiation into a gang.  When the gang later tries to take Thao, their fight spills onto Walt’s property and he warns the gang to get off his lawn.  Not only does Walt put himself in the gang’s sights, he’s now the reluctant hero of the local Hmong.  They adorn him with gifts, even though Walt just wants to be left alone.  In town, Walt involves himself further when he saves Thao’s sister from thugs.  They become friends, Walt learns about the Hmong family, their culture and the problems they face with the gang.

Warrior – Walt opens up and agrees to take Thao under his wing to let him atone for attempting to steal the Gran Torino.  The punishment turns into a friendship, and Walt takes an interest in teaching Thao to be the kind of man his sons should have been.  However, the gang continues the trouble Thao, and when Walt learns that he’s dying, he seeks to protect Thao by taking the fight into his own hands.  Unfortunately, the confrontations escalate until Thao’s sister is raped and the gang does a drive-by on the Hmong neighbors’ house.  Walt realizes that Thao’s family will never have a life unless he stops the gang for good.

Martyr – Walt literally sacrifices himself by tricking the gang into killing him in front of witnesses, ensuring that they go to jail for good.

AND, IN THE END…

I enjoyed Gran Torino on a number of levels, but the movie’s tone had me on edge.

I was particularly uncomfortable when it came to Walt’s racist remarks, and not merely because they were racist remarks.  It’s because I found them funny.  I even laughed out loud sometimes – and I certainly wasn’t the only audience member.  Walt’s racism is comically delivered, which leads me to think that the makers wanted the audience to laugh, or at least feel awkward about wanting to.

If I was forced to experience discomfort by laughing at racism, then I felt discomfort because of racism – which feels like it should be right.  But is it?  Was the filmmakers’ tactic fair?  I’d never laugh at that in the real world.  Maybe that’s part of the ‘movie experience’.

– Dan Pilditch

I love this!  It demonstrates how the brain is hardwired to make sense out of story.  You may have bits and pieces of  a story inside your head, but if you don’t know how to structure it properly you’ll never be able to make it make sense…and one of your friends might just make a video about you.

It’s called the Storitel Beat Machine and it’s a new spin on an old idea about randomizing ideas. I’m not sure how useful it is, but as far as the implementation this thing ROCKS!  CLICK HERE to check it out.

UPDATE (March 30, 2009) — Looks like the Storitel Beat Machine has been taken down.  I saw something about “legal action” being threatened!  I’d love to find out what happened, and if I do I’ll do another update.  Stay tuned…

KICK THE DOG  (page 28-35)

Show that the bad guys are not just bad, but really, Really, REALLY bad. Give the protagonist (and the reader) the idea that answering the Central Question is going to be harder than initially thought. If you don’t have a standard antagonist (as in a love story) show that the obstacles to the protagonist are overwhelmingly strong.

• The Deathstar destroys a whole planet. (STAR WARS)
• Butch and Sundance begin to be pursued by the “super posse.” (BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID)
• Dr. Neville tries a new serum on a mutant and fails spectacularly. (I AM LEGEND)

Want to read all 12 steps to the Contour Guide? CLICK HERE

I debated a while before posting this, however I must warn people about a very dangerous screenwriting seminar.  This is no joke, and all figures I’m about to give you are real.

Out of all the graduates of the screenwriting seminar in question:

• 800 have died in auto accidents
• 90 have died of cancer
• 2 were murdered

For legal reasons I can’t tell you the name of this dangerous, deadly seminar.  But don’t be afraid, because there is a seminar out there whose graduates have won dozens of Oscars, Emmys, and other awards.  This one seems like a safer bet, doesn’t it?   There’s only one problem…

…it’s the same seminar.

The promoters of this seminar list how many attendees they’ve had over how many years and how successful they’ve been, however given enough years and enough attendees, one can generate all sorts of statistics.   Hence the ability to generate fatality rates for graduates as well as Oscar winners.  It’s called “data dredging.”  

So, which numbers should you pay closer attention to, the success rate or the mortality rate?   My suggestion?  Neither.  A seminar can no more take credit for the success of its attendees that be blamed for their untimely deaths.

Screenwriting seminars, books, software, and gurus often make all sorts of claims when trying to get you to take them seriously.   Write a movie in an hour and a half!  Sell your story without a script!  All you need to know about the movie and TV business!  Make money!  Sell your spec!  Learn the secret!  NO…learn MY secret!!

It’s not that you can’t learn something from these books and seminars,  but I want to encourage people to use their heads (and I’d like to encourage the authors and seminar givers to dial back the rhetoric.)  

Isn’t Contour just more of the same?  I hope not.   The closest I’ve gotten to hyping the software is “Get your story idea from brain to page in the shortest time possible” and “Minimum theory…maximum results.”  Both comments happen to be demonstrably true.  

At the recent LA Screenwriting Expo I did a presentation of Contour where the audience generated an idea for a movie and then after 30 minutes of explaining what Contour is and the underlying theory (“Minimum theory) we took the remaining 60 minutes and beat out the whole story.  And not 15 brief broadstrokes, but 44 specific plot points that someone could actually use to write the script from FADE IN to FADE OUT.   That’s not too shabby for an hour’s work. 

So, beware of wild claims of secrets and magic formulas for success.  During the gold rush, the only people who consistently made any money were the people selling the shovels.

As the old adage goes: if something sounds too good to be true, it is.

The downloadable version of Contour is now the FOURTH most popular item at The Writer’s Store, and the second most popular software behind Final Draft (who?).  

I’d like to thank everyone who stopped buying brass fasteners and are now using the downloadable version of Contour to bind their script pages together.

As of today, the downloadable version of Contour is the fifth most popular product being sold by The Writers Store in LA!  Whoo-hoo!  

Now, if only we could do something about those damn brass fasteners…