Contour At The Movies

Overall Impression – Fun, but it felt like something was missing.

THE FOUR QUESTIONS

Who’s your main character? – Carl Allen.

What’s he trying to accomplish? – Professional: become a ‘Yes Man’.  Personal: win over Allison.  Private: not spend his life alone.

Who’s trying to stop him? – Minor obstacles along the way… mostly his own cynical self, but there’s no real antagonist. 

What happens if he fails? – He remains alone.

THE FOUR ARCHETYPES

Orphan – After being spurned by his wife, Carl lives alone, brushes off his friends and takes no joy in life.  He’s the ultimate cynic, saying “no” to every opportunity that comes his way.

Wanderer – When Carl attends a ‘Yes Man’ seminar, he’s convinced to change his life around by saying “YES!” to every opportunity.  Carl’s skepticism is well founded.  Every time he says “yes”, something bad happens, but when he decides he’s done with the program, a dog nearly mauls him, so Carl now believes in the ‘covenant’: that bad things happen to those who say “no”!  So, he continues saying “yes” and remains a skeptic… until he meets Allison.

Warrior – Encouraged, Carl starts saying “yes” to every opportunity – and it works!  He gets promoted, he and Allison begin dating… until Allison learns about the ‘Yes Man’ program and thinks Carl only agreed to their whirlwind romance because he felt he had to, not because he wanted to.

Martyr – Carl risks everything to win Allison back, going so far as to cause a car crash to get Terrance Stamp to remove the ‘covenant’ – even though there isn’t one.

AND, IN THE END…

This was a fun movie, but the something that I felt was missing lies in the concept.

YES MAN follows the ultimate cynic who starts saying “yes” to every opportunity that comes his way.  The obvious comedic potential lies in saying “yes” to weird opportunities (which he does), and then we have Jim Carrey, who acts funny wherever he is (which he does). 

Many people likened YES MAN to LIAR LIAR, and found the latter to be superior.  I agree, because the concept for LIAR LIAR elevated everything comedically, instead of merely facilitating it.  Carrey plays a lawyer who doesn’t want to tell the truth, but has to, and there’s absolutely nothing he can do about it.  Fletcher has to deal with his worst nightmare (and ours): telling the truth all the time.

In YES MAN, Carl throws himself into a bunch of outlandish situations.  Why?  Because he has to say “yes”.  Why must he say “yes?”  Because of that covenant thing… which doesn’t really exist.  Then why’s he really doing it?  Maybe it’s because he wants to change.  Would LIAR LIAR be funny if Fletcher wanted to tell the truth?    

In my mind, this kind of comedy has to have a hero who absolutely doesn’t want to change, but doesn’t have a choice.  That’s the “something”.  LIAR LIAR had it.  I’m not sure YES MAN did.

                                                                                                                                                                                                – Dan Pilditch

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (pages 17-28 )

Force the protagonist out of the normal world and answer the “call to adventure.” Sometimes the protagonist does this by choice, sometimes by circumstance.

• Neo chooses to take the red pill. Or was it the blue pill? (THE MATRIX)
• Luke’s aunt and uncle are killed and now there’s no reason for him to stay on Tatooine. (STAR WARS)
• Will Turner joins with Jack Sparrow to pursue Elizabeth on the Black Pearl. (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL)

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

Overall Impression – A mostly solid tale about personal sacrifice… if you can forgive Germans speaking in American and English accents.

THE FOUR QUESTIONS

Who’s your main character? – Claus von Stauffenberg.

What’s he trying to accomplish? – Professional: assassinate the Nazi power players and stage a government coup.  Personal: free Germany from its real enemy – the Nazis.  Private: fight for a cause that’s worth risking his and his family’s lives for.

Who’s trying to stop him? – The Nazis and some members within Stauffenberg’s own coalition.

What happens if he fails? – Stauffenberg and everyone he knows will be executed, including his family.  Germany will remain under the control of the Nazis, and any hope of a peaceful end to the war will be lost.

THE FOUR ARCHETYPES

Orphan – While Stauffenberg is a solder thrust into bureaucracy, he’s alone because he questions the very cause he’s fighting for, while everyone around him is dangerously loyal.

Wanderer – Stauffenberg is brought to a secret society that plans to assassinate Hitler.  They flesh out an amended operation “Valkyrie”, but to make it official Stauffenberg needs Hitler’s signature.  If that weren’t daunting enough, they must convince certain high-ranking Nazis to join their cause in order to succeed.

Warrior – The plan is put into action, but when it fails (nothing ever goes according to plan), they’ve got to come up with another before they lose their opportunity.  After the deed is carried out, Stauffenberg and his men launch the coup, gradually assuming control from the Nazis.

Martyr – After that plan fails (nothing ever goes according to plan), Stauffenberg and his men fight to the bitter end as the Nazis wrench back the control they momentarily lost.  

AND, IN THE END…

Valkyrie is about sacrifice.  What drives a person to become a martyr?  What does it mean to be a martyr?  These are all questions that should be asked about the heroes of the past if we’re to understand what they did, and why they did it.

Did Valkyrie ask these questions?  Arguably, yes.

I say ‘arguably’ because it’s a matter of opinion (and of historical knowledge).  We know that Stauffenberg and his team are doomed to failure before we see the movie, and one could argue that this robs it of any real dramatic tension: there’s no ‘will they/won’t they succeed’ dynamic. 

One could also argue (as I’m more inclined) that this worked in the movie’s favor.  Since we know they’re going to fail, we can better identify with Stauffenberg because deep down, he knows that they’re going to fail too.  I would argue that Stauffenberg understood he was making the ultimate sacrifice before he even decided to fight the Nazis, and everything after that point is a window into the mind of a martyr.  

– Dan Pilditch

CALLS & BUSY SIGNALS (pages 12-17)

Give the protagonist the famous “call to adventure” which is followed by the equally famous “refusal of the call.”

• Jack sees Rose but doesn’t dare go after her because of the difference in social status. (TITANIC)
• Luke is told by Obi-Wan that he must learn how to be Jedi but Luke says he can’t…he’s got too much to do. (STAR WARS)
• Fletcher wants to take his son to wrestling, but the big case is dropped in his lap and he chooses to prepare for the trial. (LIAR LIAR)
• Sam gets the letter from Annie but refuses to answer it. (SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE)

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

YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR TROUBLE IS? (pages 6-12)

Make it clear what the protagonist’s problem or flaw is, both to the protagonist and the reader. When in doubt, you may use the (overused) line of dialog that goes “You know what your problem is?” uttered by the protagonist’s ally or best friend.

• Luke wants to leave the farm early and join the academy, but his uncle tells him no. (STAR WARS)
• Elliot is told that he needs to think about how other people feel. (E.T. – THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL)
• Hooper arrives and determines that “this was no boating accident!” (JAWS)

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

Not the movie, I’m talking about gender neutrality.  Contour, having been developed by a sexist pig (me) always referred to the protagonist in the masculine.  Actually, I’m kidding about the sexist pig thing.  I hope.

In actuality there is a debate in academic circles about gender neutrality and I had relied on the school of thought, as well as the guidelines in Strunk & White’s Elements of Style, that permitted the use of the masculine to refer to any non-specific person regardless of sex.  

After much consideration (and one refund to an irate user with a female protagonist) we’ve decided to embrace gender neutrality.  As updates start rolling out to Contour 1.0 we’ll be chipping away at all examples of inappropriate gender specific language in the user’s guide, manual, examples, help tips, this blog, etc. As you can imagine, this is a bit of an undertaking, so please be patient with us.  We’re trying to do the right thing.  Honest!   Rewriting it all will take some time.  

In the meantime, if I’ve offended anyone I would like to apologize to him or her, ask for his or her forgiveness, and assure him or her that he or she is welcome to contact me to discuss this or that.

I DON’T GET NO RESPECT (pages 1-6)

Most screenplays are about one thing…respect! Your protagonist doesn’t have it, knows he or she doesn’t have it, and wants it. In this first section make it clear to the reader that your main character is an orphan; an outsider looking in at a world that doesn’t want him or her.

• Shrek is being hunted by the townspeople who hate ogres. (SHREK)
• Elliot is ignored and disrespected by his brother and his brother’s friends (E.T. – THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL) 
• Peter Parker is a slight, nerdy high school kid. (SPIDER-MAN) 

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

Sometimes it’s easier to think of your story in bigger moments and then work your way down into the nitty-gritty.  Contour knows this and provides the Guide as an alternate way of looking at your story.

Not to be confused with the 44 plot points of Contour, the Guide is a series of 12 sequential text boxes, each with it’s own clever (we hope!) title.  These titles are actually defining statements that represent what the general tone of your script should be as your story unfolds.  

Even though each text box is linked to a specific plot point in the main part of Contour, each text box actually represents a range of pages (1-6, 6-12, etc.)

The Guide works as either something you can fill in to broadstroke your story, or something you refer to as you fill in the plot points in Contour to make sure the tone of the plot points matches the general information in the Guide.  Of course, you can flip back and forth between the Guide and the plot points.  The Guide is designed to be both another tool to jar your story ideas loose and get them on paper as well as an easy way to shorthand the major moments of your story.

If you have the full scope of the story in mind, we highly recommend using the Guide first.  By filling in the 12 text boxes of the Guide and then jumping back to the plot points of Contour, you’ll find that you’ll have literally 25% of your plot points finished before you even get started!

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