Seizing the Sword

Once past the Ordeal, the hero is ready to Seize the Sword, says Chris Vogler. In July we received development funding for THE MORTAL COIL. Next it was selected into SPAAmart and now the AFC is funding the production of the animation ACID SUN, after only one application. It sounds like OZZYWOOD Films is seizing the sword. What is the secret? And is the Ordeal now finally over??
I have just returned from SPAAmart, Australia's film financing market, where Wojciech and I pitched THE MORTAL COIL to twenty-four industry executives from Australia and overseas. It was only the second time ever I applied for this competitive market. One hundred percent hit rate. Luck? Possibly. But my recent string of successes cannot be ignored as an unusually high hit rate. An AFC project manager with impressive film credits recently told an audience how his applications used to be rejected at a rate of 8/1. No future for me as an AFC project manager, I guess...

If luck is one factor, what other factors are there? The talent of the writer, first and foremost. I have the honour and the pleasure of working with brilliant people. Without an interesting concept you can edit until the cows come home. THE MORTAL COIL has the support of Richard Taylor at the famous Weta Workshop in Wellington. Given the amazing track record of that effects house, their attachment is a major bonus and it helps convincing decision makers that this project will fly.


STORY VS. SCRIPT EDITING

There is no doubt in my mind that the story development approach is another crucial factor in those recent funding successes. I used to get sucked into reading, analysing and assessing screenplays. Most scripts have enough weaknesses on the scene level for a script editor to provide his money's worth in surface level feedback. The writer takes on board all the comments and does a - often completely useless - rewrite. My rejection rate used to be higher than average until I changed my development strategy. By focusing on the story, the writer doesn't touch the screenwriting software until the structure works. This sounds like a longer process, but the reality is just the opposite.

If there is an easier way, why do we keep getting caught in this trap? Why do we all give feedback based on the script? I believe that we are scared to tell you - the writer - to fundamentally review the story. What if you walked away to find yourself another editor? It would mean the potential loss of some hard-earned business. Will those essential story changes guarantee a movie that works? Of course not. The most quoted line in the movie industry is William Goldman's "Nobody knows anything." But a well-structured story will increase the chances that better people read your script and give you better feedback so you get a step closer to funding.

Once you have successfully applied the principles of story structure and you've made it past the Ordeal of story and script development, remember Vogler and don't confuse the Sword with the Elixir. I, too, am fully aware that the Final Confrontation is yet to come.


SHORT FILMS AND THE PRINCIPLES OF STORY STRUCTURE

The Australian Film Commission is paying $60,000 towards the production of ACID SUN, the first project I took on as a producer after becoming a father late 2004. Parental responsibility had brought with it a greater focus and a more radical selection of projects and short films just didn't seem to cut it any longer. “Short films no longer work as a calling card.” or: “Short films can’t move an audience the way a feature does.” "They don’t make any money". Above all: I believed short films lack demonstrable narrative principles.

My involvement in AEROSOL opened my eyes. It taught me the importance of rigorous story development, even for short films. AEROSOL, an outstanding directing achievement by Wojciech, was selected into more than twenty film festivals but it only captured one significant prize. Hardly a successful conversion rate. The film is heavily effects-driven and makes a beautiful poetic statement about the society we live in. How could juries all around the world be so wrong and not honour this gem with an abundance of prizes?

I joined the project after the initial producer was fired. The film had already received funding and the script was locked off, so I proceeded immediately to getting the film made without questioning the script. When it became apparent that AEROSOL was not winning any prizes I finally analysed the story's structure, which revealed another good reason why the first producer should have been fired: he didn't have a clue about story. The film lacks a second act.

AEROSOL starts with the ordinary life of a worker, whose routine is soon disturbed by an ant: the inciting incident. Then starts a cat-and-mouse game between the two, which lasts until a major reversal. In a classically told story this reversal would have been the First Act Turning Point, defining the protagonist's objective. Instead what follows feels very much like a Third Act, with the ant now being the more active character and the only one showing a visible objective. Finally, a poetic epilogue ponders over the things that matter in our society. The ending leaves our characters' journeys very much open.

Regardless of its structure, AEROSOL is a beautiful statement and many people have genuinely enjoyed the film as a wonderful piece, both artistically and philosophically. But emotionally, it does not fulfill our instinctive needs for a three act story.

Looking back, it was an obvious oversight of myself to not critically examine the film's storyline (and I shouldn't blame the first producer no matter how little he cared). But how many of us really do analyse the structure of short films? In the case of AEROSOL, even the FTO assessors didn't pick up on the story flaws although a rewrite would have taken a fraction of the effort it took to produce the film. And the film would have won prizes.

If you want to read more about structure for short films, you might check out Writing Short Films by Linda Cowgill, who came to the same conclusion, only seven years earlier.


RECOMMENDED: THE HERO'S 2 JOURNEYS

Last year I purchased POWERSTRUCTURE from the guys at WriteBrain and they offered a massive discount on a DVD box set called THE HERO'S 2 JOURNEYS. They explained it was voted DVD of the year or something by the Australian Cinematographers Society. I wasn't turned off the idea so much by the ACS reference - I'm about to believe our DOPs understand story better than our screenwriting teachers - but there is something very inconvenient about screenwriting theory on a video/DVD. I did end up paying the additional USD$$$ because 1) the discount was really huge and 2) I love the guys at WriteBrain, they know their stuff.

Lucky. This is pure gold. Michael Hague talks in crystal clear terms about what makes a good protagonist and what are the essential steps for an outer journey to work. Next, Christopher Vogler sheds some light on the workings of the hero's inner journey. In a strong drama the one never goes without the other, so it makes perfect sense to discuss the hero's 2 journeys together and this DVD set does it brilliantly. Finally the theory is applied to Steven Soderbergh's blockbuster ERIN BROCKOVICH. Another stroke of luck: I found a perfect way around the inconvenience of the medium. A software program called DVD Audio Extractor literally changed my life. I now rip DVD sound to mp3 and listen to it on my Creative Zen while walking the dog. The same way I listen to DVD commentaries. I recommend you do the same and keep THE HERO'S 2 JOURNEYS among those mp3s you never delete from your player (like Robert McKee's audio book version of STORY).

Just Ad Words

No post in September as I had other matters to attend to (photo). If you want the whole story, you may have to brush up on your Dutch.

You may be set in your writing ways and happy with your Underwood or whatever other writing tool you are using. In that case you better skip to the DVD Commentary section. Otherwise, here are some tips to save you the money and frustration I sacrificed on my way to stardom.

Being a decent citizen, a few years ago I replaced my pirate version of Final Draft with a legit copy, hoping the bugs would go. Now I believe it was the equivalent of going to see THE DA VINCI CODE in the cinema. I was caught in the trap of some excellent marketing. But what should you expect from a screenwriting package? Let's put things in perspective.

The last time I checked, Final Draft cost AUD$569, or roughly the same as the entire Microsoft Office Suite. All that, while some simple MS Word macros or style sheets can achieve what Final Draft does? Plus: you have the wildest flexibility in terms of backups, tracking changes, spell-checking, saving online etc. If you don't have MS Office or you hate Bill G.: OpenOffice. Free.

If you're really dying to part with your money on a script package, explore Movie Magic Screenwriter (formerly: Screenwriter 2000). Cheaper than Final Draft and better value for money in my view.

But why pay? A new, totaly FREE piece of software is called Celtx. Still in its infancy but growing rapidly, with a smart development team behind it and community-oriented.

Celtx intends to go a lot further than just the screenwriting bits: it aims at becoming the central command post for your film's entire project management. If they manage to stay afloat, it may well become a filmmakers' software of choice.

Now, if you believe that any of the above will help you writing better scripts, you have fallen prey to the Film Industry's Greatest Con. These are all just word processors with serious formatting limitations. Jazzed-down versions of MS Word if you wish.

Here is my advice for the cash-poor: don't spend a cent on script formatting and save your money for software that helps you with the hard work. Instead labour on the story using Dramatica Pro, John Truby's Blockbuster or best of all: Powerstructure.

I prefer the last one, as it distinguishes itself from the others in pretty much the same way MM Screenwriter does among the script software. Powerstructure has immense flexibility, allows you to write full scenes, just one liners, or whatever in between you feel comfortable with.

You can customise it to your own favourite structure, be it three acts, sequences or Vogler's THE HERO'S JOURNEY, then export directly to a text file or into whatever script software you use. If you're a member of that circle of writers who first write their entire first draft before starting to outline, you can import your existing script to reshape its structure. Admitted, I've had a few quirks doing that but the PS support team helped me out.

Powerstructure makes a lot of sense, as it works in the way most movie decision makers think. It is being distributed by the wonderful guys at WriteBrain, where you can download a trial version.

Even better than burning your money on software: give it to a human story/script editor who could really make a difference for you. ;-)


DVD COMMENTARY: McCABE AND MRS MILLER

I found a downright great commentary on this unsung masterpiece by writer/director Robert Altman, in which Warren Beatty opens a whorehouse in the Old West.

Although thirty-five years old, this movie could be seen today alongside the razorsharp doco THE CORPORATION and - to a lesser extent - AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH. It ultimately tackles corporatisation and if you wish globalisation within the genre of the western. And as the commentary puts it: Altman won't give you a John Wayne type of Western hero. No. Warren Beatty's protagonist will shoot you in the back if his life depends on it.

The voice recording of this commentary track is so crystal clear you can literally hear producer David Foster's watch ticking in the background as he explains why every man and his dog in Hollywood wants to work with this director. I agree: Altman has a vision and integrity that is so rare you won't even find it with masters like Scorsese. Unlike the latter, Altman will NEVER make 'one for the Studio'.

My favourite bits are the account of Leonard Cohen's musical collaboration, Altman's hilarious tirade about western's big hats and the master's view on dialogue:

"The dialogue in these kinds of films [...] is part of the character [...]. It is not the words that are important. [...] That's too related to theater, where you [...] advance plot with the words. When you have close-ups of people and faces [...], it's just better that the words come from the moment or from the actors themselves."

Altman makes this statement in the context of Beatty's soliloquies in the film. He asked Beatty to mumble to himself inaudibly before actually delivering the crucial lines in soliloquy. As a result, the audience is used to the character talking to himself in a more or less natural way. And here is the mark of a good commentary: the director sharing with us his struggles to make the movie work.

DVD COMMENTARY: ANTZ

Recently I consulted to a team of comedy writers, which was a completely new and refreshing experience to me. As I'm not a comedy expert, I focused on the (lack of) drama in the script and afterwards the writers were happy enough about the outcome to hire me again for a look at the next stage.

Comedies that don't work often still work on the scene level but they have issues with the overall story arc. Situations and dialogue may be absolutely hilarious. If there's no dramatic undercurrent, the audience WILL switch off.

I found a quote on the commentary of ANTZ that makes the exact same point about the input from Jeffrey Katzenberg (photo), who was uncredited producer (and the "K" in Dreamworks SKG):

"We added a lot of comedy kind of after the fact. It's one of the things that Jeffrey Katzenberg really pushes hard: get the drama to work because if you're rely on the comedy, you're gonna loose the audience's interest in the characters. So sure enough we really focused on the drama and afterwards we [...] ended up upping just the silliness of it, the humor of it."

This charming animation, in which Woody Allen voices the neuroses of the ant "Z", dates from the turbulent days when Dreamworks went head to head with Disney's A BUG'S LIFE. Ironically it was Katzenberg who had sealed the deal between Pixar and Disney.

Directors Johnson and Darnell don't deliver by far the cutthroat commentary we're used to hear from the Pixar guys, but they do give some insight in their struggles during the development. Notably their work on the character of Princess Bala (Sharon Stone) and her relationship with the protagonist are interesting from a story point of view.

Structuring The Facts

Turning real events into a working screen drama is a hell of a challenge. Whether it be a historical movie, biography or docu-drama, the smart screenwriter remains true to the spirit of the subject rather than an accurate report of the events. Plus: the principals of drama must dictate how the story is (re-)structured. UNITED 93 turns out a phenomenal success on all fronts.

Have you noticed the almost unnerving consensus that this is great movie? The SMH gave it 9/10 in yesterday's paper, Roger Ebert hands out four stars, on IMDb it scores 7.8/10. Who believes that the magnitude of the events guaranteed the movie would work, should check out the TV dud "FLIGHT 93" and think again. I believe here's a hell of a great script at work.

I watched Paul Greengrass' movie last weekend and was truly impressed. When I had recovered from the emotional rollercoaster ride, something quite unexpected dawned upon me: this story boasts an amazingly conventional structure.

If you go with me that the protagonist in this movie is made up from the collective passengers of the flight, you'll agree the film reflects the following 3-act structure:

- ACT ONE: Boarding until cruise altitude; hijackers take control.
- ACT TWO/A: Passengers try to notify the ground.
- REVERSAL: News of the WTC attacks - this is a suicide flight.
- ACT TWO/B: Passengers prepare to fight back.
- ACT THREE: Attack on the cockpit and crash.

An important subplot dominates the first half of the movie and intertwines with the First Act: Ben Sliney's struggle at the FAA to stay in control of the US air space. Here I'd like to refer to my very first post and my structural note on SCHINDLER'S LIST and THE INSIDER. Both movies start with a major subplot, in the case of THE INSIDER possibly even a second protagonist. Once we're in the Second Act of the subplot, the main story kicks in. Same here: we're well into Ben Sliney's Second Act before the action on board United 93 starts.

For all above reasons - and I know this one is hard to prove - I believe the movie would have worked fine for anybody completely unfamiliar with the 9/11 events. While we sit through the relatively uneventful First Act (if you don't know what's coming up), we empathise with Ben Sliney whose air traffic controllers are steadily losing control.

You may argue that this structure is a mere reflection of the facts. Don't forget filmmakers have always made their own choices about how and which events are presented over the course of the available screentime. With this subject matter I don't believe Greengrass really had to be this rigorous in his structuring for the movie to have an adequate effect. Still he did. Why? To create maximum empathy with the protagonists. And boy it pays off!

It's waiting now until October to find out what Oliver Stone did with WORLD TRADE CENTER, but the rumours are positive.