Is my script big enough, Part 10: Metamorphosis
The final post in a 10-part series Is my script big enough to be a movie?
DOES MY SCRIPT HAVE A BIG ENOUGH PROTAGONIST METAMORPHOSIS ARC?
I have a theory. Beyond entertainment, people watch movies because they want to see characters change. In TV shows, everything from reality TV to sit-coms to police procedurals to home renovation series, it’s mostly about problem-solving. But in a movie, we want to be taken away from the mundane world of solving problems and swept up into a place where in a matter of 120 minutes, a character’s entire life can change — because if we see a character go through a significant psychological metamorphosis, then it reinforces our belief that we can change.
It’s more than just about some generic desire for change. When a movie character endures all the struggles they do through the course of the story and move toward some sense of emotional wholeness, that speaks to one of the most fundamental callings of the human experience.
Carl Jung talks about the process of individuation and that the goal toward which we evolve — or try to — as individuals is unity.
Does the Protagonist in your story start out in Disunity and end up in a Unity state?
Do they go through a world of stuff in Act II, full of tests and challenges, twists and turns, and emerge on the other side, having ‘won’ the Final Struggle to end up in their ‘new’ home (as seen in the Denouement), a transformed person?
That is the big type of psychological event a moviegoer is seeking in a film — to reinforce their belief / hope that they, too, can be transformed, their lot in life can change.
The change doesn’t have to involve geopolitics or a massive plot. Consider the very end of As Good As It Gets where Melvyn (Jack Nicholson)escorts Carol into the bakery:
He kisses her. An awkward bomb of a kiss. They separate.
A tense beat. Then:
MELVIN
I know I can do better.
They embrace again. He does indeed do much better. A
first-class smooch. CAMERA MOVES DOWN to see his foot
land squarely on a crack in the sidewalk without his
knowledge. They break — look at each other without a
notion of where to take it from here, and the ALMOST in
unison begin to walk away FROM CAMERA, Melvin following a
path that avoids cracks. Suddenly the lights of the
bakery turn on as it opens for business.
CAROL
Warm rolls…
They walk to the bakery, Melvin avoiding the cracks. As
they enter the bakery, a WORKER moves toward them to
clean the entranceway. Melvin, forced to step back onto
a crack, this time notices — registers the momentous
fact and joins Carol inside as we:
FADE OUT
Melvin steps on a crack — and survives. He wins out over his obsessive compulsive condition. A tiny event, but one filled with meaning, signifying a big metamorphosis arc.
Not all movies have a Protagonist go through a positive metamorphosis. And in some movies, the Protagonist doesn’t change, rather they are they change agent. But in a majority of movies, the Protagonist does undergo a metamorphosis. It can be a radical transformation or a small one — but it always has to be “momentous” enough to translate into something that can sustain a movie.
So there you: 10 questions you can ask yourself about any script to see if it’s big enough to be a movie.
[Originally posted February 19, 2009]
Links to the entire 10 part Big Enough series:
Part 1: Story Concept
Part 2: Characters
Part 3: Set Pieces
Part 4: Conflict
Part 5: Stakes
Part 6: Visual Style
Part 7: The Beginning
Part 8: The Middle
Part 9: The Ending
Part 10: Metamorphosis