Video: “Raising the Stakes on the Call to Adventure”

Reflections on a screenplay’s Act One end by five-time Black List screenwriter Jonathan Stokes.

Recently, I discovered a video series produced by screenwriter, director, producer, and author Jonathan W. Stokes. It’s called Raising the Stakes and in two seasons, Stokes has created ten videos. Here is his description of the series:

Raising the Stakes is a video essay series about story theory. My hope is that screenwriters, authors, film-lovers, and storytellers of all kinds will find something useful in this channel.

I checked out several of the videos and I found it to be an excellent resource. For example, here is one called: Raising the Stakes on the Call to Adventure.

Stokes makes the point that while the Call to Adventure — often referred to in Hollywood development circles as the Inciting Incident — is important, it’s the Act One end (which Stokes refers to as Raising the Stakes) which actually propels the Protagonist into their journey. How? Stokes cites two elements:

• The Act One end presents the Protagonist with a specific goal.
• This event or chain of events makes that goal a personal one.

The two dynamics combine to raise the stakes.

• By exhibiting a specific goal to the Protagonist, this transforms the general nature of the Call to Adventure into something definable: Go here to accomplish this. In my language system, I call this the Conscious Goal. By the end of Act One, the Protagonist knows what they must do. It’s specific and, therefore, achievable (at least in theory).
• By making that goal personal, it converts the theoretical challenge of the Call to Adventure into something grounded in the distinctive emotional life of the Protagonist. It’s not only Go here to accomplish this. The Conscious Goal is now infused with direct meaning to the Protagonist. This journey you take is the journey you need to take. The Act One end creates an opening for the Protagonist’s…