How To Write A Great Antagonist - Eric Edson [Screenwriting Masterclass]

California State University Northridge (CSUN) Professor Eric Edson [Screenwriting Masterclass] Okay now we're gonna get into the character types here first of all we're going to start with an adversary adversary is the primary opposition for the hero right and it's one person appears unbeatable for you know good hunk of the movie usually throughout throughout Act two they can wear a mask of friendship they can be a wolf in sheep's clothing for a while and then that comes off and they are revealed who they truly are but they have not changed categories they were simply disguised for a while do you remember the fugitive again this goes back a few decades but I was Harrison Ford in his heyday when he was you know an a-list movie star and he is Richard Kimble on the run he was been convicted and condemned condemned to die for his wife's murder which of course is tearing him apart because he really loved her a lot but he has a friend that he had when he was still a doctor and respected and all that he has a friend and when he escapes and goes back home to try to find you know that the one-armed man and all that who who they thought was the real killer this is his friend who he helps him out a little slips him you know whatever cash he's got in his pocket you can't give him a cat you know we can't go to a bank he needs help and this character the this other doctor helps Kimble and and speaks well of him and so forth but what we find out at the end of Act two is the helpful friend doctor that's the adversary who set him up he is he's it he's the bad guy and then in Act three it's all about the resolution between the two of them fight to the death kind of thing so it can they can wear a mask of friendship but that not is not the case they are not always a bad person and you know that and I'm sure you've seen and can think of a whole bunch of adversary characters they're not and bad people they just happened to because of circumstance with the nature of the story they come into opposition with your hero and that can work extremely well sometimes and remember of course the adversary must be one person not an idea not a group it has to be one person or a personification of one person by that I mean jaws or one of those the shark is the adversary there there's another guy who's messing thing as an independent troublemaker and that's the mayor of the town but it's the shark who is the director adversary but it's not just a shark it's a super shark it is the smartest most devious most bold and vicious and and seeking of revenge a shark seeking revenge this is what I mean by when when such a creature an animal becomes your adversary they become more like a person they are personified it seems some we're gonna take a look at something I am Legend the top zombie it's the same thing it is the sentient zombie who becomes the adversary because he can think and plan and hate and he's the only zombie who can do that that kind of thing ok here are some examples some classic examples of adversaries oh heavens who will ever forget Jamie Gumb is that how you pronounce his name down here on the right the nightmares that character gave to lots and lots of people and certainly lots and lots of kids he played it you know the actor who played it it was written so strong and and and drippy with menace and then it was played to the hilt by the actor the poor actor you know for some a couple of years after this he get any more work because everybody took a look at him and said oh that's Jamie Gumb it was so typecast the poor guy he was too good yeah but eventually you know now he works all the time yeah he plays a lot of cop parts oh yeah yeah yeah yeah right yeah yeah oh he's a great actor yes okay that's but this is clean and clear I mean this is the bad guy the crazed killer okay sergeant Foley in an officer and a gentleman that's up up there that was Lou Gossett jr. and he got an Academy Award I think Best Actor Best Supporting supporting Best Supporting Actor he's the drill sergeant and he's not a bad man he's a very good man with a very difficult job he is a drill sergeant whose job it is in these new candidates for flight school these are all the people who want to become jet fighter pilots right and it's his job to weed out the ones who just might get themselves or somebody else killed and he the ones who don't aren't willing to defend and risk themselves to support and defend their their fellow fighter pilots and and he puts a lot of pressure on him to see who cracks and there are several who crack and one of them who almost cracks of course is the hero Richard Gere so he's not a bad man but oh what a challenge and what an adversary he presents to be to the Richard Gere character Miranda Priestly and The Devil Wears Prada ooh a woman who just relishes in crushing people for the pure power of it it's it's marvelously written and marvelously play Karen Crowder that's the character's name from Michael Clayton how many of you have seen Michael Clayton mmm that you got to put on the list Michael Clayton I at the risk perhaps of getting too personal that's one of my favorite films Michael Clayton and that year I was only I know seven eight years ago I was beside myself furious that it was overlooked for the Oscars because there was so much going on there it was a really terrific film and her as the adversary you just got to see this you got to see this she's an executive you know a woman trying to climb her way up in the executive jungle and her interpretation of how that is done is you do anything necessary up to and including murder it's not like she's comfortable with it but she does it and she is the adversary it's great it's a wonderful movie agent Parcher in a beautiful mind this is the beautiful man I used to try to do that in this class but it's too long and it's too complicated and goes you know there's too many things to talk about so it really doesn't work for our purposes but a beautiful mind is the story of a man John Nash a genius physicist and he goes insane he I forget the nature of the insanity but he yes he has hallucinations he talks to people who aren't there I mean his whole career was destroyed by I mean what can you do you go insane they don't employ insane people as professors and scientists but that could have been done whereas I mean what does that mean it means that John Nash is his own worst enemy he is being destroyed from within that means he's his own nemesis however it wasn't done that way when it was turned into a movie the nemesis the adversary has to be one person a real person and so Agent Parcher came onto the scene and was invented agent Parcher is his strongest fantasy although he doesn't know it's a fantasy for you know two-thirds of of act 2 but it's his invention and projection of a person who has control of him and that way okay agent Parcher is the personification the one person adversary that fills in for him being at war with himself because Wars you know battles where people are their own worst enemy as a rule they do not work we can talk about that later if you like I got another example there but agent Parcher and amy done in gone girl okay there's some great examples now then here's here's my first example for you for adversary here's the reason I picked this one sideways how many of you have seen sideways oh good good good most most of you and it's worth it's worth putting down on your lists sideways was an independent small movie outside of the Hollywood mainstream truly I I checked and I believe it was made for around six million dollars total budget its total gross in its in national theatrical release was a hundred million dollars and that's in its first theatrical release yes that I would say against the six million it cost to make it did very well indeed so of course I got it broke it down and it is the paradigm it worked because it is the paradigm writ small as opposed to the big-budget movies where it's writ large but that is the way it is structured beginning to end and one of the things that's unusual about it is that the adversary most people say jack is you know his friend his lothario friend who keeps getting in more and more trouble every single day that that miles the hero had then has to get him out of that he that he's the adversary he is not he is jack in this those who have seen it and may see it soon jack is a comedic sidekick character and the adversary is Miles ex-wife Victoria he is obsessed with and crushed with depression over they got divorced about a year ago he lost his wife Victoria we find out eventually that it was his own fault but you know it's not her fault she didn't just dump him he crossed the line he had an affair etc old story but she is not physically present in most of the movie she is present in two locations this scene which is very early in in the second act and then she shows up and that even that she's not physically present we only hear her voice on the telephone and then she shows up in the obligatory scene remember the the adversary has to be one person or personification because of the obligatory scene that's where they have to show up in the flesh so that the hero and the adversary can go for all the marbles and that's where she shows up which again is proof that she's the adversary but it's done so uniquely and so simply I just I just I really cherish this adversary is not physically present the hero's ex-wife Victoria okay let's see if I can lay this out for you quickly I got to do this like that okay the setup for does a few of you who have not seen it and the setup is that Myles has taken Jack his his good buddy on a bachelor-party trip through wine country in one week Jack will get married and Myles is an on a file and that's why he's taking him to wine country and showing him around he's proud to show him how much he knows about wines but unfortunately Jack has always been a compulsive chaser of women any woman who was in the room he it's like it and it is it's a compulsion and he admits that later on he says you don't know the nature of my problem and it's true it's for him a real problem but that gets him into all kinds of trouble which means it pulls miles into all kinds of trouble okay Jack recently told miles just Matt a few hours before this scene but Jack told miles that his ex-wife Victoria just remarried miles didn't know that obviously because it wasn't invited to her wedding and that four miles in this little movie that is stunning surprise one because he freaks out and he's very childish in his response and he runs back to the car you just talk he's waxing loquacious about the memories of when he came to this beautiful spot where he'd taken Jack under this tree and we had a picnic here and we drank wine and made love and and then Jack breaks it to him he says look I was looking for an opportunity when we were alone to tell you this but Victoria just remarried and and miles comes unglued grabs a bottle of wine runs off into the vineyard as Jack is chasing after him trying to stop him and he's slugging back this is the beginning of act 2 there are remember what we said about act 2 act 2 well act 1 that fades into Act two is the adolescence the character growth in the character growth pattern it's the adolescence of the hero and at the beginning of act 2 miles is quite an adolescent and very childish in his in his moods and and in his depression and that's and that it's laid out for us at the beginning of act 2 this is the nature of what must change within him in the character growth arc right so Jack has just set up this blind double date because he met Stephanie the lady is sitting beside there in that other picture and he's coming on full bore for Stephanie unfortunately he doesn't tell Stephanie that he's going to get married in about five days just a little oversight there and of course that weighs on miles too because miles has a better moral compass than than Jack does about these things and it's troubling him but you know he can't blow it up either jack has set up a blind double date with Stephanie who got a friend of hers to come so basically Maya is miles miles date for the night but he is ignoring her completely because he's getting drunk and he's being depressed miles is lost in the past all and this kept getting repeated and even in in act one even his mother says it he stops off for a scene with his mother he's you know stealing borrowing money or something like that and my mother says oh you should go back with Victoria you two are perfect for each other she is echoing the truth of his suffering he has always felt that they would get back together again and that's his greatest wish and I love double-entendre titles and that's part of a double entendre of the title of the movie which is sideways sideways number one of course means drunk it's another you know another term for tipsy because people move sideways rather than straight ahead they lose balance but sideways is also the way that miles is living his life he can't go ahead he's stuck he's focused completely on the past he wants to step back into the past get that relationship again and he cannot think about moving forward and that's why at the moment he is not communicating very well with the lovely lady Maya at all miles has lost from the pan ass longing to go home to Vicki you can't even and again as a repetition you can't even see this terrific woman Maya right beside him Jack doesn't want a drunk miles to ruin Jack's own chances of sleeping with Stephanie jack is yes a narcissist and he's just worried about his own goals and concerns but he's sweet and he's funny and he is he has told miles do not drink and dial he told him I just outside he's been shaking him is you cannot drink and dial I don't want you spoiling this date so of course miles drinks a lot drinks a lot of wine until it gets good and blasted and he goes to dial stag staggers on back to the pay phone at the back of the restaurant and the dialing of course is to Victoria and so there is a scene here early in the second act where the power of the adversary is demonstrated just here it's only on the telephone she is not physically present okay Victoria answers the phone and he's light hearted and he tries to be you know upbeat about it Oh Jack just told me and I called to say congratulations on your wedding you know and it's all bullshit of course and it slips into Jack's being sarcastic and snide and then crashing pretty much crashing emotionally then he crumbles and says it again and out loud I just always felt someday we'd get back together again and that's become harder now since she's gotten remarried and the adversary still dominates every corner of his life she has the power here you see how that is she is more powerful than he she they divorced she is moving on in life he can't he's stuck because of his immaturity and she says miles don't call me when you're drunk well didn't help and he kind of weaves on back to the table miles still is stuck drifting sideways and more than anything he still wants to go home to Victoria and Jack has just ticked off at him because he's starting to spoil his odds with Stephanie that's that's Jack's fist over the top of the wine bottle cutting him off Myles must learn what true adult unselfish love is it's a really very nice very very well drawn character growth arc he does grow up by the end okay so now we jump to act three and the one other scene the obligatory scene in which the adversary appears at great personal risk Myles has gotten Jack home just in time to be married and the big wedding and stuff right and as you can see in the picture with the bandage Jack has had his nose broken for those of you who haven't seen the way he gets his nose broken is when Stephanie finally finds out that in 24 hours he's going to get married to somebody else and she whacks him really hard and breaks his nose okay but Myles is the hero and Myles has grown in the second half of the second act because Jack gets himself into such deep trouble and it's pretty pretty outrageous and it is a hilarious comedy and it's it works it all works it's awfully well written but he has made sacrifices and take taken great personal risks to get miles back and get him married he has matured and so he must face the obligatory scene and here comes Victoria Victoria comes up to him and introduces her new husband and rather than the childish reaction that he got at the beginning of act 2 he's hurt yes he's wounded he's just you know awful things emotionally are going on inside of this guy but the new husband can is is is respectful he offers a handshake he's glad to meet him and all that and then Ken makes himself scary she says I'll give you guys a minute and I'll go get the car you know he's a class act really this guy miles discovers Ken is actually a decent guy miles is suffering yes but he deals with it by also offering respect in return so they chat a little bit more he's no longer behaving like a child like he was several times earlier and that's a good thing and miles says well let's go to the reception and toast to your wedding only this time he almost means it and Victoria says oh she's not going to the reception she's given up drinking and that's kind of strange two miles because they were wine drinkers and they shared that passion when they were together and ken comes up and she says I need a minute more and this all sets up for what's coming you know those of you who have seen it then the final Tet I mean she's sweet about it she has taken the time to make sure he knows in advance this is an honorable thing for her to be doing and the final test and the final blow she says as gently as she can I'm pregnant for a guy like miles that is truly the hardest kick in the vitals he could possibly receive and Victorian can't head off to their future lives together and miles now knows there's absolutely no road back that's it her life is settled and set in another way and he is not part of it that's never going to happen he must love her enough to finally let her go and then there's this lovely little kind of quasar Daniel mall scene where that is his victory at last he closes the door on the past and he throws himself a growing up party he opens his best and most expensive outrageously expensive bottle wine which he was always saving for a very very special occasion well now he opens it alone in a burger joint to toast to the salt and a solitary farewell toast to Victoria and the past and to a hope for a new start in the future for himself okay I got a bit far afield there because it's a small movie and small movies are more about interpersonal things than than the larger movies and in order to understand the adversary and the power she has over this hero you need to know some of this stuff but this is an extra for this story and this hero this is an extraordinarily successful adversary character she's in true scenes in the whole movie that's another way of doing it okay and these are the requirements primary opposition for the hero yes appears unbeatable for a long long time she sure peers unbeatable and and she's going to take him down a very bad emotional trail can wear the mask of friendship not relevant not always a bad person she's not she's a true sweetheart must be a person and so she is so you can see some of these are fulfilled in this particular adversary and some of them are not

Channel: Film Courage

Views: 29,751

Rating: 4.91717 out of 5

Keywords: story solution, 23 actions all great heroes must take, screenwriting tips, screenwriting techniques, screenwriting 101, screenwriting for beginners, screenwriting advice, screenwriting career, screenwriting, Eric edson, filmcourage, film courage, interview, screenwriter interview, screenwriter, writing evil characters, writing villains

Id: mkSZOCcBLhI

Length: 25min 49sec (1549 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 03 2019