Screenwriting Masterclass | The 8-Sequence Hero's Journey

and for those who are new i wanted to give us a quick overview of what these master classes are all about so these master classes cover one topic every week i've got about 50 topics in screenwriting to give you an idea what sort of things we've covered over the past months we talked about the concept how do you write log lines the major event or the inciting incident or the call to adventure as we'll call it today working with theme point of view is a big one i talk about point of view a lot because it is critically important and it is gravely misunderstood not enough teachers talk about it and most professional screenwriters i work with acknowledge that this is one of the key elements that can fail a screenplay so the point of view scene writing that should be scene writing and writing action now structural models we've done that only a few weeks back and some of you were there and that was a really good introduction to today's class as well as the follow-up masterclass we did on fractal structure now those two are free and they are on my youtube channel so if you want to brush up feel free to go there and check out those two masterclasses one on structure models in screenwriting and the other one on fractal structure now if you were not there and you don't know what i'm talking about let's do a quick recap of what you need to know about structure before we dive into the hero's journey today most of you will be familiar with the the hero's journey and the three act structure the three-act structure roughly represented looks a bit like this why do we have these structural models now they are analytical they're observational they're descriptive descriptive not prescriptive what it means is it gives you an idea of how most stories are put together and what they look like when you experience them and how they feel not necessarily what the screenwriters used or did as they were writing the screenplays now if you were to draw a tension graph that is the experience of the viewer of a movie over the time of running which is two hours and you track their blood pressure and their breathing and you know the the the humidity on the skin whether they sweat or not you're probably that's what you do with a polygraph right you'd probably get a graph that looks similar to the stock market graph which is a rising graph so a great film has a rising tension throughout with peaks and troughs now if you then identify where the the greatest peaks and troughs are you'll find that this is roughly in the same vicinity on average for most movies now if we collapse that onto a timeline we end up with something like an eight sequence structure i didn't come up with that that credit goes to paul golino um and i'm going to quote galino a few times i highly recommend his book which is screenwriting the sequence approach one of the best books on screenwriting that's currently available um also essential reading is obviously chris vogel is the writer's journey and if you read what the writer's journey you should do that in conjunction with watching movies and trying to analyze them and in that respect this book by stuart voitila called myth and the movies is a great companion as well so this is the structure that we will be following today and most of this master class is going to be clips it's going to be film uh segments that illustrate where we are in that journey in that timeline if you did my master class on structure you may remember this this one where the red indicates an event that's something that happens to the main character a major event happening to the hero in this case um the on the broad timeline we call that the call to adventure or the inciting incident and then the green indicates where most of the action is as in the character responding to that event through action there seems to be nothing across sequences a and b now that's just for the sake of representation because if you you were to look at what is happening there we can simplify that by saying there's most action mostly action leading into a major event at the end of that first sequence which event that is we'll come back to as we go into the detail of our clips but really you could say and obviously everything is in some way simplifying and generalizing you can't get around it because every film is ultimately unique but we do see these patterns if you were to look at that pattern in sequence a where you have action leading into a climactic event that's essentially what you're going to have over most of the film's timeline so we're going to have that seven times because the eighth time we don't have that major event at the end although there are films that do it for effect and the incredibles is one that if i had enough time i would certainly show that to you but usually i take a full day to go through the clips that i like to show in the context of the hero's journey so today i had to be um yeah i had to be more selective sequence a what is sequence a all about i'd say it's about showing the characters strength and weakness we're talking about the hero and for most of the examples here we'll have a single protagonist i will show a few examples where we have more than one and that complicates matters and if you're a beginning screenwriter i wouldn't recommend to go there until you master the single protagonist journey you prepare your call to adventure and i think this is a really important one it's also underestimated you are using that first sequence to set up everything you need to make that call to adventure as impactful as possible ultimately everything in your script needs to serve a purpose and to me the the main purpose of sequence a is to really make it clear to the audience that what's going to happen at the end of that sequence is going to be really uh important it's going to be a really big deal to our hero in sequence a we also introduce what we call the ordinary world that's the normal world of our character before they go into this journey of change and if the writing works if the film works usually at the end the world may have changed a bit at least from the perspective from the pov of our main character i'm going to talk about the energy in these stages because i think that is really important the energy of a sequence has an impact on how the audience experiences it and film is all about emotion the emotion the audience goes through as they watch the film i say film i don't say tv now much of what i say does also apply to television but it's much more difficult to apply the eight sequence structure to television because the sequences are 10 to 15 minutes in television that equates to an act so when you have a one hour tv program usually you have four acts and those are rarely subdivided further so you'd say we have eight sequences in feature film and four acts in a one hour tv drama so energy is something i'll be talking about a lot in that first sequence the energy is one of fragile equilibrium the hero is getting by they're not happy there's something in their lives that needs to be changed that they need to address and the end of sequence a in my books is always their call to adventure there's always a major event that happens to our character that pushes them onto their journey that pushes them to act they don't act immediately or they don't act in the appropriate way immediately they don't take decisive action as we will see in a minute but at least there is the motivation and that's why this call to adventure so important provides the motivation for the action in the rest of the film the first clip i'm going to show is from a film you've all seen i hope you at least all know it's a new hope it's star wars episode four and the clip i'll show is not one that is shared a lot because it is in that setup phase and what what it does here the function of this scene is to set up that fragile equilibrium the fact that luke skywalker is not happy and he is waiting for something to happen this is a great example of a scene that sets us up for the call to adventure when that call then happens we understand how important it is to look and why he needs to act upon it so here's that scene i think those new choices are going to work out fine in fact i uh also think about our agreement about me staying on another season and if these new droids do work out i want to transmit my application to the academy this year you mean the next semester before the hardest sure there's more than enough droids harvest is when i need you the most only one season more this year we'll make enough on the harvest that i'll be able to hire some more hands and then you can go to the academy next year you must understand i need you but it's a whole other year but it's only one more season oh and he can't stay here forever most of his friends have gone it means so much to it luke is not happy obviously and he needs to join the rebel force and this scene indicates that now later um the the actual call to adventure which i won't have in this class but which again you all know is the scene in which he sees the hologram the plea from uh princess leia where she calls out for help that's his prompt that's his catalyst and then there's this there's a time of refusal and that we're gonna get into for our next sequence but first jaws another great example of a movie that you should watch for structure it's a fantastic structural exercise in this scene we see chief brodie in the kitchen we see a little bit about his character and then the call comes in the phone call that will indicate uh what's up for change mom i got cut hit by a vampire you guys were playing on those swings those swings are dangerous stay off there i haven't fixed them yet i think you're gonna live but it's not the biggest thing i've ever seen in my life yeah can i go swimming yeah but let me clean this thing off first what do they usually do why not make sure [Music] 15 20 minutes all right i'll draw you off okay okay come on get a bamboo gotta go season hasn't started nobody's even here yet listen chief be careful will you in this town get on i want my cup back get it okay bye [Music] okay there's a few reasons why i wanted to show you this clip first of all we see chief brody not taking responsibility his son comes in from playing on the swings his hands are bleeding and he says the swings are dangerous i told you and that's a pattern he always tells people not to do this not to do that when some things are dangerous but he doesn't take responsibility he doesn't change things he doesn't fix the problem endures the exact same thing for half of the film he's telling the people not to go into the water it's not until the second half of the film that he actually does something about it so the midpoint reversal brings that awareness and changes his his actions i'm going to skip the next clip which was from the film lion which is very simple an indian boy who gets lost and then needs to get back home it is the his moment of realization when he's far away from home in this case 1600 kilometers that um you know the the film really starts that's the call to adventure this one you've probably seen it's a really simple one from the film inception uh where dom cobb gets the mission brought to him hey mr crowd how would you like to go home to america to your children you can't fix that no one can just like inception cop come on how complex is the idea simply enough no idea is simple when you need to plant it in somebody else's mind my main competitor is an old man in poor health his son will soon inherit control of the cooperation i need him to decide to break up his father's empire god we should walk away from this hold on if i were to do this if if i even could do it i need a guarantee how do i know you can deliver you don't but i can't so do you want to take a leap of faith or become an old man filled with regret waiting to die alone assembly team mr call and choose your people more wisely after chief brodian jaws got the call he drove off in his car and after dom cobb gets his call to adventure saito takes off in the helicopter to me those are images of thresholds after important moments in the film often we see motion we see movement and i like to say that whenever we see movement in the film there needs to be that motivation something important needs to be happened needs to have happened so the hero moves forward to the next stage even if it is visualized through a different character here satan um but cobb is still traveling is at this airport at uh this particular point in time or at the end of sequence a we are not catapulted into the story so there is an opportunity to break through that fragile equilibrium that i spoke about it's not always equally clear where that point is even in super successful films and the one we're going to look at next is avatar it's not always 100 clear where the call to adventure in the film really is we need to look at what the impact is on the character and how that leads to the final outcome of the film in avatar i believe that call to adventure is his first experience jake's first experience in the avatar body because that ultimately motivates his actions and his final choices in the film let's have a look what that looks like hey guys hey it's okay i'll get him jake you have to come jake jake excuse me sorry come on jake we're not supposed to be running sorry watch it [Music] hey marine damn grace well who'd you expect numbnuts think fast motor control is looking good [Music] he's loving it he's loving this experience and if you were unsure whether this was really an event happening to our main character well cameron put that shot in there of jake in the pod with the eyes moving that indicates that this is happening to him you know it is it's it looks as if it is something he doesn't take active active part in it happens to him he experiences the avatar body for the first time and he loves it and ultimately that will lead to his final uh decision in his life then we go to gravity what i uh consider a very successful film it's not one of my favorite but it's a film that is worthy of study because it's so well made in the sequence in sequence a we see ryan played by sandra bullock at work which is her ordinary world and then there's the call to adventure something goes wrong explorer this is houston go ahead houston mission abort repeat mission abort initiate emergency disconnect from hubble begin reentry procedure iss initiate emergency evacuation copy all houston and in work matt immediate return to explore repeat immediate return to explore copy explorer prep airlock airlock engaged ready to receive how long are these sequences it depends it depends on the film it depends on the requirements of the story it also depends on where in the story you are some sequences are longer than others on average it's safe to say that most sequences lie between 10 and 15 minutes in gravity it takes 10 minutes to get to this point where the call to adventure kicks in another film that we're going to follow a little bit more closely in this class is toy story 2. it's a wonderful film it's a little bit more complex because it has two points of view on the one hand there's woody the other is buzz the most active character is not woody because everything happens to woody on the big picture level and buzz and his team of toys are there to save woody now when the main thing happens when the major event the call to adventure happens everybody is witnessing this it happens to woody but buzz and the toys are watching and everybody realizes something really important something bad has happened oh no andy let's go molly's already in her car seat but mom woody's arm wrapped oh no maybe we can fix him on the way no just leave him i'm sorry honey but you know toys don't last forever what happened what has been shelved candy [Music] woody woody honey are you okay he clearly is not mostly these calls to adventure are negative experiences they're not positive opportunities although there are films where it feels like it's a positive opportunity you could argue that in inception dom cops opportunity to seize children again is positive you could argue that in avatar jake running and feeling being alive again you could argue that that is a positive opportunity but mostly it is something that that cuts into the ordinary life of the hero and they don't like it just the way you just saw in toy story 2. just the way you see it in you know blade runner i had that clip yesterday where decard is arrested he was eating noodles and he's being arrested he doesn't like that in groundhog day phil connors is stuck into this in this recurring day he doesn't like that so mostly the calls to adventure are negative the reason i'm focusing on the end of the sequences here is that's what you build towards as a writer you build climaxes you need to deliver a big moment every 10 to 15 minutes because that's what people remember and everything in between is build up is set up to to make that experience work let's go into the second sequence that's sequence b it's the sequence that we call or in the hero's journey we call the refusal of the call i like to call it the think think phase it's where the hero needs to figure out what to do after that major event that just happened so the refusal in the euros journey sometimes we also have a meeting with a mentor in this stage somewhere the energy of this stage is one of doubt of self-doubt often hesitation and that's all before the decision is made to act often at the end of this sequence we'll have another traumatic event sometimes even an event that is worse than the one we saw at the call to adventure and then at the end of the sequence we see with that traumatic event the hero gets a final nudge to ultimately do what they need to do force their cooperation or hammer them hard if they won't let's do with augustine on paper you walk like one of her science pukes you quack like one but you report to me do you do that for me son hell yeah sir well all right then son i take care of my own you get me what i need i'll see to it you get your legs back when you rotate home your real legs that sounds real good sir now more than 11 years old but still strong avatar the reason i go back to that film a lot is that there are not very many films that overtook the popularity in the box office success of avatar since then most of those are marvel movies which means they are based on pre-existing ip they're not original stories they're not stories that you can write or will write so avatar was an original story although you can argue about the originality of the structure but in that respect nothing is original it is a really really powerful film to analyze and to study so i recommend you do that we're going to die hard now which remains a classic people rewatch it every year and it's it's still strong the call to adventure in die hard is when john mclean sees a gruber and his men enter the building and take people hostage at that christmas party the character you see here is um takagi he is the ceo and we're now heading towards the end of the second sequence when mclean saw gruber take these hostages he didn't immediately intervene he let things happen and he was thinking and he still hadn't come up with a solution and now this happens in the at the end of this second sequence sequence b now he witnesses something that makes him realize that he must act one two three you don't know it i'm telling you get on the jet to tokyo to ask the chairman i'm telling you you're just gonna have to kill me okay another traumatic event in star wars a new hope at the end of sequence b luke skywalker finds his uncle and auntie dead [Music] there's nothing you could have done luke had you [Music] you'd have been killed too and the droids would now be in the hands of the empire i want to come with you to alderaan there's nothing for me here now i want to learn the ways of the force and become a jedi like my father so that was the final nudge luke skywalker needed a traumatic event and he's in the presence of his mentor here obi-wan the mentor is often there when the hero leaves the ordinary world goes into the special world we saw the scene with jake and colonel where the colonel gave instructions to jake and we we saw the goal formulated so the goal for the film both in avatar and uh to a degree here in star wars as well so he's going to join the jedi forces mentors often accompany our hero when they transition into the special world we call that the threshold so this shot you see here um with this hovercraft they're they're traveling to the mos eisley bar and from there they go into deep space it's a geographic transitioning into act two the same happens in low budget films one of my favorite low budget films of the past few decades now is frozen river a sundance film made for only four hundred thousand dollars and it shows that the film director here understood the importance of the end of sequence b the importance of the transitioning into act two and relatively uh a significant chunk of money was spent on this shot when they didn't have drones yet and you needed to use a crane and cranes were very expensive still are if you need to hire them for the day this is so [ __ ] stupid it's a story of a mother racist mother who has to smuggle people across this river into the indian reservation and next to her is her mentor in the car and the mentor is a native american woman you see the lingering shot indicating this is a big moment for our hero she's crossing a threshold she's literally crossing a threshold but also metaphorically into that special world we're going to toy story 2 now where at the end of sequence b woody is taken away we saw that in a mini version in our fractal structure class where we saw a wheezy being taken away and that was witnessed by woody here woody is now taken away it's witnessed by buzz buzz try tries to stay with him but fails and there's separation again at the end of sequence b we see woody disappear it's a threshold moment and now buzz is set up as the hero for this film he needs to go and save woody why would someone steal woody end of sequence b often there is a scene or a shot that bookends or underscores the fact that we are at an important juncture for the film the example i'm going to give you now is from somewhat older film sunset boulevard the billy wilder written and directed and we see gillis you may remember him from our pitching class last week gill is witnessing the burial of a monkey in the house of this uh long you know the actress whose glory is long gone [Music] it was all very queer but queer things were yet to come so go to black it's a wipe it's a vertical wipe that indicates the end of an act and there's also some anticipation queer things to come so that is setting some suspense that brings us into sequence c but i believe there was a question so let's pause momentarily see if anyone else had any questions anthony you had a question back in relation to inception i i found it interesting um because the agent character who gives the call to adventure um to leonardo dicaprio um he states um you'll become an old man with regrets i found that interesting because he used that description because towards the end the asian character ends up in that state like he's an old man looks like he's got regrets and so why was there a symbolic reason why the guy who gave the challenge the cult of adventure ended up in exactly that state yeah yeah nice well you've observed that very well that's an element of irony and and it's subtext you know there is a subtextual reference to later in the film that often happens you know in in toy story 2 we have at some point woody telling buzz that he is a toy he's not a spain space ranger and that is used against um him by buzz at the end of the story as well so that too is is uh subtext often that goes towards a theme um not sure if that's the case in inception but it's definitely um it's a nice setup yeah you've well spotted well done all right any other questions by anyone at this stage no now let's keep going we're going into act 2 now sequence c let me share the screen again the second act is we'll see the hero do their first attempt make their first attempt at solving the problem and doing the action whichever action was triggered by the major event we have an introduction to the new world we'll be introduced to allies and enemies and much of the challenge for the hero is to distinguish between allies and enemies and again it doesn't matter what sort of story you're telling in that low-budget art house film that we just saw a clip from a frozen river as soon as our heroine has crossed the river um she's confronting exactly that this someone approaches the car and she doesn't quite know whether to trust that person but that's what her mentor is there for in star wars we go into the cantina uh on moscow luke skywalker doesn't know who to trust but that's what obi-wan is there for so distinguish between allies and enemies the energy of this third sequence is one of um sorry not yeah there's still denial there's absolute denial in the sense that the hero is acting in their own ways but there is energy and there is fun and games this it's it's naive in a sense so the hero acts by their own ways and it's not until the midpoint reversal that they become more aware and the denial kind of goes away um the final nudge um that was from the previous stage i'm sorry that was an error this is a an establishing shot in avatar and you you'll often have that when we go into sequence c to bookend what we've just had it could be a threshold could also be an establishing shot that gives us a breather the first moments in avatar sequence c look like this um uh often that new world comes across threatening to the hero hero doesn't know whether these creatures um you know can kill him he doesn't know how to deal with it so he's learning new skills it's a new environment and he will have a new ally very soon to deal with this and that will then become his love interest nate theory often at the beginning of that sequence c as i said the hero will start performing the action that they were hired for so to speak we see that in arrival where our lead played by amy adams is called in to communicate with the aliens and so the threshold is going to that place and sequence c starts with the first trip up into the spaceship to have the first conversation with the aliens 10 feet [Music] same in die hard john mcclane now needs to deal with the situation rather than sit and wait and he needs to come up with possible solutions those solutions are rarely successful in the first half of act two and here is his first attempt at dealing with gruber the [ __ ] didn't you stop him john cause then you beat dead too [ __ ] thank god damn it think [Music] [Music] we've got a fire alarm gravity the goal was to reach the international space station and then go into the soyuz capsule and then use the soyuz to return to earth that is sequence c in gravity she is still together with her pal matt played by george clooney and um there is definitely a sense of fun and games because the two get along really well but remarkably and and surprisingly this sequence c doesn't end very well in the sense that this is where she has to let go of matt ryan let go no you're not going anywhere you're not going anywhere it's not up to you please don't do this you're gonna make it right no it's a surprisingly powerful ending to this sequence sequence d uh sorry sequence c doesn't usually have a memorable moment but in this film which is about 19 minutes 92 minutes i think this happens at around 32 minutes so very early you would expect this to happen more towards the end of sequence d or the midpoint reversal now gravity does have quite a spectacular and suspenseful end of sequence d as well but the the letting go of the hero that usually happens around the midpoint reversal in this case i think it is a little bit earlier so sequence d what happens in sequence d it's really a matter of trying harder the hero doesn't change their ways they're just doing the same thing but they push harder we'll see repeated failure so if sequence c didn't lead to success sequence d may have a a false victory first but that then reverses at the end with the midpoint reversal and there will be a second failure the energy is anger so where the energy of c was positive often in d we just try harder doing the same and as often there's a little bit of anger in there and the end of that sequence often uh becomes a midpoint reversal midpoint reversal can be a moment it become it can become also its own sequence in that case you would have a nine sequence structure where you you know you would replace um sequence e i have done quite a few videos on midpoint midpoint reversal there's a master class about it there'll be a master class about this next year again and you'll find a video a few videos on my youtube channel on it as well so let's look at what this sequence e looks like in the movies in um uh toy story 2 now they go towards sorry it is sequence d i'm i'm confused here yes we're going towards the midpoint reversal in terry 2 they go towards the toy store and in terms of e3 the interesting thing is that most of the screen time is with woody but what he doesn't do much he goes through his inner journey more than an outer journey it's the toys that have the outer journey so for the toys it's mostly about getting to woody where woody comes to this inside of what it means to be a toy and we cut between the two if we just followed woody it would have been a fairly boring static dramatic talkie but it becomes more interesting by crosscutting with the physical geographical journey of the toys in die hard we had john mclean try the fire alarm in sequence c that didn't work so now in sequence d he's trying something else mayday mayday anyone copying channel nine terrorists have seized the nakatomi building and are holding at least 30 people hostage i repeat unknown number of terrorists six or more armed with automatic weapons at nakatomi plaza century city somebody answer me god damn it the roof go go it's the same address as that fire signal i'll handle it attention whoever you are this channel is reserved for emergency calls only oh [ __ ] [ __ ] lady do i sound like i'm wearing a pizza [Music] tension keeps rising and this is a really good example of a powerful villain who is smart who thinks ahead and who puts pressure on our hero so in sequence c the first sequence of act two john mclean tried getting the outside the attention from the outside world by triggering the fire alarm sequence d there's a new try new approach and you see he's getting angry this is the radio so he's using the the radio to try and communicate with the police but again this will not work immediately and then we enter the midpoint reversal territory in gravity by the way the sequence d is about getting into the soyuz capsule and then realize that it is entangled with the space station in the next sequence all sequence e is where she needs to go out again and then disentangle uh so she can descend with the soyuz midpoint reversal as i said that's something for you to study based on the master classes i did before and the youtube videos but often there are famous moments in die hard it is the welcome to the party pal line when finally the police now take him seriously and they um they come on board and they'll enter the building or at least um try and enter the building in groundhog day phil connors gets his first kiss the midpoint reversal there is that that kiss comes with an immediate slap after that this is a shot from midsummer if you have seen midsummer you know what happens at the midpoint reversal of this film it has to do with a rock and it has to do with a falling motion which we often have in films around the midpoint reversal there's often a jump off a cliff or a dive off a cliff in toy story 2 things get really complicated admit at the midpoint reversal there's an added point of view because the real buzz light here is swapped for a fake buzz light here um it's really really smart because obviously it plays into the theme and just as the toys catch up with woody there's another reversal woody now doesn't want to return anymore it's a wonderful unsuspected reversal so we've made it now into the second half of the film we've got about 13 minutes left in this master class and let's spend some time on sequence e what happens in sequence e sequence e everything is different we've had our reversal everything's changed the world has changed the characters have changed we have uh shape-shifting characters we're heroes sorry not heroes where mentors can become shadows and the world becomes even more hostile what happens in this sequence often the hero regroups so they they have to take in the blow of that midpoint reversal usually that is not good news there's increased awareness of their own character flaw and they now know that they need to change that behavior in order to be successful there is a metaphorical approach to the cave what does that mean in psychological terms it means preparing to face death get ready to sacrifice everything including your life that is what the approach to the cave means metaphorically and psychologically but in film it's also a geographic approach to the cave we literally go to that place where this scene is going to take place the energy now is much darker the first half may be energetic and fun we have the fun and games sequences in the second half of the film this is going to be more serious and even comedies get serious and i'll show you in a minute with groundhog day the end of this sequence he leads us to the cave the location of the cave and also the mindset of the ordeal so it's a catalyst for the cave it's it's a catalyst is an event that leads into the cave things get darker in die hard it's that scene where alice is sacrificed alice is this shapeshifter who's part of the guests of the party he's a colleague of holly of maclean's wife but he betrays everyone he betrays john and then has to pay the price with his life and here is how groundhog day opens sequence e the second half of the film not as much fun as it was previously okay campers rise and shine and don't forget your booties because it's cold out there today it's cold out there every day so this is a character alice from die hard who at the end of sequence he pays the price in gravity the international space station is destroyed as a result of that disentangling exercise and then we go into sequence f f4 beep this is where things turn really dark it's what we call the inmost cave the ordeal takes place the ordeal is the worst test for our hero in traditional screenwriting terminology it's the crisis we get a sample of death it's also the stage in which the hero completes their transformation they come to the complete insight and redemption and they they change their behavior they're willing to do whatever it takes and never change back to their old self now before they achieve that there is mostly an energy of despair and depression you can match you can map the stages d e uh actually c d e and f right on top of the elizabeth kubler-ross stages of grief which are denial anger was bargaining and depression and at the end of the sequence we have a sparkle of hope the seizing of the sword it's a metaphorical seizing of the sword it's what the hero needs to ultimately defeat defeat the shadow it's the tool it's the the weapon or the information they need in that sequence in groundhog day we see phil connors do the right thing he is now a changed man he's honest he um takes care of people and here he's trying to save the old man but unfortunately he is tested because the old man doesn't survive and he's what i mean when i say he's tested so it'd be easy for phil connors to say well clearly this new approach doesn't work i'm going to go back to my old ways because that was fun but he doesn't he remains the the newborn honest changed man that we saw him be after the midpoint reversal i'm going to play this clip from die hard because it's quite remarkable die hard is a film full of energy and irony and and quips and one-liners and we remember mclean as a strong character at times he even resembles rambo but here in this scene he seems weak tell her that that she is the best thing that ever happened to a bum like me she's already saying i love you a thousand times she never heard me say i'm sorry i want you to tell that allen i want you to tell her that uh john said that he was sorry okay you got that man yeah i got it john but you can tell about yourself you just watch your ass and you'll make it out of there you hear me yeah i'm gonna interrupt there um he seems weak but it is in this moment that he finds his greatest strength and um he does redeem himself and this is where he finds the strength to do the right thing at the end of the film which i will show you uh in a few minutes often the mentor comes back we saw the black cop powell give mclean his final words of wisdom and inspiration that often happens at this particular point we call it the divine intervention or the supernatural aid in arrival it is um amiense's character's um clue from her mentor and i won't spoil it if you haven't seen the film yet but i'll show it for those who've seen the film will remember she gets a critical piece of information from this dialogue uh at which point she was getting desperate it looked like war was inevitable and um here she gets some piece of information that will then lead her into act three the only reason why i'm here is to meet you in person me well i'm flattered thank you 18 months ago you did something remarkable something not even my superior has done and when she realizes what that what that is she has what she needs in order to do the right thing and and the um the um yeah what do you call it the impasse that they had achieved in gravity our hero ryan is visited again by her mentor who then appears as a supernatural being and that is at this particular point in the story again when she's desperate and not only is enough fuel now she's also rapidly running out of oxygen and look she's giving up she's preparing to die she's already accepted that the spacecraft will be her coffin and then her mentor reappears for the final message that will then give her the hope to push further and to go into act 3. similar in avatar they are desperate they're locked up and one of the enemies now shape-shifts and becomes an ally you can say it's a similar knock on the door by the character of trudy what's going on brother long time no see hey [Music] personally i don't feel these tree hugging traders deserve steak they get steak that's [ __ ] let me see that yeah you know what that is down pretty all the way back [Music] max [Music] and we feel the energy pick up as they leave the prison they leave sequence f they leave the third act sorry the second act to go into the third act so you can you can feel the energy pick up and now we're in the energy of the third act and sequence g in sequence g we have what we call the resurrection in the hero's journey it's the final confrontation with the shadow in traditional story terms it's also the proof of transformation it's in the action of that final scene that we can see the heroes learn things and will take a different approach there's an energy of confidence and determination and the sequence ends in the resolution so the tension the main tension is resolved let's have a look at a quick montage of three films groundhog day three billboards outside ebbing missouri and toy story 2. this is what that moment looks like in each of those three films but standing here among the people of punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts i couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter from punxsutawney it's phil connors so long like magic just trust me just do the [ __ ] trick man [Music] so now dixon takes evidence in the third act to then do something about the case that had been neglected by his office previously this is the scene from toy story 2 that ends the film [Music] jesse let go of the plane what are you crazy just pretend it's the final episode of woody's roundup but it was cancelled we never saw if you made it well then let's find out together [Music] that was definitely woody's finest hour bad partner let's go home what i wanted to show you with that final shot from toy story 2 was where woody and bus defeat the enemy and everybody's reunited what would you expect otherwise from the end of the toy story movie so the happily ever after follows the conclusion follows the resolution and that's sequence h so we have what we call the return with the elixir in the hero's journey that's a sense of resolution the hero now becomes a mentor so the hero is going to pass on what they have learned and spread it in the community there's an energy of relief and joy it's that sense you want when you walk out of the movie theater it's the riding into the sunset and um i do have a quick montage for this one as well we're going back to three billboards and i just give you the introduction to that scene the whole film has been the um the conflict between the mother of this young woman who was raped and killed and then the police officer who didn't really care for that didn't do anything about it and you know has to pay the price they are formidable adversaries throughout the film their conflict is resolved at the end and you'll see that we'll also have die hard the scene where john mcclane redeems himself in that final scene and then toy story 2 we also have the final moments for woody and the toys dixon are you sure about this by killing this guy not really you oh really i guess we can decide along the how is way wife holly how did you know oh he mcclain hello holly you got yourself a good man you take good care of him [Music] hey woody woody oh wow new toys cool thanks mom by the way guys here's a nice overview and all you need to do is send me an email just respond to one of the emails i sent you over the past few days and i will send you an electronic file with this overview of the three acts and the eight sequences with the heroes journey labels and as a bonus i'll give you the same with my own labels they're slightly different but they are a bit more neutral if you're not 100 into the hero's journey this is more a layman's way of approaching uh those eight sequences all right thanks for joining guys consider joining our master classes as of next week we start a new course and um marina thank you for uh asking a question because you remind me of the fact that you were one of the very early people one of the first to join the immersion screenwriting course and this class absolutely you were one of those uh champions the warriors who did the six months the long the the marathon version it was awesome and it forever changed my approach to writing in so many ways oh thank you that's wonderful to hear now when you did the course it was still around for six months today it's only uh uh about 550 days and seven the seven weeks run in parallel with these master classes so if anyone is interested in trying on the immersion screenwriting course check out our page and if you join us for 199 us you will be back next week because the master classes are included in the fee for the um the immersion screenwriting course all right enough plugs for today thank you marina i really appreciate it and thank you everyone for joining us have a wonderful weekend and i hope to see you again here sometime at the same at the same time the same place cheers

Channel: The Story Department

Views: 967

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: movie scripts, how to write a script, hero's journey, christopher vogler, story structure

Id: a05jW8CRPgE

Length: 60min 54sec (3654 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 14 2020