The glimmer of hope

My scriptwriting course brought me this little gem last week, and I thought you might find it interesting.

The beginning of Act Three (in most successful films) is commonly described as a "glimmer of hope." It follows on swiftly from the end of Act Two's "couldn't get any worse." The glimmer shows the audience that the protagonist is beginning to finally see how he or she can solve the "problem."

So our teacher asked us to find the glimmer of hope in the screenplay of "Thelma and Louise."

Much to my surprise it's this snippet of dialogue:




Now...even after all the years since "Thelma & Louise" first came out, I am still astonished that a film which ends with a suicide can be heralded as such a feel-good movie. How did the writer and director manage to do that? Well...it looks like the answer to this question lies in the writing of the script. When Thelma says that she couldn't go back..that she COULDN'T LIVE...the audience are given the tiniest of clues leading to the story's climax. Thelma and Louise will, in fact, NOT live.

So the 25 of us students in that class last week immediately typed away at the poor teacher...."But how can you call THAT a glimmer of hope? Suicide is never hopeful." Ah..but you see...in the world of this film...a fictional world....a dream really...the ending IS full of hope and beauty. The magnificent thing here is that the the writer and director can convey that feeling, through their art, to a global audience in a commercially successful film.

Don't you just love that?

"We came over to sit"

** Spoiler alert...I'm going to be giving away the ending of "Lars and the Real Girl".....

I just realised that the climactic scene in "Lars and the Real Girl" uses almost the same idea as "Tootsie." The figment of the protagonist's imagination is standing in the way of his "real" relationships, so he must "kill" this "antagonist" so as to be able to move on with his life.

Oh..and if you go to 3:24 you can see my favourite scene which always makes me think of the crafty bloggers I know.



(P.S. I'll still post about Thelma and Louise's glimmer of hope...maybe tomorrow)

Protagonist vs antagonist

How can it be Wednesday already? How strange. I am now into my 4th week of the scriptwriting course and I am finding it both impossible and possible, excruciating and exhilarating. I recently read that you know you're a writer if you can't be happy unless you write....but writing doesn't make you happy. That makes me laugh!! (which is always a good thing, especially on a Wednesday night).

So this is something really interesting which I learnt in my class yesterday...the climax of a script always has the protagonist battling his/her antagonist. This battle may be symbolic, it may not always be obvious, but it is always there (unless you're watching an arty-farty film, but my course is all about making commercially successful fun stuff). So, the question is...here is the climax of "Tootsie"...the protagonist is Michael (Dustin Hoffman's character)...but who is the antagonist?




The antagonist is Dorothy, who doesn't really exist, because she's a role Michael plays so that he can get an acting job. In this scene, Michael "kills" Dorothy because her "existence" makes it impossible for him to have an authentic love relationship with Julie.

Don't you just love that?

P.S. Who noticed Geena Davis in that scene? How funny is that? I think my next post will be about the "glimmer of hope" in the 3rd act of "Thelma & Louise"....stay tuned.

Second Act

What a week it's been.

I'm into week three of my scriptwriting course and the learning curve is very steep. I am amazed at how much easier it is to analyse a script than to actually write one, not that we are writing scripts at all. The 25 of us (students) are spending hours and hours at the moment trying to figure out how the story we have in our head can be organised into 9 structural plot points within 3 acts.

I cannot tell you how difficult this is for me.

It took me an entire week of frustration to finally realise that my story has no 2nd act. I have a set-up, inciting incident, a climax and a resolution...but no significant setback, no change of plan, no mid-point ('no way back'), no 'things couldn't get worse' and no 'glimmer of hope'. It turns out that what I thought were my 'significant setback' and 'no way back' were simply interesting but minor 1st act scenes.

I have to try to be more dramatic. It looks like only a very difficult journey can lead to a truly satisfying happy ending.

You'd think I would have known that by now, hmph.

To end on a happier note (at least blog posts don't need to follow a particular structure....or do they?) here is the inciting incident from Tootsie:

It's only the beginning

This song came on the radio this afternoon as I was driving Master Commentbox home from his drum lesson. It brought back some pretty fabulous memories for me. It's such an uplifting tune, and I associate it with some gutsy decisions I've made in my life that turned out really well...like marrying Mr Commentbox when we were both quite young and naive, and also having two babies when we were quite young and naive. I looked this song up and discovered that it came out the same year Miss Commentbox was born, and I think it sums up the optimism of those early Commentbox years, so challenging and so worth it.

When I walked into the warm house this evening the divine aroma of home-baked cookies welcomed me home. Miss C is a young woman now (and a baker extraordinaire), and I still feel that it's only the beginning...so many more fabulous days and nights ahead for us.

So here's Deborah Conway with "It's Only the Beginning."

Musings on the mothering of young children

When the clouds finally lift
And the moon starts to rise,
Will you truly be ready
With wide open eyes?

Will you notice the swirls
Of stardust up there?
Or just turn a blind eye
And crawl back to your lair?

Preparation is key
And the turning is yours,
After feeding and sleeping
And a thousand dull chores.

Though your journey is long
And your battle is fierce,
The lifting of clouds
Is not to be missed.

Happy anniversary Mr. and Mrs. Eurolush!

There's a party going on!

Now wait a minute, y'all
This dance ain't for everybody
Only the sexy people
So all you fly mothers,
Get on out there and dance
Dance, I said!