Screenwriting Structure And Conflict Tips For Screenwriters by Steve Kaplan Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

Steve let's talk about introducing
conflict into comedy script how soon how
subtle how intense in the beginning ah
by conflict you don't have to have a an
antagonist for conflict I mean most
characters in comedy are in conflict
anyway they're in conflict because
they're assholes and so they're they're
in conflict with their co-workers or
their idiots and so they're in conflict
with the world around them or they're
like George and Seinfeld you know always
kind of downtrodden you know II or as it
were and and so the he's in conflict
with the world and so the the best
comedies create characters that are
intentionally conflicting with either
other people or or the world or
themselves what you don't need is you
don't need an antagonist you can't have
an antagonist but it's not necessary in
Groundhog Day there's no antagonist
there's no villain who's trying to
thwart him it's just that he's a jerk
who you know everybody kind of rolls
their eyes about uh and then he's stuck
in this time warp but how'd it happen
no one knows how do I get out of it no
one can help him so that's the conflict
so the premise actually introduces a
conflict the the continent near the the
catalyst um and you usually want to
create that conflict in the protagonist
after you have successfully sketched out
the normal world don't don't start you
know it's not an action film don't start
or you could I mean there's no you know
there's no rule that can't be broken but
you know don't start with something
crazy happening before I know who this
person is what's their normal world
what's what's what's the deal with them
what's the deal with how they live and
then you can create something that that
threatens that normal world um
again in in in big there's a whole scene
of him his relationship with his best
friend his wanting to be with the little
girl
and then the cat you know the conflict
is but now he's a 30 year old man what
does he want to do what does he do uh in
uh in Groundhog Day it's it's living the
same day over and over again in Splash
it's you fall in love with a mermaid but
before that you want to take the time to
let me know what would this guy be like
what would the world be like if that
didn't happen take that you know and is
that two pages five pages ten pages it's
got to be what you need to create the
foundation of a real world before the
crazy world starts again because the
better your foundation the better we're
going to believe the incredibly crazy
things that are happening in act 3 in in
Groundhog Day it's 25 minutes
practically 25 minutes before the magic
happens and what how do they spend that
25 minutes there's a couple of minutes
in this in the network in the student
network studio where we see what a jerk
he is
there's the the ride up to Punxsutawney
where we see what a funny jerk he is and
then there's the whole day and you need
to create that whole day because what
would be the point of going back and
reliving it unless we knew what the day
was in fact in Danny Reubens first draft
he begins in day 3 he begins in the
third day in the middle of this
incredible happening happenstance and at
first held Ramos loved that he loved he
said that so brave you're just jumping
right into it you're beginning in the
third day and he when the option he said
we will never change that never change
that and then one of the people working
with him in his office said to him but
how would you know what's being repeated
if you don't know what the day is like
so they quickly rewrote it so that it's
you will have that long first day so
that you could always go back to it and
see where you were see what your
progression was in terms of this this
this
magical happening in Danny Reubens mind
Danny Reuben thought it was 10,000 years
because in Buddhist philosophy you have
to live 10,000 lives to become
enlightened 10,000 years a little long
for hell brightness to wrap his head
around he figured 10 years but still 10
years of living the same day over and
over again and in fact in terms of
structure you ask me about structure you
should know what structures are but but
there isn't just one structure there
isn't just one method just like there's
only one way to paint a picture
you know there's Cubist's there's
there's abstract there's
representational there's more than one
ways to paint a picture and the idea
that you have to follow this structure
have to is not necessarily true I mean
knowing structure is pretty good um I
like in terms of structure I like what
Michael Haig has to say of it Chris
Vogler the hero's journey
certainly Robert McKee but none of those
are sacrosanct
uh Michael Haig and I toured through
Australia we were doing this thing
called the art of romantic comedy and he
would teach the first day and he would
teach his structure and all the rules of
romantic comedy and I would come in the
second day and talk about what what
makes the comedy funny and and punctured
puncturing as much as I can the rules he
taught the first day and he would show
scenes from hitch which to him follows
that structure perfectly and I would
talk about Groundhog Day notes would say
don't why don't you ever talk about
Groundhog Day and he says because it
doesn't follow the structure because the
Groundhog Day has seven acts because it
consciously has this long first act of
set up the normal world and then it
follows the five stages of grief as
written by kubler-ross denial a very
short amount of almost no anger but then
a lot of negotiation that's where he
figures out how to pick up girls by
asking them leaving questions and then
coming back the next day where he
remembers it that they don't and answer
you know mrs. Braun's class twelfth
grade and they go oh yeah I remember you
and then he's able to sleep with all the
girls and then he he makes himself have
the perfect date with
with Andie MacDowell you know because
she'll say to him he said what he did
you study in college I studied 18th
century French poetry you know what a
waste of time and that is and of course
then she completely freezes up but then
he comes back the next day and he says
so what'd you study in college 18th
century French poetry then he reels off
this long poem poetic stanza in French
he says you speak French he says we
because he's just he's the clever tricky
servant um that's that's the art type
and then after negotiation there's
depression where he tries to kill
himself and then there's a long period
of acceptance there's first the
acceptance where he gets her to accept
that it's really happening but then the
next day she forgets all about it and
then there's the old man sequence where
the old man dies and he won't accept it
that the old man he tries to get the old
man to live he takes him to the hospital
he takes him to a diner and gives him
more food but the old man keeps dying on
him and then he finally has to accept
that he's not God and finally the last
part of acceptance is he goes through
the entire town helping people because
he's figured out that if this is going
to be his whole life just this one day
that the only way to spend his life is
to be of service to others and so that's
all he does every day but but what what
is so brilliant about what Harold Ramis
and Danny Rubin and Bill Murray do is
they keep him human there's the the
first sequence in this whatever Edmonds
calls the Superman day is there's this
kid who's about to fall from a tree and
Bill Murray's running late so it's a run
run to catch the kiddin finally catches
the kid and the kid just runs off and he
says you're going to thank me you're
gonna you never thanked me you know I'll
see you again tomorrow
maybe he's human enough to just want to
be thanked as opposed to just being a
saint he hasn't turned into a saint he's
still human so finally after all of that
after he's accepted the fact that he may
love Andie MacDowell Rita
from afar never really have her and he's
okay with that because just loving her
is enough just being a good person is
enough then he's finally somehow
released from the curse so that's a very
strange structure that they followed
there's nothing you won't find it in Syd
fields or Michael Hagar Robert McKee but
if that's how you want to tell your
story that's how you have to tell your
story so don't be a you know a prisoner
of structure structure is there to help
you structure is there to think well
what happens next well if this was
structured classically this is what
happens but as you're working on your
screenplay you might come up with a
different structure in fact you might
have no structure there's no reason you
can't write a brilliant comedy about a
boy and a girl sitting on a park bench
talking for two hours it's just really
really difficult so but if you have this
idea go for it and and you know then
then test it out and and how do you test
out a screenplay you test it out by
getting people to sit around a table or
at least half of them sitting around the
table reading parts and the other half
of them sitting around the table
drinking wine that's important eating
eating some cheese and listen and and
don't get actors together don't rehearse
them that would be the death of it what
you want is you want a si si experience
SiC is the Latin word for as is you just
want to hear the script as is without
trying to make it better because if
something works on the page in the
mouths of you know maybe just another
writer not a trained actor you know it's
alive and if something's flat then you
know something's wrong and and then the
the hard task is to not is to wake up
from the coma that that writers put
themselves in when they hear their
script being read out loud and try to
try to do what you need to do in order
to in order to fix it
you