Conflict

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  • Conflict

    I'm pondering the nature of conflict and motivation, so I thought I'd open a topic on it. What do you think is important in terms of creating conflict? Can you give some examples of good conflict in a character-driven story and why they worked? What about examples that didn't work? What are some examples of normal conflict that aren't strong enough to be considered film-quality conflict? Why?

  • #2
    re

    Since all stories need conflict, this seems like an excellent topic.

    Off the top of my head, I'd say the weakest conflicts are the result of weak stakes. And if what's at stake does not create an investment in the audience - then you're screwed.

    If what's at stake is something selfish, like money, then the conflict will probably be weak. Which is why most films, even if the conflict does involve money, will also add something like an endangered family/friend/lover/relationship or inject the situation with issues of morality.

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    • #3
      In movies, conflict is conflict.
      It doesn't really matter about the level of conflict or the intensity.
      Conflict can be as simple as a women trying to get her lazy husband to take out the garbage. Or as intense as the protagonist being tortured to give up the "secret whatever".

      There is typically some level of conflict in every scene of a movie. The characters develop by the way they deal with (resolve) conflict.

      Conflict works if it somehow advances the story or character development.

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      • #4
        Re: re

        conflict is obstacles. what are obstacles? different genres deal with this in their own way. in many action movies conflict is an external force chasing you. . terminator type movies then there are the destruction moives where life as we know it is in trouble.

        since i write character pieces, the obstacles are much smaller and in my case much more difficult to internalize. as the previous post said, conflict can be minimial, but it's affect on your character can be huge.

        let's take matchstick men for example, though the movie wasn't very good, it dealt with a pretty common problem, that was dealt with horrendously by the character. this was much like About Schmidt, in that both charcters were neurotic and self centered and saw their world through themselves.

        in about schmidt a scene that resonated with me was the scene when the daughter came home and made her father a sandwich and they sat at the table and even after his wife passed away he was so involved in himself that the tension and feeling of that scene made me uncomfortable.

        i think dues and othe structure nuts would agree with me, that conflict arises from setup of character. once you are able to set the tone of your character the audience can expect a certain level of consistency in different situations and the anticipation of the building external situations act as force pushing agaisnt the internal.

        one of my favorite scripts in you can count on me. a script that was loaded with prose and the human condition that was loaded with conflict that grew and grew as the character became more defined.

        character is story.

        vig

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        • #5
          Re: re

          For me, conflict boils down to the opposition of goals, ideas or personalities. Scenes get boring when the characters always agree. Without an antagonistic force to oppose the goals of the main character there is no story. Creating conflict is simply creating personalities, goals and ideas that are in opposition to those of your character and forcing the character to deal with them.

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          • #6
            Re: re

            I agree with XL. Conflict boils down to opposition, conscious or unconscious, physical or mental, real or imagined, large or small, to the character's goal.

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