Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

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  • Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

    Does anyone have any good resources to suggest, online or in print?

    Here's one quote I found, from a BU professor:

    "In a multi-protagonist film, the story revolves around an event. It is this event that is experienced by all the characters. In addition, it's the event that provides the underpinnings for the structure. The event is introduced in the first act, along with all the characters. The characters react to the coming of the event or its unfolding, if it is on-going. The story then ends when the event concludes. In The Hangover, the event is the wedding, while the goal is to recover the groom so that the event can actually take place. In the Oceans movies, the goal and the event are the same: the heist.

    In a single main character story, the main character often transforms in some way. Hollywood loves when the hero "arcs-. In a multi-protagonist story, the multiple characters rarely transform in any meaningful manner. Instead, the best of these have the characters arrive at some new understanding regarding one another, without any accompanying change in their life. This is especially true of the Hangover and Oceans films, in which they actually repeat their previous behaviors in the sequels.

    For a great example of this non-transformation, take a look at The Breakfast Club. In my opinion, this is one of the best multi-protagonist films ever written. The event? Saturday morning detention at a suburban Chicago high school. Over the course of the day, the five total strangers come to know one another and, to some extent, grow to like and respect one another. However, at the end of the day, Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) the nerdish character, asks if the others will say "hi- to him in the hallway come Monday. He is pained to learn that, despite having come to like him, they won't change how they deal with him. The social structure of high school simply won't allow it.

    I maintain that these stories are among the hardest to write. The classic myth tale with the hero pursuing a goal in urgent fashion is ingrained in our psyches. The multi-protagonist story resides somewhere outside this box.

    If you have an idea for one of these, you must select an "event- and then work diligently at creating characters with compelling and believable relationships that will help carry the story over the course of that time period that encompasses the event. If you can pull that off, you will soon be sought after in Hollywood, which is always on the lookout for writers who can write great characters."

    What are some other theories/guidelines for writing these scripts?
    "People who work in Hollywood are the ones who didn't quit." -- Lawrence Kasdan

    Please visit my website and blog: www.lauridonahue.com.

  • #2
    Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

    I've found Linda Aronson to be very helpful. She wrote an article on ensemble films - http://www.lindaaronson.com/characte...of-a-plot.html. There's probably other stuff from her online that you can find via Google.

    She has two books that are not exclusively about ensembles but cover a lot of ground on them.

    http://www.amazon.com/The-21st-Centu...=linda+aronson

    http://www.amazon.com/Screenwriting-...=linda+aronson

    Also worth reading is an article by Linda Cowgill - http://www.plotsinc.com/sitenew/column_art_10.html

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

      Originally posted by LauriD View Post
      Does anyone have any good resources to suggest, online or in print?

      Here's one quote I found, from a BU professor:

      "In a multi-protagonist film, the story revolves around an event. It is this event that is experienced by all the characters. In addition, it's the event that provides the underpinnings for the structure. The event is introduced in the first act, along with all the characters. The characters react to the coming of the event or its unfolding, if it is on-going. The story then ends when the event concludes. In The Hangover, the event is the wedding, while the goal is to recover the groom so that the event can actually take place. In the Oceans movies, the goal and the event are the same: the heist.

      In a single main character story, the main character often transforms in some way. Hollywood loves when the hero "arcs-. In a multi-protagonist story, the multiple characters rarely transform in any meaningful manner. Instead, the best of these have the characters arrive at some new understanding regarding one another, without any accompanying change in their life. This is especially true of the Hangover and Oceans films, in which they actually repeat their previous behaviors in the sequels.

      For a great example of this non-transformation, take a look at The Breakfast Club. In my opinion, this is one of the best multi-protagonist films ever written. The event? Saturday morning detention at a suburban Chicago high school. Over the course of the day, the five total strangers come to know one another and, to some extent, grow to like and respect one another. However, at the end of the day, Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) the nerdish character, asks if the others will say "hi- to him in the hallway come Monday. He is pained to learn that, despite having come to like him, they won't change how they deal with him. The social structure of high school simply won't allow it.

      I maintain that these stories are among the hardest to write. The classic myth tale with the hero pursuing a goal in urgent fashion is ingrained in our psyches. The multi-protagonist story resides somewhere outside this box.

      If you have an idea for one of these, you must select an "event- and then work diligently at creating characters with compelling and believable relationships that will help carry the story over the course of that time period that encompasses the event. If you can pull that off, you will soon be sought after in Hollywood, which is always on the lookout for writers who can write great characters."

      What are some other theories/guidelines for writing these scripts?
      With all due respect to the BU Professor, I have to disagree.

      I think every story (at least every traditional narrative) has, at its heart, a problem that needs to be solved.

      Some problems are the problem of one person, who needs to solve it. Some problems are the problem of a group of people, but it falls to one person to solve it. Some problems are the problem of one person, yet it falls to a group of people to solve it -- and some problems are the problem of a group of people -- and it falls to a group of people to solve the problem.

      And the question of whether one, or some or none of the various people involved change or fail to change along the way relates to the theme of the story and has nothing to do with the question of whether it is a single protagonist or multiple protagonists.

      What is the problem? Whose problem is it? Who needs to solve it? Why is it that he/they are the ones that need to solve it? Why is it their job to do the solving rather than someone else? How are they related/connected or become related/connected to the problem?

      Are they going to solve it or will they fail to solve it? If they do or if they fail -- why are they able to solve it or why do they fail to solve it? The answer to that question is a statement of your theme. That's true whether you're dealing with one protagonist or a multiple protagonist.

      These aren't always easy questions to answer and sometimes you don't quite come to understand the answers until you've worked your way through the story -- sometimes until you've worked your way through a few drafts of the script.

      Sometimes a writer will desperately want a particular character to be the hero -- to be the protagonist, but just can't make it work. And finally he has to face the fact that the real protagonist is somebody else in the story. And there simply isn't any other way to make the thing work but to accept what the narrative is trying to tell him -- that it's telling him that the the story revolves around a particular problem -- and that the problem really belongs to *this* character and not *that* character.

      So you need to be open to what the story you're developing is telling you about the central problem -- who that problem belongs to, and what they have to do -- what they have to risk, how they have to change (or resist the temptation to change) in order to solve it.

      NMS

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

        Originally posted by nmstevens View Post
        With all due respect to the BU Professor, I have to disagree.

        I think every story (at least every traditional narrative) has, at its heart, a problem that needs to be solved.

        Some problems are the problem of one person, who needs to solve it. Some problems are the problem of a group of people, but it falls to one person to solve it. Some problems are the problem of one person, yet it falls to a group of people to solve it -- and some problems are the problem of a group of people -- and it falls to a group of people to solve the problem.

        And the question of whether one, or some or none of the various people involved change or fail to change along the way relates to the theme of the story and has nothing to do with the question of whether it is a single protagonist or multiple protagonists.

        What is the problem? Whose problem is it? Who needs to solve it? Why is it that he/they are the ones that need to solve it? Why is it their job to do the solving rather than someone else? How are they related/connected or become related/connected to the problem?

        Are they going to solve it or will they fail to solve it? If they do or if they fail -- why are they able to solve it or why do they fail to solve it? The answer to that question is a statement of your theme. That's true whether you're dealing with one protagonist or a multiple protagonist.

        These aren't always easy questions to answer and sometimes you don't quite come to understand the answers until you've worked your way through the story -- sometimes until you've worked your way through a few drafts of the script.

        Sometimes a writer will desperately want a particular character to be the hero -- to be the protagonist, but just can't make it work. And finally he has to face the fact that the real protagonist is somebody else in the story. And there simply isn't any other way to make the thing work but to accept what the narrative is trying to tell him -- that it's telling him that the the story revolves around a particular problem -- and that the problem really belongs to *this* character and not *that* character.

        So you need to be open to what the story you're developing is telling you about the central problem -- who that problem belongs to, and what they have to do -- what they have to risk, how they have to change (or resist the temptation to change) in order to solve it.

        NMS
        This. Great post. Great.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

          Thanks for all the thoughts and links!
          "People who work in Hollywood are the ones who didn't quit." -- Lawrence Kasdan

          Please visit my website and blog: www.lauridonahue.com.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

            An ensemble film is really just a group of short stories with something linking them. It's actually kind of easy to write something as an ensemble as opposed to a singular-driven narrative: one of the tricks is to make the connection, the thing that links the stories, NOT feel contrived. But the big thing is that the stories themselves are worth watching. And for that reason, a good ensemble is as hard to write as any good film.

            The simplest way to approach an ensemble feature screenplay is to treat it like a television series that you're trying to condense into 90-110 minutes. Take LOST for example. Everyone's there together because they were all on the same plane that crashed. And over the course of X number of seasons, we go through each of their different stories and backstories that led us here, and then figure out where they're going from that point (after the crash).

            In a film like Pulp Fiction, which is possibly one of the greatest ensembles ever written, the connections between everyone are interspersed throughout the film and the events. There's no one event linking everyone together (and there, the professor is wrong, IMO). It's all convoluted and hard to keep track of, particularly because everything's out of order.

            But in Tarantino's first film, Reservoir Dogs, all the major players are there because of a single event: the heist gone wrong. With the exception of the introductory scene at the diner, we start just after the arbitrary "middle" of their story, on the run to the meet-up, post screw-up. We flesh out the different characters, how they got the job, and the tension and the conflict is based on who and how they messed it up.

            Then there are films like Crash, and Brooklyn's Finest, in which we feel we're watching a few completely different stories, and then at the end, it's all tied together nicely and we go, "Ohhhhh..."

            But going back to television as an example: Game of Thrones is an ensemble that often only introduces a new character once they've either been met or mentioned by an existing character (everything starts in Winterfell and branches out from there). Mad Men has all these people who work at the same office, and their dramas and relationships. Sons of Anarchy is a group of bikers with conflicts about who and how they should be. LOST is a bunch of people who don't know each other but are thrown together when they all survive the same plane crash. If you can flesh out your individual characters and what their specific stories are, your "link" should be relatively easy to find, but more importantly to an ensemble: your theme will become evident, as you write their different stories and see what moral struggle "shines out the clearer."

            I don't have specific resources to recommend, other than good television, and good ensemble films like a lot of the Coen brothers' movies (Burn After Reading, and No Country being particularly good in this regard), most of Tarantino's work, some of Paul Haggis' work, including Crash (a movie that informs almost every ensemble written today).

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

              Originally posted by nmstevens View Post
              I think every story (at least every traditional narrative) has, at its heart, a problem that needs to be solved.

              Some problems are the problem of one person, who needs to solve it. Some problems are the problem of a group of people, but it falls to one person to solve it. Some problems are the problem of one person, yet it falls to a group of people to solve it -- and some problems are the problem of a group of people -- and it falls to a group of people to solve the problem.
              What was the problem in The Breakfast Club?
              wry

              The rule is the first fifteen pages should enthrall me, but truth is, I'm only giving you about 3-5 pages. ~ Hollywood Script Reader

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

                Originally posted by wrytnow View Post
                What was the problem in The Breakfast Club?
                Have to be honest. I haven't seen it so I don't know.

                But certainly there are movies that aren't traditional narratives. Things like Fellini's Roma or Amarcord or Woody Allen's Radio Days.

                This isn't simply a matter of multiple protagonists or parallel story lines (in the sense of something like Crash). They're really more like collections of memories and anecdotes assembled around a common theme.

                Are all of the characters in Radio Days or Roma really trying to solve the same central problem? No, I don't think so.

                But I don't think that those movies are traditionally structured three-act narrative stories.

                Where Breakfast Club fits into that, I couldn't say.

                NMS

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

                  Originally posted by wrytnow View Post
                  What was the problem in The Breakfast Club?
                  The problem in Breakfast Club is that each of the characters was trapped in a box of being who other people felt that they needed to be, and they didn't know how to handle that.

                  This not only made them unhappy, resulted in them being in detention, but made them judgmental about each other. In the end, by learning to accept and appreciate each other, they learn to accept and appreciate themselves and reject the labels that their parents and the school are putting on them.

                  You can often figure this out by reverse-engineering it. "Is the ending happy or sad?" "It's happy." "Why is it happy?" "Because they're learned that they're not who the people in their life tell them they are." (I mean, that's right there in the closing VO - "each of us is a jock, a nerd, etc..."). Ergo: the problem is that the people in their lives are telling them to be something that they're not.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

                    Originally posted by LauriD View Post
                    However, at the end of the day, Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) the nerdish character, asks if the others will say "hi- to him in the hallway come Monday. He is pained to learn that, despite having come to like him, they won't change how they deal with him. The social structure of high school simply won't allow it.
                    This would be trenchant analysis, if Brian's comment came at the end of the movie.

                    But it doesn't. It comes at the end of the second act. It marks the point where the characters realize that the problem with their alienation is not each other, it's themselves. (See NMS's comments about thematic structure in the third act thread in the basics section for an explanation). Brian's "I wouldn't do that" shames the other students, and they change.

                    And there are several moments at the film's conclusion that show how the characters have broken through this. eg, Molly Ringwald giving Judd Nelson an earring: a public token of their new relationship. Ally Sheedy's makeover allowing her entrance into new social spheres. The fact that they all take ownership of each other's identities in the essay.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

                      Originally posted by nmstevens View Post
                      Have to be honest. I haven't seen it so I don't know.
                      WHAT??! Man, that's a great film.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

                        Originally posted by madworld View Post
                        WHAT??! Man, that's a great film.
                        It's also streaming on Netflix at the moment.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

                          The best resource are probably the movies themselves. I don’t know that you need specific resources to tackle a story with multiple protagonists. If it makes sense that there are several protagonists, you just need to follow the logic of your story.

                          What kind of movies have several protagonists?

                          Movies where a group of people team up to do something: defend the village from the bandits in Seven Samurai, blow up an asteroid before it impacts with the Earth in Armageddon, a heist in Ocean’s Eleven. Often, the movie focuses more on one or two of the main characters: Takashi Shimura in Seven Samurai, Bruce Willis in Armageddon, George Clooney in Ocean’s Eleven.

                          Movies where a group of people are brought together because of an event: being trapped in a deadly labyrinth in Cube, attending/hosting/working at a party in an English country house in Gosford Park.

                          Movies where a series of stories and characters are held together by a theme or subject: racism in Crash, the lives and loneliness of young women in Tokyo in Strawberry Shortcakes. Often the different characters will cross paths during the story (Crash), or come together at the end of it (Strawberry Shortcakes).

                          A subset of the previous category: movies where a group of friends or people who already know each other face the same circumstance, providing us with different perspectives: a group of college graduates looking for work and love in Reality Bites.

                          I don’t know, that’s off the top of my head. I’m sure there are several other possibilities. The point is: in all those movies there’s a logic behind the decision to have several protagonists, and that logic guides the choices of the writer when it comes to telling the story. I don’t know that there are resources that can help you with that specifically.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

                            Originally posted by nmstevens View Post
                            Have to be honest. I haven't seen it so I don't know.

                            But certainly there are movies that aren't traditional narratives. Things like Fellini's Roma or Amarcord or Woody Allen's Radio Days.

                            This isn't simply a matter of multiple protagonists or parallel story lines (in the sense of something like Crash). They're really more like collections of memories and anecdotes assembled around a common theme.

                            Are all of the characters in Radio Days or Roma really trying to solve the same central problem? No, I don't think so.

                            But I don't think that those movies are traditionally structured three-act narrative stories.
                            NMS
                            I'm not sure we'd call them "multiple protagonist," either. I suppose because, to me, protagonist indicates someone contending, if that makes sense. I don't disagree with your comments, but I think we get to the point where a film simply doesn't have protagonists.
                            wry

                            The rule is the first fifteen pages should enthrall me, but truth is, I'm only giving you about 3-5 pages. ~ Hollywood Script Reader

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Resources for writing ensemble (multi-protagonist) screenplays?

                              Originally posted by Ronaldinho View Post
                              The problem in Breakfast Club is that each of the characters was trapped in a box of being who other people felt that they needed to be, and they didn't know how to handle that. .
                              I think that's less a "problem" to me than a "state of being," we all share. The movie explores that, in this case, with adolescents.
                              wry

                              The rule is the first fifteen pages should enthrall me, but truth is, I'm only giving you about 3-5 pages. ~ Hollywood Script Reader

                              Comment

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