Goals reached at Midpoint

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  • Goals reached at Midpoint

    I'm writing a romantic comedy with dual protagonists. In the beginning both have clear goal(s) that intersect each other. But the way i'm structuring the plot, both goals will essentially be reached at the midpoint. But there will be a major event that takes place in both of their lives at the start of act 3 that will cause a setback in the goals that they have achieved. Now with one of the protagonists, after the midpoint her goal will shift(similar to what happened in Tootsie when his goal was first to get the part, then to maintain the charade). But i'm worried about my second protagonist. Basically at the midpoint he will meet the woman of his dreams, but then at the start of act 3 his ex will return which will bring back his old feelings, leaving him with a decision to make. I'm worried that he will become stagnant between the midpoint and the start of act 3 because he won't have any real goal that he is trying to reach. He basically will be trying to progess his relationship with this new woman. Is that enough? Any suggestions?

  • #2
    Re: Goals reached at Midpoint

    - Watch "About Time." Has a similar structure, where the two romantic leads have their happily ever after about halfway into the film, and then things start changing, so their journey's not quite over.

    - Have you thought about having the male lead cheat on the female lead with his ex in Act 2b? An actual sexual encounter would make it an external problem instead of merely "Oh, my ex wants to get back together and now I can't decide." Just a thought...

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    • #3
      Re: Goals reached at Midpoint

      Originally posted by ricther View Post
      I'm worried that he will become stagnant between the midpoint and the start of act 3 because he won't have any real goal that he is trying to reach. He basically will be trying to progess his relationship with this new woman. Is that enough? Any suggestions?
      Obviously, it's hard to say, because I haven't read the script, but my instinct is probably not.

      I see two potential problems.

      The first is that the stakes should be rising, and this feels like they're deflating. You want to find more obstacles.

      The second is that it sounds like the ex showing up is something that just sort of happens - but you want your later complications to be a function of your earlier ones. Now maybe you've got this in there and it just didn't come across, but it sounds like you're bringing her in because YOU need a new act, not because its the logical conclusions of what the character has done so far.

      On midpoints, I tend to think of them a little differently. Doesn't mean that other ways don't work, but this works well for me. I see the midpoint as the want not changing, but the stakes dramatically rising. When I can define a midpoint well, it's not necessarily the key thing in and of itself (not all movies have them) but what it it means is that I've got a clear sense of rising action.

      (Been a while since I've seen Tootsie, but if you define the want a little more broadly: to pass as a woman for the sake of the role, then the want doesn't change as the midpoint. Rather, what happens is that the risks of getting caught are simply much higher.)

      So you could define your want a little more broadly: "to have a relationship with this woman" and the first half of that is getting into the relationship and the second have is managing the relationship, but for that to work you need new and bigger obstacles to the relationship once they're actually in it. When you say he's trying to "progress" it, it makes it sound like everything is going well and he wants to move it forward ... but that's not much in the way of an obstacle.

      One other concern: you describe your third act as "leaving him with a decision to make" but understand that trying to make a decision tends not to be that cinematically interesting. A decision is an internal thing: you make a decision by deciding. Dramatic wants generally exist external to the character so we can watch them striving.

      eg, notice that in Hamlet, yes, Hamlet is trying to decide if he can kill Claudius, but that attempt at a decision involves stuff like, "Making sure that the King really did it coercing a reaction from a play" - his decision is predicated on struggles that exist outside of him.

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      • #4
        Re: Goals reached at Midpoint

        First off, I love the feedback guys. Thanks.

        Now my male lead has two big character flaws when it comes to relationships. One is that he doesn't know how to let go and move on. Second is that he falls too fast. The ex coming back into his life is a challenge for him based on his first flaw.
        Also in regards to his second flaw, after the midpoint his best friend notices that he is going down a similar pattern with this new woman and cautions him to pump the brakes.
        In regards to him just having to make a decision between the two women not being cinematic, I felt as though my other protagonist would cater to that. Because she has a big external crisis to deal with in the third act. But I could be wrong and I may need to add some external crisis to my male lead as well.
        This project is really close to me because the male lead is based on me and my personal experiences with women(especially as of late)and I really want to do it justice because I feel as though I already have a great first half. I'm just looking for a way to make the second half equally as good.

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        • #5
          Re: Goals reached at Midpoint

          Originally posted by ricther View Post
          Now my male lead has two big character flaws when it comes to relationships. One is that he doesn't know how to let go and move on. Second is that he falls too fast. The ex coming back into his life is a challenge for him based on his first flaw.
          Also in regards to his second flaw, after the midpoint his best friend notices that he is going down a similar pattern with this new woman and cautions him to pump the brakes.
          In regards to him just having to make a decision between the two women not being cinematic, I felt as though my other protagonist would cater to that. Because she has a big external crisis to deal with in the third act. But I could be wrong and I may need to add some external crisis to my male lead as well.
          My question is: what's he about besides his relationships? It sounds to me like he needs to make a choice not between one woman and another, but between himself (being whole outside of relationships) and being part of someone else (the woman, whoever she may be).

          Whatever the new woman's external crisis is, if he cannot solve it or help, he has to let her go while she deals and not know if she'll still want him when it's over. Whatever the ex wants from him, is it him or this thing he can give her?

          I wonder if he needs to be taken away, to go someplace sans women, to find himself a bit more as someone he cannot lose no matter how many or few women are here or are not. He could get called to a big opportunity. He could choose to leave, to pursue a goal for himself.

          Possibly if he finds that, gains more of himself for himself, he won't want either one of them. Or, maybe the new woman's crisis will cause her to not want him, as he was, but when he comes back, he's now the man of her new dreams, and she his.
          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

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          • #6
            Re: Goals reached at Midpoint

            OK. That was going to be the ending. Him deciding it's best to leave both women and work on him.
            Also I apologize because I think I may have confused you guys. This is a dual protagonist movie. But the female lead and male lead are not in a relationship. They each have their own relationship problems. Their stories are directly involved because they both have an external need that they help each other achieve.
            The female lead essentially sets him up with a new woman after his ex dumps him. Then she returns wanting him back. The male lead repays the female lead by helping her achieve her major goal.

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            • #7
              Re: Goals reached at Midpoint

              Just sort of riffing here. Maybe these thoughts will be helpful.

              Originally posted by ricther View Post
              Now my male lead has two big character flaws when it comes to relationships. One is that he doesn't know how to let go and move on. Second is that he falls too fast. The ex coming back into his life is a challenge for him based on his first flaw.
              Also in regards to his second flaw, after the midpoint his best friend notices that he is going down a similar pattern with this new woman and cautions him to pump the brakes.
              It seems to me that these flaws are slightly working crossways with each other. (Not that they don't both occur in real life in the same person, I get it).

              For example, falling too fast is only a problem if he's falling for the wrong girl. If this girl is the right girl, if you're asking us to root for them as a couple, then "falling too fast" isn't a problem.

              Furthermore, you say it's "too fast" but you've taken half your movie getting them together. In cinematic terms, that's not too fast - it's half your movie! The friend can only come in and say "pump the breaks" if we feel it - if we intuitively feel that this is the wrong girl for him and he's going to fast.

              (See how "500 Days of Summer" handled this - in part by making it abundantly clear right from the beginning that she was the wrong girl for him. And they remind us of that constantly).

              Otherwise, it's just the friend being a wet blanket. There are no stakes with the friend saying "Hey, you're doing this again. Are you sure you want to?"

              Meanwhile, I don't know how you can keep that first flaw alive, because every step he takes with the new girl is severing the connection with the old one. We need to be feeling the flaw the whole way, but how do you keep it involved and connected to him falling for the new girl?

              If it's an active thing, and he's wavering back and forth, then you pretty much have to have the ex involved earlier, you can't just have her show up in the third act. She's been the primary obstacle. But of course, if we're on board with the new girl, that is going to run the risk of feeling forced. OF COURSE he's going to go for the new girl.

              In regards to him just having to make a decision between the two women not being cinematic, I felt as though my other protagonist would cater to that. Because she has a big external crisis to deal with in the third act. But I could be wrong and I may need to add some external crisis to my male lead as well.
              It's not about adding an external crisis. It's about externalizing his internal turmoil through action. Again, look at Hamlet. He's indecisive. But to get through his indecisiveness, he comes up with a plan. "I'll do X, and the result of X will tell me what I need to know to take action." So we get to watch him do all the things necessary to set up X, we get to root for the success or failure of X ... and then the result of X can have additional, unexpected results which he then has to solve. Him doing stuff is dramatically interesting.

              WIthout that, there's a tendency to lose patience with your lead. We're rooting for him to go to the new girl, he's into the new girl. The old girl shows back up and we need to understand exactly why he'd even think about it ... and you need to externalize that so that we can feel it. Otherwise we'll be like "just get on with it already!"

              This was sort of rambly, but hopefully there's something there that's helpful.

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              • #8
                Re: Goals reached at Midpoint

                Midpoints for me often function as a moment of discovery, which can lead to a greater obstacle that blindsides the hero and increase the stakes.

                So just when they're goal feels attainable, this new discovery is another linchpin that keeps the obstacle alive. Or presents a shift which makes the protag consider the validity of their goal. As in Tootsie. Got what he wanted, e.g. the job, the money to produce the play. So goal accomplished, we thought.

                But by the midpoint, Michael realized Julie was what he really wanted. That discovery initiated a desire to undo what Michael had done.

                If you think about it in those terms, and it sounds like you're on your way, maybe it can be helpful.

                Based on what you said about your script, here's a suggestion. Disclaimer, just a thought and off the cuff but...

                The man who ends up with dream girl. Maybe he realizes sooner than Act 3 (his discovery coming at the midpoint) that she isn't the dream girl. So he actively looks to undo the relationship he just formed. Now we're watching him *do* something i.e. a new goal.

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                • #9
                  Re: Goals reached at Midpoint

                  There are all sort of interpretations of the function of the second act midpoint.

                  For Peckinpah, everything before the midpoint was leading there, and everything afterwards is a consequence of it. Think of The Matrix, the midpoint being the visit to the Oracle.

                  I've recently read some screenwriter saying that at the midpoint the character external need changes, while the internal need stays the same. I think it can also be the other way around: the external need stays the same, the internal need changes. Think of the Guy Pierce character in L.A. Confidential, he first tries to solve the crime to advance his career, then tries to solve it out of a sense of justice.

                  I don't know, there are many other interpretations. I think the function of the midpoint depends on the kind of story you're telling. That is, if you like this structure template of three acts and a midpoint in the second one. I personally don't think the midpoint is intrinsically different from the climaxes of each act, and I don't believe in the three-act structure.

                  Sure, every story has a beginning, a middle and and end, that's obvious. But those aren't acts.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Goals reached at Midpoint

                    That all sounds good. Thanks for the advice.
                    Last edited by ; 03-02-2014, 10:21 PM. Reason: Resolved.

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