The Two Worlds of Your Screenplay
by Charles Deemer (May-06-2002)
When we watch a movie, we enter a world created by the screenwriter. From the
very first scene, events and characters begin to define a world, set in time
and place, with implied values and social nuances. However, this initial world
we see early on is only the first of two worlds that the screenwriter will
create to tell the story.
The Ordinary World
This
first world is called the Ordinary World. Think of it as a point of reference.
It's "ordinary" in the sense that this is the world where our main
character, the protagonist, lives. Screenwriters must define this early on and
clearly because the story really begins when the protagonist accepts a
challenge to leave the ordinary world for another -- the world of the story.
But more about this second world in a moment.
The
Ordinary World tells us where we are, and where the protagonist is. In E.T., for example, we meet the
protagonist, the boy Eliot, on a typical night when he is being ignored by his
older brother and his friends. No one pays attention to him. He's the younger
brother who is in the way, and moreover he's in a house without a father. He's
lonely. This is the Ordinary World of Eliot in E.T.
In
The Graduate, we meet a recent
college graduate who is bored. Who has no plans for the future. Who can say no
more about the summer than that he hopes it is "different."
The Call to Action
Stories
do not happen in ordinary worlds -- stories happen when choices and events
propel the main character into a world far more exciting, different and
challenging than the ordinary day-to-day experience represented by the Ordinary
World.
The
"call to action" is an early story moment when the protagonist makes
a choice that will cause him or her to leave the Ordinary World and enter the
world of the story, which is called the Extraordinary World. The reference
point (to what makes it extra-ordinary) is always the "ordinary"
experience of the main character.
Thus,
Eliot plants candy to lure ET, the stranded alien, home, where he decides to
keep him as a secret playmate. The boy is lonely no more -- and the world of
the story becomes the world of Eliot with his new and unusual friend. And in
The Graduate, the college man
gets up the nerve to phone Mrs. Robinson, the first step to beginning an affair
with her. He begins movement toward this affair with the phone call (the call
to action), defining a world that is "different" indeed, his
extra-ordinary world.
The Extraordinary World
So
the world of the story, the extraordinary world, is entered by a definitive
action by the protagonist. Sometimes, however, the protagonist may be more
passive. In the wonderful satire Citizen
Ruth, Ruth's action is to pray to God for help when she's in jail --
and along come the Baby Savers to rescue her and propel her into a world she's
never known, where her bail gets paid and people seem to care for her.
The
Extraordinary World is the world of the story. The first act ends when the
protagonist has moved into this new world beyond the point of no return. The
second act, which contains most of the conflict in any story, is firmly rooted
in this world.
Define Your Two Worlds
Your
writing task will progress with tighter focus if you have a firm grasp of these
two worlds before you begin. Be able to define, clearly and simply, the three
most important elements in the beginning of your story: the Ordinary World; the
Call to Action; and the Extraordinary World of the story:
The
Ordinary World, where the protagonist lives day-to-day, the starting point of
the hero's journey;
The
Call to Action, in which the protagonist responds to events by doing something,
making a choice and performing an action, that will propel him toward the world
of the story;
The
Extraordinary World, the world of the story itself, where the hero is
challenged and tested, and where he or she will win, usually, and become wiser
for the struggle.
Clarity
of these three elements of your story will get your screenplay off in focus and
with clear efficiency.
Charles Deemer teaches screenwriting at
Portland State University and is the author of Screenwright: The
Craft of Screenwriting at www.screenwright.com. His recent book Seven Plays is a finalist for the Oregon Book Award.