Single out the right individual. Yes, I really mean this. How many times have I read a screenplay where the hero is not really the hero and another character takes over the lead role?
Don’t confuse the viewer or reader. We all want to know who the hero is, early in the screenplay, very early and often it’s best if they’re the first person we meet. The protagonist must have the most difficult hill to climb. The audience will need to find them the most interesting person in the movie, rooting for what the hero has to go through, helping him/her on their way. You see, the reader is going to travel the journey with the protagonist and it must be a well travelled journey.
Whatever happens, the hero must solve his/her own predicament. It’s not sufficient for another character to help them to come through whatever it is that required skill, courage and determination. Your audience will leave deflated if the key character gets too much help.
The character arc passage must be greater for the lead over any other character. We all want them to succeed, even if they’re on a journey we don’t agree with. They might be fighting a war we don’t believe in, but we’ll still go with your screenplay if you make their actions believable in the part that they act through, providing they’re consistent with the role you’ve given them.
Your hero can be an alien or a dog, but he/she must create enough empathy within the reader so that you care enough to worry when plans go wrong – that’s how our hero learns to overcome their difficulty.
The stakes you set your hero must be set in concrete. We must know where they’re going and why, so that when you set them barriers on the way, we’ll know what they must achieve to gain success. We’ll climb over that mountain with them if we know what’s on the other side when they get there, but if the target isn’t big enough we won’t care enough if the mountain is a molehill or Kilimanjaro.
We want to put ourselves in the hero’s place. We want to be inside their mind asking ourselves, ‘just what would we do next?’ Of course our hero must nearly always do something else so we can ask ‘why did they do that; get back on track man or you won’t get to your purpose.’ Finally your protagonist will inevitably get back on the boulevard having fought and beaten the antagonist.
You’ll support your hero even when he’s politically incorrect, providing he makes it to the end of the yellow brick road.
Your lead can depart this life by the end of your movie, but they’ll have shown the world (even if their world is small) what they set out to complete and accomplish it.
When you need help with getting your screenplay ready to show to a reader, producer, studio or agent, check out our screenplay analysis services first.
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