Is My Screenplay Big Enough to Be a Movie, Part 10: Metamorphosis

Is My Screenplay Big Enough to Be a Movie, Part 10: Protagonist Arc

This is a fundamental question screenwriters must ask themselves at all stages of a screenplay’s development and writing. Why? Because it’s a question movie studio execs will ask as one of the key determining factors whether to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to buy your script.

“Is my screenplay big enough to be a movie?”

This is a fundamental question screenwriters must ask themselves at all stages of a screenplay’s development and writing. Why? Because it’s a question movie studio execs will ask as one of the key determining factors whether to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to buy your script.

For years, movies have been known as playing on “The Big Screen,” as opposed to TV (the “small” screen). Typically movies have big budgets, big marketing campaigns, and big stars. Their running times, clocking in at an average of two hours, are big. The film industry is our nation’s second biggest export business (behind airplane manufacturing). So much about movies is about being big.

Being ‘big enough’ pertains not only to huge blockbuster action-thrillers, but also to small character-driven scripts. While the plot may be ‘small’ in scope, what happens and what those events mean to the story’s characters must have a ‘big’ enough meaning and emotional resonance with a big enough potential audience to warrant a studio’s green light.

The central question here — Is my script big enough to be a movie — is a… well… big topic. What I’ve done is put together 10 questions you can ask in relation to any of your writing projects, current and future, to test if it’s big enough to be a movie. I’ll be posting these questions over the next few weeks.

PART 10: DOES MY SCREENPLAY HAVE A BIG ENOUGH PROTAGONIST ARC?

I have a theory. Beyond entertainment, people watch movies because they want to see characters change. In TV shows, everything from reality TV to sit-coms to police procedurals to home renovation series, it’s mostly about problem-solving. But in a movie, we want to be taken away from the mundane world of solving problems and swept up into a place where in a matter of 120 minutes, a character’s entire life can change — because if we see a character go through a significant psychological metamorphosis, then it reinforces our belief that we can change.

It’s more than just about some generic desire for change. When a movie character endures all the struggles they do through the course of the story and move toward some sense of emotional wholeness, that speaks to one of the most fundamental callings of the human experience.

Carl Jung talks about the process of individuation and that the goal toward which we evolve — or try to — as individuals is unity.

Does the Protagonist in your story start out in Disunity and end up in a Unity state?

Do they go through a world of stuff in Act II, full of tests and challenges, twists and turns, and emerge on the other side, having ‘won’ the Final Struggle to end up in their ‘new’ home (as seen in the Denouement), a transformed person?

That is the big type of psychological event a moviegoer is seeking in a film — to reinforce their belief / hope that they, too, can be transformed, their lot in life can change.

The change doesn’t have to involve geopolitics or a massive plot. Consider the very end of As Good As It Gets where Melvyn (Jack Nicholson)escorts Carol into the bakery:

He kisses her. An awkward bomb of a kiss. They separate.
A tense beat. Then:

MELVIN
I know I can do better.

They embrace again. He does indeed do much better. A
first-class smooch. CAMERA MOVES DOWN to see his foot
land squarely on a crack in the sidewalk without his
knowledge. They break -- look at each other without a
notion of where to take it from here, and the ALMOST in
unison begin to walk away FROM CAMERA, Melvin following a
path that avoids cracks. Suddenly the lights of the
bakery turn on as it opens for business.

CAROL
Warm rolls...

They walk to the bakery, Melvin avoiding the cracks. As
they enter the bakery, a WORKER moves toward them to
clean the entranceway. Melvin, forced to step back onto
a crack, this time notices -- registers the momentous
fact and joins Carol inside as we:

FADE OUT

THE END

Melvin steps on a crack — and survives. He wins out over his obsessive compulsive condition. A tiny event, but one filled with meaning, signifying a big character arc.

Not all movies have a Protagonist go through a positive metamorphosis. And in some movies, the Protagonist doesn’t change, rather they are they change agent. But in a majority of movies, the Protagonist does undergo a metamorphosis. It can be a radical transformation or a small one — but it always has to be “momentous” enough to translate into something that can sustain a movie.

Previous posts in the series:

Part 1: Does my screenplay have a big enough story concept?
Part 2: Does my screenplay have big enough characters?
Part 3: Does my screenplay have big enough set pieces?
Part 4: Does my screenplay have big enough conflict?
Part 5: Does my screenplay have big enough stakes?
Part 6: Does my screenplay have big enough visual style?
Part 7: Does my screenplay have big enough beginning?
Part 8: Does my screenplay have big enough middle?
Part 9: Does my screenplay have big enough ending?