How Writing Affects Acting+ Myth and the Hero’s Journey

No Country for Old Men (Cohen Brothers, Writers) The Counselor (Cormac McCarty, Writer)

Robert McKee / Joseph Campbell

Three Tips on Writing Characters for the Screen

1. Leave room for the actor. 2. Fall in love with all of your characters.3. Character is self-knowledge.

Robert McKeeStory: Style Structure Substance and the Principle of Screenwriting

Screenwriting

Javier Bardem as Anton Chighur

No Country for Old Men, Cohen Brothers, Writer/Directors)

• Based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy

Javier Bardem as ReinerThe CounselorMcCarthy/Scott, Writer/Director)

• Based on McCarthy’s own novel.

Spike Jonze Writer/Director• Her: Love in the Modern

Age 2013 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

• Other writings; Jackass TV Series, Where the Wild Things Are.

• Directed Her (2012), Adaptation (2002)

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Joseph Campbell Scholar and Writer

Myth -- basically serves four functions. 1. The mystical function, experiencing awe

before the mystery of being.2. A cosmological dimension showing one

the shape of the universe in a way that the mystery comes through.

3. The sociological one – supporting and validating a certain social order

4. But there is a fourth function of myth …

Fourth Function of Myth

4. The pedagogical function. By establishing rites of passage into critical stages of life (or through a “story"), myth provides guideposts and beacons to serve as a reminder that there is a purpose. This is to allow a sense of comfort in the entire process, as the individual remembers that he is not the first not the last to embark upon this Hero’s Journey.

Protagonist’s Quest (McKee)/Hero’s Journey (Campbell)• The protagonist’s quest carries him through Progressive

Complications until he’s exhausted all actions to achieve his desire, save one.

• His quest takes him to a crisis decision. His next action is his last. No tomorrow. No second chance.

• This turning point is the moment of greatest tension in the story as both the protagonist/hero and audience sense that the question, “How will this turn out?”

Writing and Hero’s Journey

Apocalypse Now Story Structure

Escalating Action Plotline Schematic (From McKee)

Willard’s Quest(Spine of the Story)

What’s at Stake? Progressive Complications.

Unconscious Object of Desire?

X Inciting Incident Getting his assassination orders

X Crisis Decision (Turning Point)

X Get on the Boat – With Consequences

X Get off the Boat -- Consequences

X Get off the Boat -- Consequences

Do I fulfill my orders or not? Kill him or join him?

X Get off the Boat -- ConsequencesX Get off the Boat -- Consequences

X ClimaxKilling Kurtz

X Escalating Actions

X Resolution“The Horror, The Horror.”

Conscious Object of Desire isTerminate Col. Kurtz

Freedom from the darkness of his soul?

Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)• During the Viet Nam War,

Captain Willard is sent on a mission along the Nung River to assassinate the renegade Colonel Kurtz.

Martin Sheen as Cap’t Ben Willard, Marlon Brando, as Col. Kurtz