MONDAY'S SCRIPT TIP:
A GREAT CHARACTER?
NEEDS A GREAT PLOT!
People often ask which is more important: Character or Plot?
You might think you know the answer, but....
From Aristotle's POETICS:
“The plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy; Character holds the second place. A similar fact is seen in painting. The most beautiful colors, laid on confusedly, will not give as much pleasure as the chalk outline of a portrait. Thus Tragedy is the imitation of an action, and of the agents mainly with a view to the action.”
James L. Brooks is a screenwriting great. From episodes of “That Girl”, he created one of my favorite shows “Room 222" then “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Phyllis” and “Rhoda” and “Taxi” and “Lou Grant” , wrote one of my favorite movies “Starting Over” plus “Terms Of Endearment” plus “Broadcast News” plus “As Good As It Gets”, oh... and developed and wrote for this cartoon you might have heard of “The Simpsons” (which he also produces). So this guy knows what he’s doing when it comes to writing...
Which makes his latest film ELLA McKAY (2025) a serious disappointment. The strangest thing about this film (before I saw it) was the actress who played Ella McKay is named Emma MacKey. Coincidence? Or was he infatuated and wrote a script for her? Emma’s first major role was in 2022, and the following year she was one of the hundred or so Barbies in that film. I wasn’t familiar with her work - and here she is starring in a film from an important writer-director playing a character with a name very similar to her real name.
But the real problem is that the film has a scattershot plot - a dozen subplots and no real main plot. It’s as if Brooks had an idea for a character (young woman with a million problems who is new in politics) and a situation (she becomes Governor of the state by accident) and that was it. No *plot* - that thing that Aristotle says is most important. Her life’s a mess and politics is messy, too... and that’s it..
My friend Mark (who wrote TIME COP and THE MASK) thought this might have begun as a TV series, and each of the movie’s subplots were originally going to be an episode of that show. That might have been how this started out, but even then - wouldn’t you find the one proposed episode with the highest stakes and expand that?
PICK ONE
ELLA McKAY is a million subplots with nothing to hold it together. An absolute mess. For a comedy? Not a single laugh. For a Drama? All surface drama. Each of the dozens of problems are give equal weight, and none of them really matter. The press finds out Ella and her husband have been having “nooners” in an unused government office. Her father wants to reconnect with her after cheating on her late mother years ago. Her aunt runs a neighborhood bar and is outspoken and knows swear words that I didn’t know, her husband is angry because she forgot to mention him in her acceptance speech, her brother is a lonely agoraphobic who is also an illegal bookie (and has a whole subplot about reconnecting with his ex girlfriend), her estranged father’s girlfriend keeps calling her trying to get her to reconnect with her dad, her staff and others in her party don’t like her policy ideas, one of her policy ideas has to do with mothers... but it gets lost after a few minutes of the film, and probably a bunch of subplots that I can’t remember... and all are given equal time and equal importance.
Whether it’s Mark’s “Was this supposed to be a TV show?” theory or a character in search of a story... Brooks should have known better and picked a strong plot that could hold this film together. The trailer made more sense than the movie. There are subplots that the lead character isn't a part of (like the brother’s romance issues). And the trailer has a narrator who tries to connect the pieces that aren't really connected in the film. It’s a case of a trailer designed to solve the problems that still exist in the film.
UNITY
That Aristotle guy was also a big proponent of Unity. All of the parts of a story are connected and parts of the same story. So, even though there are several of these subplots that deal with romantic issues - none seem to be connected to each other. Even the Ella/Husband subplots aren’t connected. The reason why they are doing all of these nooners is because they want a kid, but what does that have to do with not mentioning him in her speech? It’s as if all of the pieces are from different films.
One of the problems with focusing on a character instead of a plot is that all of the things in any of our lives are usually unconnected... except that they all happened to us. If you take your life and write a story about a year or a month in your life, it’s a scattershot plot. Dozens of unrelated things happen to us... and that is *not* a story. Incidents. Unfocused. Unconnected.
If you were to *focus* on one aspect of someone’s life and only one aspect - you might not have a plot, but you would have a character study (and that can work for a limited audience movie). STARTING OVER is about a recently divorced man who is still in love with his ex-wife (the divorce wasn’t his idea) who is re-entering the dating world... and having problems, even when he meets the perfect woman. Everything is focused on him trying to find love again. One thing. Unity.
So you *can* start with character, but then you need to focus on one thing. Pick one. What is the central conflict that connects all of the pieces?
THE CENTRAL CONFLICT
The central conflict is where the emotional conflict and physical conflict (plot) intersect... it’s where you will find Unity in your story. Where Ella McKay suddenly becoming Governor should have focused the type of subplots and exclude anything that wasn’t part of that central conflict, that didn’t happen. My “plot seed theory” is that everything grows from that central conflict - from characters to scenes to subplots to locations and even props... all of those things are covered by Unity. If we start with Idealist Young Woman Suddenly Becomes Governor we can find a main plot conflict and supporting characters who represent those conflicts and scenes that deal with that central conflict in different ways. Heck, there’s a great Michael Ritchie movie THE CANDIDATE that tells this story much much better. But look for that central conflict that connects all of the pieces of the story - and creates both the plot and the characters...
Love and Duty are the key elements in the central conflict of Ben Hecht's NOTORIOUS. Cary Grant plays a by-the-book CIA Agent with no time for romance whose assignment is to help the party-girl daughter of a Nazi spy (Ingrid Bergman) infiltrate a bunch of Nazis in Rio de Janeiro... but he falls in love with her.... and the way she's supposed to infiltrate the Nazi group is to sleep with a friend of her father's who has always lusted after her (Claude Raines).
Now Grant's duty is to makes sure Bergman sleeps with Raines, but that's in *direct conflict* with his heart. Every scene in the film focuses on this central conflict, whether it's Grant at a CIA meeting defending Bergman's reputation, or Bergman telling Grant that she has added Raines to her "list of playmates" in order to make him jealous. There are scenes in the film where LOVE wins the battle and scenes in the film where DUTY wins the battle... but the war rages on in every scene.
Pick any scene in NOTORIOUS and it will focus on the central conflict... the big problem that Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman must solve if they are to make it to the end of the film alive.
In Scott Frank's MINORITY REPORT detective John Anderton of Washington DC's elite "pre-crimes" division arrests killers as a way to pay penance for his feelings of guilt over the murder of his son... and a way to get vengeance. In John Anderton's world, those accused of crimes have no rights - they should all be captured and put in the deep freeze without benefit of trial. When the pre-cogs accuse him of the future murder of Leo Crow, the emotional conflict and plot conflicts intersect - they become connected. Should he arrest himself?
The closest I can come up with any connection between all of the subplots in ELLA McKAY is some concern broken romantic relationships... but what does that have to do with politics? Okay - maybe her romantic views of Politics end with a broken heart... but I really have to stretch to come up with that. And it doesn’t cover half of the subplots. There doesn’t seem to be any connection to all of these subplots. No Unity. No “plot seed” that everything grows from, that connects all of the pieces.
DOES THIS SUCK?
I think that every writer-director needs a couple of worst critics who will tell them the brutal truth... And they need to listen to that truth. Because there's a point where you aren't a good judge of your work. Maybe with a dozen rewrites and a spine holding all of the subplots together it could have been okay? Maybe with a serious joke punch up? There was nothing funny in here, though things that they thought might be funny.
As much as I often hate the friction between the writer and director, often they point out problems that I never noticed. Or come up with ideas that I wish I had come up with. Or forced me to do better work. Here - no friction, and the script needed to be much better.
I thought the title was terrible and told us nothing about the film... But the title was an indication that this mess had nothing. There was no title that could sum up the story because there was no story. Just a bunch of things happening to the same character. No PLOT.
The film cost $35m, and only made $4.5 million... and I suspect isn’t going to get a lot of views on streaming or sell any 4Ks (if that still exists).
Take it from that Aristotle guy, plot comes first. In film, there are plenty of big hits where the plot is more important than the characters... but even during Oscar time, where would HAMNET be without the death of their son? Where would SINNERS be without the Vampires crashing the party? Where would ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER be without Lockjaw trying to kidnap the girl he thinks might be his daughter? There is something *driving* all of these films. A plot. And from that plot seed everything else grows - so each piece of your story is connected to all of the other parts.
ELLA McKAY does seem as if they took the plots from 22 episodes of a TV series and smashed them into a two hour movie... and it’s episodic and not funny and not dramatic and I don’t see what the point is. If you are a Writer - Director? Get yourself some worst critics and listen to them!
What is YOUR story's Central Conflict? What is the big problem that the protagonist has to deal with? What is the emotional conflict your protagonist has to deal with? What is the plot conflict? How are the emotional conflict and plot conflict connected? Once you have set up the conflict, is it resolved in a way that will be satisfying to the audience? Does your script meet the audience's expectations? Or will it be less than they expected? The audience is our partner is telling the story, we should given them everything they expect and then some!
And everything needs to be connected.
That's why PLOT exists!
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101 SCREENWRITING ANSWERS Blue Book!
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*** STRUCTURING YOUR STORY ***
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*** 101 SCREENWRITING ANSWERS ***
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Should I use a pen name? Do I need to movie to Hollywood? What’s the difference between a
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*** DESCRIPTION & VOICE ***
IS HALF OF YOUR STORY IN TROUBLE?
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*** DIALOGUE SECRETS ***
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WHAT IS A SCENE?
*** SCENE SECRETS ***
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SUBPLOTS?
*** SUPPORTING CHARACTER SECRETS ***
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*** ACT TWO SECRETS ***
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Can You Make It bigger?
***BLOCKBUSTERS (and BEACH READS) ***
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All About Rewrites!
*** REWRITES Blue Book! ***
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Want To Look Like An Expert?
*** RESEARCH & WORLD BUILDING BUILDING! ***
Using movie examples like TOP GUN, HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, BLUE CRUSH, ADVENTURE LAND, several of my produced films,
JOHN WICK, the novels of Donald E. Westlake and Thomas B. Dewey, SPY KIDS, the LORD OF THE RINGS movies, SOYLENT GREEN
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All About LOGLINES, TREATMENTS, and PITCHING!
*** LOGLINES, TREATMENTS, and PITCHING! ***
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READY TO BREAK IN?
*** BREAKING IN BLUE BOOK ***
Should really be called the BUSINESS BLUE BOOK because it covers almost everything you will need to
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STORY IN ACTION SERIES!
THE MISSION IMPOSSIBLE MOVIES
NEW: Updates On Films 7 & 8 Casting!
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Over 240 pages!
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HITCHCOCK FOR WRITERS!
Strange Structures!
*** HITCHCOCK: EXPERIMENTS IN TERROR! ***
Contained Thrillers like "Buried"? Serial Protagonists like "Place Beyond The Pines"? Multiple Connecting Stories like "Pulp Fiction"? Same Story Multiple Times like "Run, Lola, Run"?
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LEARN SUSPENSE FROM THE MASTER!
*** HITCHCOCK: MASTERING SUSPENSE ***
Alfred Hitchcock, who directed 52 movies, was known as the *Master Of Suspense*; but what exactly is suspense and how can *we* master it? How does suspense work? How can *we* create “Hitchcockian” suspense scenes in our screenplays, novels, stories and films?
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FICTION
Featuring Shelly Steele !
*** THE SHOTGUN APPROACH ***
A Pop Star is murdered on the VIP floor of a luxury hotel by a shotgun blast to the face... completely ruining an original piece of art
on the wall behind him. Violent SFPD Homicide Inspector Shelly Steele must find the murderer... without killing anyone in the process.
That won't be easy! A locked room, A handful of clues. A chase and shootout on the hotel's fire stairs.
Who is the killer? His ex-Partner? His ex-Wife? His ex-Record Label Owner?
THE SHOTGUN APPROACH 105 pgs!
ONLY $.99 - Kindle Version
Featuring Smart & Final !
*** A FINE UPSTANDING CITIZEN ***
25 years ago Senator Milano killed a man. Now he's one of a dozen suspects in an information leak.
Being interrogated in the executive boardroom on the 30th floor of an office building...
The informant will not be leaving by the elevator. Can he solve the crime before they discover his secret?
Fnd the rat before the trap springs on him?
A FINE UPSTANDING CITIZEN (CRIME TIME THRILLER) 86 pgs!
ONLY $.99 - Kindle Version
Crime Time Thriller !
*** FOLLOWED HOME ***
Bowden knew the best place to find a victim is somewhere they feel safe. Diane Taylor would be his next victim...
It began with a car jacking at an upscale grocery store, but fresh out of prison Bowden decided to take everything -
forcing Diane to drive him her her luxury home. Trapped in her SUV with a violent man, can she find a way to turn the tables on him and survive?
FOLLOWED HOME (CRIME TIME THRILLER)
ONLY $.99 - Kindle Version
Featuring Smart & Final !
*** PRIME RATE ***
Chuck Skinner brought his father's failing butcher shop back into the black with the help of modern day cattle rustlers. Nice story if it ends there...
But now the head of the MaryAnn Mob of cattle rustlers suspects him of cooking his books, and has brought in an "accountant"
nicknamed Smart & Final... to hold him accountable. Can Chuck talk his way out of this?
PRIME RATE (CRIME TIME THRILLER)
ONLY $.99 - Kindle Version
MITCH ROBERTSON MYSTERIES
Mitch Robertson #1
*** THROUGH THE RINGER ***
Screenwriter Mitch Robertson just wants to sell a script, but ends up solving the mystery of a whiz kid writer whose new script stinks.
From an upscale vodka bar in Beverly Hills to the Writer's Guild Library to an old mansion in the woodsy Brentwood district, Mitch follows
the clues to uncover the secret of the hot new writer who has suddenly turned cold.
THROUGH THE RINGER
ONLY $.99 - Kindle Version
Mitch Robertson #2
*** THE FAMILY'S JEWEL ***
"The Presidential Suite of the Hollywood Hoover Hotel looked like a bloody battlefield: bodies everywhere, furniture broken, red liquid dripping from the walls, dead soldiers littering the elegant Berber rug as clouds of smoke overhead bounced between two air conditioning vents.
Mitch Robertson stepped over the body of an ex-child star turned sex tape star turned pop star and entered the room, spotted a gun on the floor and picked it up... careful not to spill his coffee with three pumps of mocha syrup from Penny’s Coffee Shop. That coffee was gold, the only thing keeping him going in this dazed state of wakefulness. The gun felt light. Holding it, he saw the silhouette of an 80s action star sitting sideways on a tipped over chair. Motionless. Was he dead? Mitch was still hung over from the Awards Party the night before, and wondered whether this was all some sort of crazy nightmare that he would wake up from... but when he tripped over the brown legs of a bottomless Superhero, flaccid junk encased in a condom but still wearing his mask, and hit the edge of the sofa, gun skittering and coffee spilling, he realized that it was all very real. What the hell had happened here?"
Short Novel. Only 99 cents! - Kindle Version
Mitch Robertson #3
***
THE UNHAPPY MEDIUM ***
When Warren Moultie, the "Psychic To The Stars", private files, with dirt on everyone in Hollywood, are stolen, Mitch must find them and the
thief before the blackmail begins! But when studios and movie stars and pop music stars and TV stars begin receiving demands for millions
typed by an ancient typewriter on cheap paper, the entire Entertainment Industry is depending on him. Who stole the files? The Psychic? His wife?
His mistress? One of his famous clients?
Novella. Only 99 cents! - Kindle Version
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