FRIDAY'S SCRIPT TIP:
SINGLE PROTAGONIST THEORY
The MAJORITY of the scenes in your script should feature the protagonist, and the central plot of the script. All subplots and sub characters should be subservient to the lead character and her or his conflict.
In a good story, plot GROWS from character (or character grows from plot - it's kind of a chicken & egg situation). If you have two lead characters, you are very likely to have two plots. That's one plot too many... you've lost focus. If you have two lead characters who share the same plot, there's a very good chance one of them is redundant. That's just common sense. If you can separate plot from character - something is wrong. You are not writing organically, but forcing characters into situations (or forcing situations onto characters).
When a producer asks you what your story is about, you should be able to tell him in one sentence, which describes ONE character involved in ONE conflict. When they read your script, that single sentence should describe every scene in it, as well as the whole 110 pages. Each scene illustrating the conflict, plus adding to the overall conflict. The story is FOCUSED - it's about something, not about everything.
The most successful films take the audience on a journey: The lead character's journey. Through identification, the audience will BECOME the lead character, and see the story through her eyes. Feel the lead character's joys and terrors. Participate in their life for two hours.
You can't take the audience on a journey if it involves too many trains (of thought), all going in separate directions.
SPLITTING FOCUS
You don't have to create a half dozen lead characters and a half dozen individual plots like Stephen Gaghan does in SYRIANA to confuse the heck out of your audience and make your story less effective and your characters less involving...Even something as simple as giving equal time to detective and crime victim may sink your script. The Los Angeles Times review of Gaghan's previous film ABANDON called it an oddly uninvolving thriller. Nothing odd about it - the script makes it univolving by splitting the focus between Katie Holmes (a college student being stalked by an ex-boyfriend who seemed to vanish 2 years ago) and Benjamin Bratt (the detective investigating the ex-boyfriend's disappearance). Every time we're starting to ease into Katie Holmes' shoes, the story yanks us out with a scene involving Bratt and his investigation. Just when we think Bratt is going to be our doorway into the story, that door slams shut when we cut to Katie working on her thesis. The script never gives us enough time with either of the two to "become them" on screen, so we end up an impartial observer of the story. The one thing you DON'T want the audience to be in a thriller is impartial. You want to thrill them, to make them feel the terror of being alone in the dark and hearing a noise. The script really fails in the suspense scenes - Katie Holmes is being chased through the spooky college library at night by her ex-boyfriend... and then we cut to Benjamin Bratt trying to sleep. Just when the scene begins to involve us on a primal level we are yanked out and thrown into another character's life. This kills the suspense!
I'm sure it made sense theoretically to show the victim and the detective - both are involved in the investigation of the crazy ex-boyfriend. But from a practical standpoint it not only splits the focus of the story, it forces the story to straddle two genres - the detective story and the thriller. One genre is intellectual, the other is emotional. They may both deal with crime, but they are oil and water as far as story types are concerned - they don't mix well. The only way to combine the detective story and the thriller is to do something like THE FUGITIVE where Richard Kimble is being chased by the police (thriller part) as he tries to solve his wife's murder that he has been accused of (detective part). A single protagonist can pull together those two genres (in some cases) but by having two different protagonists and two different genres you are just asking for trouble. While Katie is running from the crazy boyfriend, Benjamin is doing handwriting comparisons... and each undermines the other's ability to involve the audience. We never make that "skin jump" into a character because we don't know which of the two is the protagonist. You can only have one!
So choose your lead character. Choose her conflict. Focus your script on a single journey, which this lead character must take in order to deal with their conflict. If your story is focused to the central character's point of view, it will be easy for the audience to hitch a ride. Scripts are ultimately written for your audience, so don't lose sight of them while typing. They're out there. On the other side of your computer screen. Waiting for an adventure.
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