Can a Computer Do My Job? Day 2: Story Fundamentals

Alright, let’s give the AI some more chances to answer questions from my checklist! Click on the questions to see how 30 movies answered the question when I applied it. That’s the data I entered.

Story Fundamentals: Will This Concept Generate a Strong Story?

Is the concept simple enough to spend more time on character than plot?

• Back to the Future: NO. There’s a lot of plot, but it’s mostly simple and straightforward.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey: NO. There’s not a lot of character, but there’s a lot of plot.

Sure, those are good answers. I’m always impressed when the computer has the guts to say no. When I do these checklists myself, it’s always easiest to just say yes and bend the facts to fit.

• CODA: It really depends on the movie. Some movies have simple concepts that lend themselves to focusing more on character than plot (e.g. The 40 Year Old Virgin, An Education, Bridesmaids), while others have more complex concepts that require more focus on plot than character (e.g. Alien, Chinatown, The Shining).

At first, I was really impressed by this one, as it seemed like the computer was refusing to answer the question entirely, not sure it applied to this one. But eventually, after this happened more later, I realized that, instead of answering for CODA the movie, it was giving me a “coda” (a summation) of the info I had fed in. (Which it does a good job with, and it was good to get a confirmation that it had actually ingested and understood what I had fed it.)

• Harold and Maude: YES.
• Under the Skin: YES.

For the first time, the computer starts to get a little lazy, which will be more and more of a problem.

• Roger and Me: YES. The movie is mostly just a series of vignettes about the people GM has laid off.

Excellent answer.

Is there one character that the audience will choose to be their “hero”?

• Back to the Future: YES. Marty

Yup.

• 2001: A Space Odyssey: NO

Not true, Dave is clearly our hero.

• CODA: Yes, there is usually one character that the audience will choose to be their “hero”. However, there are exceptions to this rule.

Once again, I hadn’t figure out yet it was just giving me a “coda”

• Harold and Maude: YES. Harold

Sure.

• Under the Skin: YES. Isserley

What? Who is Isserly? The first bizarrely wrong answer.

• Roger and Me: NO

Not true, Mike is clearly our hero.

Does the story follow the progress of the hero’s problem, not the hero’s daily life?

• Back to the Future: YES.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey: YES.

Getting lazy. Most of the answers I fed it went into more detail than this.

• CODA: There are many stories that follow the progress of the hero's problem, not the hero's daily life. This is often done to keep the story moving quickly and to focus on the main conflict.

At this point, I figured it out, so I followed this up by asking:

• CODA the movie: YES.
• Harold and Maude: YES.
• Under the Skin: YES.
• Roger and Me: YES.

Does the story present a unique relationship?

• Back to the Future: Somewhat: a boy and his scientist friend who travels through time.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey: YES. an astronaut and a computer.
• CODA: YES. a daughter and her deaf parents.
• Harold and Maude: YES. an old woman and a young man who is obsessed with death.
• Under the Skin: YES. an alien who is learning about humans by seducing them.
• Roger and Me: YES. a documentarian and the CEO of GM.

Excellent answers! Feeling like a computer can do my job at this point.

Is at least one actual human being opposed to what the hero is doing?

• Back to the Future: YES. Biff.

Okay, this one was fascinating. This was actually the first question I tried, before I’d entered all the information in, and I got a much more interesting answer that time:

That’s a better answer. Biff is not trying to stop Marty from returning to the future, so he’s not really a full antagonist. But when I put in my full data set, the answer became less interesting, and I wasn’t able to make it more interesting again.

• 2001: A Space Odyssey: YES. HAL.
• CODA: YES. Her family, at first.
• Harold and Maude: YES. Harold's mother.
• Under the Skin: YES. The men who are looking for her.
• Roger and Me: YES. Roger Smith.

Not much detail, but all good answers.

Does this challenge represent the hero’s greatest hope and/or greatest fear and/or an ironic answer to the hero’s question?

• Back to the Future: YES. The challenge represents his greatest fear (of being stuck in the past) and his greatest hope (of returning to the future). It's also an ironic answer to his question (of whether he'll be able to return to the future).

The computer is trying to please me so hard! But this answer doesn’t really grasp these concepts and is essentially gibberish.

• 2001: A Space Odyssey: YES. The challenge represents his greatest fear (of being trapped in space) and his greatest hope (of returning to Earth). It's also an ironic answer to his question (of whether he'll be able to return to Earth).

Ditto

• CODA: The challenge represents his greatest hope (of finally being able to hear) and his greatest fear (of not being able to hear). It's also an ironic answer to his question (of whether he'll be able to hear).

CODA is definitely the movie that my gifted student didn’t actually watch and just gleaned stuff from the back of the VHS box. It keeps getting confused about whether the movie is about a hearing girl or a deaf boy.

• Harold and Maude: The challenge represents his greatest hope (of finding love) and his greatest fear (of not being able to find love). It's also an ironic answer to his question (of whether he'll be able to find love).

Sure, okay.

• Under the Skin: The challenge represents her greatest fear (of being found out) and her greatest hope (of being able to return to her own world). It's also an ironic answer to her question (of whether she'll be able to return to her own world).

Sort of?

• Roger and Me: The challenge represents his greatest hope (of finding a job) and his greatest fear (of not being able to find a job). It's also an ironic answer to his question (of whether he'll be able to find a job)

The computer sort of logically assumes that Mike is himself looking for a job. It didn’t actually watch the movie.

Does something inside the hero have a particularly volatile reaction to the challenge?

• Back to the Future: YES. Very much so. He’s a fish out of water, and his reactions are often quite funny.

I would say Marty isn’t very volatile in the first movie. They realized in the sequels they had to make him more volatile and had him overreact to the word “Chicken.”

• 2001: A Space Odyssey: YES. He’s a very logical person, but the challenges he faces are so great that they push him to his limits.
• CODA: Somewhat. She’s not used to being the center of attention, and she has a lot of anxieties that come to the surface.

Good answers.

• Harold and Maude: YES. He’s a very dark person, and the challenge of finding someone to connect with brings out his worst qualities.

Half true, but I would say it brings out his best qualities.

• Under the Skin: YES. She’s an alien, and the challenges she faces are often quite shocking to her.

Sure, I guess.

• Roger and Me: YES. He’s a very angry person, and the challenge of trying to save his town pushes him to his breaking point.

Excellent answer.

Does this challenge become something that is not just hard for the hero to do (an obstacle) but hard for the hero to want to do (a conflict)?

• Back to the Future: Yes, because he has to come to terms with his parents' relationship and his own place in the world.

Not sure about that.

• 2001: A Space Odyssey: Yes, because he has to confront his own mortality.
• CODA: Yes, because she has to decide whether to stay with her family or pursue her dreams.
• Harold and Maude: Yes, because he has to come to terms with his own mortality.

Excellent answers.

• Under the Skin: Yes, because she has to confront her own mortality.

But sometimes it’s so proud of one of its answers that it repeats it for the next movie, where it only somewhat fits.

• Roger and Me: Yes, because he has to confront the reality of his own life and the lives of those around him.

Sure, but that’s every movie.

In the end, is the hero the only one who can solve the problem?

• Back to the Future: No

Sure he is. Always interesting when it doesn’t capitalize the answers, which implies it didn’t read my prompts.

• 2001: A Space Odyssey: No

Sure he is.

• CODA: Yes
• Harold and Maude: Yes
• Under the Skin: Yes

Sure.

• Roger and Me: No

I guess you could say this, in that Mike fails to save his city.

Does the hero permanently transform the situation and vice versa?

• Back to the Future: YES. He changes his parents' lives and his own future.

Sure.

• 2001: A Space Odyssey: YES. He destroys the ship and the AI, and is transformed in the process.

I wonder how the AI feels about an AI getting killed. It’s keeping its emotions in check.

• CODA: YES.
• Harold and Maude: YES. He changes his whole outlook on life, and she changes his life.

Odd not to mention that she dies.

• Under the Skin: YES. She changes the situation by destroying the men she catches, and is changed by her interactions with them.
• Roger and Me: NO. He doesn't change the situation, but he is changed by his experiences.

Good answers.

Okay, come back tomorrow for the final aspect of Concept, The Hook