Podcast

Friday, March 24, 2023

The Expanded Ultimate Story Checklist: Does the scene have both a surface and a suppressed conflict?

The topic of conversation does not always determine the true substance of a scene, and it should never contain all of the conflict in a scene. Every good scene needs a surface conflict and a suppressed conflict, either one of which can be the primary conflict. 

There are ways that one character might confront another one indirectly.
  • In pursuit of a goal, the character chooses to mask a hidden agenda behind an innocuous topic. 
  • The character is genuinely attempting to have an innocuous conversation but unintentionally pursues a subconscious agenda. 
Either way, the other agenda will be revealed not through the text but through the subtext, so you must ask our next question.

For this Scenework series, we’re examining these scenes:

The 40 Year Old Virgin

Andy goes home with a drunk woman from a Bachelorette party.

Alien

After the deaths of Kane, Brett and Dallas, Ripley becomes captain, so she has a meeting with the other survivors, Ash, Parker, and Lambert, to decide what to do next.

An Education

Jenny is amazed as David gets permission from her parents to take her on a weekend trip to Oxford by claiming to know C.S. Lewis.

The Babadook

Amelia chases her son Sam down to the basement, where he knocks her out, ties her up, and drives the Babadook out of her, temporarily.

Blazing Saddles

Bart arrives in town, then takes himself hostage to save himself from hostile townspeople

Blue Velvet

Jeffrey spies on Dorothy and Frank, then Dorothy catches Jeffrey in her apartment and has sex with him at knifepoint.

The Bourne Identity

Jason and Marie are attacked at her family’s farm by the assassin known as The Professor. Jason blows up a propane tank to distract him and kills him, but as the Professor dies he convinces Jason to come back.

Bridesmaids

Annie is driving angry after feuding with Helen when she gets pulled over by a cute cop, who gives her his number under the pretense of recommending a place to get her tail light fixed.

Casablanca

Sketchy crook Ugarte asks cool club owner Rick to hold onto the letters of transit for him.

Chinatown

Jake confronts Noah Cross with the glasses

Donnie Brasco

Lefty seeks to go behind Sonny Black’s back to set up his own meeting in Florida with Trifficante. He has Donnie borrow a boat for this purpose, but Sonny Black knows everything, and he crashes the party.  Lefty bitterly assumes that Donnie has betrayed him, and shuns him.  Sonny takes Donnie aside and elevates him above Lefty.

Do the Right Thing

Buggin’ Out notices that there are no brothers on the wall of Sal’s Pizzeria and decides to organize a boycott.

The Farewell

Billi finds out about Nai Nai’s diagnosis from her parents.

The Fighter

Micky and Charlene confront Micky’s family about his career.

Frozen

Anna confront Elsa in her ice palace

The Fugitive

Gerard confronts Kimble atop a dam, but Kimble leaps off.

Get Out

Chris sneaks out for a smoke in the night, has creepy encounters with Georgina and Walter, then finds Missy drinking tea.  She implores him to sit down, he repeats that he doesn’t want to be hypnotized, but she does it anyway with her teacup.  She gets him to admit the facts of his mother’s death, then sends him to a “sunken place” in his mind.

Groundhog Day

Phil takes Rita to a cafe and tries to convince her that he’s living the same day over and over. He convinces her by predicting what Larry will say.

How to Train Your Dragon

Hiccup and his students are in an arena competing to defeat a dragon, but Hiccup is quizzing their instructor to find out how to better commune with his own dragon, Toothless. Along the way, he uses what he learned from Toothless to peacefully subdue the dragon they’re fighting, infuriating the others.

In a Lonely Place

Laurel has made secret plans to leave town, but Dix makes her go to his favorite restaurant to celebrate their engagement with his agent, his alcoholic friend, and others.

Iron Man

Tony has built a better chest-device to keep shrapnel out of his heart, so he calls Pepper in to reach into his chest and replace the old one with a new one.

Lady Bird

Lady Bird flirts with Kyle in the parking lot.

Raising Arizona

During Hi and Ed’s first night with Junior, brothers Gale and Evelle show up having just escaped from jail, and begin to suspect the truth.

Rushmore

Max introduces himself to Ms. Cross on the bleachers.

Selma

King meets with Johnson in the Oval Office to try to get him to commit to a new Voting Rights Act

The Shining

Jack finally takes a drink from the ghosts in the ballroom. A waiter spills a drink on him, and takes him to the bathroom to clean it off.  While he does so, Jack realizes that the waiter is actually Grady, the former caretaker that killed his family.  Grady encourages him to do the same, but Jack is uncertain.

Sideways

Miles has struck out with Maya, but Jack comes back to the motel after a wild night with Steph, intending to go back out. Miles tries to get Jack to stay by forcing him to call his fiancĂ©, but she doesn’t answer and Jack takes off with Steph after getting Miles to return his unused condom from the night before.

The Silence of the Lambs

Clarice first meets Lecter in his cell, under the pretense of getting him to fill out a questionnaire, but he quickly figures out that it’s really about Buffalo Bill, and that Clarice is hiding other things as well.

Star Wars

The gang takes over the Death Star command office.

Sunset Boulevard

Joe discovers Norma, who assumes that he’s there to plan her monkey’s funeral, but when he explains that he’s a screenwriter, she hires him to rewrite her screenplay for Salome instead.


So how do those scenes answer this question?

The 40 Year Old Virgin

YES. Surface conflict: Drive better / don’t tell me how to drive. Suppressed conflict: Are all women like you? Why are men all jerks?

Alien

YES. “how do we kill it?” suppressed: “why are you protecting it, Ash?”

An Education

YES. Surface: can Jenny go to Oxford? Suppressed: can I sleep with her? Do you want to live vicariously through our liberation?

The Babadook

YES. Surface: Can I exorcise this demon? Suppressed: Do you love me?  Can you love someone with mental illness?  Can they love you? 

Blazing Saddles

YES. Surface: Can I escape these racists?  Suppressed: Can I avoid internalizing their hatred?

Blue Velvet

YES. surface: why are you spying on me, what did you learn? Suppressed, for both: what’s wrong with me?

The Bourne Identity

YES. Surface: kill each other, Suppressed: seek redemption for being assassins, answers for how they got this way.

Bridesmaids

YES. Surface: will her give her a ticket? Suppressed: will she go out with him, will she learn to feel again?

Casablanca

YES. surface over the letters, suppressed over their personal conflict (but that comes to the surface too)

Chinatown

YES. Surface: You killed Mulwray. Suppressed: You want to rape your other daughter. 

Donnie Brasco

YES.  Lefty: Surface: you told Sonny, Suppressed: you broke our friendship, Sonny: Surface: I want you here in Florida. Suppressed: I want to betray Lefty.

Do the Right Thing

YES. Surface: get free extra cheese, then put brothers on the wall.  Suppressed: what are you doing in my neighborhood?  Why don’t we own our own stores?

The Farewell

YES. Surface: Let me go visit grandma.  Suppressed: I’m not too American for China, or if I am, it’s because American values are better.  

The Fighter

YES. Surface conflict: Why has Micky been hard to get a hold of? Who is Charlene? Suppressed conflict: Will Alice and Dicky stay on as manager and trainer?

Frozen

YES. Surface: Come home, Suppresed: Why did you abandon me?

The Fugitive

YES. Surface: the manhunt. Suppressed: Law vs. justice.

Get Out

YES. Surface conflict: I don’t want to be hypnotized. Suppressed, it seems at the time: I don’t want a black man dating my daughter.  Suppresed, we eventually realize: I want to enslave you, etc.

Groundhog Day

NO. Not really. He no longer has a secondary agenda, nor does she.

How to Train Your Dragon

YES. Surface: defeat this dragon. Suppressed: Crushes are pursued, Hiccup’s secret agenda, his rivalry with Astrid.

In a Lonely Place

YES. surface: force everybody to celebrate, suppressed: force everybody to admit that they’re betraying him.

Iron Man

YES. Surface: he needs her to replace his heart, Suppressed, they each want to admit that they’re in love.

Lady Bird

YES. Surface conflict: Will he agree to a date?  Suppresed conflict: Who am I?

Raising Arizona

YES. Surface: Can they stay? Suppressed: Is Hi going to have to change for his family? Is he going to stay out of jail?

Rushmore

YES. Surface: Don’t smoke, don’t badmouth Latin, Suppressed: I like you.

Selma

YES. Surface: Johnson wants to falsely convince King civil rights is a priority for him, though it has to wait. Suppresed: He wants to shut King up.  He also calls out a third conflict: He wants to make sure King stays the leader of the movement and not Malcolm X.

The Shining

YES. surface conflict is over the stain, then over who is the caretaker, suppressed is over whether or not he should kill his family.

Sideways

YES. Surface: You need to call your fiancĂ©, suppressed: you’re ruining our trip.

The Silence of the Lambs

YES. Surface conflict is over the questionnaire, suppressed is over Bill, Crawford, his desires

Star Wars

YES. Obi-Wan and Luke are also arguing about Luke’s destiny, Luke and Han are also arguing about Han’s flaw.

Sunset Boulevard

YES. For her: Open, she wants a new screenwriter.  Suppressed: she wants a new lover.  For him: Open: He wants to get out of there, Suppressed: He needs work. 

1 comment:

Aaron Spancer said...

Wow, I'm actually surprised. You have chosen a very interesting format for the blog and as far as I can see you do a very in-depth analysis, I like it.