Welcome Back!
It’s time to see the hero of our 60-second story pursue her visible goal.
In case you missed my previous two emails (A Perfect Story Introduced, and The Setup) I am breaking down the individual elements that make the Amazon Christmas video “Joy Ride” so emotionally captivating.
These are the same elements you must include in your own stories for the stage, page or screen, whether you’re growing your business as an entrepreneur, speaker, author, business leader, filmmaker or novelist.
In my previous email, the hero of the story was about to begin pursuing her goal (even though we don’t yet know exactly what that is). So watch the video as we move on to the next two stages of the story, her PURSUIT and CONFLICT….
:16 Our hero touches the Add to Cart button on her screen, then gives a satisfied smile towards her companions. We then see her at home bringing in a box with the familiar Amazon arrow, followed by a quick cut to her handing the box to her two friends. After opening it and removing a black cushion, they give her a questioning, skeptical glance. She responds by motioning for them to follow her.
The moment our hero places the order, she has stopped thinking about what to do for her two companions, and is now taking action to achieve that goal.
When I lecture or coach screenwriters on plot structure, I refer to this moment as the Change of Plans. It’s the moment when a hero takes the first step in pursuing his goal.
In a Hollywood feature film, this event will almost always occur at the 25% mark of the script and movie. While this turning point is not as rigidly required in either a short form business story or longer, more expansive form novel, notice that it occurs 16 seconds into the 60-second “Joy Ride” video – just one second off the mark.
Regardless of the length of, or venue for, your own story, the underlying principle is that you must take time to set up your setting, character and situation rather than dropping your audience immediately into the pursuit of the goal.
But if you take too long before your hero begins pursuing his visible finish line, we’ll become restless waiting for something to root for.
Her friends’ reaction to our hero’s gift (I love that this film is dialogue free, but I kind of wish she was wearing a name tag or embroidered signature on her beret so I wouldn’t have to keep calling her “the hero”) adds some essential conflict to the story. If they lept in the air and ran off to jump on their sleds, it would not only be bizarrely unrealistic, it would make things too easy.
The number one rule for every story you tell – for every story ever told – is that it must elicit emotion. And the number one source of that emotion is conflict. While in “Joy Ride,” the biggest obstacle is the characters’ Inner Conflict (which we’ll discuss tomorrow), the fact that they have to be coaxed onto their now-cushioned sleds adds to the emotion of the story.
:30 The three women place their cushions into three sleds, then once seated, give our hero a nod that they’re ready and willing to go. As they slide down the hill, they laugh and shout gleefully, while two young boys smile as they pass. Then our hero closes her eyes, and we see her memory of the three as children, sliding down the same hill on toboggans.
In my 6-Stage approach to screenplay plot structure, the Change of Plans is followed by the next key turning point, The Point of No Return. This is the moment where the hero fully commits to pursuing the visible goal. Up to this point, the hero has the option of giving up on his desire and going back to the life he was living at the beginning, where nothing much will have changed.
But if the hero reaches this point and finds the courage to go forward, returning to that “previous” life will be impossible. In love stories or romantic comedies, this is the moment where the two people have a first date, kiss, make love or declare their love for the first time. In thrillers it’s often when the hero does something to alert the villain that he’s a threat.
I don’t often discuss this when working with business leaders, whose stories are much shorter than movies. But even if you’re in that situation, including a moment where your hero has to put more on the line in the middle of his or her journey will make your emotional impact even greater.
In a well structured movie, the Point of No Return is right around the 50% point of the script. And in “Joy Ride” the nod of commitment right before they risk sliding down the hill occurs at exactly the 30-second mark.
Cool, huh?
Their joy at this point is part of their reward for having found the courage to do this – and our hero’s reward for her own kindness, generosity and courage at urging them to do it.
The two boys watching them also add to our emotional reaction. We are both participants and viewers of the story, and our reaction to it is amplified as we see others feeling the same way about what the hero is accomplishing.
Perhaps the most emotional moment in this sequence is the flashback showing our hero’s joyful childhood memory of them sliding down the same hill. (It took me quite a few viewings before I saw that the three young girls were wearing the same color outfits as they now are, some seven decades later.)
We now see clearly what the hero’s goal was. Not just to prove that she and her friends weren’t too old to sled down the hill, but to relive a moment of happiness they might have all thought was far behind them.
So all that remains for my next email is the final two steps in this hero’s story: the Climax and Aftermath. And after discussing those, I want to take a much closer look at my favorite part of almost any great story, the hero’s Inner Journey.
Don’t miss it….
– Michael
