Tuesday, 8 November 2011

Story Development: Film and a Hero's Journey!

The Hero’s Journey relies on some variation of the three act structure. There are a number of ways to recognise this particular narrative structure the three act structure can help construct the story into three acts that the audience can familiarize with as initial beginning middle and end in some cases it doesn’t have to be in that particular order argues Jean-Luc –Godard.


" Every movie needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order."


Jean- Luc- Godard.

Demonstrating the three act structure from a most recent film such as Twilight: Breaking Dawn seems rather easy but explains the hero’s quest to freedom, the story consists of the three act structure to be useful in terms of describing the protagonists story, for example most narratives consists of an exposition or in other words an equilibrium of the story this suggests the normality of the beginning, for e.g. The wedding of Bella and Edward and following the journey to the honeymoon, at this point in the narrative the equilibrium is established and act 1 has occurred and the protagonist makes a commitment which leads to the main action of the movie. Enter Act 2 which suggests how the equilibrium changes due to some sort of conflict or complication which disturbs the equilibrium and this happens to create a sequence of events, for instance Bella finds out that she is pregnant with Edward the vampire’s baby this immediately changes the path of the protagonist and it results in conflict with Edward who doesn’t want to keep the baby if it means losing Bella.
The protagonists journey gradually changes through many obstacles such as romance, pain and conflict which results in the protagonist in danger of this creates a new equilibrium and follows through to act 3 which is the resolution and to amend the disturbance in hope to find a better and new equilibrium such as the protagonist character Bella gives birth to the half-vampire half-human child and dies and overcome the threats and the danger that followed which ends in a new equilibrium where Bella turns into a vampire and this helps create a cliff-hanger that makes the audience to want to watch more, and have pleasure in finding out what happens in the end.

The Hero’s journey is about someone in this case the protagonist sheltered in some way, who receives a call to adventure- Bella and Edwards’s magical wedding. This protagonist must leave the comfort of her world she has always known and set forth on a dangerous quest. Gaining allies and learning new things along the way, the protagonist faces many challenges and barely escapes death all to gain insight or freedom. Joseph Campbell demonstrates the different stages of the hero’s journey that are familiar to the audience. This helps the audience identify the situation or dilemma and ultimately engage within the story and follow the hero’s journey till the end. The three act structure helps dominate the narrative in a structured plan that enlightens the audience on the journey and taps into an archetypal pattern.




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