Screenwriting : Ensembles vs Hollywood Single Hero by Craig Court

I don't have enough experience for advice, but good luck and I am interested on hearing the follow up.

the main character is the one with the biggest character changes. the one who changes the most as a result of the narration of the story.

I love reading and watching and writing ensemble pieces. I can think of a few more ensembles - SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, THE DIRTY DOZEN, OCEAN'S ELEVEN, and many more. Likely the people askigng who the main character is are feeling some other problem with the script OR just dumb as bricks and to be ignored. Ensembles are still wonderful in my book.

Yea, I have sorta thing in my WIP, but I'm working on someone else's idea and it has 75% chances on becoming a movie, so I have an "immunity" sorta speak...

Think specs this way...someone says "hey u play basketball?" whatcha gonna do? throw MJ tricks on him? Or you gonna show the basics to let the dude know you're getting along, like dribble, three point shoot, double steps etc...

The function of the main character is holding the narrative together. Since you have a number of narratives, either the main character has to feature in all of the narratives to some extent, as a linking device, or you have to have some other type of linking device.

The device could be thematic, or a narrator, or something all the characters are interested in. The link could even be time, if things are happening more or less simultaneously,

Hey, Craig Court. I haven't written an ensemble script, but I've heard that even in an ensemble, there should be a main character. Think of Danny Ocean in "Ocean's Eleven." The logline on IMDb is "Danny Ocean and his ten accomplices plan to rob three Las Vegas casinos simultaneously."

If you look at Tom D's list of war films, all of them have a lead character:

Private Ryan: Tom Hanks as Captain Miller

Dirty Dozen: Lee Marvin as Major John Reisman

Ocean Eleven: Frank Sinatra/George Clooney as Danny Ocean

Also, Hill Street Blues, one of the first modern ensemble TV shows, had a huge cast led by Daniel J. Travanti as Captain Frank Furillo.

I advise you to also focus a the main/lead character for your pitch. Most ensembles feature a lead actor. You can begin by focusing on which character in your script has the most scenes and dialogue.

The reason Love Actually works is because all character story lines are focused on the same thing - love. Think of it as alternate POV's. And they did a nice job of tieing the stories themselves together at the end too.

I would suggest talking each charter out of your story and see what you have.

Maybe you'll discover one in particular has to be there?? Then work on strenthing them as the protagonist... Or find a common thread to keep things focused. Remember, it's a JOURNEY we are following... good luck!

Phil is correct. Even in ensembles there is a main character. That main character may or may not be the protagonist, correct?

The common usage of protagonist is the main character but can also mean the person most affected by or biggest proponent of the central goal. Right? Still, the protagonist is most often the same as the main character. Open to your thoughts?

It can get difficult, L. Tom Deaver. I consider the protagonist as the character who goes after the story goal and changes the most in a script. I consider the main character as a surrogate for the audience (the audience experiences the story through the main character). The main character can also be the character who the story is about. But the protagonist and the main character can be the same. My protagonists and main characters are usually the same.

Yes, don't write ensemble spec screenplays expecting your first movie deal. They dont appeal to actors or to directors. Actors want "actor-bait" characters to play. Hero roles. So they can advanced their own careers. Same with directors.

Perhaps maybe your talent is not up to par with peers now. Maybe that is why you are getting the

same Notes, and it is not because of "winning formulas." This stuff- making movies ppl remember - is really hard.

Dan M. That is a good point if you are trying to attach a known actor to a spec screenplay and that is something I often try to do.

You can definitely create a character as the supposed hero, but retain an ensemble cast by showing how everyone else in the story is affected and what their own actions are.

If you're looking to create an ensemble cast, you usually want to decide a central character then create a cast around them. Then you can decide on the type of characters you want and their own motivations and story points.

I am in full support of an ensemble cast. Just be sure to ask yourself if you're doing the most interesting story you can with the characters and if you time to deliver on all of these stories within a specific timeframe and on an even ratio (so while the A plot may dominated the story, your B and C plots should at least have 5-6 major scenes in an episode). It's kind of the appeal of television since you have a central character, but still show the perspective of other characters. An ensemble really has the benefit of giving breathing room and time away from your lead so their material feels more organic because it's not feeling forced or taking away time that could be used for other characters who have their own stories that you may not be able to focus on otherwise.

Let’s look at the symptom not the cure. They have diagnosed what they think the problem is, no main character? They have offered that as their cure.

But what could make them feel that way?

Perhaps they feel the story does resolve? Perhaps there isn’t enough detail or story complexity?

Think about what you can change to make the story more compelling. Then the ensemble is not an issue.

Craig: It's a fun concept, but you may have to contend with some legal challenges. I would create a fictionalized version of a Tyson type and avoid that potential roadblock.

Hi Craig, I incorporate separate stories within my books. They are all linked by my common character, Theo-James Miller. Writing my novels this way entices the reader to keep turning over the next page. Example - What happens next?

AK

Thanks all. Seems like there are a few schools of thought here, so I'll try to sum them up. The first is to find a main character. I think this works when you have a band of people in the same narrative thread and location trying to achieve a common goal (Ocean's Eleven), but I'm not sure this works when you have parallel narratives around a common theme (like Love Actually and Cloud Atlas). From reading a bit about Linda Aronson, there are various different types of ensembles and some might be easier to find a single main character than others.

The second point here is that if parallel narratives are in different locations and can't have the same character driving all the threads forward, they need to be connected by a theme. Perhaps the key here is to emphasise the theme.

The last point is that perhaps there is something else wrong with the script, but the readers can't articulate the problem so are just suggesting I fall back to the 'safe place' of a single main character. I suspect there is an element of this, but that unfortunately does make it quite tricky to delve into the REAL problem...

Maurice Vaughan also points out that there are other characters (I've heard them referred to as the Stakes Character) which represent to the audience a measure of success or failure. I guess this could be the protagonist or not (and maybe even the antagonist...?)

I think that finding a single main character isn't an option for me for this script, so I'll see what Linda's book has to say and if I can glean any applicable advice from that. Hopefully it will help me identify the places I'm lacking connection to the theme and fix the problems that are leading readers to suggest a single main character.

If anyone wants to have a go and suggest any fixes for the theme in the meantime, the script Edge Of Humanity is on my profile and I'm open to feedback!

Maybe, if you concentrate on the theme, a main character might emerge.

I have a multi-generational ensemble comedy script, and while I do have a main character, the B, C & D stories (relationships) are connected to the main story/theme. It's multi-layered, which adds the depth that I think many films these days lack. It's a tough sell nonetheless, because more main characters means more expensive--and everyone's looking for an inexpensive script to produce. Best wishes to you, and thanks for starting this thread!

I got a rewrite to do on a script which was criticised as being made up of a number of stories that "are not bolted together", and the criticism asked, who was the main character ? The only solution for me will be to use "Time" as the theme, using visuals, suggesting "Time", such as clocks, an hour-glass, the slow ticking of the internal mechanism of a clock.

I've studied about Stakes Characters, Craig Court, but not much. From what you wrote ("...which represent to the audience a measure of success or failure"), I think a protagonist (or antagonist) could be a Stakes Character because the protagonist either reaches their goal in the story, or they fail.

Craig Court if you want me to read it and give some feedback, I would be happy to.

Thank you everyone in this discussion. I was struggling with idea's for establishing my "world" and trying to tie all my main leads together, but thanks to this discussion I realize I need to change my thinking. The thing that ties the world together in the beginning isn't the leads, it is the antagonists. So, if I follow the antagonist around in the beginning, I will be able to pull together both of my worlds. THANK YOU ALL FOR THE INSPIRATION!

Hey Jill Godley - I'm always after feedback, so that would be great! Let me know when you have something ready and I'll have a read of that too!

Craig Court messaged you

I just saw this post, that's actually a pretty interesting question and as you said, there are different schools of thought here. Now it's hard to answer without reading your story ; an ensemble of main characters is not, strictly speaking, a problem, it's been done successfully before. Most of the time you're going to have one or two characters that will stand out and kind of lead the group, but it's not an unbreakable law. Again, it's hard to tell without reading your work if that's really what bothered the readers.

I just remembered, "The Yellow Rolls Royce", three stories linked by the car. I had a quick look at the synopsis of "Edge Of Humanity", and the common theme/image seems to be, the "Colossus tree".