Screenwriting : Who's the hero, perspective matters by Dustin Quinteros

For me:

The protagonist is the person whose actions drive the story. This is traditionally the person we see the story through. But there can be a POV character who is not the protagonist. This would be harder to write well.

A hero is someone who acts selflessly. They may benefit from the overall outcome. But the heroic act is selfless.

I think the “the villain is the hero of their own story”, is the most important thing to keep in mind.

When I write I like to take a voyeuristic approach to a story. I am not on the protagonist’s side necessarily. In that way I can write badly behaved good people.

Great share, @Dustin Quinteros! "Your protagonist is the main character, the person who's story we're following, no matter their motives. The antagonist is the obstacle, the person, thing, or ideology that's blocking the way for them to achieve their goal." That's how I view and outline my protagonist and antagonist. And every character in my scripts is the protagonist of their own story.

I've found that the protagonist is the character whose perspective we experience most, whether we agree with it or not.

A terrific short piece. Thanks for sharing it Dustin Quinteros A timely reminder of shades of grey everywhere, including within my protagonist!

Ingrid Wren I've been meaning to start a conversation for some time. Today I watched a video on the anti-hero which was an educational reminder.

feels good to me, the protagonist is show to be the main pinpoint in a scene.

I agree in principle, but, being finicky, the protagonist and antagonistic forces represent two different perspectives on a theme. Through the conflict of the story, and via the conceit of its conclusion, we side with what we believe to be the truth. This is why you can have a flawed protagonist who loses in a tragic ending, because the truth the story is telling about life still rings true to the audience.

It's also why ambiguous endings endings work well in more high-brow films, because the stories tend to be more sympathetic to both sides.

The Batman and Joker saga is perhaps becoming one of the more interesting demonstrations of where the line blurs, as more and more people are associating with The Joker and seeing Batman as less and less of a hero. Just look at the memes people share on social media.

CJ Walley Batman/Joker is a GREAT example, specifically Todd Philips's take. He builds a very a sympathetic, yet frightening character which particularly resonates with today's politics. "Eat the Rich"

Man, this is some high-brow theory. Personally, Im writing simple plots & pray my characters come off as complex.

All the filmmakers & writers I respect and listen to started at the bottom, doing simple plot movies and were making mistakes as they figure out their brand/what makes them tick.

How many ppl guess the director/writer of The Hangover could cross over to drama/comic book characters? Took him 25 years and $1B box office receipts before he could do the Joker

Dan MaxXx , look at the Russo Brothers, my earliest memory of them is working on Community and they go on to produce and write on one of the most successful franchises of all time. (I'm talking phase one and two, let's not get into the current state of the MCU.)

Sort of on this topic is an idea that occurred to me while watching Godzilla vs. Kong. (I know, not highbrow entertainment, but bear with me.) Most of the story is just dumb— or potentially interesting ideas executed quickly and in broad strokes so they can make room for the striking visuals and big monster battles. Which are great, by the way!

I thought, since the human stories aren’t great anyway, what would the film be like if Kong was the protagonist? Make everything from his point of view! Cut out anything he doesn’t witness. That would have been a bold filmmaking move.

I love this subject. The spec script I'm working on now falls into a classification, I personally define as, "movie about a guy who sucks." I'm really fascinated by unlikeable protagonists, and what sets those movies apart. Everything from Barry Lyndon and After Hours, to Beau is Afraid and Hereditary. There are a million ways a protagonist might go about their own journey.

Mike Boas very cool, or intercut between Kong and Godzilla. Again, to the point, who's the protagonist? In this case, I would argue we have multiple protags whose stories converge to a super-fight against the greater antag. Not everything has to be highbrow, lol. Sometimes movies can be fun just to be fun. I love Kaiju fights! Pacific Rim Rocks!

I am right there with you @davidmichael. I have a script where we follow the "villains". From their P.O.V.. Brings to mind Hell and High Water or one I mentioned in another comment, Joker. I love that film.

I loved Pacific Rim Dustin Quinteros ... the bigness of it! I was annoyed that the Australian character wasn't played by an Australian, but other than that, like you, I love Kaiju fights too!