srn2020oxford 26 Jul 2021 Panel 1, Structure

Davies, B. – The hero’s journey in the ‘perfect’ ensemble screenplay: The Big Chill as case study

Brett Davies (Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan)

Panel 1 – STRUCTURE

Tuesday 31 August (Day 1), Session 1, 9 am

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14Comments

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1

patriciaphalen on 6 Aug 2021 at 1:43 am
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Very interesting presentation – I wasn’t aware of this analysis tool.

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  Brett Davies on 1 Sep 2021 at 3:06 am
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  Thank you, Patricia. It is rather cumbersome to use, but it can be really useful for discovering which character/s ACTUALLY dominate a screenplay. It can also reveal occasional biases; for example, the more frequent appearance of ALL the male character compared to the women in The Big Chill.
  
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Hlobo on 17 Aug 2021 at 9:46 am
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Thank you for this. It is a very interesting study because in a way, it does also analyze the bias of the Filmmaker/Writer. You’ve also helped me think a little deeper about the idea of a protagonist and how to identify or even create one. I do agree that from your analysis, this film is the perfect ensemble, and I do prefer this storytelling tradition where everyone is kind of important but there is one person who is the glue. I’ve only seen it done thoroughly in series, never in a feature film. No questions as yet, just an appreciation of the analysis.

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  br on 1 Sep 2021 at 3:09 am
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  Thank you for you kind words and observation. As you say, I think this kind of storytelling lends itself better to TV, where there is time to invest in characters. It’s also one of the reasons, I believe, why The Big Chill is so unique – it manages to create eight very clear motivated characters in the relatively short space of a 2-hour film.
  
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  Brett Davies on 1 Sep 2021 at 3:13 am
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  Thank you! I agree that this kind of storytelling is more often in TV, where the audience has time to invest in multiple characters. Having said that, Maciak (2014) suggests that a lot of multi-protagonist TV was inspired by this film – Thirtysomething, through to Friends, and Girls (Lena Dunham has written an essay on the film, incidentally).
  
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Rosanne Welch on 18 Aug 2021 at 8:55 pm
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Very interesting look at a favorite film of mine (by a favorite writer). I would say that in terms of a ‘hero’ or lead it is a shared lead and I don’t know what literature there may be on that concept. Even though the analysis shows more focus on Harold I think the audience felt the lead to be shared by Harold and Sarah as the couple in the center of their friend circle.

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  Brett Davies on 1 Sep 2021 at 3:32 am
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  Thank you, Rosanne. I agree with your observation that the film feels led by Harold and Sarah at the centre (and I do not suggest that the audience’s perception should be ignored in favour of cold computer data), but I would argue that – aside from the scene of S crying in the shower – the major spotlighting moments are H’s, as are most transitions in acts (if applying Thompson’s paradigm). This, and the fact that Sarah is only the 5th most present character, according to the Scripthreads analysis, led me to consider that Kasdan & Benedek’s apparently egalitarian screenplay has certain biases, and with H the most changed (and right leaning) of the characters since college, this was interesting.
  
  While not strictly a screenwriting aspect, the fact that Kasdan as director then chooses to have the camera linger on H, especially in the early scenes, suggests that he was favouring Harold once interpreting his and Benedek’s script to film.
  
  As for literature, there is little on ensemble or dual-protagonist screenplays (although, thanks to another post, I’ve been reading Aronson’s work, including this interesting blog post on ensemble vs single protagonist: https://www.lindaaronson.com/blog/ensemble-films-are-structured-totally-differently-from-one-hero-films). There is more literature on theatre, e.g. Britton’s ‘Encountering Ensemble’, but they are often more about the collaborative process among actors and writers than about scripts per se. However, I found them useful when examining how ensemble scripts work.
  
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Mike Gibas on 29 Aug 2021 at 12:50 pm
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Fascinating analysis of a film I really do need to revisit, and actually quite shocking that the ScipThreads analysis showed ALL of the female roles reduced in comparison to their male counterparts. Do you think there can ever be a truly egalitarian ensemble picture or is that ‘glue’ of some sort of nominal hero always going to be required?

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  Brett Davies on 1 Sep 2021 at 3:39 am
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  Thank you, Mike. Before analysing The Big Chill, I believed it was possible to write a completely egalitarian screenplay. However, now I feel less certain! That is not necessarily a bad thing, of course – and I’m beginning to think that, as you say, a nominal hero is necessary in a feature film, where the audience is entering a brand new world and needs something/one to hook onto – an avatar for the viewer (as Chris mentioned in his presentation). I haven’t analysed in detail yet, but it may be that TV makes this easier (as others have intimated here), where there is more time to invest in different characters; and perhaps, too, franchises such as the MCU may allow greater ‘ensemble-ness’ as the individual characters have already been introduced in previous films. It may be an area for future study – and it may reveal similar biases to those I (and the Scripthreads creators) found in The Big Chill.
  
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Rose on 30 Aug 2021 at 11:55 am
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Thank you for an informative presentation. I am not familiar with the concept of a ‘spotlighting manoeuvre’? Can you please clarify this term?

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  Brett Davies on 1 Sep 2021 at 3:04 am
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  Thank you, Rose. ‘Spotlighting manouevre’ is Bordwell’s (The Way Hollywood Tells It, 2006 [I think p.96, but I cannot get to my copy on campus due to COVID restrictions!]) term for any memorable scene that strongly affects the audience’s perception of the story. He discusses Grand Canyon (a later Kasdan film) and intimates that the scene near the beginning – when Mack is threatened with a mugging but rescued by Simon – is one of these moments. Therefore, even if Simon does not appear as often as Mack in the rest of the script (and film), the audience views him as an important part of the ensemble.
  
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ELEANOR YULE on 30 Aug 2021 at 5:17 pm
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thanks for this. Great pace and delivery. Linda Aronson in ’21st Century Screenplay’ focuses in on multi- protagonist narratives which are now a rising trend.

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  Rosanne Welch on 30 Aug 2021 at 5:30 pm
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  @Eleanor – I think multi- protagonist narratives are becoming a trend in films because of their success in television and the rise of streaming/binging requires continuous characters and storylines ala the Marvel Universe to keep audiences choosing the “next” button?
  
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  Brett Davies on 31 Aug 2021 at 3:06 am
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  Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve ordered it!
  
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SRN 2021

Davies, B. – The hero’s journey in the ‘perfect’ ensemble screenplay: The Big Chill as case study

READ ABSTRACT & BIOS

WATCH PRE-RECORDED PRESENTATION

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