You Think You Understand Jaws? The Mid Point Reversal Explained.
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ก.ค. 2024
- I've finally found the time to do a proper video about one of the best movies to learn from: JAWS.
First I give you a little background about the importance of this picture, and then we're diving in to the analysis of character and structure, following my system of CHARACTER + EVENT + ACTION.
Finally, I will demonstrate how this film is a really good example of a strong Mid Point Reversal, and what exactly this means.
Did you think this was in any way helpful or useful?
I'm keen to hear what you think, as well as what you would like me to cover next. Please comment below, and let us know!
There's no time like NOW to subscribe to my channel. If you do, a sudden and mysterious success will suddenly grace your screenwriting career.
Thank you.
Karel
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CONTENT
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00:53 - How Jaws changed the industry
04:08 - 3 Critical components
05:33 - Clip 1 - The swings are dangerous
06:12 - The whole movie in a nutshell
07:31 - Clip 2 - To the hardware store
08:52 - Clip 3 - Mickey loves his present
09:45 - The screenplay
12:58 - Clip 4 - The MPR (Event) - Mickey almost taken
15:12 - Clip 5 - The MPR (Action) - Going onto the ocean
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LINKS
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The structure of Jaws: 2ks.co/structure-jaws
Jaws TH-cam Playlist: 2ks.co/jawsvids (thanks, Adam!)
The 2-Act Structure: 2ks.co/2act
Inciting Incident vs. Call To Adventure: 2ks.co/incident-vs-call
The Story Department: thestorydepartment.com
Logline It: logline.it
Immersion on Facebook: bit.ly/immersionauts
Immersion Courses: screenwriting.courses
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Immersion Screenwriting
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THANK YOU
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Thank you to Steven Miao for the intro video, Mukul Kandara for ongoing support in getting these videos made, and to Baxter for his feedback.
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VIDEO 39
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You Think You Understand Jaws? The Mid Point Reversal Explained.
2ks.co/yt39
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Brody wasn’t irresponsible. He was a passive protector rather than an active protector. Thats an important understanding about his character arc.
If he was irresponsible, he would have permitted his kid to play on the boat, and the beach-goers to go into the water.
Even so, it was enlightening to see how he went from passive to active, semantics aside. Thank you for demonstrating that.
Thank you for that perspective, @jotham777.
Perhaps the real issue here is that he is not willing to do what is necessary, because he is afraid for his own life. After all, he can't swim, and he allows this to keep him from doing what is really required.
So this passivity stems from putting his own life before those of the community.
Only when his family is at stake, is he willing to self-sacrifice.
Cheers,
Karel
Very true. Going in the water was a metaphor of taking action on himself to remove the danger. We can see the theme being said out loud when the mother of the Kitner boy tells Brody he knew there had been accidents and he did nothing. The mayor tries to comfort him by saying she's wrong. But he doesn't agree and replies that she is right. And she is. As chief of police he has more power than just warning people and he is starting to realize that as he is more and more willing to take risks.
Excellent analysis. A lesson of yours that I've referred to many times when thinking about a character's flaws and fears. Chief Brody and John McClain have a lot in common, hey. :) Thanks, Karel!
Brody starts as a lazy bureaucrat: telling people to avoid threats rather than confronting and removing threats personally. In a sense all heroes (in classic movie terms) do the same sort of thing: various avoidant or ineffectual behaviours viz a viz the villain/threat allow the threat to to escalate till there is so much at stake - personally - the hero is forced to adopt new behaviours that will culminate in defeat of the threat. That point is the mid-point reversal.
Okay, I'm a little late with my reply. But I like how you identified the general nature of this flawed behaviour for the hero. The further we dig into story, the more we realise that every character arc is essentially the same in the most fundamental ways...
Cheers,
Karel
Watched his video again. Such a good lesson to learn. It occurs to me that Spielberg did the same thing in JURASSIC PARK. In the first half, Sam Neil avoids kids. At the mid-point, Sam and the kids are forced together by the 'monster'. In the second half, he protects the kids.
Now watch THE TOWERING INFERNO. Similar structure - but without the kids.
Well analysed and informative. Thanks Karel. Now back to the redrafting... :)
Excellent video! Carl Gottlieb co-wrote the film btw.
You're right! I should have mentioned. Benchley wrote the book, which means Gottlieb probably did the heavy lifting on the script...
And I just noticed you created a whole playlist with Jaws-related TH-cam videos! I'll add it to my notes.
Very interesting video. I tried to watch Jaws quite recently because my current writing teacher always cites it for story structure but I slept through most of it! I don't think it's my thing but was good to hear your insights. Maybe I'll read the script instead. I see it as a personal failing that I can't appreciate it, but I think there were just too many men trying to kill an innocent (in the sense it had no malicious intent) animal and I couldn't get on board (ahem) with that. Maybe I'm too much of a vegetarian! I wonder what three women would have done to solve the problem?
It's 1975. And it's a METAPHOR!! ;)
Thankfully, some of us have evolved since then, in terms of values and awareness.
What I find really interesting about the film stylistically or aesthetically, is how Spielberg brought Hitchcock's style into the mainstream.
But I get your resistance. In a similar way, I can't watch AN AMERICAN IN PARIS anymore. (See my next video, also about Citizen Kane...)
Just watch it ffs!
you can write a story about a similar threat (tornado? poisonous waste? bandits?) and put 3 female characters (young, adult and elder?), describing their different arcs and approaches!
LOL