From a Performance in Film and Videogames class at University of Calgary.

1. How Writing Affects Acting
+ Myth and the Hero’s Journey
No Country for Old Men (Cohen Brothers, Writers) The Counselor (Cormac McCarty, Writer)
Robert McKee / Joseph Campbell

2. Three Tips on Writing Characters for the Screen
1. Leave room for the actor.
2. Fall in love with all of your characters.
3. Character is self-knowledge.
Robert McKee
Story: Style Structure Substance and the
Principle of Screenwriting
Screenwriting

3. Javier Bardem as Anton Chighur
No Country for Old Men,
Cohen Brothers, Writer/Directors)
• Based on a novel by
Cormac McCarthy
Javier Bardem as Reiner
The Counselor
McCarthy/Scott, Writer/Director)
• Based on McCarthy’s own
novel.

4. Spike Jonze Writer/Director
• Her: Love in the Modern Age
2013 Academy Award for
Best Original Screenplay.
• Other writings; Jackass TV
Series, Where the Wild
Things Are.
• Directed Her (2012),
Adaptation (2002)
Clip 1:04:00

5. Joseph Campbell Scholar and Writer
Myth -- basically serves four functions.
1. The mystical function, experiencing awe
before the mystery of being.
2. A cosmological dimension showing one
the shape of the universe in a way that
the mystery comes through.
3. The sociological one – supporting and
validating a certain social order
4. But there is a fourth function of myth …

6. Fourth Function of Myth
4. The pedagogical function. By establishing rites of
passage into critical stages of life (or through a
“story"), myth provides guideposts and beacons to
serve as a reminder that there is a purpose. This is
to allow a sense of comfort in the entire process, as
the individual remembers that he is not the first not
the last to embark upon this Hero’s Journey.

8. Protagonist’s Quest (McKee)/Hero’s Journey (Campbell)
• The protagonist’s quest carries him through Progressive
Complications until he’s exhausted all actions to achieve his
desire, save one.
• His quest takes him to a crisis decision. His next action is his
last. No tomorrow. No second chance.
• This turning point is the moment of greatest tension in the
story as both the protagonist/hero and audience sense that
the question, “How will this turn out?”
Writing and Hero’s Journey

9. Apocalypse Now Story Structure
Escalating Action Plotline Schematic (From McKee)
Willard’s Quest
(Spine of the Story)
What’s at Stake? Progressive
Complications.
Unconscious Object of Desire?
X Inciting Incident Getting his assassination orders
X Crisis Decision (Turning Point)
X Get on the Boat – With Consequences
X Get off the Boat -- Consequences
X Get off the Boat -- Consequences
Do I fulfill my orders or not? Kill him or join him?
X Get off the Boat -- Consequences
X Get off the Boat -- Consequences
X Climax
Killing Kurtz
X Escalating Actions
X Resolution
“The Horror, The Horror.”
Conscious Object of Desire is
Terminate Col. Kurtz
Freedom from the darkness of his soul?

10. Apocalypse Now
(Coppola, 1979)
• During the Viet Nam War,
Captain Willard is sent on a
mission along the Nung River
to assassinate the renegade
Colonel Kurtz.
Martin Sheen as Cap’t Ben Willard,
Marlon Brando, as Col. Kurtz