TRANSCRIPT

Well, you know how the old saying goes: you only get one chance to make an entrance, and this is very much true of characters. You're going to find that making a great entrance for your characters is also key to the marketability of your script. You know, a great actor is more likely to get involved if they see this wonderful entrance that defines their character and defines the story, but we're focused on story here, so let's stay with that.

I'm excited because I get to talk a little bit about two of my favorite movie beginnings with you today. So first, now any student who’s ever taken a class with me is going to call this one from a mile away, let's go to Star Wars: Episode IV, the original Star Wars. We’re in space, the beat-up Rebel spaceship is being pursued by the Imperial Flagship and it gets boarded. Princess Leia is downloading the plans of the Imperial Death Star into the droid, C3PO and R2D2 get into the escape pod, and they're ejected into space. Darth Vader boards Leia's ship. We can see in this grand entrance not only the excitement of joining the story in media res, that's an old term in Latin, it means “in the middle of things.” We're just joining in the center and in the height of the action. It also really defines what’s at stake in the storybook world. I mean, the Empire is organized, they have the strategic advantage, they're stronger, they have better ships, they have cool uniforms, they have Darth Vader and all of his superpowers. The Rebels are in beat-up, mismatched uniforms, their ship's falling apart, it’s smaller, everything seems lost, they are the underdogs. Black versus white, even in the color schemes of the production design. What we have here is an opening that makes a splash. It really makes us sit up and want to be part of the story. It makes us sense what's at stake in this world. We get the sense that tyranny and oppression will prevail if someone does not fight back, and that someone is the protagonist that the story is going to go look for: Luke Skywalker.

Another one of my favorite movies not mentioned in this particular step is Gladiator, and the opening of Gladiator as it was rewritten and reworked by Joan Logan is, I think, masterful. You know, there’s this moment where he's preparing for the battle and he walks past the troops after seeing little Robin in the fields, reminding us that he's a farmer in his backstory—he doesn't go into it but we get the sense that he has this affinity with nature—and he walks past the troops and the men pay homage and respect to him. Without saying a single word, we understand that Maximus is a general that they respect. He’s the kind who rides into battle with them. We see this all the more up front when he arrives in front of his captain and he says that he's discussed the catapults and where they have to be placed, and they're not far enough forward, but the guy who's serving him says, “Well, the dangers to the cavalry would be—“ He tells them, “No, it's acceptable. It's a risk I'm willing to take.” Now, this would define Maximus as someone who's willing to sacrifice his men, right? He's willing to jeopardize the cavalry as they ride into battle because the catapult range is too close, but the next thing we see him do is get up on a horse. He is part of that cavalry. He's ready to ride into battle with them. He will be at their side, and as he delivers a great speech about, you know, “If you wake up in green fields and the sun’s shining in your face, then fear not for you are already dead.” As we see the respect of the men resound before they ride into battle, we realize through that action and not through any type of speech or dialogue, that Maximus is a man who goes into battle with the people who serve him. He's not afraid to be on the front lines. He's absolutely engaged, he’s committed to the quest, and he already has at the beginning of the story something he will have to rediscover over the course of the rest of the film: the ability to carry the job to term, even though as the events will unfold, he'll want to give that up. His ability to rediscover that part of himself and fully embrace it is kind of what the story is all about. He makes a splash, too. He and his little dog.

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