Conflict With Self – Part 2

This article is the continued from series of articles –Story Writing For Animation. You can go through previous articles by clicking here

“If you can see your enemy then get close look of him but don’t go closer , because he can be dangerous. If you are not prepared, you are dead…

But what will happen , if you are unaware of the most powerful enemy ,and  you are not prepared at all , he is invisible and he closest to you , I mean closest like may be inside you ……….”

Its not advertise of any horror movie, its Identity Crisis, it’s Internal Conflict!

In last article (Conflict with self), we discussed SITUATIONS where Conflict with self occurs, and then some strong decision, You might be wondering that, Conflict is the middle and important part of Story, then how come its just A SITUATION!

Actually it’s not just the situation; I included examples that were situations.

Because most of the times The Conflict with Self will occur in Situations but what if the Conflict with Self is the THEME of your Story, the Driving force of Story?

It’s a great way to tell the story where Internal Conflict is the Driving force.  Most important point here to be noted is that “ In such type of Story , Protagonist (hero) and Antagonist(Villain) are Present In THE SAME PERSON….”

Character seems to be confused, sometimes strange for him and for others.

I learned someday ago from a great filmmaker who tells the easiest way to create Best Story. He tells in the one statement,

“ Write simple stories and Complex Characters”

What could be the more complex character than this where both Protagonist and Antagonist are present in the same character.

When you place such character  in any simple situation , it creates Fun , sometimes problems. The best example of this type of character is “Buzz” in toy story.  Where he thinks that , he is the real space ranger where actually   he is the space ranger TOY.

The Movie Bolt is the best example of  Internal Conflict as the driving force of movie.

Another important point to be considered is that , the character is unaware of the Internal Conflict , but at somewhere in the middle of Story he should discover that Something is wrong with himself and also about the internal conflict.

After realizing the exact problem , he will have his ACTUAL GOAL and he will go in the pursuit of that GOAL!

So what he will chase until the middle of the story and how that will hold audience?

Personally I feel that this is the biggest challenge here for us. That until the  middle of the story he will chase some different GOAL , and that should hold Audience.

That Different Goal is must be introduced at the Start , i.e. at the SET-UP Stage.

Alfred Hitchcock calls this GOAL as ‘McGuffin’ which means a anything, object, or device that exist SOLELY FOR INITIATING THE PLOT

When we look at the film BOLT,

Mcguffin is that he thinks his person (Penny) is missing and he has to find her and Rescue her.

Until the middle he chases this GOAL, and at about middle he realizes that His TV serial powers are not Real, and Penny is not in danger and she is just a TV serial character.

Then what is the next Goal for him , after that ? (I don’t wanna tell, you must watch this Best film)

And last and important point is that, after resolving the Internal Conflict, the Character changes Drastically! I mean he becomes totally different person in the Same Body ! 😉

Best example is Buzz , (Bolt can be the best example but why Buzz? Wait I’m gonna tell you)

In Toy Story 1 ,

Look at Buzz , he is confident , adventurous , smart but funny because he acts as if he is real space ranger until he realizes that he is not .

Then he changes drastically , becomes stupid for a while because of Shock ! During the last 20 min , he accepts the Truth and Changes Drastically. But this time he is totally different Character in same body.

Now when In Toy Story 2,

We meet Buzz again , now see how much he is changed after that. And that’s why took the example of  Buzz because you will get to study the change for long time , as We have Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2 (I wish that there should be BOLT 2…J )

What we have learned in this article ,

If the Internal Conflict (The Conflict with self ) is the Main Conflict in the Story then

1. In this Protagonist and Antagonist are present in the same character.
2. Initially character is unaware of internal conflict, so we need McGuffin at the start of SET-UP.
3. To come with good McGuffin and hold the audience for long time is the Challenge for us.
4. After resolution of internal Conflict Character changes Drastically!

In next article we will learn about other two Conflicts , Conflict With Self and Conflict with others.

For All Story Writing Animation Lessons click here