When Does A Screenwriter Reveal A Character’s Core Wound In A Screenplay? by Michael Hauge

BUY MICHAEL HAUGE’S BOOK - WRITING SCREENPLAYS THAT SELL, NEW TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY EDITION:
The Complete Guide To Turning Story Concepts Into Movie and Television Deals
amzn.to/2uIdpU0
MICHAEL HAUGE is a script consultant, story expert, author and lecturer who works with writers, filmmakers, marketers, business leaders, attorneys and public speakers, both in Hollywood and around the world. He has consulted on projects starring Morgan Freeman, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise and Reese Witherspoon, and for Overbrook Entertainment, where he consulted on the scripts for (among many others) I AM LEGEND, HANCOCK, THE KARATE KID, SUICIDE SQUAD and BRIGHT, which is currently in production.
Michael is the best selling author of Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds: The Guaranteed Way to Get Your Screenplay or Novel Read, as well as the 20th Anniversary Edition of his classic book Writing Screenplays That Sell.
Michael has presented seminars, lectures and keynotes in person and online to more than 80,000 participants worldwide.
MORE VIDEOS WITH MICHAEL HAUGE
bit.ly/2eV3SiG
CONNECT WITH MICHAEL HAUGE
www.storymastery.com
/ michael_hauge
CONNECT WITH FILM COURAGE
www.FilmCourage.com
#!/FilmCourage
/ filmcourage
/ filmcourage
/ filmcourage
BUSINESS INQUIRIES
bit.ly/22M0Va2
SUBSCRIBE TO THE FILM COURAGE KZbin CHANNEL
bit.ly/18DPN37
LISTEN TO THE FILM COURAGE PODCAST
/ filmcourage-com
PROMOTE YOUR MOVIE, WEBSERIES, OR PRODUCT ON FILM COURAGE
filmcourage.com/services
SUPPORT FILM COURAGE
/ filmcourage
Stuff we use:
CAMERA - This is the camera we have used to film 90+% of our interviews (over 200 interviews and counting) It continues to be our workhorse - amzn.to/2u66V1J
LENS - Most people ask us what camera we use, no one ever asks about the lens which filmmakers always tell us is more important. This lens was a big investment for us and one we wish we could have made sooner. Started using this lens at the end of 2013 - amzn.to/2tbtmOq
AUDIO
Rode VideoMic Pro - The Rode mic helps us capture our backup audio. It also helps us sync up our audio in post amzn.to/2t1n2hx
Audio Recorder - If we had to do it all over again, this is probably the first item we would have bought - amzn.to/2tbFlM9
LIGHTS - Although we like to use as much natural light as we can, we often enhance the lighting with this small portable light. We have two of them and they have saved us a number of times - amzn.to/2u5UnHv
COMPUTER - Our favorite computer, we each have one and have used various models since 2010 - amzn.to/2t1M67Z
*These are affiliate links, by using them you can help support this channel.
#writing #movies #entertainment

[@JorgePrietoNYC]

I just completed a screenplay where the lead character suffers from Combat PTSD and one one that he caries and tried to suppress by drinking is the guilt of one of his war brother, committing suicide. This is something I choose to not reveal until the very end. So, I'm grateful to Michael for his insight and knowledge, and for giving us his huge experience here for free. F.C. you guys mean the world to me and my creative writing. Thank you.

[@tiko545]

I just love this man. So profound! Well Done, thanks for uploading this precious stuff!

[@two-moonz2953]

Marlin loses his family in the opening scene of Finding Nemo. This changed how I write screenplays

[@kevykid5379]

For a screenplay I'm writing I have shown the wound through flashbacks but I'm a visual writer so to me as an audience member myself this is powerful but I do add revelations through dialogue.

[@howardkoor2796]

Think Rainman, Good Will Hunting, Midnightcowboy, as great examples of a deep wound that bleeds through the character's life in the present. Sensational interview.

[@beatakeshii]

Midnight Cowboy... best flashbacks I`ve ever seen in movies

[@R.P.McMurphy]

I love the concept of the core wound, the idea of this one thing that affects the character, causes its actions along the story and makes him/her what he/she is. But i think it's necessary to make clear that a core wound should make a character human, NOT a victim.

[@andyalexander9423]

that's one way to look at it, I think it would be more interesting if we could remain this question to the viewer and let them find the answer for themselves.

[@KreativeKill]

no what he means is that the character is active in his story, despite the wounds. even when he changes, he is still proactive and not moping around the whole time.

[@StepbyStepPhotographyandVideo]

Yes, it ensures an inner conflict to resolve that helps round out the multiple layers of conflict. IF they can't fight the first wound one would think the rest are dead on arrival

[@cavalrycome]

_Batman_ came to mind. The opening scene of _The Social Network,_ too.

[@rebeccajohnston2679]

Love this... but I have to say that I think the wound is stated in Titanic. When Rose's mother insists on helping Rose into her corset she reveals that her father has left them them with debts and a tainted reputation. She does this as she notices Rose's interest in Jack and so she reminds her that she is not just marrying Cal to continue her own lavish lifestyle but her mothers' too. It's the scene where Rose says "oh stop it mother, you'll give yourself a nose bleed".

[@igoldenknight2169]

I needed to hear this! Thank you!

[@NIKONGUY1960]

I needed to hear this.

[@Ami-dk9pl]

Chinatown, when Faye Dunaway says: "My daughter, mys sister, my daughter!"

[@filmfelineadmin]

hahahaha

[@amandataebby]

I believe it was revealed in Titanic, in the scene when Rose's mother is tightening Rose's corset in the bedroom. She says "Your father left us pennyless" or something and that's why she was urging Rose to marry Cal

[@ShootMeMovieReviews]

It wasn't a great example. Rose wasn't really 'wounded' by her father losing their family's money, nor was his absence necessarily any great motivator for her action. She wasn't escaping a wound, she was pursuing possibilities she could see no reason to accept were beyond her reach.

[@TheWorld_2099]

I think you’re right...it’s a direct reference, without having to go into any sort of flashbacks or have Rose need to explain it herself.

[@TheWorld_2099]

Shoot Me Reviews - well...if Rose didn’t have that wound, she wouldn’t be searching for anything outside of her seemingly perfect world. Her need is so strong that she is willing to walk away from everything. She is definitely more interested in Jack than just “slumming around with him“

[@TheWorld_2099]

@@21cormorants absolutely..! And I would even say that her mother represents the very closed and tightly wound upper English society. Imagine the shame she would bring upon herself and her family if she were to run off with Jack. Is it taking it too far to say that the sinking of the titanic represents the dissolution of the British empire?

[@hailyduke4114]

Manchester by the Sea came to mind

[@natedoggg2002]

Haily Duke Exactly what I thought!

[@yapdog]

An exception would be UP.

[@domokato]

A core wound revealed in a very effective montage. Who does that?? haha

[@nicholasborelli275]

The wound is in the character's back story. Perfect.

[@rodee1671]

The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie.

[@howardkoor2796]

Hauge is a master story analyst

[@HonestArttsEntertain]

Do all movies consist of a character having a character wound? In does a character wound have to be a backstory? Can a character develop a womb as the story is taking place?

[@Mitch-nx2ic]

No, usually the womb is already there it just gets larger as the fetus grows. As for character development theres no biological correlation. :s

[@HonestArttsEntertain]

@@Mitch-nx2ic thanks. I asked that because I've seen several movies like The Good Son. It appears that they showed his mother dying in the beginning and that appears to be his wound. Or like in movies where a mother loses her child by the end of the First Act, then seeks revenge. It would appear that the mother's womb is the loss of her daughter or son and to take revenge on the Killer

[@marklevesque2766]

The wound isn't always before the story. Frodo comes to mind. Frodo's wound occurs when he's stabbed by the Nazgul and he loses a piece of his soul. Aragorn's wound comes before the story and is more traditional in this sense.

[@logicpolice2451]

*4:53** wrong.* There's a scene where Rose is getting ready in the mirror and her mother is talking about how "your father left us nothing, so if you don't marry Cal, we'll be poor and lose all our stuff."

[@Chris-ob1im]

I thought that too. He's only human, though :)

[@Damacles9]

But the movie doesn't elaborate on HOW or WHY he left them nothing. Was it because he drank it all away, gambled it all, found another woman, cut them out of his will??? By the mother's bitterness, we can infer it was something of ill will or action giving birth to their desperation.

[@TheWorld_2099]

Damacles9 - well, it’s not a semi-wound...even if they don’t elaborate. Actually, come to think of it, it’s really the mother’s wound, and she is inflicting that wound on the daughter.

[@robertfairbairn8967]

A Room With A View. Lucy Honeychurch's father apparently died in WWI, and the family survived because of the estate. But she's stifled by her fiance.

[@AlbertoLagunasP]

Could a character have two core wounds?

[@doctorspaceman8137]

Are they interrelated?

[@filmfelineadmin]

Love ya Mr. Hague, but you weren't paying attention to LINES in the Titanic. The mother REVEALS what happened. The girl had a father who lost money and passed away, leaving them both with "nothing, but a good name" and that name is what got Hal interested in marrying her, aside from her beauty. It's the scene where the mother tells her: " do you want to see our fine things sold off at auction? Do you want me to work as a seamstress?" She is suffocated by the everyday reminder that a good marriage or a good match is her only way of saving her mother from ruin ( as well as herself) so yes, we DO know the backstory and if we know the period well - if she had a child without a known father she would have given the child away or all doors would be closed to her. Hence she had a father even if the backstory was not revealed, but we did hear that there was a father. Likewise, if one is acquainted with the period, once can deduct a woman can not work, nor hold a position of any kind, hence marriage is the ONLY way she would survive in society. None the less, thanks for a lot of decent tips!! Will help selling my screenplay a lot easier ;))

[@ShootMeMovieReviews]

I disagree fundamentally that you need to know your character's backstory. You need to know the character's identity/motivation, but what happens outside of the parameters of the story doesn't matter to me. There are varying schools of thought on this for sure, but there are successful writers who don't indulge all of that backstory exploration, just as there are great actors who don't. For example - take a movie like Nightcrawler, where the characters are really more metaphorical representations than they are real people. The backstory of these characters couldn't matter less. What matters is what they represent and how they behave during the story.

[@doctorspaceman8137]

I think it's all in the reason behind the choice and if it feels justified by the material.

[@joseafalvel]

This man is a genious.

[@larkmacallan4257]

million dollar baby -- they never reveal his core wound. something about his daughter, but they never say what

[@tartoras]

I love MIchael Hauge's clips on this channel, heck, I love this channel, but I gotta disagree. LA Confidential sucked haha.

[@unchartedrocks1]

Even though i saw Good Will Hunting and Gravity already, I suggest u guys be more careful not to allow the person you're interviewing to spoil a film.

[@__-qn7tg]

stopped watching when I heard LA Confidential, I keep forgetting to watch it

[@howardkoor2796]

unchartedrocks1 the statue of limitations for spoiler alerts is one year from release of the film

[@__-qn7tg]

Howard Koor I was one year old when Good Will Hunting came out, I guess I'm out of luck for not studying film by the time I was two years old.

[@KreativeKill]

dude. theres absolutely NO way we re going to learn if they dont spoil it. why watch these interviews if u dont want spoilers? you have to spoil the movie to break it down. have u not seen analysis videos. things is i completely understand if ur talking bout review videos cuz those re for ppl wanting to see if a movie is worth it. analysis vids are for ppl who have seen the films or want to break down films. so i feel like we need to make a rule full spoilers in analysis videos nospoilers in a normal review video

[@raymundomoya4385]

unchartedrocks1 dont be a cry baby man