Dan Harmon Biography

The scenario method of Dan Harmon is one of the two founders of Rick and Morty along with Justin Royland, and he is the author of the History Circle technique.

For many years, he was absorbed in the search for a single structure, and, in the end, deduced his own theory - on the basis of the monomifa, also known as the “hero’s path” Joseph Campbell. If you want to try according to his method, then for starters, Dan Harmon advises to draw a circle. This is your story, from beginning to end. Then it is necessary to divide it into four quadrants and numbered, from 1 to 8.

You want something to go in the comfort zone, and therefore he goes to where he is uncomfortable to look for it to adapt to this, learns to cope with this finds what he wanted to pick up and pay for it to change the lessons of two worlds-this is an important element of the development of history. Further, Dan Harmon gives a detailed description of each of the eight points. It is necessary to indicate who the protagonist.

In many cases, in order for the audience to understand who the main character is enough to just give him a little more screen time than the rest of the characters. However, if they have a choice, the audience will consider the protagonist the one with whom they will have an emotional connection. In the frame, the raccoon that the bear is pursuing? We will associate ourselves with a raccoon than with his pursuer.

Many modern stories do not allow the viewer to decide for a long time who is the main character. This can be part of the style and look impressive, but if such a “throwing” lasts too long, the audience will lose interest. Be that as it may, anyone can be the main character - a killer, a raccoon, a parasite living in a raccoon liver - the main thing is that he would do what the viewer would do in his place.

If this is a story about the war between the Earth and Mars, that is the time of the Martians to send a navy to us. And in Romkom, the heroine could be on the most terrible date in her life. The desire for a different better life is formed, although not always consciously. Sometimes the call to change something comes from an external source. The technique of “rejection of the call” is often used here.

Like any of us, the character is afraid of changes. This is an optional element, but it helps our empathy not to fade away, makes the hero more humane. The main thing is to remember that the “call of adventure” does not have to come from the mysterious messenger, as well as the hero’s desire, it is not necessary to express aloud. Here, immersion in another world begins.

The character crosses the threshold. The pursuit begins; In adolescence, the hero could find that his body is changing; The first murder would have occurred in the slasher. The key to this step is to think about how a poster could be for this film. What scene could lure them, so that they want to know more. Distant space? True love? It does not matter what the scope of history is, it is important how great the contrast between the two worlds is.

Even if the story was about how a man changes his tire on a rainy day, until that moment he would have sat in a dry car. However, he will have to open the door, and go out into the rain, into a completely different world. This is enough to start history. But everything is not so literally. There are too many films in which the hero literally “trains” to chop branches, only because someone thought that they could not do without it.

However, the essence is different. This is the part of the circle of events in which the characters are thrown into the water - and now he will either learn to swim or drown. In the space where other laws reign, there is no time for doubt and all nonsense. Inhalers from asthma, glasses, credit cards, rich friends, service promotion, overhead hair and phones will not help the hero.

Its goal becomes clear and simple. The main goal cannot be approached with all that nonsense, which the hero previously considered important. The hero finally finds what he was looking consciously or unconscious. If you look at the circle, you will see that Dan Harmon placed the “goddess” in the very bottom of the circle, in the center. Imagine that your hero began his journey from the very top, and now climbed so far.

This is the lowest point, time for large trials and incredible vulnerability. Note that the character crosses this threshold of his own free will, no one drags him there. It is he who realizes his desire, makes a choice, and then rises. In a “strong nut” this is a moment when John McClain understands how much he loves his wife and how stubborn he was ... And then he passes the message by the walkie -talkie: “She heard so many times as I tell her that I love her, but she never heard my apologies.” They require active and decisive behavior from the protagonist.

Yes, the hero realized that he was his treasure, for which he was fighting. He found it. And it is at this moment that the forces of antagonism should hit with renewed vigor. The rates are increasing. A simple example is a well -known part in films, which is called "Everything is lost."The heroes parted, it seems - forever, the terrorists not only captured the building, but are also going to blow it up, it seems impossible to escape from the monster.

Or someone from the outside saves the characters. In others, everything is not so simple. There is an old scheme that works here: if you entered the kingdom of the dead, another world, the world of “chaos”, then it will do everything so that you cannot tell alive about what you have seen. You can’t just go for a walk in unknown lands. This is a great moment for pursuit of cars.

Or, in a love story, the character finally understands what is important to him and runs out into the street-he must have time on the plane so as not to miss the love of his life. John McLein, who was afraid of height at the beginning of the film, at that moment a jump from the skyscraper window. In the judicial drama - the recognition of the killer. In a love story - a meeting of two lovers and recognition - "We were fools, let's be fools together, until the end of life." Returning from another world, the protagonist is now able to love to fight, to inflict a mortal blow to the monster - depending on the genre of the film.

And he deserved it - because in 4 he went through tests. That is why the luck that appears in the 8th point and often saves the protagonist, for example, a lighter, which McClane gave a tramp-and which stops a bullet does not look like a “God from a car”. Many people think that the matrix was successful thanks to new special effects combined with the Gangster style of old Hong Kong.

This is really so, to some extent, but to understand the difference how exactly the creators of this film create their own, personal-see the sequel. The scriptwriters of the first “matrix” said that they glued this film from pieces of others to make a movie that they always wanted to see. And what happened? They told the story of an ordinary guy 1, who receives a strange call for adventure 2, and who, when he responds to him, realizes that his world is illusion 3.

He studies 4, speaks with oracle 5, loses the teacher 6, returns the world 8. And then try to compare this structure with what happened in the sequel and you will understand why you like the first film. Because this is the instinctive structure of steritelling, accessible to everyone and everyone from birth.