“Conflict” -Screenwriting

The Most Important Element: Conflict

Conflict is a cornerstone of audience engagement. I even consider it as a synonym for the word “story”. It is what the story is about.  Without conflict, your film is going to be just “showing a situation” rather than “a story”.

Why is conflict important?

It creates motives for the characters. Motives shape the goals they have to accomplish. Goals encourage their actions. Actions lead to a resolution. A resolution delivers the message you have in your mind. Conflict is where everything begins to generate.

Types of Conflict

It is not academically recognized or anything, but to me there seem to be 5 types of conflict you can write, that are as follows:

[Person vs Person]

Argument, Friend Betrayal, Love Triangle, Physical Fight, Political Debate, Sport Competition, Bad Customer Service etc…

This type of conflict is pretty straight forward. You can directly reflect the dynamic in dialogue. If you are just starting out screenwriting and you don’t know what to write, it is recommended to center these.

[Person vs Situation]

Natural Disasters, Traffic Jam, Unexpected Pregnancy, Apocalypse,  Getting Lost in Jungle, etc…

They offer more plot value than story value. When these are the main theme in a film, there are usually other types of conflict as Story B.

[Person vs Him/Herself]

Identity Crisis, Insecurities, Dishonesty, Drug Abuse, Coming of Age, Extreme Self-Discipline, etc…

These create character arcs. As far as I concern, self-conflict is the most important in drama. It enriches the emotional values.

[Person vs World]

Living in Foreign Environment, Being bullied, Being Criticized, Handicaps, Class Device, Anarchism, Knowing the truth no one else believes, etc…

 The setting is already antagonistic towards the protagonist. It is easy to write since there are tons of obstacles to go with it.

[Reality vs Imagination]

It’s partly [Person vs Him/Herself] in a way. Watch movies like Amelie, Birdman, Blackswan, Dancer in The Dark, or Pan’s Labyrinth, and you will get it. The character is caught up between the two worlds. One of the main differences from [Person vs Him/Herself] is that the inner thought is visually shown in the scenes.