Film Courage: What are stakes?
Naomi Beaty, Writer, Screenwriting Teacher and Consultant: Something that confuses a lot of writers, stakes are very generally whatever hangs in the balance with regard to what your character is trying to achieve. A lot of movies are very clear, external, life and death stakes. If your character doesn’t escape the serial killer then they will die, your protagonist will die, so then it’s life and death stakes. It’s whatever consequence would come to bear if your protagonist fails to achieve their story goal. That’s how I would define it.
Film Courage: Why are stakes important?
Naomi: I think stakes are important because if there’s nothing at stake, then the story doesn’t matter. If your protagonist is trying to achieve a thing but there won’t be any consequence to it then I don’t know if your audience will remain engaged in the story because if we understand that a series of events doesn’t matter (it doesn’t have any consequence, it’s inconsequential) I think most of us would check out. It could be entertaining for a while but eventually we’ll be like Okay, I don’t really care about the ending of it. Whatever’s at stake in the story is really what gets us to care about the outcome…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
Naomi Beaty is a writer, screenwriting teacher, consultant and owner of WRITE+CO., along with the author of LOGLINE SHORTCUTS: Unlock Your Story And Pitch Your Screenplay In One Simple Sentence and THE SCREENPLAY OUTLINE WORKBOOK: A step-by-step guide to brainstorm ideas, structure your story, and prepare to write your best screenplay.
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