The Chosen - A Few Notes on Structure

As many of you know I'm a Catholic Christian, although I was born and raised Evangelical-Protestant. Consequently, I've been exposed the the worse of Christian "faith" films over my life (my father had a bit part in a Ken Anderson film decades ago), and I personally know a few of today's current faith-based filmmakers.  Generally, I cannot stand to watch such "faith" films. They are sanitized and generally lacking in organic verisimilitude. I've walked out on more than a few, and often squirmed low into my seat. I put "faith" in quotes because the producers of most such films do not exercise any faith at all in their audience with their on-the-nose didactic dialogue and plots. 

There are exceptions. Long ago I loved Zeffirelli's TV series Jesus of Nazareth (1977) with Robert Powell, Anne Bancroft, Ernest Borgnine and James Farentino, Olivia Hussey, and Christopher Plummer.  (I should watch it again to see if I still like it.) And then there's the classic horror tale directed by Mel Gibson: The Passion of the Christ with Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Monica Bellucci, and other great performers. And lately there's something much different that is very good 80% of the time, and that's Dallas Jenkins's The Chosen with Jonathan Roumie, Shahar Isaac, Para Patel, Elizabeth Tabish, and the fabulous Erick Avari. 

Last night we had guests over for dinner and after we retired to sit in front of the big video display and voice of the theater speakers, we opened up a BluRay disc of The Chosen (Pam bought a case for Christmas gifts) we watched Episode 1  - I Have Called You By Name.  During the episode I kept thinking back to some recent "faith" scripts I've read as part of my script consulting practice and why The Chosen works most of the time. 

The Chosen has garnered a strong following for a number of valid structural and storytelling theory reasons. Let me recount a few. (I'll avoid the things that make me squirm.)

• ALL of the main characters have serious character flaws. Such flaws allow us to identify with the characters because (subliminally) we know we are flawed. We can see ourselves bending rules, becoming legalistic, being paranoid, and having really bad things happen to us or those we know, and then responding selfishly. 

• Each of the characters in The Chosen has a physical goal they are trying (by hook or crook) to achieve. 

Nicodemus wants to return to anonymity.

Nicodemus's wife wants him to continue because it gives her social status.

Simon wants to pay his taxes without losing his boat and home.

Andrew wants to help Simon stay out of trouble by cheating at betting brawls.

Simon’s wife wants peace and romance, and for Simon to wash because he smells. 

Lilith/Mary Magdalene wants to end her life because of her shame.

Matthew wants power, isolation and riches.

Quintus wants to collect taxes for the fish caught on the Sabbath. 

• None of the characters have stated spiritual goals (this is good). Good characters have inner psychological or spiritual goals, but they should be portrayed non-verbally, not put into dialogue. Spiritual goals are akin to the moral values of the moral premise. But they are not physical goals, which is how we identify initially with characters. Our brains subliminally take the physical images and interpret them as metaphors for what's going on psychologically and spiritually. While The Chosen is a Christian story, we never see any of the characters praying, or reading the Bible (there wasn't one), or preaching…except Nicodemus, who, when he preaches, is NOT preaching the Gospel but pontificating like a typical flawed, legalistic Pharisee. 

• Another aspect of at least the first episode, is that the scene structure is much like a Seinfeld episode. The producers have managed perhaps six subplots interwoven, each seemingly unrelated to the others, but with each scene ending in disaster or disappointment, which serves not only for a dramatic roller-coaster, but drives the narrative forward like the 7th chord of the musical composition that demands resolution. 

• The subplots all deal with everyday issues that the 21st century audience can identify with: money, romance, competition, power and politics. The script is only secondarily concerned with spiritual issues, and only in a Pharisaical way are spiritual themes mentioned explicitly.  For the main characters, nothing is easy. At stake are fist fights, fraud, insanity, political power, abuse, etc.

• And the best structural aspect of The Chosen is this: The stories are NOT ABOUT JESUS. That is JESUS IS NOT THE PROTAGONIST. If anything he's the antagonist. Finally, someone got this right. The series is about the flawed CHOSEN. Remember that.

This is all viscerally accentuated by great art direction, props, costumes, sets, direction, casting, and cinematography, which are not script issues but are interpretation of the script and the way the script acknowledges the verisimilitude organically in the story. 

The story we see on the screen is best when it becomes a physical-secular metaphor for the deeper spiritual issues which are handled only in a subliminal way. 

Introducing the Beat Plate (8 Mini-Movie Template)

The editable (and thus functional) Apple Keynote files used to illustrate this post can be downloaded for a small fee. See this link. Also see the Beat Plate blog post here.

During a recent story consultation I unwrapped the Story Diamond and laid it out vertically in an Apple Keynote file based on the eight-mini-movie scheme. In the image of the template at right, each mini-movie is 12.5% of the story. The straight forward layout provided an easy to manipulate document that allowed us to beat out the story over Zoom by sharing my screen.  (See Moral Premise's Writing Aids page.)

While the structural elements (colored boxes) are locked in place, the white boxes can be typed in with any style or color of text, and the boxes can be changed in size or moved easily. 

The template at right is laid out for four characters, where each of the character's main beats journey vertically from top to bottom. But this is probably not as practical as using the entire beat plate for one character's entire main plot. Thus  you'd have much larger boxes and probably only one column. (see image below)

One of the great aids this template suggests is to start each mini-movie with the character's goal for that 12.5% or 12.5 pages, and end each with a disaster where the mini- goal is NOT achieved, and which spurns the character on to the next chapter in the story.  Only the end of mini-movie 8 ends with success. This also provides the dynamic and REGULAR roller coaster effect you want for your audience (no dull or slow spots, if the disaster escalate and truly endanger your protagonist's achievement of the goal.)

The template (as displayed here) should also remind you that the story is about the protagonist (thus the most beats) and less about the other characters (with fewer beats.)