The Argonauts and Writer/Directors

Grant Marshall

A screenplay and exegesis submitted for the requirements
of the Masters of Arts (Research) Degree.

Faculty of Creative Industries
Queensland University of Technology
2006


Keywords
Teen adventure film, Screenwriting, Directing, DirectorÕs Commentary, Characters,
Narrative, Writer/Directors.

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Abstract
The Argonauts is a one hundred and ten minute screenplay depicted in the genre of
childrenÕs adventure film, set in the suburbs of Brisbane in the early 1990s. It tells the
story of four friends who embark on adventure in an attempt to save their parentsÕ shops
from a corporate takeover. The exegesis explores the dual role of the screenwriter/director
and the affect on the screenplay of the shifts in mindset required when these roles are
undertaken by the same person. Screenwriting and directing are explored as two separate
but interlinked disciplines. In this paper I have draw on my experience in these two roles
to discuss their inter-relationship. In order to understand how the two roles of
screenwriting and directing interact, challenge and compliment one another when carried
out by the same person, I analyse the interplay of these roles within the specific areas of
character, narrative and setting in the writing and revision of the screenplay, The

Argonauts.

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Table of Contents
Keywords
Abstract
Statement of Original Authorship
Acknowledgements

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ScreenplayÑThe Argonauts

1

ExegesisÑWriter/Directors
Introduction
Contextual Review
Methodology
Case Study: The Argonauts
Conclusion
Appendix A: Synopsis of the Screenplay
Appendix B: Other Characters
Bibliography
Filmography


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129
139
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147
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151

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Statement of Original Authorship

The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or
diploma at any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and
belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person
except where due reference is made.

Signature:________________________________

Date:____________________________________

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Acknowledgements


Thanks are due to the academic and general staff of the Creative Industries Faculty at the
Queensland University of Technology. The MA (research) degree format allowed me the
freedom, opportunity and motivation to undertake this project for which I am grateful. In
particular, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Stuart Glover for his ongoing guidance,
feedback and friendship. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to complete this project
within a supportive network of likeminded screenwriters that challenged my ideas and
provided constructive and thought provoking feedback.

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Writer/Directors:
An explication of the partially differentiated
functions of the writer and the director in the
case of The Argonauts

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Introduction

Growing up in a relatively new suburb of Logan on the outskirts of Brisbane in the early
1980s, I watched my neighbourhood develop rapidly. Like most children, I spent my
holidays and weekends exploring this new playground with my friends. Shailer Park was
the boom suburb of Logan during this time. The local primary school opened in 1982 and
in its first year close to a thousand children attended. By the time I was in grade five I
knew every back street and bush track short cut that existed. Often the daily walk home
from school would lead to adventures with the children who lived in surrounding streets.
We explored the bushland that was once a lion park and spent all summer carving out

BMX tracks behind the local shops, until the day the bushland was cleared to make way
for a new Myer Megaplex. Our childhood playground was gone. This world is echoed in
my script, The Argonauts.
We were forced to find a new playground and took to the streets. I knew just
about everyone in the neighbourhood and had a safe house on every street for when good
times went bad. Friday after-lunch activities at school included roller-skating at the
Argonaut skating rink. The skating rink was located in a neighbouring suburb near
bushland at the base of a hill that was once part of a gold mine, something the mind of an
eleven year old doesnÕt easily forget. Every time the school bus pulled up at the rink I
wondered just what if the mother-lode was hidden just behind the tree line. During the
mid-1980s the school even opened up over the weekends so that we could skate in the
undercover areas under supervision. Even the tuckshop was open. Groups of us would
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strap on our skates and head off for the school. Most weekends we never made it there
due to the hilly terrain of the suburbs, the distance we had to skate and the injuries we
sustained in the process. Like every school, there were the ÔbulliesÕ. Having planned
social gatherings every weekend, like roller-skating, meant that the bullies knew exactly
where to cause trouble. This is where knowing the neighbourhood back to front came in
handy, along with Ôwax on wax offÕ learnt from The Karate Kid.
Like many of my friends, and importantly for my later directing work, I am the
child of the video age. By the time I was ten (1987), like most homes in Australia, my
parents had purchased a VCR. This coincided with the release of Back to the Future.
Having a friend whose parents worked for a video store was a godsend. Back to the
Future was one of the first videos I owned and I watched it almost every day, along with
The Karate Kid and Goonies. While we did go to the cinemaÑI even saw the Star Wars
Trilogy in 1983 at the drive-inÑfor the majority of the time television and JVC VCR
were our saviours. This was a time when any great video could be hired for a dollar and
boy did we. Rambo, ET, The Last Starfighter, Gremlins, Explorers, and the Indiana Jones

films topped our rental list. ThereÕs a good chance that if the film had a show bag at the
ÔEkkaÕ, then we were re-enacting it. Like my imaginative friends at the time, I was totally
influenced by these adventure-type movies. Of course this lead to even more inspired
adventures of our own: skating behind cars like Marty McFly (from the Back to the
Future series) and exploring the stormwater tunnels that ran under the school was all in a
dayÕs play for us Goonies wannabes. I wasnÕt alone; if BMX Bandits screened on TV, the
next day the entire student body would ride their bikes to school. It was a time when
public liability was not an issue and the Acting Principal of our school actually

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encouraged us by setting up what seemed like an enormous BMX track on the steep hill
behind the school so that we could replicate the radical moves we had seen the night
before. Eventually the acting Principal was replaced, but these great summer school days
were something I never forgot. Often, before we set out on any of these real life
adventures we would sit around in our pyjamas and watch a few hours of Rage. The
mantra became, ÒIf the next clip sucks weÕll leaveÓÑwhereas these days it is, ÒIf the next
clip sucks IÕm going to sleepÓ. Influenced by these great clips, like Michael JacksonÕs
Thriller, I aspired to make music clips that would inspire people like they did me.
Currently IÕm working for a production company directing music videos and
commercials.
I drew on my adventurous childhood experiences for inspiration for my script,
The Argonauts. Like the heroes in the films I aspired to, the lead characters are still in
high school. Marty McFly from Back to the Future, Alex Rogan in The Last Starfighter,
Gremlins, Karate Kid, BMX Bandits, and even the older brother in Goonies were all in
their mid to late teens. The heroes in my film are the same age as the characters I wanted
to be like and looked up to. I also set The Argonauts in the early 1990s, as the characters
are a similar age to me at the time. My love of film, specifically adventure films and
music videos, led me to become a filmmaker. I wanted to write a script that would inspire

a twelve year-old kid to put down the game controller and start his own adventure.

This immersion in movies and life in the suburbs had a marked impact on the style and
content of the screenplay. My early interest in movies and videos has provided a strong
basis for my current work as a music video and film director. I came to eat and drink

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film. Accordingly, The Argonauts, the screenplay component of this thesis, is jointly
informed by this film background as well as growing up in the suburbs. My dual roles in
relation this project have, however, given rise to a dilemma, and therein a research
question. As a screenwriter, the script for The Argonauts reflects my own adventures and
the adventures I absorbed from the movies I watched, as well as the screenplay craft
lessons that I have absorbed. This is not an uncommon mixÑsuch that a screenwriter will
draw from life and screenwriting craft. But at some point I also began to examine this
project as a screen director. And while screenwriting and screen directing obviously share
a common objective and are complementary skills, there are clear differences between
them in their narrative emphasis, notation and aesthetics. As a screen director I not only
drew on my visual memory of my suburban childhood but also the past half a decade of
experience as a screen director.
This exegesis explores these two related but not strictly analogous skill sets and
tasks, and seeks to account for how the project mutates as I move, in mind-set at least,
from screen writer to screen director (and often back again)Ñand the implications of
these shifts for the project at hand. How does the project change, and what are in the
differences in approaching a childrenÕs or teen adventure film from the relative
perspectives of the screenwriter and the director? How might a director re-think a
screenplay? And perhaps more subtlety, how does a background as a director influence
my starting approach as a screenwriter?
As a writer/director I was always (even during the initial drafts of the screenplay)

concerned with issues fundamental to the overall visual nature of the mediumÑthat is,
things that are the province of the director, such as visual pacing, possible shots, and the

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overall look of the work. However, later in the project (further along in the drafting
process), as I began to exclusively approach the screenplay from a directorÕs viewpoint,
certain things changed. A number of factors largely initially sidelined when thinking the
work through as a screenwriter came to the fore in the directorÕs approachÑparticularly,
a concern for budget, for mis-en-scene and for the visual language of the story. While as a
screenwriter I was interested in the visual elements, I was more conscious of, and thus
explicitly working in, a textual language. As a director, I became more interested in
visual elements. This required me to rethink scenes in terms of their impact on the screen,
the characters and some elements of the story. I found myself looking for moments of
visual interest and wit rather than verbal flare. Likewise, I called upon a different register
of references. As a screenwriter I was making references to particular verbal catchphrases, whereas as a director I began to look for shots that re-imagined the visual from
some of the films I had watched growing up. In some sense, while the line between
writing and directing is arbitrary (particularly so for writer/directors) we can conceive of
them as functions that differ in emphasis and language. An account of the different
functions (as evident in the changes I made to the screenplay as I Òcame back to itÓ as a
director) donÕt point to a unified theory of direction, but they do hopefully offer some
useful ideas to other directors and writers about how character, story and the look of the
film emerges out of the intermingled (but differing) roles of the screenwriter and director.
In addition, particularly where the writer and director are the same person, the negotiation
and intermingling of these functions might be undertaken either during distinct phases of
ÒwritingÓ and ÒdirectingÓ or involve a more subtle and constant backwards and forwards
motion between the two phases.

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Contextual review:

Over the last twenty years there has been a considerable literature developed concerning
the methods of undertaking screenwriting1 and approaches to screen directing2. This
literature documents the broad notions of what is required of the screenwriter in order to
write an effective script, and offer readers the fundamental techniques of directing films.
However, there is a limited literature that deals explicitly with the challenges of writing
with the intent to direct. This literature is primarily derived from interviews with
screenwriters who direct their own screenplays and is often discussed in relation to a
specific film3.
Although there is relatively little information that deals with the dual role of the
writer/director, the literature does, however, provide details of the two crafts that allows
the differences between them to be surmised. In brief, the screenwriting literature focuses
on the main elements of structure, character and the character arc. Robert McKee (1999)
discusses the writer and the art of the story, the elements of story, the principles of story
design and the writer at work. Linda Aronson (2001) also details a similar range of topics.
While the majority of directing literature focuses on the step-by-step process involved
with directing film. Michael Rabinger (2003) and Nicholas Proferes (2001) both look at
screencraft, writing and story development, pre-production, production and
postproduction.

1

For screenwriting see Robert McKee; Linda Aronson; Rachel Ballon; Syd Field; Darsie Bowden;
Christopher Riley; Even Schwartz; Pat Silver-Lasky and Mark Axelrod
2
For directing Nicholas Proferes; Michael Rabinger; Ken Russell; Anthony Slide; Mike Goodridge; Renee
Harmon and Tom Kingdon;

3
For screenwriting with the intention to direct see accounts by Gerald Peary and George Lucas

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Screenwriting is frequently described as a structure-based process of storytelling.
The purpose of this structure and its complex elements is to create a story that will keep
an audience captivated (Aronson, 2001: 39). The narrative is often broken down into
three acts. These, in their simplest abstraction, form the beginning, middle and end of the
story. Aronson (2001: 39) suggests this is a Òproven method that is likely to transmit the
story wellÓ. This classic three-act structure is punctuated by twists and turns, which lead
to an eventual climax and then resolution (Aronson, 2001: 40). These elements owe, of
course, much to AristotleÕs Poetics and his delineation of the model for the tragedy:

Tragedy is the imitation of an action; and an action implies personal agents, who
necessarily possess certain distinctive qualities both of character and thought; for it is
by these that we qualify actions themselves, and theseÑthought and characterÑare
the two natural causes from which actions spring, and on actions again all success or
failure depends. Hence, the Plot is the imitation of the actionÑfor by plot I here mean
the arrangement of the incidents. By Character I mean that in virtue of which we
ascribe certain qualities to the agents. (transl. by Butcher, 2004)

As per Aristotle, the journey of the central character is an essential element of the
screenplay. McKee describes the role of the central character as a single protagonist,
whether man, woman or child (1999: 49) who (generally) dominates screen time and is at
the heart of the story. It is usually recommended that these lead characters have an
internal goal and external goal, which are explored through their on-screen journey. The
external conflict experienced by the central character (or perhaps central characters) is
made apparent though the developments of the main plot, with emphasis on the

characterÕs struggle with relationships, social situations or Òforces in the physical worldÓ
(McKee, 1999: 48-49). The characterÕs transformation/s during this journey are known as
the character arc. Dona Cooper describes the character arc as the characterÕs emotional
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response to the sequence of events that eventuate throughout the plot (1997:16). Cooper
adds that in order to be successful, the character arc needs to be recognised by the
audience through their identification with the character and their recognition of the
transformation (1997:16).
An examination of the companion literature about the role of the director, begins
to differentiate the directorÕs approach from that of the screenwriter, and to uncover the
directorsÕ and screenwritersÕ different ideas about the script. There is, however, a range
of views as to what constitutes the role of the director. Ron Richards argues that the main
goal of the director is to Òcapture and control the mind and spirit of the audience. The
director has to give the audience members what they want, even before they know they
want itÓ (1992: 9). In contrast, Harold Clurman writes that in relationship to the script,
the directorÕs challenge is to translate the screenwriterÕs descriptions into an on screen
multi-faceted cinema-going experience (in Proderes, 2001: 3).
Nicholas Proderes emphasises the importance of the director-writer relationship
and the mutual reliance of these two separate entities (2001: 3). Proderes also applies
these same relationship principles to the instance where the writer and director are the
same person:

Every film begins with a screenplay, ideally a good one. Still, even in very good
screenplays, the directorÕs investigation will uncover flaws as the screenplay is broken
up into its smallest parts, even if the director is also the writer. A more intense focus, a
more powerful lens, must be brought to the text now. (2001: 3)

In contrast, for Richards, the screenwriter is not involved in the production stages of the

film making process, however their skills and intimate knowledge of the material is often

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useful during these later stages (1992: 9)4. Rabinger also notes the value of ongoing input
of the screenwriter to the director. Rabinger argues for the importance of the act of
writing as a tool where the mind Òcontemplates its own workingsÑand thus wilfully
transcends its own preliminary ideas and decisionsÓ (2003: 149). It is an inbuilt form of
reflective practice. At the same time, Rabinger argues that directors, when directing their
own work, should distance themself from their own script and seek tough external
criticism in order to Ògain an objective understanding of their own workÓ (2003: 146).
Therein, Rabinger suggests, even in the single individual, a divide between the roles of
writer and director. This division, he warns, follows in part from the auto-biographical
influences in much writing, and the need to force a distance from oneÕs own work in
order to avoid trying to recreate remembered situations that are of the writerÕs experience
only. This can be a challenge for the writer/director, as personal experience can be a
major influence and inspiration for the writer.
Although the scholarly literature and industry literature touch briefly on the
subject of the writer/director, it is perhaps DVD commentaries, providing as they do first
hand accounts of the directorÕs experience of writing and directing a film, that offer the
most comprehensive documentation of the dual role in action. Paul Thomas Anderson in
the DVD audio commentary of Boogie Nights reflects that although he did write the
script for himself, he was conscious of not being selfish and directed the script for an
audience, ÒI had to make sure I relayed all this stuff that I felt six months ago when

4

For example, as Paul Thomas Anderson notes, in the DVD audio commentary to Boogie Nights, having a
personal connection to the script and its content allowed him to make dialogue and other changes on set

that would usually require the screenwriterÕs approval, skills or knowledge. Anderson was able to take
onboard the suggestions made by the actors about their characters, as he knew the charactersÕ back-stories
and breakdowns and had a personal connection to the script. In this respect, the writer as the director is a
positive and constructive union.

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writing it, make sure I communicate it properly [É] through directing I found a way to
succeed with an audience.Ó
AndersonÕs approach to writing is personal, and, in its distinct lack of
commentary on budget and industry issues, underlines the limits to most DVD
commentary. Anderson wrote the script in a way that he thought would be best for the
story and to entertain an audience. In the writing or directing process, there was no
attention paid to the length or budget of the film: ÒItÕs going to be long. IÕm writing this
movie for myself. IÕm not going to write this movie and pretend itÕs ever going to get
madeÓ (Anderson, 2000, Boogie Nights, DVD audio commentary). As Rabinger points
out, the budget limits the selection of cast and crew (2003: 11). Aronson also emphasises
the restrictions budgets impose on decisions about locations, actors and the period in
which the film is set when writing a screenplay (2001: 18)5.

Methodology

These resources are instructive in the theories behind the screenwriting and directing
processes and the ways in which these roles inter-relate. But perhaps the best way to
understand how the se two roles interact, challenge and compliment one another when
carried out by the same person, is the practical experience of undertaking the task of
writing and directing my own film. While the latter task of actually making a feature film

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In the case of my own script, The Argomauts, writing with budget in mind is crucial to there being any
chance that the screenplay will ever be produced. Correspondingly, I drew on my experiences of producing
to keep the script achievable for local production. However, in reviewing my script, I noticed numerous
scenes where my ideas exceeded the limitations of a typical independent budget.

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is unachievable (here) for funding reasons, the writing of the script and the planning for it
as a director constitutes a method of creative investigation or research.
I bring to this paper my practical expertise as a video director and screenwriter,
and also the language of film studies6. Contemporary film studies has, in the Australian
circumstance, been somewhat subsumed into broader area of media studies and been
somewhat dominated by media studiesÕ concern for the political and institutional issues.
Here, however, I intend to focus on the more traditional questions raised in film studies,
including the choices I make as a practitioner and their affect on the script, the language
of the film, the representations that make up the components of the film and the way in
which they function together.
The screenplay, The Argonauts, is a one hundred and ten-minute story of four
teens struggling to save their parentsÕ small shops from becoming just another multiplex.
Set in the early 1990s, the fifteen year olds set off on an adventure that changes their lives
forever. The film deals with risk and the value of working together to achieve a common
goal. In genre terms, the screenplay pays homage to 1980s children and teen adventure
films such as Goonies and The Last Starfighter.
While the screenplay constitutes a form of knowledge, it also provides me with a
creative process to reflect upon. Overall, the screenplay and the accompanying exegesis
form a joint answer to the research task of enunciating and examining some of the
differences in approaching a screenplay as a screenwriter and/or as a director. I intend the
screenplay as both an embodiment and an exemplar of the decisions made. I intend the

reflective essay to provide a framework to examine the process of these decisions. Here,

6

By practical expertise I am referring to my experience in directing and producing short films and narrative
driven music videos for Australian audiences.

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my reflective practice involves an account of my thinking and decision-making processes
in preparing both the original screenplay and then a shooting script. The bulk of the case
study examines how in moving from the role of screenwriter to that of director I would
modify the screenplay.
In this instance, the commentary about The Argonauts is framed around a
synopsis of the script and some character notes, particularly on issues of character
development and scenes elements in Act I. The scene and character profiles are used to
illuminate the ideas I explore about what the task of direction brings to scriptwriting. The
comments, are often, necessarily, piecemeal but are intended to be illustrative of the
central observations are the scriptwriter/director nexus, or how being mindful of the
directorial tasks influences the approach of the writer7.
This exegesis, as an examination and presentation of my own thinking as the
writer and putative director of The Argonauts, acts as an explanation of, or key to, the
work, and as a form of knowledge about creative processes involved in its development.
This exegetical form is well established, particularly among fiction writers in the use of
Òprefaces, introductions, forewords, [and] afterwordsÓ (Krauth 2001: 2). For
screenwriters, who are usually developing an intermediate product (that is, the script for a
film or for a television show rather than the final work itself), explanations of the work
more usually take the form of a treatment aimed at producers or investors. These are
selling documents and are correspondingly less discursive that the literary introduction or

preface. They do share, however, an exegetical function of explaining the work to a third
party.

7

An extended synopsis and profiles of minor characters are included in Appendix A and Appendix B.

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Case Study: The Argonauts

As stated above The Argonauts is the screenplay of a one hundred and ten-minute
childrenÕs adventure feature film. Set in Logan, an outer suburb of Brisbane, it tells the
story of four teens struggling to save their parentsÕ small shops from becoming just
another multiplex. Set in the early 1990s, the fifteen year olds set off on an adventure that
exposes them to risk and teaches them the value of working together to achieve a
common goal. The story centres around Corey who is dealing with the issues arising from
his parentsÕ divorce, bullying and falling in love. The style of The Argonauts is
reminiscent of 1980s teen films, such as ET, BMX Bandits and Explorers and features
popular music of the era. The target audience for The Argonauts is pre-teens who aspire
and connect with the characters in the screenplay. The movie would also appeal to an
older generation who grew up in the era the film is set and can identify with the
characters in a retrospective and nostalgic manner.

The protagonist and the use of visual elements in building character

The starting point for The Argonauts were the characters. Corey, Ariel, Steen and Charles
(a.k.a. Chip) comprise the gang who undertake the adventure. Initially, these characters
came out of the narrative structure of the film. I thought about them and their

development in terms of their service of the structural demands of the filmÑsuch as how
the character tensions between them drive the group towards their decision to explore
under Old Man NealÕs house.

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Within this gang the overall protagonist is Corey, a 16-year-old high school
student who is dealing with the issues of popularity and the pressures of finishing year
eleven. Despite being seen as a nerd by his schoolmates, he has an active imagination and
a keen sense of adventure. He is what you would call one of the cool nerds. CoreyÕs age
and qualities were carefully chosen. As a filmmaker I sought a broad target audience. By
making the lead in this script sixteen, I believe he will be aspirational for younger school
children as well as older teens alike who hopefully will identify with the issues he is
dealing with. This film will hopefully also have some retro-appeal to the thirtysomethings who would have been CoreyÕs age at the time the film is set8.
Luckily for Corey, he has grown up with other like-minded children at the local
shopping centre. His parents, like those of the other Argonaut teens, make their livelihood
working at the complex. This loosely supervised playground leads to many small-time
childish adventures and has shaped Corey into the teen he is today. Until now, Corey has
had a carefree and secure life living with his mother, apart from the occasional conflict
with the neighbourhood and schoolyard bullies: all in all an average teenÕs life, which is
just fine with him. However, for the greater part of this story, CoreyÕs strongest desire is
simply to save his motherÕs shop from the developers. Caution flies to the wind and in the
course of his adventures, CoreyÕs heroic side shows itself. Corey comes to understand
that only by being a leader and taking risks will he have a shot at achieving his goals.

8

From a directorÕs point of view, having the characters in their mid-teens, who are old enough to take
direction, is easier from a technical point of view. From my experience in casting younger children for

television commercials I have discovered that it is difficult to effectively direct children under sixteen years
and it would be hard to find anyone under this age who had the acting ability and disposition to
convincingly play the main characters of The Argonauts.

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Corey is conflicted between staying in his hometown with his friends and family
and accepting a scholarship that will help him realise his potential. He doesnÕt want to
end up working in his mumÕs store like his older brother. But to make things worse, heÕs
falling in love. Although Corey has a strong attachment to his hometown and fights to
save his motherÕs shop and his strong friendships, he has a longing for adventure and an
underlying desire to get out of the town and move on to greater things.
Beyond these major character elements driven at a narrative or structural level, the
complexities and subtleties of even the major characters were really developed in my
mind through the inclusion of various visual elementsÑthe directorÕs mind. Dona Cooper
(1997) discusses the role of heroes, antagonists and secondary characters in fulfilling a
distinct function within the storyÕs dramatic equation as well as provoking a different
emotional dynamic in the audience. For example, Corey has played saxophone ever since
he was nine and now excels at his chosen instrument (one of the funkier instruments for
1991, even Lisa Simpson plays sax). All the cool instruments like guitar and keyboard
have been done to death in popular films such as Back to the Future. I wanted to make
CoreyÕs special ability something the older audience would find amusing. With the onset
of grunge, popular 1980s bands that featured saxophone such as INXS and Bruce
Springsteen and the E Street Band all failed to make the transition into the 1990s. With
the arrival of the easy listening stylising of Kenny G. the saxophone was soon considered
a nerdÕs instrument. CoreyÕs musical gifts combined with his academic skills make him a
prime candidate for ÔlonerÕ status.

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Setting and the establishment of characters through the use of setting:

Beyond the initial designation of the setting by the writer, the director is almost entirely
responsible for the look of the film and the eventual mise-en-scene. As a writer/director, I
was conscious during in the initial drafting of the screenplay of the possibility of a
shopping centre as a setting. So, while small, independently-owned shopping centres are
becoming harder to find; and they are often nothing more than a mish-mash of shop
fronts and signage, these locations are perfect for filming, as each store is unique,
providing a great visual locale for a film set in the early 1990s. The Argonaut Shopping
Centre in the film is based on a real suburban group of shops by the same name that
existed in Logan in the 1980s. The original Argonaut had a fish and chip shop, an old
bookstore, a pet store, a record bar and an electronics repair store. These locations are
easy to acquire and within the filmÕs budget. As the locations lend themselves to the era
and feel of the film, art direction can be achieved easily and simply through placement of
signs and brands.
It was also immediately clear that the setting could be used to underpin character.
The effect of the setting on the character is particular explored by Michael Rabinger who
argues that new characters demand their own setting to express what is particular to them
[É] A change of setting will produce changed pressures on characters (2003: 161). While
initially my cast of characters developed out of the narrative structure of the film (and I
conceived of character difference through dialogue), in rethinking the work as a director,
the identity of the individual shops in the centre could support character differentiation.
The shopping centre, and its visual elements, effectively became a way to think-through

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and develop the complexities and subtleties of the characters. This is evident in the

comparative treatment of the sixteen year-old Ariel and CoreyÕs mum Sue.
Ariel is an attractive, funky 16 year-old (picture Molly Ringwald in Pretty in
Pink) whose dad works in the Argonaut Shopping Centre Collectable Record store. She is
a diamond in the rough. Besides her Ôout thereÕ alternative clothes, Ariel could easily be
in the cool group at school, should she ever want to conform and become ÔmainstreamÕ.
Instead, she chooses to remain loyal to her childhood friends. Like all her friends she
works part time in her parentsÕ shop. This has given her an amazing musical knowledge.
At the moment, she is excited about a brand new style of music that is starting to
appearÑGrunge. ArielÕs impulsive nature can often get her into trouble. She has a quick
wit; she has to, if she wants to give it back to the boys who often dish it out. Her shtick is
sarcasm. She is one of the guys and they see her as nothing more, until now. Ariel has
feelings for Corey and their friendship is starting to become awkward. Ariel is switched
on and knows Corey wants to be more than just friends too. The romantic tension
between the two is becoming frustrating for her. She knows that if Corey wasnÕt so vague
and had the guts to ask her out, theyÕd make a great couple. Ariel often takes charge when
the boys start mucking around and canÕt make decisions; she feels like she has something
to prove. Ariel gets annoyed at the sometimes-childish behaviour of the guys. ArielÕs
only decision isÑcould she be with a guy who plays saxophone and not grunge guitar?
For Ariel, the record store works as a great visual locations which underpins her
tough girl and counter-cultural impulses. Such films as High Fidelity and Empire Records
have also used record stores as locations in similar effort to build character profiles9.

9

I my work as a video director numerous bands have asked me if they can shoot their music videos in an
old record store. I suspect for much the same reason.

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More specifically, this location aids me as a director as it sets up ArielÕs music
knowledge and provides a perfect opportunity to communicate many of the pop culture
references, which subtly add to the humour.
In contrast, Sue, who is recently separated but looking after her three children
(Corey, CARLEY (6) and MICHAEL (20)) works full time at the Argonaut Shopping
CentreÕs antique store. Sue has started to feel the financial strains that come with been a
single parent. Sue accepts what is thrown at her and is resigned to the belief that she has
no power and cannot fight to save her livelihood. The single mother works well in this
scenario. As in many 1980s childrenÕs adventure films like SpielbergÕs ET, Last
Starfighter, Cloak and Dagger and even in Goonies the absence of the father figure is
magnifies the burdens of family and parenting. The later revision of the script endeavour
to make the character of Sue more tense and on edge. For the first two thirds of the script
she seems crazy and is living in denial, believing that her shop will not be taken over. I
want to build on this side of her character, as it will help to increase the stakes on the
success of the teensÕ mission. The concretisation of her livelihood into the shop
underlines the scale of the loss. The choice of an antiques store, as say against a record
shop, underlines generation difference, the past and the difficulty of change.

Action and the use of action in building secondary characters

The final element relating to the directorÕs approach to character that I wish to emphasize
here is the use of visual action in the story of supporting characters in order to increase
the overall visual dynamism of the film. Jean-Pierre Geunes (2000: 17) states that an

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