I’m trying to learn Dramatica theory. In The Omen and The Shining, I can’t figure out what the overall story is. There doesn’t even seem to be any Overall Story characters. These are major, major films - classics - and yet, there seems to be only Main Characters and Influence Characters with maybe a Guardian thrown in.
there’s a great discussion of this in the book Dramatica for screenplay writers. Sometimes the overall story recedes into the back and it’s the ‘cultural story.’
A generation hangs around Paris, a lost generation, wasting their time drinking and going to bullfights.
trying to find meaning, they disperse into family, war, arts and business.
their ideals of youth and accomplishment are eroded.
in old age, they look back on the golden days in Paris when they were young and brilliant.
I’m actually dealing with this in the story I’m making right now…I think this is where a lot of thematic material can come from. I mean, there’s no search for the magic words in the Declaration of Independence in my story, or anything like that. No treasure hidden in a closet somewhere.
I haven’t seen it in a while, but this movie does not strike me as one that is missing a problem that everyone is dealing with.
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The overlook! Those ghosts! Redrum!
Re: The Shining: I agree, the problem that everyone is dealing with is clear - what I meant was, there’s NO “everyone.”
It’s just Jack, Wendy, Danny, Dick Halloran, and Grady. That’s pretty much it.
There’s a bunch of incidental characters, sure.
But WHO are the Overall Story characters in The Shining?? That’s my cornfusion.
I have that book. It’s mangled, from my incessant clawing at it, struggling to comprehend. 
Do you know roughly where that passage is, perchance?
The writer, the wife, the troubled child, the chef, and the first caretaker. They’re all connected…
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I think the question might be, what are the minimum amount of characters needed for an OS.
I suspect one with some provisos. Two in a definition sense.
This link explains a few cheats:
http://dramatica.com/questions/can-dramatica-help-write-a-story-with-only-one-character
And OST has required functions, not required characters in regard to amount.
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Thank you so much, museful. That is exactly what I was confused about. I asked the question very poorly.
It seemed to me that Dramatica - with its 64 Character Characteristic Elements - sort of “required” a cast of thousands, so to speak.
And if you’d asked me, pre-Dramatica, “How many characters are there in The Omen or The Shining?” - I’d have answered, “Oh, there’s so MANY! Tons of them!”
But after studying Dramatica and re-watching some of my old favorites, it gradually dawned on me that there really are very few actual characters in many of these films. It’s amazing.
And that’s what got me to thinking about how many characters, at a minimum, does a Grand Argument Story actually require. Again, thank you so much, museful.
@museful In fact, the following snippet from the link you provided completely clears up all my confusion on this topic:
“With two players, it’s easy to tell a GAS. One is the MC. The other is the IC. Their relationship is the RS. And the larger scenario in which they find themselves is the OS.”
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No problem Louis. A related part of that puzzle can be found in the theory manual if you search “rules for building characters.”
I think some of the analysis of the Jaws characters will show how double duty is possible in regards to functions.
I probably made a mistake by saying the word characters in my response as opposed to players, but it all relies on context.
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this makes me want to go back and look at The Cook, The Thief, The Wife and Her Lover and do a Dramatica Analysis.
I’ll dig it up. Mine is electronically managed 
and mangled.
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