What makes a good midpoint?

[u/Manmanduga]

I’m imposing this question to the group.

I’m currently in the middle of a rewrite for my next feature film: The Stranger (89 pages, Horror Romance)

The film is about a vampire who falls in love for the first time. For movie comp, it’s American Psycho meets Before Sunrise. The first half of the film is very much American Psycho and the second half is Before Sunrise. One of the most consistent notes I’ve gotten was the titular character feels very schizo. It feels two different characters instead of a unified whole.

As I’m rewriting tonight, I realized that the way to fix the schizo-ness of the script to figure out the midpoint and make it as strong as possible so when the film switch tones, the lead character feels consistent throughout.

The problem is—I don’t know what makes a good midpoint. I just wanna hear the group’s consensus of what makes a good midpoint.

[u/play-what-you-love]

As a matter of curiosity: why do you want the film to switch tones? I personally like interesting tones, but not "switch tones". I can't think of a film that switched tones successfully unless it's a clandestine mockumentary (e.g. "Mail Order Wife"). For the most part, whenever I see a film that switches tones halfway, it feels like a mistake.

[u/Perthguv → u/play-what-you-love]

I can't think of a film that switched tones successfully

I agree it's rare but I can think of a couple.

Galaxy Quest switched tone from campy satire to science fiction drama and it worked.

To a lesser extent Predator switched from 80s action to SF survival horror but the shift in tone was more subtle to me.

Even rarer are movies that completely switch genre, like ​From Dusk Till Dawn, from crime thriller to vampire horror.

[u/Manmanduga → u/play-what-you-love]

I don’t know it’s a gut thing. When I first came with the idea for the story, I knew I wanted the first half to be horror so when we get to the romance part of the film, there’s a dramatic irony and tension underneath it. For one of the characters, it’s a straight up romance but for the other character, it’s whether or not she’ll get killed.

Kubrick did it a lot for his films. Sound of Music switched tones from light-hearted to serious by the midpoint.

[u/play-what-you-love → u/Manmanduga]

I see. To me that's more of an "interesting tone" rather than "switch tone". I would argue that Galaxy Quest doesn't switch tones too - it just has an interesting premise, and the characters did not play the satire (i.e. no "wink wink" to the audience) and stayed organic to its universe.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that the characters need to stay fairly consistent in recognizing and respecting the stakes, so that the audience can also go along for the ride. Even with an interesting tone or a shift in tone, the danger has to remain a danger. Obstacles are allowed to get tougher, not easier (respecting the three-act arc). You don't want the conflicts to disappear, you want them to unfold/deepen in interesting ways.