"Metaphor" | CONCEPT | Screenwriting Fundamentals

METAPHOR

A story that is a metaphor--or 'a model of some aspect of human behavior' (see Chris Vogler on concept)--fulfills the extraordinary power of cinema.

Such a story makes itself more universal by definition, and raises itself above the ordinary Hollywood fare.

Done properly, this metaphor will be woven so well into the story and images that people 'get' it subconsciously.

Or maybe they get it just because they went to film school, a crowd you might enjoy impressing.

met·a·phor n.

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in “a sea of troubles” or “All the world's a stage” (Shakespeare).
One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: “Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven” (Neal Gabler).