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Plot Structure
The plot structure involves the events of the story and the
layout,
which determines if structure is exciting. It consists of specific
events in a movie and their position relative to one another. Good
structure means the right thing is happening at the right time. If
events lack interest, excitement, humor, logic, or relevance, or
if
they occur in an order without creating suspense, surprise,
anticipation, curiosity, or a clear resolution, then structure is
weak.
Structuring your story involves breaking plot up into three acts
and
make use of specific structural devices.
The Three Acts
Act 1: To establish the setting, characters, situation and outer
motivation for hero (exposition)
Act 2: To Build the hurdles, obstacles, conflicts, suspense, pace,
humor, character development, and character revelations (peak)
Act 3: To Resolve everything, particularly the outer motivation and
conflict for the hero (resolution)
The three stages to the heroes outer motivation determine the
three
acts of your screenplay.
The acts should conform to this formula: the ¼ - ½ - ¼ rule, that
is to
say 50% of the pages in your screenplay should evenly divide
between
act 1 and 3, while the other 50% for act 2. In episodic and TV
movies,
leave the audience with a feeling of anticipation so they won’t
change
channels during commercials rather than getting the commercial
break to
correspond to the three acts. These are not actually labeled in
your
screenplay as they serve only as theoretical brainstorming model
only.
character must be introduced sometime early.
The protagonist is the good guy or hero, while the antagonist is
the
bad guy or villain. Usually the protagonist is the central
character,
but can go to antagonist
.
To make drama, create a strong central character with a powerful
goal,
and then provide a strong opposition character who tries to stop
the
central character from achieving the goal (conflict).
