Lecture 6:
How do I put my script together?
Jules and Jim (1962)
Written by Henri-Pierre Roché (novel) and François Truffaut & Jean Gruault (screenplay)
Professor Michael Green
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Previous Lesson
•
Emotion and the
Foundation of Dramatic
Characters
•
Creating the Character
•
Representing the
Character
•
Important Characters
•
Writing Exercise #3
Ray (2004)
Written by Taylor Hackford (story)
and James L. White (story and screenplay)
In this Lesson
•
Basic Three-part
Structure
•
The Set-Up
•
The Rising Action
(Developing the
Conflict), the Climax
and the Resolution
•
Writing Exercise #4 –
Your Treatment
Monster’s Ball (2001)
Written by Milo Addica & Will Rokos
Basic Three-Part Structure
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Written by John Hughes
Lesson 6: Part I
4
Structure
• A script provides the structure for a story that
is only truly complete when the actors,
production design, cinematography, music,
editing, etc., all come together to create a
finished project.
• The script on paper has to be as close to a
facsimile of the finished film as it can be. The
screenwriter must imagine how to bring all
the elements together so that they make
sense, build tension and move the audience.
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Structure (Continued)
• Your basic materials revolve around the
protagonist’s and other characters’ individual
wants and needs. They are what forces the
character to take action and that leads to
conflict. Obstacles and complications – the
crises characters face – are tools to be used
in conjunctions with reversals, reveals, and
surprises to construct a plot that conveys
your ideas and satisfies the audience.
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The Two-Part Process
• Plot structure is a two-part process.
• First is the overall form the story takes.
• Second is the actual plotting of the scenes,
the order and arrangement of specific
events that creates specific meanings.
• The overall structure focuses on the
relationship between beginnings and
endings, on the development of conflicts in
the middle, and how these parts hold all the
elements of your story together.
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Basic Form
• The ultimate plot structure of the movie
depends on many things – genre, your
point of view, your purpose for writing it.
• But even as we strive for originality, we
must realize that good structure,
whether in features or shorts, tends to
follow basic rules.
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Basic Form (Continued)
• The beginning of the film must set up a
dramatic problem that the audience
understands.
• The middle builds the story’s rising action.
• The rising action intensifies to the final
climax and resolution.
• While this formula seems simple enough,
keeping the characters on track, the story
moving ahead, and the audience from
becoming bored, is very challenging.
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Structuring the Short Film
• Short films and features share similar
structure but length dictates where the
aspects of form should fall in the story.
• If a film runs under three minutes, you must
set up the problem quickly, develop the
conflict and then hit the pay-off climax with
no time to waste.
• In a 10-20 minute short film, the structure
tends to be a little more complex.
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Act Structure
• Act I encompasses the setting up of the
problem for the protagonist, and your
inciting incident serves as an Act I climax.
• Act II develops the action and the conflict to
a final crisis point.
• Act III builds from that final crisis to a main
climax and resolution that resolves the story
situation.
• In longer pieces, a strong midpoint often
advances the action or conflict.
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Act Structure (Continued)
• These key points are where you play
specific obstacles, complications,
decisions, or choices – actions that further
your storyline or theme.
Clear and Present Danger (1994)
Written by Tom Clancy (novel) and Donald Stewart and
Steven Zaillian and John Milius (screenplay)
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The Set-Up
Reality Bites (1994)
Written by Helen Childress
Lesson 6: Part II
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The Set-Up
•
•
The goal of the set-up is to orient the
audience to the characters, backdrop,
time frame, and mood of the film, as
well as give them a clue as to the
direction of the film and the theme, and
present the conflict.
While the feature might take 10-15
pages (or minutes) to establish all of
this, the short film must establish it all
right away.
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The Set-Up (Continued)
• Many short films and scripts fail in
establishing the set-up because their
writers spend too much time setting up all
the elements of the story.
• The audience can learn other important
information as the story progresses. In the
set-up, the writer should concentrate on
providing the main exposition and the
inciting incident so that the audience
understands the basis for the conflict.
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The Main Exposition
• The main exposition grounds the audience
in the basis for the story. Sometimes it is
given in dialogue; sometimes it is shown in
action; regardless the audience needs this
information so that they can orient
themselves to the plot and understand what
is happening and what follows.
• Usually it takes a couple of scenes to
present all this information – in a short film,
the more economical, the better.
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Example
• In Star Wars, the first few scenes are packed
with exposition. We learn that:
– There is a galactic war being fought.
– The Rebellion is in trouble, but that the Empire
has a weakness.
– That Luke Skywalker is restless and craves
adventure.
– That Luke’s father was a great warrior.
– That something exists called the Force.
• We learn all of this before the inciting
incident or the main action.
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Example (Continued)
Star Wars (1977)
Written by George Lucas
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Economy of Form
• All of this exposition is focused on
setting up the dramatic problem. In any
screenplay – but especially a short one
– every word, every line, must advance
the action and reveal only what is
necessary for us to understand the
characters and the story. There is no
time for incidental information. Other
insights about characters can be
revealed as the story advances.
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The Inciting Incident
• For most shorts, the set-up is complete once
the inciting incident starts the story’s forward
motion in earnest.
• The inciting incident is a catalyst that forces
the conflict into the open and demands the
hero respond and take action. This action
puts the hero on the path towards his goal.
• In Star Wars, several moments could be
inciting incidents, but the true incident is
probably when Luke’s family is killed.
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The Off-screen Inciting Incident
• The inciting incident need not always be
shown on-screen. Especially in a short film,
where economy of length is crucial, the
inciting incident may have happened before
the beginning of the movie and the audience
infers it from action and dialogue.
• In Black Button, the inciting incident – the
character’s death – not only happens before
the start of the movie, but the way that this is
structured creates the movie’s mystery.
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What to Set-up?
• What to set-up depends on your unique
story. But whatever it is, it has to be set-up
in a way that resonates throughout the rest
of the story and pays off at the end. Never
arbitrarily include story elements that don’t
have a purpose.
• As the old writer’s adage goes, if a gun is
introduced somewhere in the first act, it
must be used in the third act.
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Set-up and Payoff
• How do the elements set-up early in Star
Wars pay off?
– The galactic war introduced pays off in a
climactic space battle.
– The Empire’s weakness pays off when the
Death Star is destroyed.
– Luke Skywalker’s craving for adventure pays off
ironically when he realizes the costs of war.
– That something exists called the Force pays off
when Luke learns to use it to defeat the enemy.
Revision
• It’s impossible to foresee how everything will
connect in the first draft. This is where
multiple revisions come in. As you write, you
go back and forth, refashioning your
beginning so that everything throughout the
screenplay ties together. The final story
should seem natural - even inevitable - to the
audience, even though the writer knows it
was the result of painstaking craft.
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The Rising Action –
Developing the Conflict
The Wild Bunch (1967)
Written by Roy N. Sickner (story) and Walon Green and Sam Peckinpah (story and screenplay)
Lesson 6: Part III
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The Rising Action
• Once the set-up is complete, the main
action begins. In dramatic terms, this is
called the rising action.
• The protagonist has expressed his want,
the goal is clear, and generally the conflict
has been set up.
• The ensuing action is what the protagonist
does to achieve her goal, the conflict she
meets (as well as the support), and how
this action affects her along the way.
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Tension
•
By definition, the rising action requires an
escalation of tension in the plot. The writer
structures that escalation by having a
variety of increasing conflicts confront the
protagonist. This keeps the story building
and provides new developments to help
flesh out the characters and the plot. If
conflict doesn’t build, the audience loses
interest in the story. If the conflict isn’t
varied, the story will feel repetitive.
The Plan
• Once the problem has surfaced, the hero
usually formulates a plan of action and
starts implementing it.
• Often the character’s actions give us an
indication of the plan, but sometimes a
simple declaration through dialogue of the
character’s intentions gives the audience
enough information.
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The Nature of the Plan
• Protagonist’s plans may be conscious or
unconscious, carefully thought out or
spontaneous.
• The plan also allows the audience to see
how the protagonist initially grasps the
conflict and anticipates the results.
• As the story progresses, the gap between
the anticipated results and reality produces
story surprise and leads to greater struggle.
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Obstacles
•
•
•
If the protagonist hasn’t already encountered
a true obstacle in the inciting incident, the
rising action is where these obstacles come.
An obstacle is the clearest form of conflict.
It opposes the protagonist as she attempts
to achieve her goals in the story.
When obstacles are properly conceived and
presented, they should force the major
characters to make decisions and thus
produce dramatic action.
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Types of Obstacles
• Traditionally, obstacles are man, society,
nature and the character him or herself.
Let’s consider four specific areas:
• The Antagonist
• Physical Obstructions
• Inner Obstacles
• Mystic Forces
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The Antagonist
• The clearest obstacle is the antagonist –
the character who opposes the protagonist,
and holds opposing goals.
• Though not necessarily evil, this character
personifies the protagonist’s difficulties.
• Frequently, the antagonist initiates the
inciting incident.
• The antagonist represents a real break for
the protagonist – at last our hero will fight.
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The Antagonist (Continued)
• Though a film can exist with only an inner
problem or physical barrier as the main
conflict for the hero, a specific protagonist
lends power and clarity to the dramatic
structure. The opposition of these
characters clearly defines the conflict for
the audience.
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The Antagonist (Continued)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Written by Gene Roddenberry (characters) and Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards and Samuel A.
Peeples (story) and Jack B. Sowards and Nicholas Meyer (screenplay)
Physical Obstructions
• Physical obstructions are anything that
physically prevents the hero from reaching
or moving closer to his goal. They can
range from deserts, rivers and mountains to
dead-end alleys and and dead car batteries.
• A good obstacle forced the protagonist to
take action, either to confront the obstacle
straight on or to take a different tack.
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Physical Obstructions
(Continued)
Cast Away (2000)
Written by William Broyles, Jr.
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Inner Obstacles
• Inner obstacles are intellectual, emotional,
or psychological problems the protagonist
must overcome before being able to
achieve her goal.
• Some inner obstacles might include fear,
pride or jealousy. Others might include
class snobbery, racism, or mental illness.
• These inner obstacles are often connected
to what the character needs and oppose
what the character wants.
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Inner Obstacles (Continued)
Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
Written by Kimberly Peirce & Andy Bienen
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Mystic Forces
• Mystic forces were once seen as a way of
describing appearances in theater of gods
and goddesses who controlled the fates of
man from above.
• Today we use this category for obstacles
coming from the paranormal and
supernatural worlds because these can’t
be fully defined under the other headings.
• These might include ghosts, demons and
cosmic entities.
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Mystic Forces (Continued)
The Grudge (2004)
Written by Takashi Shimizu (story) and Stephen Susco (screenplay)
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Crisis
•
•
•
Each time a protagonist confronts an
obstacle, he encounters a crisis, or
definite point of conflict in the action.
The action may be an attempt to reach a
goal or capture a stake, but because
there is an obstruction, the hero cannot
prevail – at least for the moment.
Because the outcome remains uncertain,
the viewer should be uncertain whether or
not the protagonist will prevail, and be
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drawn deeper into the story.
Crisis
•
•
•
Dramatizing a crisis and how the characters
respond to it helps define them as well as
demonstrate their commitment to their goals.
Crises involve a combination of physical,
verbal, emotional, and intellectual activity on
the part of one or more of the characters.
Crises build crises, and these escalate and
intensify the action until the climax is
reached. Crises should put the outcome of
the climax in doubt.
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Complications
• Complications are factors that enter the
world of the story and make things tougher
for the protagonist. The strongest
complications cause a change in the action.
• Complications differ from obstacles in that
they don’t pose an immediate threat to the
protagonist achieving his goal, but they can
make it more difficult to attain by temporarily
diverting him. A great complication can
become an obstacle later in the story.
Complications (Continued)
•
•
•
They work best when they’re
unexpected, and add tension because
we know they’re taking the hero away
from his real concern.
Typically, complications arise in the form
of character, circumstance, event,
mistake, misunderstanding or discovery.
In short film, plot is usually more
developed around obstacles than
complications because of time.
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The Midpoint
•
•
•
The period of rising action – Act II – can be
the longest segment of the film and
consequently it is liable to drag.
A strong midpoint can make this section
easier to manage and keep it moving by
focusing the action on the first half at
whatever happens at this point.
At the midpoint, something significant
happens that affects the protagonist.
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The Midpoint (Continued)
•
•
He might confront an obstacle he can’t get
around or encounter a complication that
turns the action in a new direction.
Whatever happens at the midpoint must
have dire consequences, and these
consequences will drive the action toward
the main climax in the second half.
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The Main Crisis
•
In order to reach the climax, the conflict
must intensify and increase, causing the
action to rise for the last time. The
struggle between the protagonist and the
antagonist comes out into the open. Now
there must be a definite solution to the
problem that will sort itself out in the
climax of the film.
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The Climax
•
•
•
The climax is the highest, most exciting
point in the drama. Here the conflict must
finally be resolved, one way or another.
The climax involves a discovery or
realization for the characters, or at least
the audience.
In film, the best climax is visual and
emotional, not internal. In other words, the
audience must see the climax unfold.
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The Resolution
•
•
•
At the end of the film is the resolution
or falling action.
This final part of the structure realigns
the screenplay’s world as a result of the
climax, fixing the fates of the characters
involved in the struggle.
The best resolution bestows a final
insight or revelation to the story, which
puts everything into context by
elucidating the theme.
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Assignments
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Written by Danilo Bach (story) and Daniel Petrie, Jr. (story and screenplay)
Lesson 6: Part IV
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E-Board Post #1
• Watch the short film from the lesson,
Powder Keg, and analyze the set-up.
What kind of exposition does the film
provide about the situation? What is the
inciting incident? Who are the main
characters and what are their goals?
Refer back to the lecture and the book to
help you identify these concepts within
the film.
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E-Board Post #2
• Once you have analyzed the set-up of
Powder Keg, analyze the rising action.
What are the obstacles and complications
faced by the protagonist(s)? Does the
story have a midpoint? Finally, identify the
climax and resolution.
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Writing Exercise
• For this lesson, you need to finish writing
you treatment. It will be due before the
beginning of lesson 8. See the syllabus for
what the treatment consists of and check
out the sample treatment as well.
• You have already fleshed out a basic
scenario and main character; now you
need to write a page of prose outlining your
story in act structure. It should include the
basic concepts we have hit on so far.
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End of Lecture 6
Next Lecture: How do I Move My Story?