UFTS: Step 4

4. Structure

Okay, this isn't really a single step, but a series of them. However, I don't believe these can be completed in any particular order. I think they just sort of come to us when they come to us.

This step is THE step, this is the heavy-lifting portion of writing. This is where we make the decisions that make or break our movie. Before we write a single page of description and diologue, we fret over this step until we're really excited about it. Then when we actually sit down to write the pages, the work should flow fast and nigh-effortlessly. When you hear screenwriters say they banged a first draft out in a weekend, they most likely spent 4-6 months on this step. (NOT exaggerating.)

So below are 17 structure "tent poles" or "plot points". Each plot point is designed to keep us from getting lost while constructing a 110-/120-page story. Think of them as road signs that assure you you're still on the right road.

I've done the sit-down-and-write-until-I-have-90-to-120-pages thing before. I have read many, many scripts written that way. And these scripts usually feel like a 30-minute movie that lasts 2 hours! This approach helps prevent that. Every 6 pages (which translates to, roughly, every 6 minutes) something significant happens to get the audience's attention. The weakness of Sid Field's approach is that when your next structural tentpole is 30 pages away, you may have already bored your audience to tears by the time you get to it!

I'm not trying to be a writing guru here, so I'm not going to try to sell you on structure. If you're reading this entry, hopefully you already GET the relevance of structure. So I'm moving on.

For my process, I'm adapting a pretty common Index-Card technique: 40 3x5 cards to map out the movie; 10 cards for Act I, 20 cards for Act II, 10 cards for Act III. The math breaks down so that every card represents approximately 3 pages of script. Each of the plot points below represent a single card.

So I want to create scenes that fulfill the 17 structural tent poles. When I'm really excited about all 17 plot points, then I've probably got a pretty good movie on my hands! And I've only got 23 more cards to fill in, and they're logistical -- How do I get my characters from one plot point to the next?

I've stolen these names from several different sources. Below each is a brief description of its function within the whole of the plot.

Many of these don't have to be in any particular order. It's really all about raising the stakes for the protagonist and the audience. If I come up with a scene for what John Truby calls "Apparent Defeat" (and Karl Iglesias calls "The Darkest Moment") and it's more tense than the scene he calls "Gate, Gauntlet, Visit to Death", then the "Gauntlet" scene should come BEFORE the "Apparent Defeat" scene.

The point is that if I can come up with great scenes for all 17 plot points, I'm much more likely to have a great movie on my hands. And 12 years of experience has PROVEN to me that just sitting down and writing -- without taking this planning step first -- WILL NOT give me pages I can be proud of.

So here we go. The key 17 of our 40 index cards...

1. Opening Hook
The Opening Hook isn't a cynical gimmick to sucker your audience into your story, it's a promise to your audience: "Yes, I know what I'm doing and you're going to enjoy this."

With this in mind, it's a REALLY good idea to know what you're promising your audience. This is why it's a good idea to get your Genre and Thematic Arguement down before you start plotting. It's also a good idea to know how your story's going to end. That way you can make sure your promise -- and the expectation created by that promise -- is fulfilled.

Karl Iglesias list several different hooks that have proven effective. I think they're pretty self-explanitory, but Include movies that utilize each technique:
Hero in action - RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC
Villain in action - STAR WARS, EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE
Backstory/prologue - TWISTER
Spectacle - STAR WARS, EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH
Mystery - THE MATRIX
Unique world - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
Exposition - HIGHLANDER
Breaking the forth wall - FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF
Book-ended flashback - RISING SUN

For further clarification of these terms, I recommend WRITING FOR EMOTIONAL IMPACT.

The point is, let your audience know you're Tha Man and you're going to take them for a ride they want to go on.

Also, in the movies that actually make it to the screen the Opening Hook often employs more than one technique. Most opening scenes, for instance, include spectacle. And many of them show the hero in action.

2. The Protagonist's Introduction
If you didn't introduce your Protagonist in the first scene, this step is easy to understand.

However, even if you've got your Protagonist in action in the first scene, you'll still need a scene very early on that illustrates just WHO your Protagonist really is. In RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC, how surprised were you when you discovered that Indiana Jones taught high school?!

3. The Inciting Event
Robert McKee points out that humans only exert as much energy to achieve a goal as is absolutely necessary. We'll take the easiest steps first. Iglesias explains that this event is sometimes refered to as "The Disturbance" because it disturbs the Protagonist's life to such a degree he/she takes the steps that become our movie. In McKee's terms, this event opens the "gap" between the Protagonist's desire and his/her definitive success or definitive failure.

So this should be big. It motivates everything that happens after.

4. The Central Question
There will be many questions created by the events within our scripts, but there will be one particular question that is not answered until the end of Act II, at the earliest. This question should be clear to the audience, and they should be reminded of this question from time to time, as might be necesary. This question FOCUSES the path the overall story follows.

5. The Antagonist's Introduction
Every important character should be "revealed" to the audience so that they know that this person is important to the story. But the Antagonist, like the Protagonist, in particular deserves a reveal.

If the movie is a Mystery, then this scene is the one that reveals what it is that we want to know.

Some of these plot points may happen within scenes that serve other plot points. It is not necessary for these plotpoints to have their own scenes. But it is important to make sure all these plot points DO EXIST before moving to the page-writing stage.

6. The Point of No Return (Act One Climax)
For the next 60 pages to actually be a different act, the story needs to spin in a different direction than it was headed before. Before this plot point, the Protagonist actually had a chance of turning back. After this scene or sequence, he/she has no choice but to continue forward.

7. Plan
The audience has to believe the Protagonist has a fighting chance to attain his/her Goal. The Plan is the Protagonist's fighting chance.

Of course, nothing ever goes according to plan, ESPECIALLY in movies! So as my Antagonist launches his/her Counter Attack my Protagonist will be forced to alter his/her Plan.

8. Antagonist's Plan and Main Counter Attack
Naturally, the Antagonist has his/her own plan. This plan should be altered by the Protagonist's actions.

Also, as good as the Protagonist's Plan might be, the Antagonist's Plan should be BETTER. A weak/stupid Antagonist makes the Protagonist weak/stupid.

9. Ghost
This is a fairly common term used to describe the event that emotionally scarred the Protagonist and still haunts him/her. This usually comes out in Act II, but the important thing to consider about the placement of the Ghost scene is that it is useful for producing anticipation and suspence for the audience. When we learn exactly what is holding the Protagonist back, we can recognize when it threatens the next time.

10. The Midpoint
Since Act II is twice the length of the first and last acts, it needs an event to re-energize the act. If the Protagonist has be reactive up until now, this is the time when he/she commits fully to achieving the Goal and becomes proactive. Perhaps taking more drastic risks than before.

Unlike the Act One Climax, this scene doesn't need to change the direction of the story. It simply needs to create an increased sense of urgency.

11. Self-Revelation
This is the moment that the Protagonist learns something about his/her truest nature that profoundly shakes him/her to the core. This is something that is related to the "Ghost" and is essential to what the Protagonist needs to understand and come to terms with in order to live the best life he/she can possibly have. This knowlege rips open the wounds left by the "Ghost", allowing the Protagonist to see the exact nature of his/her emotional/psychological/spiritual damage, so that the wound can them be finally healed. In a Tragedy, however, this "ripping open" of the character's figurative "wound" will become infected and lead to his/her defeat.

12. Apparent Defeat (Act Two Climax)
This should happen only ONCE in my movie, and it should truly feel to the audience as though the story is over and my Protagonist has lost.

This gives my Protagonist something to recover from. The story started out with my Protagonist functioning at less-that-his/her-best. But this is a Rock Bottom. Climbing to the top of a mountain isn't as much of an achievment if one starts half-way up. Climbing from the bottom to the top is much more dramatic and fulfilling to watch.

13. The Hero's Recovery and Growth
This usually completes the Protagonist's arch. He/she deals with the Self-Revelation and makes whatever change in him-/herself is needed, and is finally more able -- mentally, spiritually, emotionally -- than before the movie started to deal with the Antagonist and other obstacles.

14. Moral Decision
The Moral Decision is the evidence of the Protagonist's choice as a result of the Self-Revelation. It's one thing for him/her to say they're going to be a different, better person, but this is intention put into action.

15. Gate, Gauntlet, Visit to Death
Ultimately, reaching the Antagonist and/or Goal must require tremendous effort by the Protagonist. This is the final stretch, and it's almost unbearable for the Protagonist. If the Protagonist wants to attain the Goal, he's/she's going to have to really EARN it!

The Visit to Death can happen during the Apparent Defeat scene. The Protagonist -- and audience -- must really get a true sense of his/her mortality. Defeat -- even actual, literal death -- must be a real (or figurative, depending upon the genre) threat to establish that the stakes are as high as they can possibly be going into the climax of the story.

16. The Final Showdown
Guess what this scene is...

The Protagonist and the Antagonist face-off for the final time, and one emerges victorious.

The Inciting Event created an obligatory scene, a scene that the audience MUST see. THIS is that obligatory scene. This is the fulfillment of the promise I made to the audience at the beginning of the movie.

McKee explains that an essential quality of this scene is that the resolution of this conflict be irreversable. Whether the Goal is won or lost by the Protagonist, there is nothing more he/she can do to change this outcome. If there is any way to change the outcome of this scene, the ending will feel false to the audience and the story will feel hollow, pointless. If this was merely AN ending, rather than THE ending, then what was the point for the last 2 hours?

17. New Equilibrium
This is, simply, the way the Protagonist's world has realigned after the events of the movie. Life will never be the same as it was for our hero, but he/she will find a new balance -- Hopefully a BETTER balance. This final scene shows the audience what that new balance is.

--

There are a couple of terms in episodic TV writers: "Move" and "moment".

A Moment is an emotional experience for the character -- as well as the audience. TV writers only need the 4 key Moments in an episode for them to go off and write the script.

A Move is spectacle, a cool experience for the audience. I'm not certain about this -- as I have yet to sit in on a professional story-breaking session -- but I don't know if a TV episode needs more than one of these. (A Move will be expensive and time-comsuming to shoot.)

Movies need a Move every 20 pages to keep the audience awake and excited.

Once I've created the above 17 scenes, I need to arrange them for optimum pacing, and to ensure that the tension continues to escalate. I don't, for instance, want to have a 30+ page lag between 2 of my tent pole moments. I don't want the audience to loose interest.

And as I said at the beginning of this, I will spend MOST of my writing time tweaking and perfecting these moments. Once I have them the best they can be, writing the actual pages will be quick and painless, and probably quite fun. Travel is faster when we know where we're going.