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On Screenwriting

Editor's Note: Authorlink welcomes Los Angeles screenwriter and teacher Neil Flowers and his new monthly column on the subject of writing for film and television. Neil's columns appears on the first of every month.

At the end of the last month's column, we introduced feature film structure, that is, the division of a film into "acts." We noted that this structural division is organically connected to the main character's emotional reactions to the events of the story.

Classic screenplay analysis outlines a three-part division. Act I is the set-up; act two is the complications and conflicts; act three is the resolution. Every resolution contains a climax and denouement. Assuming a film follows the model precisely, the three acts last 30, 60, and 30 minutes respectively. Aristotle, whose book Poetics, written in about 350 B.C. and which is the world's first analysis of dramatic structure, calls these acts simply the beginning, middle, and end.

" Discerning the three acts
in a film isn't so obvious
because films unfold without
clear breaks."
—Flowers

Not long ago, the three acts were easy to distinguish in plays because the curtain closed between each act (plays now generally have two acts). Discerning the three acts in a film isn't so obvious because films unfold without clear breaks. Yet the structure remains embedded in features and is the skeleton that holds a film together.

We also observed in prior columns that the spiritual life of the protagonist (main character) is the heart of any film. In dramatic works as different as Oedipus Rex, The Terminator, The Mask, and Collateral, we see that the protagonist transforms from a person ignorant of the complete self to a person now fully cognizant of who he or she is. This transformation constitutes the character arc of the protagonist. This column and the next two extend a discussion of the relation between dramatic structure and character arc.

First, a brief anecdote.

A young friend, Derek, recently graduated from a top film school in L.A. Despite his degree, Derek told me that he avoided learning film structure. He felt that knowing technical matters would hamstring his creativity.

I told Derek what I tell every screenplay student: If you don't know screenplay structure, you'll never write a feature. Furthermore, knowing structure doesn't hamstring creativity; on the contrary, it assists immeasurably because you'll have an overall picture of how features work and where your narrative is heading. In other words, you'll have a blueprint-as necessary to building a film story as it is to building a house.

So, first act: setup In this act, the audience discovers such obvious matters as the time and setting. Are we in ancient Thebes (Oedipus Rex) or in the future in a galaxy far far away (Star Wars)? We will also learn how the characters speak (southern accents? British?), what class they come from (working? middle? upper?) and their milieu (small town Georgia? a Wall Street skyscraper?). If a film unfolds within a few hours of one day, it will be important to the story whether it takes place in daytime (High Noon) or at night (Collateral).

Most importantly, the protagonist and antagonist are almost always introduced within the first minutes of the setup Usually, we meet the protagonist first. Collateral and High Noon demonstrate exceptions. Vincent appears first in Collateral; the three gunslingers first in High Noon. But Max and Will Kane appear only a few minutes later.

Shortly after we meet Max, he picks up Annie and the introduction of the three principles is complete. Similarly, we meet Will and Amy at their wedding, surrounded by the townspeople who play important roles in High Noon.

And all this occurs within the first few minutes of the setup The moral is that features move quickly and set in place the milieu and principal characters and potential conflicts immediately.

Next month: More on Acts I and II. Suggested viewing: Collateral, High Noon, Red Eye, Far From Heaven.