Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_JxIzYfZGM
- By Blake Snyder
- Features 15 critical story beats that span a 3 act structure.
- 120 minutes means 120 pages of screen play.
- 30 minutes for the first and the third act and 60 minutes for the middle act.
1. Opening image
The visual starts the movie summarising the tone of the film. 2. The setup - this is where we learn what the hero’s life is like before the inciting event. We also get to know what it is the hero needs to become whole.
3. The theme stated
Part of the setup, we discover what the moral to the tale is. Could be the crime that doesn’t pay. Love triumphs in the end or any number of truisms about life. Think of it as the filmmakers hypothesis that the rest of the film is trying to prove right or wrong. Usually the hero articulates this. If an honest man like me ran the country, everything would be better.
4. Catalyst
Another name for the inciting event. This is the event that sets the Hero on his journey.
5. The debate
Here the hero hesitates, arguing internally or externally about whether to make the journey. It’s the chance to bail out before passing the point of no return.
6. Break into two
This concludes the first act of the 3 act structure. Here is where the hero makes the decision to head off on the journey. This should happen on page 25. Neither 24 nor 26.
7. B story
Also known as subplot. This is the secondary story that holds the audience while the details of the main plot unfold. It’s commonly a love story.
8. Fun and games
This is where a story explores the realities of the story’s main concepts. This is the excitement that the audience was sold and came to see. It’s because of the tension of the hero’s quest that they will stay and later recommend it to their friends but these are the moments that sold them the ticket in the first place.
9. 9. Mid point
This is where the things are either at their greatest up point or the greatest down point. This is where the fun and games end and we return to the high stakes of the main story
10. The bad guys close in
This is where the evil forces be they people or the forces or nature re-emerge after being frustrated or seemingly defeated during the fun and games section.
11. All is lost
This is where the bad guys deal such an utter defeat to the hero that it doesn’t seem possible that a fairy tail ending can still come out of it.
12. Dark night of the soul
This is the point at which the hero recognises her defeat, discovers that she didn’t have what it takes and that she is at the mercy of the universal forces greater than herself. This is the moment that sets everything up for the greatness of sacrifice that will be required by the hero to right all the wrongs.
13. Break into the three
This is the moment where the hero stumbles upon the elusive answer to the impossible situation is in. An answer that wasn’t there a moment ago but through a sudden revelation often thanks to the love interest of the B story crystallises in his mind. It may cost his life, it may be a long shot. But there is still a chance at work.
14. Finale
This is where all comes to end. The bad guys get killed off from least important to most important . And in the best stories, the whole world of the hero has changed. Things will never go back to the way they were. It’s a new day and a new dawn.
15. Final image
This is the closing image that reveals that the hero’s world really has changed