THURSDAY'S SCRIPT TIP:
WHERE'S THE BEEF?
Too much importance is attached to the Three Act Structure. For some strange reason
there is an entire cult of writers who believe that the Three Act Structure is responsible
for the destruction of creativity, the shackling of artistic expression and the downfall of
American cinema. Folks - it's just a TOOL! It's like a hammer - you use it to build a
story... but you still have to build the story. Three Act Structure ISN'T the story - just that
tool, just the foundation you build your story on. A building can have a great foundation
but be ugly or impractical. You can take that great foundation and create a building with
no doors, or use sloppy craftsmanship. The foundation is not the building...
But a building with a weak foundation is probably going to collapse no matter how well
built it is, no matter how beautiful it is. That Three Act Structure thing has been around
for over 2,400 years - it's just a tool to make sure your story makes sense and has a
conflict... rather than being just a collection of scenes that don't add up to anything.
Story is conflict. A character with a problem. All Three Act Structure does is make sure
you have the character and the problem. Simple tool, basic tool, no need to worship it
the way they worshiped the hammer in George Stewart's EARTH ABIDES.
Think of it like this:
Act 1: Introduces the conflict.
Act 2: Is the conflict & escalation of the conflict.
Act 3: Resolves the conflict.
Easy as that. You have a character... he is faced with a problem. Your character
struggles with the problem, and it keeps getting worse. Eventually your character
figures out how to resolve the problem, the end. That's just a basic story. The Three Act
Structure is a tool that makes sure you HAVE a basic story. It doesn't do anything else.
The Three Act Structure does not cure male pattern baldness, it will not make you
attractive to the opposite sex, it will not make you rich and famous... you need a
GREAT STORY and some GREAT WRITING to make you rich and famous. Then you
can afford hair plugs and your millions will make you attractive to people like Anna
Nicole Smith and that weird guy who married Liza.
GOT CONFLICT?
Since story is a character with a conflict, the most important part of the Three Act
Structure tool is the conflict. Does your script have one of those? If your script doesn't
have a conflict - ONE conflict - you may not have a story. If your script spends most of
its pages setting up the conflict and very few pages on the conflict itself, you're leaving
the meat out of your hamburger. In a weird way, Act One and Act Three are the bun
and Act Two is the burger & cheese & bacon & everything else. You don't order a BUN
you order a HAMBURGER. The bun is the part that makes it easy to eat the burger
without getting mustard and melted cheese on your fingers. It's all about the burger,
baby! It's all about the conflict... which means it's all about Act Two.
Since conflict & escalation of conflict are the "meat" of your story, Act Two is going to
be longer than Act One and Act Three. Imagine ordering a burger that's mostly bun -
you'd feel cheated. Where's the beef? Usually Act Two is about the same length as Act
One and Act Three combined - that makes for a good, meaty story. Something you can
really sink your teeth into.
Act Two can't begin until the conflict fully involves your protagonist. Usually in an action
script, the hero gets in the way of the villain's plan. Act Two begins when the villain tries
to remove the hero from his path - that's conflict. The hero and villain tangle through Act
Two, the villain trying to get around the hero - but the hero just keeps getting in the way.
In DIE HARD Act Two kicks in when McClane kills his first terrorist... and ends up with
the detonators. Hans NEEDS the detonators. His plan will fail if he can't get those
detonators back. So McClane has gone from being a stray party guest to a MAJOR
PROBLEM for Hans. McClane is right in the path of Han's plan - there's no way to
escape - it's like a freight train headed at him at 90 mph. Now Hans sends the guys out
to find McClane and get the detonators back. Act Two is a dangerous game of hide and
seek, with machine gun battles when McClane and the badguys cross paths. Conflict,
conflict, conflict!
But even in a comedy Act Two can't begin until the conflict fully involves the
protagonist. In MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING Julia Roberts decides to break up
Dermot Mulroney's wedding so that she can marry him... but ends up a bridesmaid in
the very wedding she's trying to destroy! Conflict, conflict, conflict!
You want to make sure there's something in between those two pieces of bread -
something big and juicy and meaty. You want to make sure your burger is most of the
hamburger - that's why McDonalds has a Quarter Pounder and Burger King has a
Triple - the burger part is what we care about! If your script is all bun - if you spend 50
pages getting to the conflict - we're going to be asking ourselves "Where's the beef?"
The Three Act Structure is just a tool to make sure your script has a story... and that the
story it tells isn't all bun. Use the tool, but don't worship it or vilify it. It's just a damned
tool.
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