THURSDAY'S SCRIPT TIP:
ACT TWO IS QUICKSAND
Story is conflict - a person with a problem. That seems pretty simple, but what ends up
being difficult is sustaining that conflict for 110 pages of screenplay. The first thing you
need is a central conflict that will go the distance - a problem that is not easily solved. If
your protagonist can easily get out of trouble, they will... and the film is over.
Act Two is the conflict act. Once you have your central conflict, you need to come up
with a bunch of scenes where your protagonist struggles with that conflict. Not THINKS
about struggling - they have to get in there and do something. Nobody watches
Monday Night Football for the Pregame Show and the Postgame Show... they tune in to
see the football game. They want a good game - evenly matched. If one team is much
better than the other there is no conflict, no struggle... it's boring. One team scores all of
the points... as if the other team isn't there. Why even have a game? We want them to
fight for every yard. Nobody watches the game for the time between the end of the last
play and when the center hikes the ball - they only care about the part where the ball is
in play. Everything else is just preparation for the exciting part. When one team is trying
to gain yardage and the other team is trying to stop them. When the ball isn't in play,
there's no struggle and we might as well take a bathroom break.
Act Two of your script is a constant struggle... and whatever your protagonist does only
makes it WORSE! Gets them DEEPER into trouble. Because Act Two is quicksand -
the more your protagonist struggles to get out, the deeper they are pulled into the
quicksand!
When an Act Two isn't working, it's usually because there is no struggle. There may be
scenes with conflict, but the conflicts are introduced and then quickly resolved. The
actual amount of conflict on screen is minimal. It's over in an instant. A play that's over
in a second with the quarterback gets sacked.
You want to focus your Act Two on the conflict - the back and forth struggle to escape
the quicksand pit. The protagonist tries to pull himself out but the quicksand pulls him
right back in. The struggling pulls him deeper into the pit. The more he fights, the
deeper in trouble he gets. But if he stops fighting, he still gets pulled under.
In THE BOURNE IDENTITY Jason Bourne is found floating in the ocean with no
memory of who he is. The central conflict/question for Bourne is "Who am ?" - that's the
question which propels the story. It's not a question with a simple answer - you can
break it up into a series of questions... each a step to the answer of the main question...
and each providing further questions. Part of Who Am I? is his name. When Bourne
goes to the bank and opens the safety deposit box, he finds a passport in the name of
Jason Bourne. Now he knows his name... but the passport includes a new question (his
address - What kind of place to I live in?) And the safety deposit box contains a couple
of other great questions - a gun, money, other passports. These serve to ask the
question "What kind of person am I?" The film is filled with questions - What kind of
person has a bank account implanted in their hip? "How come I know the best place to
find a gun is the cab of that truck?" Here's where the quicksand comes in - the more
Bourne learns about himself, the more dangerous he becomes to Treadstone. The
people who KNOW who Bourne is are the same people who are trying to kill him. Every
clue he finds to his own identity takes him another step deeper into trouble. He can not
find out who he is without putting his life in danger. The more he struggles to get out of
the quicksand, the deeper he is pulled into the quicksand.
Two main reasons for your protagonist finding solutions to the problem that DON'T
work...
Denial: Protagonist has a painful emotional problem they don't want to face. If they
could face that emotional problem, they could find the way to resolve the plot problem.
The more Bourne finds out about himself, the less he likes himself. He starts off
thinking that he's a nice guy, but every new clue about his identity makes him look like a
political assassin - a government sponsored terrorist. He begins to fear himself, fear the
kind of person he really is. This gives BOURNE an emotional core... and makes all of
those fight scenes a struggle between his violent nature and his new self image.
Dilemma: Resolving the problem means the protagonist needs to pick one of two wrong
choices. Either way he's going to get hurt. So he tests the waters of each choice without
committing. Until he picks one, he can't resolve the problem. This is the main quicksand
pit in BOURNE... does he go back to hotel he stayed in, knowing they may be waiting
for him? He needs to know who he is, but every time he digs around in his past life he
just stirs up trouble... the Treadstone assassins come after him. He can be safe if he
hides, but then he'll never know who he really is. There is no right answer.
The more Bourne finds out about himself, the less he likes himself and the deeper in
trouble he becomes. It's quicksand! Remember that the important part of Act Two is the
conflict, the struggle. The scenes that set up the conflict and resolve the conflict are
necessary, but the audience came for the conflict. While the protagonist is struggling,
his life is interesting... and entertaining.
I'm doing a one day class for the Screenwriting Expo on Writing Horror & Thriller Screenplays.
MY BLOG!
SCRIPT SECRETS STORE - time to monkey around!
Is MONSTERS VS. ALIENS the best 3D animated movie you have ever seen?
Can't wait to see the new version of FAST AND FURIOUS *again* this Friday?
Was RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN almost as good as RACE WITH THE DEVIL but not as good as SPEED RACER?
Be heard:
Movie Discussion!
SWEET SEVENTEEN! Get them all at one low price!
The SWEET SEVENTEEN Blue Book
Deal includes the Secrets of: Ideas, Outlines, Structure, Story, First Ten Pages, Protagonists,
Visual Storytelling, Dialogue, Descriptions, Scenes, Supporting Characters, Act Two, Blockbusters,
Great Endings, Rewrites, Treatments & Loglines, and Selling Your Script! Almost everything you
need to know! Each Blue Book is 48 pages* packed with information!
Oh... and the Pitching Blue Book is included in the set!
These Blue Books are $4.99 each (you can create your own screenwriting book focusing on what you want to know) - but get them all and save!
For more information about
BLUE BOOKS - SWEET 17 The deal is back!
Imagine having the phone numbers for every single producer in Hollywood at your finger tips! From the producers of big studio films to companies that make edgy indie films. Phone numbers, addresses, contact names, what sort of material they are looking for, what films they have made in the past, what genres interest them. Oh, and what studios and distributors they have deals with. Star based production companies, too! This is the 2008 edition - completely up to date. If you want to get your screenplays into the hands of producers, you need this book!
* * * Buy It!
