To illustrate Film Structure in practice here's a real world example. Because I can't clear the copyright from Universal for 'Jaws' exposure is proud to present 'Shark Attack'.

Sharks and Structure
Creating Dramatic Structure for Screenplays

Buried beneath most great films are skeletons. Strip away a film's characters, location and story and underneath you'll find the bare bones of structure. This is the framework on which the film is built. According to Syd Field 'Structure is what holds the story in place'.

Syd Field, author of 'Screenplay - the foundations of Screenwriting' is one of the most influential writers on screenplay writing. During his time as a script reader he had the opportunity to read over 2000 screenplays in the space of two years. He reckoned that only 1% of these were any good (presumably the other 99% were called Speed 2). Reading through the 40 scripts that delivered the goods Syd Field reverse engineered the screenplay.

Reverse engineering is what Russia used to do to produce IBM clones. Take something apart, see how it works and copy it. This is exactly what Syd did. What did all these great scripts have in common? What made them work where others failed? If you haven't guessed that the answer is 'great structure' maybe you should give up now.

Great scripts (which hopefully become great films) have distinct beginnings, middles and ends. Act One, Act Two and Act Three - a three act structure. In fact these acts are so distinct that you can spot where each of these acts start and finish.

 

Let's assume a film is 2 hours long (although film lengths are creeping up - 3 hours for 'Thin Red Line'! - aargghh! did my butt ache) - that's 120 minutes of screentime and because a page of script roughly equals a minute of screentime (provided the Script Layout is correct) the script should be 120 pages long.

If we split the script up into the three acts, the beginning of the film (Act One) should take us up to 30 minutes, the middle of the film (Act Two) should run from 30 to 90 minutes and the end of the film (Act Three) should be the last 30 minutes giving us 2 hours of non-stop action and entertainment.

And each act does a different job. Act one is the setup, Act Two gives us confrontation and Act Three resolution.

Act 1 - Setup (¹/₄ of film)

OK, we're in the cinema, the logos have whooshed over our heads, we know it's a James Cameron film...now what? Where are we? What's going on? The first 30 minutes is the setup, it has to lay the groundwork for the movie and answer three questions.

1) Who's this film about? Who is the lead character? What kind of person are they? Usually we are introduced to the characters and see what they get up to day to day. We are made to identify with the characters and like them. e.g. Luke works on his uncle's farm but wants to go to the Academy.

2) Where's it taking place? What's the story's location? What kind of world do the characters live in? e.g. Luke lives on a desert planet called Tatooine.

3) What's going to happen? Something is going to happen that is going to challenge the lead character and change their life. e.g. Luke's family are killed.

That's 30 minutes to establish the Characters, the World and the Premise, and it better keep us interested!

And now the bad news...you may have 30 minutes to set your story up but you've probably only got 10 to get the reader's and the audience's attention. You need Shark Theory.

 

Eejit's Shark Theory Syd Field wrote 'Screenwriting' in the seventies and to be honest its beginning to look a bit dated. In order for your film to be successful today it has to be a shark. No really, it does!   You can split a shark up into three parts (or more if you've got a stick of dynamite) - bite, body and tail. Bite - Nowadays to make your film survive you have to give it impact right from the beginning. Your film better scream out at people, grab them by the throat and force them to watch it. It has to do something so funny, so shocking or so engrossing right at the beginning or you've lost your audience because they've just switched channels. Get your audience's attention and get them on your side. Give it bite. If it's an action movie put an action scene right up front. Make your film start like most films end - like the intro sequences to James Bond movies or the start of Indiana Jones. Classically this would probably be called a prologue - a prelude to the rest of the film. Body - This is the main chunk of the film. Stuff happens, usually to one person who's fighting against it. Pretty much like an Act Two. Tail - The film wraps up all the story threads and resolves the body of the film. Plot elements and characters come to the boil. Ultimately we see where things have been heading and as a result of their actions characters change and grow. The audience gets something out of it too - a tale is told (sorry about the bad pun) and we all learn something about ourselves. End of story - the fin, FIN y'see!! To be honest if you can make a great intro and a blinding ending (because that's what your audience is going to be talking about when they leave the cinema) and a couple of good scenes in the middle you're onto a winner. Hitchcock said that's all his films were - a great scene which the rest of the film hangs around. Funny how it's elements like Psycho's shower scene and the attack on the school in The Birds that are remembered best.

Plot Point 1 - At the end of Act One comes the first plot point. A plot point is a hook in the action that spins it around and creates direction. Something happens that sets the course for the rest of the movie - eg. the aliens invade or a body is found. Now the characters know their purpose; to fight back against the aliens or discover who the murderer is. And that's what they'll spend Act Two doing.

• 3-Act Strucure in Action - A breakdown of Act One from 'Jaws'

Act 2 - Confrontation (¹/₂ of film)

Your character has a dramatic need; to find the holy grail, to defeat the evil empire or to kill the shark. But it wouldn't make that great a film if they could complete their task in the next ten minutes. Conflict is the essence of drama. The character has to overcome a series of obstacles that you drop in their path.

Create your characters and throw shit at them for 60 minutes. Let them struggle towards their goal.

Act Two is the biggie to write - its 60 pages long!! To help you out it can be further subdivided into two, separated by the mid-point, exactly halfway through the film by the mid-point - usually where something relevant to the character's main aim becomes clearer. Each of these two halves can be cut in half by a Pinch; a key scene that helps keep the story on track.

Plot Point 2 - At the end of Act Two comes the second plot point. Now the character has been moving towards their goal for the last 60 minutes and it's usually by now that the the solution is in sight. It may not be easy to achieve, but they know what they have to do. Usually its just before plot point 2 that all the really bad things happen. One minute you think, 'wahey! he can make it' but suddenly he is imprisoned, or his partner gets shot or something. Now the lead character's efforts have to be redoubled. The last mile is the hardest mile.

• 3-Act Strucure in Action - A breakdown of Act Two from 'Jaws'

Act 3 - Resolution (¹/₄ of film)

The film should be on a roll by now. Everything should be in place for the finale so it's a downhill run to the finish line. All the plot threads and characterisation that has been building up in Acts One and Two can be milked for dramatic effect and released and resolved in Act Three.

If the setup of the film has been done well there's a lot of freedom in the final act. The first act mainly deals with logistics (the characters live here, they do this etc.) and whilst these can never be dispensed with completely there's a lot more room to 'ride the emotion' in the final act letting some of the finer points be ignored so you can concentrate on the bigger picture. For example the 'Rush Hour' DVD includes a couple of deleted scenes showing how Jackie and pals get into the art opening at the end of the film for the final showdown. OK, so I wondered how they managed to get in there but it was better to take them out and leave me wondering than to defuse the action and emotion that the director had built up just to explain that Elizabeth Pena had managed to get them tickets.

By Plot Point 2 the main character knows what needs to be done so Act Three (if you need to split it down any finer) is spent planning and getting into a position of strength, mostly carrying out the action and finally enjoying the afterglow and seeing who gets to ride off with who into the sunset.

• 3-Act Strucure in Action - A breakdown of Act Three from 'Jaws'

Fade to Black

Are screenplays that formulaic? When I first read about 3 act structure I tried in damn hard to prove Syd wrong, if only so that there could be a little magic left, a little artistry. Unfortunately after watching films with Syd's theories in mind I have to admit that most films do have a three act structure. But that doesn't mean there's no magic or artistry. Even with a structure in place its still not paint-by-numbers. You still need to use your creativity and talent to stick the meat on the bones of the structure - to tell a good story with great characters.

Let's face it writing a feature film is a long haul, that's 90 minutes of screentime you have to fill! Anything that helps break this task into bite-sized chunks is welcome. And this is dynamite info to have. With the basic structure of your film mapped out you can concentrate on telling the story, building characters and writing cracking dialogue.

And this is not just important for feature films. Three act structure is just as vital for short films. Before shooting 'El Mariachi' and 'The Faculty', Robert Rodriguez cranked out a fair number of short films which put him in a good position to shoot his section of Four Rooms, by far the best. He offers this advice on structuring shorts: 'Set up the story, get to the pay-off and get out of there.'

So watch a couple of movies and take a look at their structures. If structuring your movies works for you go with it. I'm outta here!