Whether you’re writing a short film, a feature film, or even outlining a documentary, learning the three act story structure can help you understand how to make your story hit all the right beats that viewers love to see on screen.
➜ Save The Cat: amzn.to/2RP3Osn
➜ Syd Field's Screenplay: amzn.to/3bhuHMM
➜ The Here's Journey: amzn.to/3cc6ue6
➜ All of my Filmmaking equipment: www.amazon.com...
➜ Get Free Filmmaking Checklists through my newsletter: mailchi.mp/e07...
➜ Get my Filmmaking Templates on Patreon: / fiy
➜ Learn how to shoot video: linkedin-learn...
➜ Learn how to be a successful KZfaqr: linkedin-learn...
➜ Rent gear like a pro on BorrowLenses: shrsl.com/29h7t
➜ Get $10 off of Subtitles and Captions for your videos: www.rev.com/bl....
➜ Follow me on Twitter: / _filmityourself
➜ Follow me on Instagram: / film_it_yourself
➜ My Website: www.gofilmityo...
Act 1 typically is about 1 to 30 pages. It starts off with your character’s ordinary world. This is your character’s normal everyday life.
Next we have the “Inciting incident.” This is some key event that disrupts your protagonist’s normal everyday life and starts them down the path of the story. Note that the Inciting incident usually comes at about 15 pages or 15 minutes into the film.
Next is the “Refusal Of The Call." This is the moment after the inciting incident where your protagonist basically refuses the call to adventure that they’ve been presented with. It’s usually followed by something that convinces your protagonist to then accept the call.
Right before act 2 we have one final beat called “Plot Point 1." This is a crucial moment for your protagonist because it’s the moment that they make the conscious decision to accept the call to action. It’s the story giving them a push to take steps towards the adventure.
Next we finally have act 2. In the Hero’s Journey this is called “Crossing The Threshold” because often the protagonist is literally stepping through a threshold into a new and foreign world. It usually stretches from around page 30 to page 90 of your screenplay, which makes it the biggest of the three acts, as it really is the meat of the story.
The basic structure of Act 2 is obstacles sandwiching a midpoint that all continue to raise the stakes for your protagonist. Obstacles are pretty straightforward, they are just things that get in your protagonist’s way.
This then leads to the midpoint, which is usually a twist of some kind. So if everything has been going smoothly this is a moment where something goes bad. Or if everything had been going bad, this is a moment of success for the protagonist.
The Midpoint usually falls somewhere around page 45 to 60 depending on how long your screenplay is. This is then followed by some more obstacles, and usually these obstacles raise the stakes even higher than the ones before the Midpoint did.
Next is the “All Is Lost” moment. It’s where it seems like well… all is lost. In romantic comedies this is where the lovers break up. In action films, this is where the hero has been beaten or captured by the bad guys.
Next is “The Dark Night Of The Soul." This is basically a beat where the hero emotionally deals with the ramifications of the physical loss that happened in the “All Is Lost” beat. It’s a huge moment of doubt for the character.
And finally to close out Act 2 we have “Plot Point 2” and it usually falls around page 85. This is the moment your protagonist comes up with their big idea to defeat the bad guy. It’s also a moment where the hero realizes how to accomplish their physical need and their emotional need at the same time. If the Midpoint twist was bad for the hero, then this story beat has a false sense of success.
Which now takes us to Act 3, which typically falls between page 90 and 120 but can be as short as only 15 pages. This is where we wrap everything up that has been setup or built on throughout the film. This is where we finally get what we’ve all been waiting for, the climax.
The climax is the main big showdown between your protagonist and the bad guys. It’s usually the most dramatic set piece in the film and can be full of action. There can sometimes also be a twist in the climax to keep things interesting.
The rest of act 3 is called “The Resolution” and typically falls around page 110. This is really just where we wrap up any loose ends with the story, see how the characters emotionally deal with the results of the climax, and understand how they and other characters around them have changed.
*This video contains affiliate links which give me a small commission once clicked on.
#FilmItYourself #3ActStructure #ThreeActStructure