Intro to Screenwriting Week 2: Three Act Structure

Photo courtesy of Entertainment Weekly

This week we dove into the Three Act Structure and watched Back to the Future to examine it.

Lecture: Three Act Structure

With my foundations from my high school screenwriting class, the Three Act Structure came as more of a review for me and built on that knowledge that I already had.

Act 1

Act 1 builds the foundations of the story and starts the action. The writer must capture the audience’s attention while establishing mood, theme, and tone.

The following should be established within the first 20 or 25 pages:

Main Characters
Setting
World (+ the rules of it)
Context
Genre & Tone
Conflict
Goals
Stakes

Topping off the first act should be the inciting incident. This catapults the main character into the action of the story; where they establish their goal and get started towards it.

Act 2

Act 2 includes the central action. Within it, character relationships and the protagonist’s physical and emotional journey develop.

Two elements of this act are the B-Plot and the Fun and Games portion.

The B-Plot runs alongside the A-Plot where the protagonist is, but is usually on a lower scale with the supporting characters; it relates to the protagonist thematically or literally. Fun and Games categorizes the meat of the movie that trailers feature.

Most importantly, Act 2 should be building to the climax where the central action is concluded. The conflict and obstacles should continue to build.

The transition into Act 3 comes with the protagonist’s lowest point.

Act 3

Act 3 serves as the wrap up and “catharsis” of the film. It should include satisfying set up and payoffs.

Screening

To see the 3 Act Structure in practice, we watched Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale’s 1985, Back to the Future.

After traveling back to 1955, Marty McFly must find his machine’s power source and ensure his parents fall in love before he’s lost in the 50s forever.

Objectively, it is a great example of Three Act Strucrure. However… I hate this film.

I know that is a controversial take, but I have just seen it too many times and I don’t think the plot is very good. It admittedly has great set up and payoffs, but other than that it just is not for me.

Conclusion

I am really enjoying diving into all of these aspects of writing and can’t wait to apply Three Act Structure to a script of my own!

Be sure to check out Week 1 and keep an eye out for future weeks to come!