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Three Acts or What? |
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What structure to use for a screenplay is often the topic of fervent discussions. Most movies – both successful and unsuccessful – adhere to a three act structure that goes way back to Aristotle who observed that stage plays in ancient Greece have a beginning, a middle and an end with distinct functions for each of these components. Syd Field was one of the first authors to speak of three acts in a screenplay. He receives credit for being the first one to lay out these rules for movie scripts. In his book Screenplay he outlines functions of these three acts. Currently the three act structure appears to be the standard that professionals look for when assessing the quality of a movie script. That alone suggests that it’s the format of choice for aspiring screenwriters. Plus, a good story still needs to be well told and three acts as outlined below are a good way to do that. I’ll compare here the rules/approaches/paradigms laid out by three major names in the movie business - Syd Field, Robert McKee and Blake Snyder. Syd Field is considered one of the gurus of screenwriting. Not everybody seems to like his views but I still recommend reading some of his books. The best start probably is Screenplay. I also appreciated The Screenwriter’s Problem Solver. It alerts you to many quality issues of movie scripts and it’s good to read it before you run into one of them. That said, you shouldn’t settle for any one of the books mentioned here. If for some reason you must, then choose Story by Robert McKee. (All my opinion, of course.) Many people in Hollywood are said to swear by Save The Cat by Blake Snyder. It’s worth a read. However, I don’t agree with it’s subtitle that it’s ‘The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need.’ At least not if it’s your first. I’ll quote Blake Snyder’s beat sheet and add some explanations.
The statement that a good play consists of three acts goes way back until Aristotle who observed this fact in stage plays in the amphitheaters of ancient Greece. Aristotle spoke of a beginning, middle and end - parts of a play that have very specific purposes. Field made it more concrete when he spoke of three acts which should cover 25%, 50% and 25% of a script, respectively. In his books he assumes a maximum length of 120 pages for a well done script. Make that 110 or less nowadays and adjust the percentages accordingly. Here the table: |
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Table 1: Three acts according to Syd Field Field originally assumed 120 pages for a well-behaved script, but that assumption is obsolete. Nowadays readers expect 110 pages or less. Comedies better be under 100.
In his book Save the Cat Blake Snyder gives explicit page numbers. Here his beat sheat: |
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Table 2: The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet The columns Break into Two and Break into Three denote the breaks into act two and three, respectively. So also Snyder suggests three acts for a well formatted movie script and the breaks (23% and 77%, respectively) come at roughly the same moment as in Field’s table. Throw in the fact that Field isn’t fanatic about the exact percentages and there’s no difference at all. Just more details. The explanations in the book are a bit thin and don’t cover all the options. However, the beat sheet is clearly one possible goal to shoot for. It helps keeping focus.
The Hero’s Journey is a story based approach. It structures the story into stations that the hero should pass. The table below lists the main stations. The details can be extensive. |
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Table 3: The Hero’s Journey (based on to The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler) Structuring the Hero’s Journey into three acts should be approached with flexibility. The Hero’s Journey is first of all a story approach. For example, willing heroes will not refuse the call to adventure. In this case the dangers of the adventure will be communicated in a different way, for example by a character that warns the hero and advises against the enterprise (threshold guardian*.) Mentors* can appear at various stages throughout the movie. In tragedies the hero may die in the resurrection stage. The Hero’s Journey can also be applied to sub-plots and to internal and external aspects of the main character’s plot. The Reward may be an internal victory while an external goal will be accomplished in the resurrection stage. Still, the efforts of The Writer’s Journey to apply the three act structure seem to speak for its continued importance in script writing. Exceptions from the rule can be found in MeKee’s book Story which analyzes several movies with four and five acts. *Hero, herald, mentor and threshold guardian are names of archetypes, which are explained in detail in The Writer’s Journey and in The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
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