Visual Three-Act Structure

[David Sweetman]

Paul -- good words, thanks.

 

As for:

it [Field's 'Screenplay'] is nothing but a huge, imposed limitation on narrative cinema.

I don't believe so; I feel it has ignited my mind creatively. It has informed me, educated me, and enabled me through dramatic knowledge to write a better screenplay.

 

Sure, structural knowledge -- formulaic knowledge -- but behind that, dramatic knowledge.

 

Of course Field teaches the formula, and I understand how it works, why it works, and when it works; this might have taken much longer for me to grasp, had I not read this book.

 

I am by no means an expert. I do not proclaim an expert knowledge. I've read a book, I've read a half-dozen screenplays -- by FAR a negligible amount, compared to studio readers.

 

All I'm saying is I understand it. And I'm happy I do.

Edited January 9, 2006 by David Sweetman

[Brian Drysdale]

Mordechai Richler once said that when he wrote a novel, he didn't have any idea, when he was finished with the first sentence, where the book was going. In other words, the first sentence helped him find the second sentence. If one writes from the language, and from character, this makes perfect sense. I believe that it is how many, although not all, great works of literature have been written.

 

The one thing that these writing gurus do drum in is that writing is about the rewriting. You need to edit and rework your writing because inconsistencies do come in and the writer doesn't always notice it at the time. Also, just because the writer knows something it doesn't always follow that the reader will pick up the same thing. Hmmm... that sounds like someone in Washington... Basically, the writer needs good feedback, not just friends who say it's wonderful.

 

William Goldman's books are worth reading about the politics that come into play during development. How a script can be changed by who is starring in the film.

 

Robert McKee is played by an actor in "Adaptation", although it would be hard to tell them apart.

 

Good stories are always about the characters and their struggle to achieve their needs. The plot is how you tell this story.

[Robert Edge]

I like the Jean-Luc Godard statement quoted earlier in this thread. It is an insightful remark, especially coming from a man whose raw material was often banal, formulaic pulp fiction.

 

It is one thing to say that commercial film producers demand the kinds of structures and methods espoused by people like Field and McKee. It is another to say that what Field and McKee teach results in good, let alone interesting, work. If it did, there wouldn't be such a hugh gap in artistic quality and artistic interest between serious narrative writing, whether one is talking about the short story, the novel or the play, and the films that are coming off the commercial assembly line.

 

I don't think that the fact that there are a lot of chefs stirring the pot explains the problem with film. There are a lot of chefs when a play gets produced, yet artistically challenging plays do make their way to the stage. I think that the problem is that most of the people who are producing and packaging films lack both nerve and vision, and that people like Field and McKee are their handmaidens.

[Brian Drysdale]

.

 

I don't think that the fact that there are a lot of chefs stirring the pot explains the problem with film. There are a lot of chefs when a play gets produced, yet artistically challenging plays do make their way to the stage. I think that the problem is that most of the people who are producing and packaging films lack both nerve and vision, and that people like Field and McKee are their handmaidens.

 

I don't think you can blame Field and McKee, these are smart guys who want interesting narrative films to be made. Unfortunately, writers are well down the pecking order in the film industry, you just have to see "The Player" to get a hint of the process.

 

However, top writers can have a lot of power in American TV, a few of the top award winning series have producer/writers in charge. It's beginning to happen in the UK with the main writer being the producer on the latest Dr Who series with the BBC.

 

By their nature challenging films will always have a smaller market than the mainstream Hollywood product. It sells to theatre owners who want to sell popcorn and soft drinks because there's a bigger profit in those than the price of the seat. All you can hope for are good films within their genre. A good blockbuster beats a bad art house and a good art house beats a bad blockbuster.

[David Mullen ASC]

It's good for a beginner to understand classic screenplay structuring principles, just like a cinematographer has to understand classic lighting, composition, and photography principles. After that, you can begin to deviate from that.

[Leo Anthony Vale]

generally, the "taught" method of writing a short is the same as the syd field three-act, except you merge acts two and three, meaning the protagonist goes from the end of act one to the end of act three without being interrupted by the "mini-defeat" of act two. though i've seen plenty of shorts that try to cram all three in.

 

imo, any aspiring filmmakers should read his book. and then read it again. then pee all over it and set it on fire. it's nothing but a huge, imposed limitation on narrative cinema. if you look at the greatest films ever made, you will see that a large percentage of them deviate if not ignore three act structure. but if you look at the crummiest, most forgettable contemporary hollywood studio films to ever be released, you will see that they almost always follow three act structure to a tee.

 

---Shakespeare's plays are five acts with lots of short scenes.

 

Aristotle got a lot of natural history and science wrong. He also advocated unity of time and place as part of

the 3-act dramatic structure. Basicaly, a play should take place in a single day at a single location.

Bot over all he's not quite the totalitarian elitst Plato is.

 

Bazin claimed the movies are closer to novels than to theatre.

 

Satyajit Ray told the Acadmy Award audience from his death bed that movies are derived from 19th century Western classical music.

While many symphonies have three movements, not all do. Beethoven's 9th has four.

 

---LV