Lessons Corner: Demystifying the Acts and Structure of Story
Last week we took a stroll over storytelling by taking a look at the central 'thing' and how theme helps articulate it. We also alluded to how two 'things,' internal and external, permeate most stories. We'll cover that part in a future blog, probably next week, but before get into that it is probably a good idea to discuss story structure; especially how and why stories a structured.
Where Story Structure Comes From
Whether you outline your story or write by the seat of your pants, you know that a story is told in chunks. Bob wakes up the morning and has breakfast. That's one chunk. Bob kisses a sleeping woman goodbye and takes the light-rail to work. That's another. Bob gets mugged crossing an alley and arrives to work late. Bob's boss doesn't care and fires him anyway. Bob leaves but grins because the woman in his bed was the boss' daughter. Chunks can follow each other linearly, inter-cut, segue, dissolve into one another, go backwards in time; the possibilities are endless and you should mess with all of them. But at the core you know those chunks must go together in some way. This, my friend, is everyday structuring and it comes natural.
By chunks you may think I'm referring to scenes. But a chunk can vary in scope and time. It can focus on cooking breakfast or it can focus on the entire day. One chunk may deal with one part of life and then we skip to a chunk 20 years later. Furthermore, a chunk that takes up a scene in one story may be the entire focus of a different story. That other story then deals with the composition of smaller chunks making up the greater whole.
What is important to remember about these chunks is that they're events and the storyteller examines those events according to the story they're trying to tell. In fact, it's best to think of chunks as events instead of chunks.
An event implies something of importance has taken place, even if it's just eating breakfast while cockroaches skitter across the table. An obvious event would be a bomb going off, killing a loved one. But another event, like showing a person struggling to survive could serve as contrast for a later event when they're better or worse off.
A story typically deals with one major event as its foundation, often serving as the central 'thing', and it becomes the duty of the storyteller to select and organize the events taking place within that major event. This particular selection and organization of story events is what we refer to as structure.
Acts, Sequences, and Scenes (and Beats!)
(We're going to be talking a lot about structural elements but I want you to remember that stories are strongest when a change or development is a result of a character's acts and decisions. There will always be exceptions, but a scene, sequence or act is stronger when a character is responsible for the culmination of those elements.)
The basic unit of a film is a scene. A scene usually contains one obstacle of appropriate scope that a character tries to overcome. The scene often deals with the external or internal story. It also tends to be thematically linked where the outcome of the scene changes from one thematic value to another. A scene is also comprised of story beats, which simply mean a development in the scene. If Bob is laying in bed with the Boss' daughter, Bob may be trying to convince her to run away with him to Mexico. But she may have reasons to stay. As he addresses each of her reasons he either succeeds or doesn't convince her. The success or failure against each reason is a story beat. If he convinces her, he's overcome the obstacle. But even if he fails he may learn new things he must address before he can convince her to run away with him.
A sequence in a film is a collection of scenes that together tell a greater story arc, but not something that brings about a significant change in the tone and direction of the story. I like to think of the sequence as a culmination of developments leading to a breakthrough that enables the characters to move into the next stage.
When a sequence does bring about a significant change in tone and direction, you arrive at an act break. Often, more than one sequence will be required to do this, and you can think of the relationship between sequence and act the same way you think about scene and sequence. But it's not the end of the world if only one sequence brings about a significant change in tone and direction.
But what do I mean when I say 'significant tone and direction?' This tends to confuse people. And I only understood it when presented with an example. So, let's take a look at the formula for a basic heist film. It could have the following acts: 1) Introduce Characters and Reason for Heist, 2) Putting Together the Team, 3) Planning the Heist, 4) Conducting the Heist, and 5) the Fallout of the Heist.
Very simple, yes, but let's focus on the second act: Putting together the team. It may have only two sequences: one where the protagonist persuades his best friend to help him, then another sequence working together securing more members. Throughout the act they may be dodging suspicious cops while also trying to gain the confidence of the heist's sponsor. All of this act is concerned with putting together the team, subdivided into the stages of putting together the team. Once this is accomplished it reaches a significant developmet in tone and direction: now they can plan the heist and all that entails.
Act act and its sequences can deal with different scopes. One act can deal with one decade of a person's life and another act can deal with another. Or that can be done at the sequence level. This is really for you to do as you please with. The important thing to remember here is that the telling of an act is done in stages, which in turn are done in chunks.
Some Notes About Structure
Structure doesn't only help us tell a story, it also helps an audience digest a story. Many novelists will write their chapters in a way a person can read it in one hour. Film-makers must consider such conveniences as well. Here are a few tidbits that might help you.
1) There is a golden-rule in script-writing called the 17-minute rule. This states that something significant must happen by at least this page number, normally the Inciting Incident. Like the Laws of Thermodynamics, this isn't really a rule, but a theory so solid that if people don't heed it they end up suffering for it. This is mainly in respect of the audience's attention span. The audience will accept practically anything at the beginning of the film but as the setting becomes more established they enter another mode where they want the story. If the story doesn't start happening by this time audiences generally tune out. Some even walk out of the theater.
2) Unless you're Quentin Tarantino, scenes should generally be limited to 3 minutes at the most, the less the better. Don't sweat it if you write longer ones, but do your best to keep the scenes tight. You can break this pro-tip when you get better. This is also attributable to the audience's attention span when it comes to movies and television.
3) Save the Cat! and many others will argue for certain structures in story. And it wouldn't have surprised me if you came to this blog expecting a rehash of one of them. These approaches are fun to mess with and use at times. But you should realize that the Save the Cat!, the Three Act Structure, Shakespeare's Five Act Structure, are all articulations of the same general thing. Even the Hero's Journey is a different articulation of the same thing.
But why? It just seems to be a part of our genetic makeup to expect stories this way. But don't worry. You're not doomed to tell stories that way. When you get good at the elements of storytelling you won't be constrained to such tools. The only principle you will find guiding you in the end is not to tell a boring story.
Closing Remarks
Thank you everyone if you've read this far. Articulating what I've learned over the years doesn't come out as easy as I'd like. And none of my blogs finish up as I plan to write them out. I've got close to three weeks to finish the first draft of my first low budget indie film. If you don't know about it yet, please check out my other blogs.
Next week we'll discuss the internal and external journals. We'll also relate them to one of the common act structures so that you can see how they play out in a hypothetical film. Until next time!
- Easton
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