Day 5 Assignments

[David Penn]

David’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

My vision: To increase my skills to become an A-list writer

What I learned from this assigment is the importance of structure and layering in the character arc.

Concept: A
carefree, unemployed college grad, owing the most money in student loan
history, pretends to be a doctor to court his dream girl. A ruthless
collector’s hot on his trail, threatening to expose him as a fraud.
Main Conflict: Chas
lies to his girlfriend; the student loan collector’s hellbent on tracking
him down
Old Ways: irresponsible,
immature, lying, naive
New Ways:
responsible, mature, honest, practical

Act 1:

Opening: Chas is
on a dinky, messy boat listening to increasingly violent VM’s left by
Keith, a notoriously ruthless student loan collector.
Inciting
Incident: Chas meets Christie after donating sperm and pretends he’s a
doctor.
Turning Point: Needing
$10k to save his beloved house, Keith heads out to SF to track down Chas.

Act 2:

New plan: Chas
doubles down on his lie, living it up as a young, successful doctor
Plan in action: Despite
stumbles, the plan works- though Keith is hot on his trail. Midpoint Turning
Point: Christie says ‘I love you.’ Chas knows he’s in too deep.

Act 3:

Rethink
everything: Chas can’t hurt Christie- and is too afraid to tell her the truth-
so he ghosts her.
New plan: Intrigued
by playing doctor, he studies medical books, has a new plan to attend
medical school.
Turning Point:
Chas goes to tell Christie the truth when Keith accosts him, exposing him
as a fraud. Christie’s horrified.

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate
expression of the conflict: Chas is forced to tell his parents and
Christie the truth.
Resolution: Chas
goes back East to work for his dad so he can pay off his loans. Flies back
to SF to patch things up with Christie, leaving the possibility of a
future relationship.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  David Penn.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  David Penn.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  David Penn.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  David Penn.

[JOEL STERN]

(WIM) Module 2 Lesson 5: Transformational
Structure

MY VISION:

To write eight screenplays that become
Hollywood blockbusters (and to get a line or two in at least one of
them).

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS ASSIGNMENT:

Structure.

Concept: Korean War sniper, “Ace” is a struggling Las Vegas
TV reporter in the 1950s and a gambling addict who fails to repay a
large debt to a sadistic crime boss. He’s given ten days to pay or
he’ll be forced to cover gruesome crimes committed against those
closest to him.

Main Conflict: Must pay back large amount to mob boss within ten
days.

Old Ways: Likeable, funny, local war hero; easy going; satisfied,
laid back.

New Ways: TV biz makes him ruthless and quick tempered; questions
things he normally wouldn’t; becomes an alcoholic, gambler.

Act 1:

Opening: “Ace” pulls into Grand Central Station after Korean
War ends. Family, friends wave flags; a big hero welcome home. The
war’s over and it’s great to be alive.

Inciting Incident: Being a handsome war vet helps him get a TV
Crime Reporter job in Vegas.

Turning Point: Wants to quit after his wife dies in a car
accident leaving him with a disabled child and huge medical bills;
develops gambling addiction; PTSD sets in.

Act 2:

New Plan: Get psychiatric care. But it doesn’t help. It brings
the horrors of war to the surface. Can’t get a loan from bank.

Plan in action: Double down on a bad habit: “Gambling will
eventually pay off”.

Midpoint Turning Point: Gets phone calls at all hours from mob
boss wanting payback. Ace is given 10 days to come through or he’ll
be forced to report stories where murder victims are his friends and
family. Gangster sounds oddly pleasant, even humorous.

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Stuck – no way out; suicide attempt fails;
he’s about to put his child up for adoption but changes his mind at
the last moment.

New plan: To offer his services as a hit man to mobster in
exchange for debt cancellation.

Turning Point: He’s turned down; fails to make first payment; is
sent to report on a murder and the victim turns out to be his best
friend.

Huge failure / Major shift: Tries to get help from police but
they’re on mobs payroll. Who will be the next murder victim? It’s
his brother! Ace finds an ally – Sue, a newspaper reporter who’s
the daughter of a U.S. Congressman. They develop a professional and
sexual relationship.

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: The mobster’s calls
increase with threats driving Ace to the brink of insanity. At this
point even paying back the money won’t stop him. Sue investigates
the murders. But her father, a member of the U.S. Senate’s Organized
Crime Subcommittee can’t find any trace of mob involvement. The FBI
places a wiretap on Ace’s phone. They conclude no such calls were
ever made. All eyes turn to Ace.

Resolution: It was Ace, a latent schizophrenic who, without realizing it — murdered his brother and best friend and did TV reports about the
crimes. Both had previously betrayed Ace’s trust and Ace
subconsciously suppressed his anger over the years. The mob boss was
real – but died twenty years earlier. His personality traits –
personable, good sense of humor – were in fact Ace’s.

[hari messer]

Subject line: Hari’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

My Vision: I want to write screenplays that enable me to work with like minded creative people in the industry to produce profound movies that will have a long lasting positive effect on the world.

What I learned…This seems like it will make the actual wring much faster. It helps to have good roadmap.

Concept: A suspended cop discovers that a multinational corporation’s attempted takeover of a small town’s water supply is really a front for an alien invasion of the Earth.

Main Conflict: Colt McBride tries to reveal the aliens presence and stop their takeover of the Earth. Del Beck is the alien in charge of the takeover.

Colt’s Old Ways:

Cynical

World weary

Doesn’t trust anyone.

Loner, just wants to be left alone.

Won’t go out of his way to help others.

Afraid of being hurt

Only sees things from his wounded perspective

Colt’s New Ways:

Puts himself on the line for others

Willing to love again.

Renewed sense of energy and purpose

Can handle loss

Sees the bigger picture

Act 1:

Opening: Colt McBride on the freeway, driving into Jefferson. Wants to get away from the disaster of his big city life. In the back of the car, his new K9 partner, Jake. McBride is not a fan.

Sherrif Del Beck stops him for a minor traffic violation. Their interaction reveals McBride’s past and Beck’s iron clad control of Jefferson

Inciting Incident: McBride is hungover, fishing at a lake. He discovers a dead body in the water. As he’s pulling it out of the water, it suddenly morphs into a strange reptilian creature, then back into human form. WTF?

Turning Point: McBride won’t let it go, pushes Beck to investigate. Beck wants him out of there. Gives him 24 hours to leave town or he will charge him with the murder of the body in the lake. McBride digs in.

Act 2:

New plan – Realizing that he needs help, McBride teams up

with some of the locals.

Plan in action – Mayor Hal Burton becomes his staunchest ally. He sees McBride as someone who can finally help him challenge Beck’s vice like grip on Jefferson.

McBride works with an alien investigator, but also starts to look into the unscrupulous dealings of the water company. He meets Jamaica Daly who sits on the Jefferson Water Board. She arouses his suspicions – and his interest. Femme fatale.

He becomes friendly with Evelyn, Jamaica’s mother

Midpoint Turning Point – Against his better judgement, McBride falls in love with Jamaica. On an excursion, they embrace, about to kiss, when she suddenly morphs into reptilian form, then back into her human form.

Act 3:

Rethink everything – Jamaica is unaware that she is the offspring of interspecies breeding. Evelyn has kept it from her because Beck threatened to kill Jamaica if she ever revealed it.

McBride gets Evelyn to tell them everything. The aliens need to perform a ritual with the water from Jefferson to maintain their human morph when they are 28 years old. The water company is really shipping the water to aliens all over the world for this purpose.

New plan – Jamaica decides to let the morph go and reveal herself and the alien presence at the big 4th of July celebration in Jefferson. McBride is heart broken, but agrees it is the best plan. Now they just have to keep her safe until then.

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift – The aliens find out Jamaica’s plan and Beck kidnaps Evelyn, threatens to kill her unless Jamaica turns herself in. Jamaica agrees, but McBride has enlisted the help of Hal Burton and they plan to ambush Beck at the meeting…

Except that Hal Burton is really the Alien in charge. Beck was just a front. Hal shoots Evelyn. Jamaica is next.

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict – Jake attacks Burton and they manage to escape. McBride gets Jamaica to the stage just in time where she morphs into Reptilian form in front of everyone. People are freaked. A crazed person in the crowd shoots Jamaica.

Resolution – As she lies dying, McBride figures out a way to get all aliens to instantly lose their morph and reveal their presence.

Humanity unites and defeats the aliens.

McBride and Jake ride off, back to the big city to face whatever lies in store for them.

[Andrew Boyd]

Andrew Boyd’s Four-Act Transformational Structure

My concept (Updated):

Drama/True story. Nuremberg 1945: Hitler’s henchmen are on trial for their lives; hell-bent on making the war rage on forever – can a humble US chaplain and a handful of Army officers win their behind-the-scenes battle of wills and break the Nazi legend?

What I have learned from this assignment:

This assignment has challenged me to simplify my original Opener, which could have been a false start. And because I initially followed a five-act structure it has also been necessary to reduce my Midpoint.

Main Conflict:

The surviving top Nazis at the world’s greatest trial are scheming to save their skins and keep the Nazi legend alive. Three US Army officers must win their battle of wills with Hitler’s henchmen, including ringleader Hermann Goering.

Goering hopes to get his hooks into a humble US Army chaplain, tasked with persuading these diehard Nazis to denounce the Führer. If the chaplain fails, future generations will be plunged back into war.

The three US officers working behind the scenes have competing agendas. To succeed, they must lay them aside – and overcome their desire for vengeance.

Old Ways:

Soft hearted

Unwilling to confront

Afraid of his own anger

Pulling his punches

Unable to understand evil in men

New Ways:

Tough-minded while still tender-hearted

Willing to confront to win the person, not just the argument

Transforming raw anger into gritty compassion

Hitting hard to score a knockout

Act 1

Opening: It’s 1961. Sam Fuller, Henry Gerecke’s former sidekick, is being quizzed behind bars by prison officials on his relationship with the US Army chaplain. ‘He was like a father to me,’ he says. ‘I hated him.’ Gerecke, it seems, couldn’t stop getting in his way – even facing him down over a cocked and pointed pistol.

Inciting Incident: 1945. The war is over. Fuller is boosting his army pay playing the black market and pounding boogie woogie in GI joints in Germany – between playing hymns in chapel. His boss, Army chaplain Henry Gerecke has enough points to go home. But his commanding officer plans to send him to Nuremberg where the leading Nazis are about to stand trial. His assignment: Keep ‘em alive until we can hang ‘em – and make ‘em denounce the Führer so they don’t die as martyrs and heroes.

Turning Point: Gerecke refuses. He hasn’t seen his wife for two years and needs to rescue his marriage. Two of his sons have been badly wounded in the war, so he’s no fan of Nazis. And he fears he would be hopelessly out of his depth with the likes of Hermann Goering. So his commander sends Gerecke and Fuller to Dachau concentration camp to see why the stakes are so high. Gerecke reluctantly agrees to go to Nuremberg as Lutheran chaplain to the surviving top Nazis. Fuller, whose brother has been murdered by the SS, violently objects. But having come close to shooting a prisoner at Dachau – and his boss – it’s Nuremberg or jail.

Act 2

New Plan: Gerecke is introduced to his behind-the-scenes team in Nuremberg, a Catholic chaplain concealing a war wound, and a Jewish psychologist with an understandable axe to grind. Together they must prevent the Nazis committing suicide and make them take responsibility for their war crimes. Each has good cause to hate the Nazis. Compounded when, to a man, Hitler’s henchmen plead not guilty and treat the court with contempt.

Plan in Action: Gerecke tries to get alongside the Nazis and understand them. He treats them with respect and refuses to spy on them. The kindly chaplain gets called a Nazi lover by the prison guards, including his own sidekick. Sam Fuller. Fuller, who’s black, walks out after SS prisoners hurl racial insults at him while playing the organ in chapel. Arch manipulator Hermann Goering considers the chaplain a soft target. The Nazi leader is staging a last-ditch attempt to get the Allies to join forces with the defeated Germans to fight the Russians – and so save their Nazi necks. And he’s whipping the other defendants into line. Gerecke is being played and he knows it.

Midpoint Turning Point: The catholic chaplain recognises Gerecke is pulling his punches for fear of humiliating the prisoners. Gerecke was badly humiliated himself by his German father during World War One. Pa hauled him away from the recruitment line in St Louis, where he was signing up to fight for Uncle Sam against the Kaiser.

Act Three

Rethink Everything: Catholic chaplain Sixtus O’Connor challenges Gerecke to get tough with the prisoners if he’s ever going to get through to them. And Jewish psychologist Gustave Gilbert helps the chaplain marshal hard evidence that will force the Nazis to admit their guilt. However, everyone underestimates the Lutheran chaplain’s grit, wisdom and determination.

New Plan: The showing in court of the Nazi concentration camp film has a major impact on some of the prisoners who finally question what they have done. Gerecke marshals evidence to confront the Nazis and tear down their barriers of denial. As judgment day nears, Gustave Gilbert splits Goering off from the other defendants to break his grip on them. And some of the leading Nazis finally start to denounce Hitler in court and to a watching world.

Turning Point: Huge Failure

Although Gerecke is getting through to some of them, the chaplain’s hard truths have backfired with Goering. The former Reichsmarshall now pins his hopes on a prison breakout by the shadowy Werwolves, the Nazi resistance. Henry hopes to reach him through his little daughter and arranges a prison visit. That fails and the chaplain tries a go-for-broke confrontation. It goes badly wrong when he loses his temper. The Werwolves never show, and Goering commits suicide in his cell. Gerecke’s mission is a double failure.

Act Four

Climax / Ultimate Expression of the Conflict

With the hour of execution approaching, many of the Nazis respond to the gritty compassion shown by the chaplains. Gerecke’s resolve to treat even the world’s worst mass murderers as human beings rather than monsters has paid off. His true impact on some of the leading Nazis becomes clear as they face the gallows.

Resolution: 1961. Gerecke’s sidekick, Sam Fuller is concluding his story to the parole board at Menard, where he’s been banged up for shooting a sergeant back in Nuremberg. He explains how the chaplain he once hated for standing in his way had become a father figure to him. Gerecke took Fuller back as his assistant at Menard after resuming his prison ministry in the US. Mercifully, his marriage and his sons survived the war. Fifteen years later, Gerecke has now passed away and Fuller is seeking parole so he can attend his friend’s memorial in St Louis. His request is granted, and he is invited to play the organ as ever – hot and fast.

Thanks folks!

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  Andrew Boyd.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  Andrew Boyd.

[Lynn Vincentnathan]

Lynn Vincentnathan’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

VISION: I am determined to become a great screenwriter capable of getting my screenplays in various genres produced into movies that inspire vast audiences to mitigate climate change.

I LEARNED from this lesson and Lesson 3 that I needed a greater arc (worse old ways, bigger change) for Ellie, which I think will enhance the story & explain the initial desire for her to marry Jim before their 1st breakup, because she thinks he can do what she can’t/won’t do, letting her remain in her shell and old ways — not a good foundation for marriage.

=================================================================

GIVE US THE FOLLOWING:

CONCEPT: WEATHERING IT (RomCom) is about two college students who try to overcome family fights about global warming and get married during the worst ever Texas freeze.

MAIN CONFLICT: As a RomCom it is this couple belongs together, but they have a very hard time getting together and making it work, for one thing because each has loyalty to her/his own uncle and those uncles are bitterly opposed to each other.

ELLIE’S

Old Ways: afraid to go outside her comfort zone and petition denialists and those not “eco-aware” and afraid to get romantically involved, rejecting/hurting guys who try to love her, disappointed with mother & Uncle Rudy because they aren’t doing the eco-things she thinks they should.

New Ways: to confronting and appealing to everyone about eco-harms, helping them to get into the program, and getting involved with & married to Jim

JIM’S

Old Ways: Does whatever others want (which is partly good, helping others with their goals), afraid to confront Uncle Fred.

New Ways: Stands up to Uncle Fred, working toward his own goals and bringing the others’ goal into alignment with his.

ELY’S (Ellie’s great-uncle)

Old Ways: living alone convinced he is doing good and right by doing his part for the world; self-righteous; very cranky, grumpy, and angry

New Ways: inviting others into his world and heart, learning humility, forgiveness and how to really help others.

————————————————————-

ACT 1 (20-25 pp or 6-10 scenes)

OPENING: Ellie and sidekick Luz are putting up posters for the Turtle Rescue Center trip around the college campus for their Environmental Club. They despair over people not doing enough to mitigate climate change (expressing their hopeless climate anxiety). Luz also asks if Ellie has arranged for the next trip to her great uncle’s off-the-grid farm. Not yet (worried). Then Luz brings up how a club member wants to date her and is willing to take Ellie’s test (mystery), but Ellie demurs, not interested in romantic involvement; Luz warns her not to retreat into her turtle shell.

The whole time Jim and friend Mack have been following the “babes,” overhearing, and Jim tells Mack he is going to save that turtle (Ellie), but Mack warns that it looks complicated, a difficult conquest. The girls turn and accuse the guys following them. Jim steps forward and says no, he wants to go on the trip and could Ellie come and give a presentation about it to his Business and Environment class.

During the presentation students ask Ellie rough questions, put her down. Jim comes to her rescue.

Ellie’s goes to Uncle Ely’s farm to make plans for the club’s trip. It is an old farm with huge barn and silo but no crops or animals, just a grove of weird wind generators and solar arrays. We find out how cantankerous and bitter Ely is, but he reluctantly agrees to the club visit. Ely wants Ellie to help him with his project, but she, a journalism major, figures she wouldn’t be much use — everything is doomed she figures. Ely agrees but coaches her to never give up.

INCITING INCIDENT: At the beach party after the Turtle Rescue Center trip Jim kisses Ellie – she’s surprised by her feelings for him.

Ellie briefly visits her Uncle Rudy’s Marriage Barn business to run a story on it. Rudy says when her time comes he’ll do her wedding venue at cost.

TURNING POINT: After Jim takes Ellie’s stupid compatibility test Ellie is ready to date Jim. And he has an engineering degree with knowledge about alt energy and working on an MBA — things Ellie figures will help in the environmental movement.

————————————————————-

ACT 2 (20-30 pp or 6-11 scenes)

NEW PLAN: Ellie and Jim date and talk about marriage. Jim is eager to go to Ely’s farm.

Several scenes with Jim and his Uncle Fred on the phone let us understand that (1) Fred is paying for Jim’s education and (2) Jim is obliged to work for Fred in is Petroleum Engineering Consultancy firm.

PLAN IN ACTION: The club and Jim visit Ely’s farm. They see in the silo Ely’s big battery he invented, but aren’t allowed in his tack room — something he’s working on. Jim enthralled by Ely and the magical (as he sees it) farm PROPOSES TO ELLIE. At the end when Ely learns Jim’s last name is Higson, he flies off the handle re Fred Higson, his arch enemy. They had both majored in engineering together decades ago. Jim assures Ely he is not Fred’s son, hiding his connection to Fred.

MIDPOINT TURNING POINT: By the end of the Spring semester Ellie and Jim have decided to marry in summer. They go to Uncle Rudy’s Marriage Barn to discuss plans. Rudy tells them they’ll need to making guest lists, but advises Ellie not to invite Uncle Ely since he’d disrupt it. Ellie disagrees. Jim sides with Rudy, knowing his own uncle hates alt energy and that Ely hates him. Ellie angered tells Jim not to invite his uncle. There’s a big fight and various issues are revealed. They decide to call it off.

In the following scenes it is obvious that Ellie and Jim are still very much in love.

————————————————————–

ACT 3 (25 pp (20-30 pp or 6-10 scenes)

RETHINK EVERYTHING: Ellie and Jim come to realize they cannot live without each other and they finally decide to get married, but take it slowly this time and have their wedding end of January.

However, Ellie seems to have lost her life goals and what little energy she had, knowing she will have to move to Houston where Jim will work for Fred. She agrees not to invite Ely to the wedding.

NEW PLAN: Jim assures Ellie he will do what he can to convince Fred to include energy conservation and efficiency in the consultancy firm, maybe even get Fred into alt energy consultancy — which they both realize will be impossible.

TURNING POINT: HUGE FAILURE / MAJOR SHIFT: JUST BEFORE THE WEDDING THE WORST-EVER TEXAS FREEZE HITS AND THE POWER GOES OFF IN THE ENTIRE REGION, INCLUDING AT THE MARRIAGE BARN. Since the Marriage Barn is booked solid until spring, Ellie and Jim will have to wait, but everyone, including the couple know their relationship is doomed. Ellie and Jim are miserable because they can’t realize their true goals under Uncle Fred. Jim figures at least Ellie should be free to pursue her goals. They call off the wedding again.

—————————————————————

ACT 4 (25 pp or 6-10 scenes)

CLIMAX/ULTIMATE EXPRESSION OF THE CONFLICT: Ellie then takes charge and says the wedding will go through, though she doesn’t know how. She assures Jim they will convince Uncle Fred to let Jim off the hook so he can pursue his goals. Love for Jim has given her a hope and belief for a good future she never had before, and Uncles Ely and Rudy have coached in her strength of character that she should at least die trying.

Lightbulb moment — Ellie says they could have the wedding at Uncle Ely’s off-the-grid farm, the only place that has electricity, lights and heat. Jim, figuring the marriage is doomed anyway, says why not, knowing Ely and Fred would tear it apart. But at least they’d all keep warm at Ely’s farm.

WHEN FRED ARRIVES at the farm the explosion with Ely is worse than expected. It turns out Fred had tricked Ely’s love-of-his-life Sarah away from him.

Ellie scolds Ely for fighting, but Jim takes Ely’s side regarding alt energy, stands up to Fred, shows him Ely’s big battery invention and his hydrogen electrolyser and fuel cell generator in the tack room now fully functional and helping warm & light the farm.

RESOLUTION: Ellie coaxes Fred to relent. Fred tells Ely that Sarah divorced him after two years, and he regrets what he did to Ely. Fred is impressed with Ely’s inventions. There’s talk about marketing them. Fred is now open to Jim’s requests that he get into energy efficiency and conservation and alt energy.

Jim and Ellie now happily make their vows. Cell texts buzz. The Turtle Rescue Center is calling everyone to come help save the 1000s of cold-stunned turtles. The wedding guests rush out.

Closing scene, they are all bunded up in winter jackets, including Ely and Fred, saving turtles at the beach.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  Lynn Vincentnathan.

[Monica Arisman]

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Subject line: Monica’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Vision: I will continue to learn everything I can through all different media to apply what I learn to become the best screenwriter I can be. To be successful in getting my movies made and to win awards in the process.

What I learned doing this assignment is to plan the high level parts of the story before you write one word – haven’t always done that.

Give us the following:

Title: Time Guardians

Concept: A rogue Special Forces intelligence team steals an
ancient artefact at the start of the first Iraq war to keep it safe from
the hands of the New World Order who wants to use it to manipulate the
timeline only to discover all timelines end in 2030.
Main Conflict: The five
powerful men that run the world need to ensure they come out on top and
enlist outside help to manipulate the timeline only find obstacle after
obstacle in their way to complete world domination. Theme: Good vs Evil;
the Dark vs the Light. <div>

Internal Journey: Strong
and afraid who has suppressed his moral code will do any job for his
superiors.

External Journey: From
the always reliable “hit man” with no conscience to the one who sees
what’s going on and finally does something about it.

Old Ways:

Doesn’t want to look at his life.

Basically
did his job with no emotion and never questioned orders.</div><div>

Was
alone and lonely.

Was
brainwashed into believing his superior’s ways were the only ways.

New Ways:

Released
from his wound.

Fights
for a cause he believes in.

Ready
to find love.

Ready
to do what’s necessary for the greater good.

3. Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.

Act 1:

Opening: A secret meeting
between the five powerful men who run the world, the head of a Special
Forces intelligence team and a mysterious third party make a plan to steal
an ancient artefact. This artefact can alter the timeline so the elite
always come out on top.</div>

Inciting Incident: The ancient artefact has been built
and it’s more powerful than anyone imagined but it keeps giving the same
answer – that the elite and powerful never get world domination.

<div>

Turning Point: Our protagonist and the
mysterious third party dismantle the artefact and steal it.

Act 2:

New plan: Being chased by the elite
and military our hero hides out in an abandoned military bunker.</div><div>

Plan in action: He sets up the artefact to try
to figure out why it keeps giving the same answer. Civilization ends in
2030.

Midpoint Turning Point: Our hero is found out and the artefact
is stolen back during an intense battle.

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Our hero sneaks into the house of his
former partner.</div><div>

New plan: He convinces her to join their fight.
She recruits a few others and they plan a major assault.

Turning Point: Huge
failure / Major shift: But they’re captured and taken to the artefact
because it’s now giving information that the elite think the hero
programmed it to do. They have 2 days to re-program it and give them the
answer they want or they’ll be executed.

Act 4:

New plan: Our mysterious third party programs
the artefact to bring the extinction timeline in three days’ time
disguising it as the elite’s plan for world domination.</div>

Climax/Ultimate
expression of the conflict: When the elite come to see what the
artefact says now they are happy but our hero kills them all.

Resolution: We find our mysterious third party is
an alien from the future trying to warn us about our total disregard for
the planet. He takes the artefact and we have a “beam me up Scotty” moment
when he returns to his ship. Our hero decides to set out with his partner
and their team and eliminate every elite he can find.

[Dana Abbott]

WIM2 – Dana’s Four-Act Transformational Structure

My Vision: I intend to perfect my skills to become a successful screenwriter, scripting acclaimed and profitable films, recognized by my peers, and living an adventurous life.

What I learned during this assignment:

I scripted this story in a very short time. The preparation from concept to structure made this outline easy. I pictured the story from beginning to end before I started this assignment. These techniques have simplified my writing, and I am very excited to write this script!

Title: The Smelting Pot

Genre: Thriller

Concept: Kidnapped for ransom, a wealthy woman is held hostage in the smelting pot of an abandoned steel mill frequented by drug addicts and street gangs, and to survive, she must remain soundless and stay hidden until the ransom is paid or find a way to escape her captor known as The Custodian.

Main Conflict: Ruth must find a way to escape her abductor, while surviving the horrors that torment her through the night.

Old Ways:

Moneyed and pampered
Dependent on others
Fearful
Victim

New Ways:

Self-reliant
Determined
Strong; fearless
Survivor

Act 1:

Opening: Ruth Griffin awakens to find herself in the bottom of smelting pot in an abandoned iron works dressed in the evening gown she wore to the event from which she was abducted. She cries out for help to no avail, her voice echoing into the dark. She feels her way around and tries to climb out, but she cannot reach the lip of the smelting pot. She’s trapped. Cold. Alone.

Inciting Incident: Ruth’s captor reveals himself, standing on the rusted platform above the smelting pot. Masked, he never speaks, she realizes she’s been kidnapped for ransom.

Turning Point: Drug dealers drive into the steel mill, and Ellen hears them interrogate, torture, and kill man they believed is an informer. When she’s discovered by the drug dealer’s inquisitive dog and the young girlfriend, Ruth silently pleads for the girl not to say anything, knowing she’ll be killed as a witness to the murder. The girl, empathetic to Ruth, decides to say nothing, and the drug dealers leave.

Act 2:

New Plan: Ruth decides to cooperate with her captor. She will remain quiet and wait for her husband to pay the ransom.

Plan in Action: When a rattle snake slips and falls into the pot while pursuing its prey, Ruth is forced to kill the snake, creating noise. When she looks up, she’s being watched by a derelict standing on the platform above.

Midpoint Turning Point: The derelict climbs down into the smelting pot to take advantage of the situation and Ruth. She fails to fight him off, but before he can assault her, the kidnapper kills the derelict, hanging him by a rope, snapping his neck and pulling him out of the pot.

Act 3:

Rethinking everything: Ruth realizes she must escape or she’s going to be left to die in the pot.

New Plan: She hears another car enter the mill and cautiously calls out to the person. The young girl appears on the platform. She’s returned out of curiosity. Ruth warns about her captor, but he’s gone. Ruth persuades the girl to help.

Turning Point: Huge Failure / Major Shift: Before the girl can help, the kidnapper slips up from behind and stabs her and pushes her body into the pot with Ruth. She dies in Ruth’s arms.

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: Hearing the kidnapper start his car and leave, Ruth stands on the girl’s body to reach the edge of the pot and climbs out. But before she can escape, her the kidnapper returns. Sneaking to the girl’s car, the dog suddenly rears up and attacks Ruth when she opens the door. Ruth now plays cat and mouse, chased through the mill until she’s trapped on the platform by her kidnapper. In the final moment, the dog charges from nowhere and attacks the kidnapper knocking him into the pot, presumably dead.

Resolution: Ruth is rescued by police and her husband, and she’s taken off to hospital. The police, conducting the investigation, remove the bodies one by one, saving the kidnapper for last. But when they try to retrieve the body, he’s already gone.

[Lisa Paris Long]

Lisa Long’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

My Vision: I will do whatever it takes to be comfortable saying that I am a writer by creating impactful stories with amazing characters in order to sell my scripts.

What I learned from this assignment is to think, and then rethink the structure. Be flexible because as writing you need to be open to changes. I changed the structure a few times before finishing this assignment.

Give us the following:

Concept – Molly, a 10-year-old aspiring dancer is abandoned by her mother with a father she’s never known to live with him above his restaurant on the Chesapeake Bay.

Main Conflict – Molly’s 69-year-old father Al forbids her to dance due to his heartbreak from the breakup with her dancer mother. When Molly befriends Mars, a black, gay choreographer, she hides from her father that he is teaching her dance. Al eventually finds out and objects not only to Molly’s dancing, but to Mars.

Old Ways – Devastated, Insecure, Shy, Afraid

New Ways – Content, Outgoing, Unafraid, Happy

Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.

Act 1:

Opening – A speeding car pulls up outside Al’s Seafood restaurant on the Chesapeake Bay and a woman April gets out. She pulls her daughter Molly out of the car against her will. Molly is left with Al, her father that she’s never known. Molly chases after the car as it speeds away.

Inciting Incident – Al makes Molly wipe tables and serve crabs in the restaurant, but she doesn’t want to work. They fight for the first time.

Turning Point – Molly meets Mars a choreographer on the beach. Mars is staying at the beach to mourn the recent passing of his partner.

Act 2:

New plan – Mars decides to help Molly reach her dream of dancing in the Nutcracker in NYC.

Plan in action – Every day while Al takes his pre-dinner service nap, Molly sneaks out to Mars’ cottage down the beach to dance. Mars calls a contact in NYC and gets Molly an audition in 2 weeks. Right before the audition, the chef finds out what Molly is doing and tells Al.

Midpoint Turning Point – A hurricane blows into the area. Al and Molly argue about Mars, and he forbids her to see him. His prejudice shows. Molly runs out and gets in a small boat. She gets swept up in the surf. Mars sees this and saves Molly from the bay. Mars carries her home in the storm. Al can’t bring himself to even thank Mars.

Act 3:

Rethink everything – It’s time for the audition. Molly lies to Mars by telling him that Al said it was okay for her to go with him to NYC.

New plan – Mars drives Molly to NYC for the audition. Al angrily meets Molly when she returns… she has good news, she got a part in the Nutcracker! Al says absolutely not!

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift – Al and Molly have a huge fight and when Molly storms up to her room, she sneaks out to Mars’ cottage. Mars wants to talk to Al before they go, but Molly makes excuses, and they take off for NYC.

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict – Al goes to NYC to bring Molly back. He goes to the theater as the curtain goes up on The Nutcracker. Al cries as he sees Molly dance and she’s exquisite, even for 10. April, Molly’s mom shows up too alone to see Molly dance. Al and April discuss their situation with Molly. Al decides to go home. Molly returns to Chesapeake after the run.

Resolution – Molly recognizes the toll she has taken on Al. She and Al decide to try again. Al comes clean about the past that he’s holding onto and finally expresses his love for her. Molly wants to help him. Mars returns to NYC to start again. Six months later, Al is ill. April has returned and is playing nurse. We see the reconciliation and tenderness between all three of them as Al passes away. Molly and April dance on the beach as an expression of mourning and love.

[victor Valleau]

WIM Vic Valleau Module 2 Lesson 5 FOUR ACT TRANSFORMATIONAL

VISION: As a writer, I am an alchemist, turning ordinary into gold.

WHAT I LEARNED: Writing inspired and empowered is very fast and easy vs. writing uninspired is very slow and hard.

Concept: Bob, a sperm donor to 40 babies, wants one who calls him dad!

Main Conflict: Bob is average, too ordinary for dates or marriage. Bob needs to find a possible baby mother who acknowledges he is the father. .

Old Ways: Secretive, Dating Advice, webinars, dating lesbians, dating available women, give away sperm online, sell to clinics but undesirable physically, short, not athletic, waiting for contact from mothers of 40 kids. Sneaks around fertility clinics, stalks potential mothers. Sees himself and his job as a loser, a gamer salesperson, a man in a kids cartoon/gamer’s world.

New Ways: Actively asking to impregnate women seeking to be mothers. They believe he is gay or they are gay and have no tolerance for straight men, especially caring for babies.

ACT ONE: 25 TO 30 PAGES

OPENING; As is his habit, Bob spies and tracks on many couples who get his frozen sperm. He is up against secrecy laws and procedures.

INCITING INCIDENT: Clinic sues him for violations, chasing donor mothers He goes to a very old attorney with a beautiful young wife. Will Bob be a sperm donor for wife, as payment for legal services?

TURNING POINT: He wants recognition, meets donee, pleads. Husband threatens to have him arrested.

ACT 2 20 TO 30 PAGES. CHALLENGE THE OLD WAYS

NEW PLAN DEVELOPS: list of attempts, tries old ways and fails: Starts PROTECTING HIS DONATIONS AND charging for sperm, brags to his friends.

TURNING POINT: MIDPOINT

Disrupts his reality Maybe he’s not father? Or alternative scenario: friends set up woman as potential mother to have sex with him but he’s too nervous, expecting to be arrested.

ACT 3 20-30 pages PROFOUND MOMENTS THAT GIVE USE NEW WAYS

HERO: RETHINKS AND CREATE NEW PLAN-All is lost moment. Becomes laughing stock of men friends. He advertises in sex ads, wrong advertising locations

Asks successful etc men with women strategizes about approaching potential mothers. Devious tricks to get women to use his sperm.

Competition from BEST qualified sperm from clinics, donors are tall, accomplished, educated.

He goes to Europe, Paris, wears a beret, paints on banks of Siene, goes to Rodin museum, museum of modern Art, sees woman with baby carriage, accosts her.

New Plan: Adopt, buy a baby, or find an abandoned baby. French baby.

TURNING POINT: HUGE FAILURE/MAJOR TURNING POINT He finds baby abandoned, takes it. French police come and father attacks him.

ACT 4 25 pages- TEST THE CHANGE IN THIS CHARACTER: PROVE NEW WAYS

Climax/Ultimate Expression of the conflict. Kicked out of hospital.

Resolution- new family/ baby mother.

He finds an ordinary, chubby like him, and the father has skipped town He saw her at his clinic a few years ago, so it could be his baby. He marries the mother.

Last scene and later, he is artist, a babe magnet with women he couldn’t get before. He is painting in Paris, speaking French. Interested women interrupt him constantly. His wife and cute little daughter greet him. A group of his former gamer employees watch at a distance, shake their heads in disbelief. He sees them, raises his paint brush, dots the air, for emphasis, indicating THE END. .

[Ron Chepesiuk]

Ron’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

Vision: I want the success and recognition of being an in demand, A-list screenwriter who writes successful films that are financially profitable, award winning and of enduring quality

What I learned doing this assignment is that lesson provides an unique plan that allows me, with confidence, to devise a workable structure for my screenplay

Concept: After the son of a powerful Mafia godfather convinces the godfather’s mail order bride to kill the godfather and take over his criminal empire, she has second thoughts and must find a way to extricate herself from this treacherous and dangerous plot.

Main Conflict A bride of a powerful mafia don is
conflicted about whether she should help her lover, the Godfather’s son,
kill her husband

Old Ways poor woman living in Italy, ambitious, selfish
(only think of herself), wants to change her life and do anything to do
it.

New Ways sympathetic, strong willed, enterprising, clever and
creative in her effort to extricate herself from the murder plot

3. Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.

Act 1:

Opening The wife of Mafia don is murdered in an ambush.
The don is devastated

Inciting Incident
Discovers Lucia on an Internet mail order site, enthralled and goes
to meet her in Itally

Turning Point: The abusive boyfriend of Lucia is thrown
off the building, and the Mafia don takes Lucia to the U.S. to marry her

Act 2:

New plan Lucia falls for Silvio, the Mafia don’s
son, who hates his father and seeks revenge. He brings her into plan to
kill the mafia don and become the new don

Plan in action Lucia prepares to kill husband

Midpoint Turning Point Lucia reneges on the plan to
poison her husband.

Act 3:

Rethink everything The dead don’s crime family are
suspicious and believe Lucia has killer husband. Lucia is now vulnerable.
She must seek a way out.
New plan: She goes to the chief rival of her dead
husband, the mafia don, to set up a plan to kill the son
Turning Point: But the son finds out, averts getting
killed and goes looking to kill Lucia. She flees the crime family and goes
into hiding.

Act 4:

Lucia and the son, her former lover who is hunting her,
meet. Lucia kills him him.
Resolution Lucia gains the respect of her dead
husband’s mafia when they learn what she has done. She becomes the new interim
godmother of her dead husband’s
mafia while the crime family looks for a successor to the dead don. But
she is already scheming to be kept as the godmother.

———————–

[Deleted User]

What I learned: I don’t know if I filled all the requirements, if I crossed my t’s or dotted my I’s. But I do realize the importance structure makes. Outlines are the guide needed to fill all the crannies and corners–the makeup of an animated script, the foundation to the house of story…

Karen Crider’s, #5. Transformational Structure

I am completely confident creating the structure of my story? Lol.

Concept: A young, traumatized hyena, deposed from his clan, must win acceptance in another, or survive the treacherous forest edges and jungle alone.

Main conflict: A young hyena prevents his mom being killed by a spoiled offspring of the matriarch; as a result, the matriarch casts him out of the clan to fend against a jungle of predators.

OLD WAYS

Scarred by the vicious death of his brother and near- death experience as a cub by a rabid wolf.

No confidence, timid, a target for bullies.

Soprano-tone laugher, defeated in laugh competition. Put down.

Separation anxiety

Solitary with PTSD.

Stays on the periphery when others are killing prey.

Believes he is worthless, not capable of ever standing on his own.

Traits: haunted, furtive, timid, clueless, intelligent.

NEW WAYS: .

Motivated by love to protect his mom, Shadow attacks a rabid wolf attacking her.

Confident; grounded. Provides for mom.

Upon her return, clan jeers at Shadow. They no longer affect him.

Maturity hones his laughing ability and keen sense of smell.

He kills the rabid wolf everyone is afraid of. Earns respect.

Shadow becomes independent; handsome, free.

Becomes the alpha hyena of a wolf pack.

Hyenas immune to infections that kill other species, especially immune to rabies.

Act 1:

INT. JUNGLE – DAY

Inside the African jungle, inside a series of dens lives a clan of fifty spotted hyenas. The clan’s hierarchal leader, SILLA, leads the kill and eats first with her cubs. She is larger, more powerful and has more testosterone than the males who eat last.

Silla’s offspring, HILA, a spoiled, demanding offspring (who benefits from her mother’s hierarchy, abuses a lower-level hyena, IVY, who’s pregnant.

EXT. DEN – DAY

Ivy leaves the clan to dig a den, for her time draws near. She barely finishes when she goes into labor.

Three cubs are born, all of them male.

SUPER: “weeks pass”

SHADOW, the youngest hyena inside the den, bats at a large paw advancing toward him in his tunnel. Shadow plays with it.

MORTIMER, a rabid wolf, removes his paw and thrusts his other further into the tunnel, shoving Shadow backward.

Mortimer grapples Shadow’s brother, ARGUS, who screams frantically as the wolf hauls him out of the den. Bones crunch.

Shadow curls into a ball.

EXT. COMMUNAL DEN – DAY

Shadow’s and his mom, Ivy, and others fight the wolf. Ivy moves her cubs, Shadow and his other brother, BRIMSLEY, to the communal den.

INT. COMMUNAL DEN – DAY

Shadow is withdrawn, bullied and solitary. He trips over his feet, has a piercing, soprano-tonal laugh; he’s withdrawn until the day, Hilly, Silla’s offspring, attacks his mom again.

Shadow steps between Hilly and his mom, snaps at her, and accidentally draws blood. Hilly whines to her mom, Silla.

INCITING INCIDENT:

Silla, the matriarch, kicks Shadow out from the clan. There’s no going back. Shadow is banished.

He’s depressed, has a hang- dog- day, afternoon mouth, scraggly appearance, and becomes an enemy to every grub in a five-mile radius.

The present howler lets every hyena know about the seasonal contest that awards contestants a winning chance to enter the largest clans if they win. Shadow works on his laugh.

Shadow practices at nightfall but can’t blend in with the cacophonic symphony occurring each night. Hyena’s attack and chase him away.

Predators chase him harder trying to kill his racket.

Turning point:

Shadow follows his old clan to a primitive, Massai village

The tribesmen use hyenas as undertakers.

Hyenas gorge on cadavers. A thigh bone falls from a corpse.

Shadow watches Ivy grab it and run.

Shadow feeds on leftover remnants. He follows the clan back to their dens.

He slinks outside the periphery, tired of being afraid.

ACT TWO:

New plan
Plan in action. Midpoint Turning Point

He practices for the Olympic Hyena Howling Contest awarding entrance into a huge clan.

He asks for help from different creatures to no avail; even the cricket tunes him out.

At the competition, amazing competitors outshine each other.

When it’s Shadow’s turn, he shows up as scrawny, unkempt and he freezes.

A croak escapes Shadow’s mouth and the hyenas laugh. He’s booed and humiliated.

Shadow hides in shame, but after a bit, skirts around to hear his brother, Brimsley compete.

Brimsley appears groomed, confident, as he emits several Pavarotti- like howls.

Happy tears run down Ivy’s face, and she beams with pride.

Brimsley’s awarded as winner. Hyena’s crowd around, patting Brimsley’s on his back.

His brother ignores Shadow and does not acknowledge him.

Shadow leaves angry.

Turning Point:

Shadow starts each day polishing his appearance,

He practices howling, emulating Brimsley and acting confident.

But it’s only an act. He practices his hyena howls constantly.

He takes baths in the river and grooms himself.

He chases a zebra to proves himself brave; one who almost breaks his jaw.

He’s proud of his injury, but it messes up his practice howls for the future.

He battles vultures who leave a picked-over skeleton behind for the ants.

Shadow grinds the bones to powder to subdue his hunger, yipping like he made the kill.

Vultures beat him with their wings and beaks. He flees.

Shadow leaves the area and goes to find himself.

ACT THREE: Rethink everything

New plan

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift

Shadow returns to the perimeter of his old clan.

He’s lonely and wants to see Ivy. The den sites are empty.

He picks up the clan’s scent and follows. A pride of lions impede his path.

He sneaks into the brush and steals a zebra rib. He pulverizes it with his powerful jaws.

One lion notices and chases him, snarling, baring his fangs.

Shadow turns to fight. His whole body shakes. He laughs nervously.

The lion is as young and fearful as Shadow. The cub growls ferociously.

He slices Shadow’s nose. Shadow returns the favor and outruns the lion.

Shadow survives his first real battle alone with his mortal enemy,

and lives to howl about it. He feels brave, confident, and starving.

ACT FOUR: Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict

Resolution

Shadow trots along, bearing down on the hyena’s trail when he views a hillside

where Silla drags a zebra into the brush.

The zebra is gone in minutes. Silla and her cubs exit the corpse.

A free-for-all takes place, as the male’s battle for the remaining scraps.

The vultures drive off the scavengers and steal what’s left.

The hyenas scatter, foraging as they go battling over remnants.

Shadow searches for his mom. as he takes a side trail up the hill.

He hears howling and recognizes it’s his mom, Ivy, begging for help.

He runs full gallop in the direction of her howls hoping he’s in time.

Mortimer, the rabid wolf is attacking her . No other hyenas have come to her aid.

She’s torn and bleeding, desperate and alone. Shadow is furious.

He attacks with everything he has.

Shadow has never known such rage. He goes for the wolf’s throat and hangs on.

The mad wolf has strength beyond reserve. Shadow clamps down with his powerful jaws.

The wolf does everything to escape, but it’s futile. The wolf spasms and dies. Shadow does not let go.

When he does, Shadow helps Ivy who lies spent and bleeding. Together, he helps her back to her clan

The clan jeers him and calls him worthless, even after he returns Ivy to them.

His mom is in bad shape. She’s torn and bleeding, but if she dies it’s not because he has failed her.

RESOLUTION:

Shadow is met outside the hyena’s communal den by a huge wolf. He is fearful but hides it.

The timber wolf does not threaten Shadow. He bids him follow. They run together half the night.

Neither intends harm to the other. Shadow enters the wolf’s territory. He’s accepted by their members.

Shadow remains. He becomes the alpha hyena in their wolf pack. The one who has killed a worthy adversary. One worthy of the honor.

Ivy lives, and Shadow sees her in passing, once with Brimsley, who still doesn’t acknowledge Shadow. He never ventures close to the clan again.

He grows huge, shaggy, confident and strong. His howls resonate with the wolves. Shadow’s no longer alone, nor starving. His howls crescendo in volume. Inside their timbre is Shadow’s

identification. One dominant, strong, and without fear; one, who shall never qualify for the name, loser, ever again

[Frances Emerson]

MODULE TWO LESSON FIVE

FRAN’S 4-ACT TRANSFORMATIONAL STRUCTURE

MY VISION: I want to write great movies. Movies that are magical, movies that move people and tell the truth. I want to write movies that stars will want to be in.

WHAT I LEARNED:

TITLE: WINTER’S LOST LOVE/ I also like LOST IN A MOMENT OF TIME I’m keeping both, deciding later

CONCEPT: DRAMA: The discovery of an old diary written by a friend of Czar Nicholas II’s daughter turns the doomed princess’s little known, tragic love story into a blockbuster Hollywood movie and an Oscar for its discoverer and screenwriter.

CHARACTER STRUCTURE: DRAMATIC TRIANGLE

MAIN CONFLICT:

Struggling to maintain her career as a screenwriter while working to save her failing marriage with a philandering, egotistical director/producer, Meredith discovers her own worth as a writer—and human being—apart from her marriage and unequal partnership with her husband through a little-known story she discovers about the doomed Grand Duchess of Imperial Russia, her loves and the struggles she endured before her untimely death.

OLD WAYS:

Meredith has accepted her “role” in life: wife, mother, taking the backseat to her husband’s career, wants and needs. She doesn’t give herself much credit for being a great, competent writer. Doesn’t think for herself in that way. She turns a blind eye to her husband’s infidelities.

NEW WAYS:

She no longer believes her writing is mediocre when she wins an Oscar for her script. She divorces her husband for adultery. She forms a new partnership that is beneficial to her career. She tells her daughter not to allow the man in her life to dominate her wants and needs and put his career ahead of hers to the detriment of her career, self-esteem and well-being. She loves what she does. She teaches her daughter to work at what she loves DESPITE BEING TOLD she can’t do it because SHE CAN! She finds a new love in her life, one that is beneficial and supports her career as a screenwriter.

ACT ONE:

OPENING: Christmas time. Taking a break from a shoot to do some shopping for their daughter Alex’s Christmas Eve birthday, Meredith and Jerome Kerns are in a gift/pawn shop in Moscow looking around to find the perfect gift. Jerome finds a strand of pearls that is alleged to have been owned by the Grand Duchess Olga. Very expensive. Meredith objects. Too much of an extravagant gift for Alex. Jerome says nonsense. Nothing is too extravagant for HIS daughter. He proceeds to buy the necklace, among other things, as Meredith quietly retreats to a shelf of old books in the store. She browses them, takes one down. It’s an old diary written by a Valentina. She opens it, begins reading. It’s in Russian, but she can read some Russian. A passage strikes her as very interesting. She asks the clerk how much for the diary. Jerome objects. Too frivolous a buy. Besides, they have all the things they need. He’s ready to leave. Meredith buys the book on the QT and slips it in her purse without Jerome’s knowledge.

(We are introduced to Olga’s story here, her first crush, Pavel, and her debutante ball)

INCITING INCIDENT: Next day on the set, Meredith and Jerome have creative differences over the scene they are about to shoot that turns into a heated argument. Jerome WILL HAVE HIS WAY when he objects to Meredith’s reasoning for writing the scene the way she did. He shuts down production for the day and tells her to rewrite the scene the way he wants it written.

Another night alone, she begins reading the diary, the story of Olga’s first love …

when she gets a call from her agent. There’s a producer looking for an experienced writer to write a new script on the fate of Czar Nicholas’s family during the Russian Revolution. Are you game??? Meredith tells her she will think about it. Right now, they’re in the middle of shooting. They won’t be back in the states for a few days yet.

Next day, Meredith and Jerome have another blowout. Jerome, this time, threatens to hire another writer and walks out asking for a phone number. Meredith goes back to their apartment and calls her agent. She tells her YES. She would love to write the script for that producer and begins making plans to return home.

TURNING POINT: She has a meeting with her agent and tells her about the story she’s been reading. The agent falls in love with the story idea and tells Meredith she will set up the meeting with the producer. She tells her to go home and start working on a treatment for her story to pitch. In the meantime, Jerome has another meeting of his own–with his leading star.

(We are introduced to the man Olga is in love with and slated to marry as the Grand Duchess, her cousin Dmitri, who becomes involved with the murder of Rasputin and gets banished from the kingdom and Olga’s life forever.)

ACT II:

NEW PLAN: Meredith talks to her daughter, who happens to know about her father’s many affairs with his leading ladies. Meredith seems to think that if she takes a break from their partnership, Jerome will come back to her. He needs a break as much as she needs one from him. Alex is not so sure.

PLAN IN ACTION: They celebrate Christmas and Alex’s birthday as a family. Meredith tries to tell Jerome and Alex of her good news. She tries to tell Jerome maybe it’s a good thing. They need a break from each other and he can hire his writer to finish the script and whatever shots he needs to finish. She’ll step back. His calls are the best idea all the way around. But Jerome isn’t happy about any of it. He calls her a quitter, a loser. She can’t do anything right and she’ll fail at this job, too, like all the other ones she’s done for their company. Meredith has a spiritual breakdown from the put downs.

(We are introduced to World War I and the Russian Revolution. The czar’s family must go into exile for a little while. They end up at a military hospital with Czarina Alexandra and her oldest daughter become nurses there. Her she meets Valentina.)

MIDPOINT TURNING POINT: Meredith has her meeting with the new producer. She’s not so sure she can do the job anymore, but the producer assures her she can. He loves the treatment and he can’t wait to get started on the project. He just needs a few changes. She objects. But the producer assures her it won’t be detrimental to the work she’s already done. He just needs a few changes for the budget and filming of the movie. She agrees to continue. And they get started on the work needed to be done.

(We continue with the story of Olga and her inabilities to cope with the nursing life well. There is a battle where many soldiers are wounded. She must care for some of them. One of them. His name is also Dmitri. Olga after caring for him falls in love with him.)

ACT THREE:

RETHINK EVERYTHING:

Working with the producer and rereading, reworking her story about Olga—and a heart-to-heart talk with her daughter about Jerome’s infidelities– suddenly transforms Meredith’s way of thinking about her situation, her marriage and how she’s been handling it. She begins to think, it’s not her who’s destroying her marriage. It’s Jerome, his bullying and the affairs he’s having with his leading ladies. Alex tells her mother she has seen how her fathers’ been treating her. She’s unhappy about it, too. She tells her mother she has her own life to live. Don’t stay with daddy on account of me. She’s a very special mom and good writer. She’s seen her stuff. She loves it. It’s time now to find someone new to love and be supported of her work. It gets Meredith to thinking about her life, her role as a mother a wife—and a writer.

(We get to learn about Olga’s new love and their love story. She writes him long and tender love letters. And then …)

NEW PLAN:

She gets to the point of Olga’s dilemma of loving a man who’s no good and disrespectful and then comes the kidnapping and ultimate death scene of the Romanov family. It makes Meredith realize staying in a loveless marriage, taking all that crap from a man who doesn’t respect her or love her back in the same way isn’t worth it. Life’s too short and it’s time to live again.

(… we learn Dmitri is not such a good guy after all. He likes to get drunk with his friends and carouse. He shares Olga’s love letters to him with his friends who make fun of them.)

TURNING POINT HUGE FAILURE, MAJOR SHIFT

Meredith asks Jerome for a divorce. But he’s not going to give one to her. He argues about their company the work he’s put in all these years to their movies, their plans, everything. He can’t lose the money.

Suddenly, Meredith thinks she’s trapped, she can’t get out.

(But before Olga can do anything about Dmitri, the family is taken hostage and in a couple of weeks’ time ….

ACT FOUR

CLIMAX/ULTIMATE EXPRESSION OF THE CONFLICT:

Her new producer, agent get her a lawyer to combat Jerome. They file for a divorce on the basis of adultery and start divvying up the company’s assets. Jerome fights it with everything he’s got. And then Alex is dragged in to testify on her mother’s behalf. Meredith says she wants nothing. She doesn’t need anything from the marriage. She just wants out. And she makes it very clear she’s had it with all the little affairs, etc. he’s had over the years, trying to cover it up, making excuses. And just plain being a miserable husband. AND she knows she’s a much better writer than he’s ever given her credit for. With all that, she forgives him because that’s just the way he’s been and always will be.

(the Romanovs are executed by their Bolshevik kidnappers. Lenin takes over. The Russian Revolution plays out ….)

RESOLUTION:

Meredith finishes her work on the script. The producer finishes shooting it. The film LOST IN A MOMENT OF TIME gets nominated for best screenplay. Meredith wins.

(DENOUEMENT)

Jerome is jealous—and left behind. Meredith, now in a very different place with her feelings about herself and her abilities, gets a visitor from the actor who played Nicholas II in the movie. He’s come to thank her for the script that gave him his Oscar win. He asks her out on a first date. She accepts.

[Lynn Vincentnathan]

Just a comment on the 4-Act Structure.

I’ve been thinking it’s 4 acts all along, since Act 2 in the 3-Act Structure is twice as long as Acts 1 and 3, plus there is a very dramatic mid-point sort of breaking Act 2 into 2 parts.

Also as an anthropologist I know that threes are an Indo-European cultural construct — the 3 bears, the 3 little pigs, 3 wishes, the Christian and Hindu trinities, etc. It’s everywhere in our culture.

Native Americans favor the number 4 — the 4 cardinal directions, etc. So, wow, the 4-Act structure fits with Native American culture 🙂

[ROBERT Ingalls]

Subject: Rob Ingalls’ 4-Act Transformational Structure

MY VISION:

To be a Talented writer that delivers quality fast, with the film industry seeking me out.

WIL: This was a hard lesson. All pre-conceived ideas were tossed with new focus. Not sure if I’m on right track.

Tried to stay on structure.

==========================================

Title: NIRVANA GOLD

Character Structure: Dramatic Triangle ??? Not sure anymore. I lost the third element doing this assignment.

==========================================

Concept:

A giant Buddha statue made of pure gold is stolen by tunneling underneath and hollow it out.

Main Conflict:

A TikToc Influencer in hopes to revive his followers and influencer status by going on a trek deep in

the jungles of Thailand in search of a hidden golden statue

===========================================

Old Ways:

Self-centered, shallow, videos his entire lifestyle (which is fake) for his followers on Tikoc/Instagram

New Ways:

Puts away camera, except when filming others

Cares about others

Fights for others instead of himself

Doesn’t care how many followers he has

Act-1 (Set up and see old Ways) 25-30 pages:

– Opening:

TikToc Influencer (World travelor) living the dream lifestyle: GOLD, GOLD, GOLD plus fast jet (gold-plated inside),

cars (gold-plated), pool, exotic locations as he travels the world (and has subtle product placement)

– Inciting Incident:

Wakes to find followers rapidly dropping off TikToc, Massive loss of ad revenue

Competitor (Antagonist) has blasted/dissed/throws shade on Protagonist

Competitor reveals Protagonist’s lies and fake travel and product placement. Hidden camera of Influencer dissing minotities.

Turns followers and ad companies against Protagonist.

– Turning Point:

Protagonist discovers a map from his sick/bedridden granddad showing the way to a hidden gold statue in jungles of Thailand.

Protagonist steals the map.

Protagonist decides to show followers and ad companies that he’s for real and will prove it. Here-invents himself, re-brands, re-market

Act-2 (Challenge the Old Ways) 20-30 pages:

– Plan:

Attempt to re-ignite Influencer (and followers) with plan to video the trek and discovery of golden statue. This time people aren’t buying it.

Influencer must prove it’s real.

Competitor learns of map and makes copy (iphone).

– Plan in Action:

Flies to Thailand, hires a guide. This is Influencer’s first real adventure and he sucks at it.

Documents everything for TikToc followers. His followers continue to drop off. Nothing works like it used to.

They think he’s faking it again.

Competitor is one step ahead of Influencer and continues to throw shade on Protagonist. Inlists top Influencers to also throw shade.

– Midpoint – Turning Point #2:

Protagonist discovers Competitor who leaked/ruined Protagonist (Betrayal)

Competitor is also documenting his adventure on TikToc.

Competitor has found the golden statue! He does eveything to stop Influencer from his own discovery.

Influencer tries to get his followers to help. They don’t buy it and instead root for Competitor.

Competitor is carving out the gold beneath the statue so that Influencer doesn’t know??

Act-3 (With Midpoint change, Profound moments that give us new ways) 20-30 pages:

– Rethink everything

– Protagonist Learns of his shallow life and fake lifestyle.

– New plan: Confesses to his followers and opens up his own fears and beliefs to audience

and SHARE the discovery with followers – each gets share??

– Turning Point (Huge failure / Major shift):

Learns granddad has died and Influencer was huge disappointment for granddad, especially stealing map

when it was meant to be for Influencer and his dad (who died years ago???) to travel together, bonding.

Act-4 (Test the change in this character! Prove new ways!) 20-30 pages:

– Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: Battles Competitor for gold statue and for followers.

Each tells their audience smack of other.

Reveal of Competitor’s own fake adventures and he has big loss of followers.

Both grab statue but competitor wants it all for himself while Protagonist doesn’t want it.

Protagonist tells of the peaceful villagers and what the statue means to them (vs the meaningless/selffish of Competitor

(and previous Protagonist)

– Resolution:

Protagonist Gifts the golden Buddha statue to local villagers (capture on Video).

Video goes viral. Influencer is on top again! Nirvana gold (an Inner glow). Competitor followers drop off.

[Renee Miller]

Renee’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

My Vision: I will work hard to become a well-respected writer that has my movies produced and has enough work to keep me busy and keep the lights on.

What I learned doing this assignment is that you don’t have to go into great detail when first deciding on the elements of the 4 act transformational journey. I also resigned myself to not trying to make it perfect in the beginning, knowing that I can change things at a later date as I work through the process.

Concept: A member of a local search and rescue team finds herself needing rescuing when she comes across a mysterious mountain creature while searching for a missing girl.

Old ways:

• Selfish

• Never takes anything seriously

• Cynical

• Estranged from her family

New Ways:

• Selfless

• Willing to work with others

• Willing to sacrifice herself

• Committed to the cause

Act 1:

Opening: Claire is at a club partying.

Inciting Incident: She finds out the missing girl is her niece.

Turning Point 1: The first team member is killed while searching the grid.

Act 2:

Reaction: Fear and chaos ensue. The group comes together.

The Plan: stick closer together during the search, and don’t let anyone out of your sight.

Turning Point 2: It’s revealed that they are to take the creature alive, even if it means letting the missing girl die.

Act 3:

New Plan: Break away from the group and try to find the creature before they do.

Turning Point 3: Claire gets taken by the creature to its cave, where the missing girl is alive but badly hurt and scared.

Act 4:

Climax: Claire frees herself and works on getting the girl out but has to put herself between the creature and the girl.

Resolution: The girl reunites with her parents. Claire’s body is recovered from the scene.

[Joyce Davidson]

Joyce’s 4-Act Transformational Structure

Vision is to write memorable scripts that actors want to perform.

WIL: Working like this builds my own excitement.

concept for Cardenio Lost: After his professor’ attempted assassination a Shakespearean scholar struggles to track the last unpublished scripts of Shakespeare’s plays to to save him and bait the attacker.

Main conflict: Scholars for centuries have fought over Shakespeare’s identity and the stakes are too high to allow a professor to reveal new investigations, so his students choose one to investigate.

Old Ways: The reluctant loser in the straw poll recruits another classmate to dig into manuscripts and try to communicate with the impaired professor.

New Ways: If they are going to see the professor alive, they have to travel to Italy and other countries to seek the origin of plays.

Act 1.

Opening: Professor hints that his manuscript will blow up the Shakespearean debate,.

Inciting incident: but before publication the manuscript is stolen and the professor is attacked, left for dead, and unable to speak or walk.

Turning Point: His students, ready to take finals, have a straw poll to see which one will forego his finals and search for the manuscript and save the professor by luring the attacker out of hiding.

Act 2.

New Plan: He can’t do it alone, so he needs an assistant. The flamboyant girl in the class turns him down, but a bookish girl agrees to help.

Plan in Action: They travel to Italy.

Turning Point: Someone is stalking them and attacks them.

Act 3:

Rethink: Information uncovered in Rome sends them to Denmark and Scotland.

New Plan: Tell the professor what they have uncovered, but he can’t respond.

Turning Point: Their visit shakes up the professor as if someone is still after him.

Act 4:

Climax: Assistant reveals her ancestors were involved with Shakespeare’s identity, but she gets to the proof before the protagonist can stop her. She goes to finish off the professor and entombs the protagonist.

Resolution: she goes back to help the protagonist who already has escaped and fights her for the information. She destroys the play information and the manuscript she has. The protagonist takes the professor home with him to recover and remember what findings were in the manuscript.

[Joyce Davidson]

Joyce’s 4-Act Transformational Structure

Vision is to write memorable scripts that actors want to perform.

WIL: Working like this builds my own excitement.

concept for Cardenio Lost: After his professor’ attempted assassination a Shakespearean scholar struggles to track the last unpublished scripts of Shakespeare’s plays to to save him and bait the attacker.

Main conflict: Scholars for centuries have fought over Shakespeare’s identity and the stakes are too high to allow a professor to reveal new investigations, so his students choose one to investigate.

Old Ways: The reluctant loser in the straw poll recruits another classmate to dig into manuscripts and try to communicate with the impaired professor.

New Ways: If they are going to see the professor alive, they have to travel to Italy and other countries to seek the origin of plays.

Act 1.

Opening: Professor hints that his manuscript will blow up the Shakespearean debate,.

Inciting incident: but before publication the manuscript is stolen and the professor is attacked, left for dead, and unable to speak or walk.

Turning Point: His students, ready to take finals, have a straw poll to see which one will forego his finals and search for the manuscript and save the professor by luring the attacker out of hiding.

Act 2.

New Plan: He can’t do it alone, so he needs an assistant. The flamboyant girl in the class turns him down, but a bookish girl agrees to help.

Plan in Action: They travel to Italy.

Turning Point: Someone is stalking them and attacks them.

Act 3:

Rethink: Information uncovered in Rome sends them to Denmark and Scotland.

New Plan: Tell the professor what they have uncovered, but he can’t respond.

Turning Point: Their visit shakes up the professor as if someone is still after him.

Act 4:

Climax: Assistant reveals her ancestors were involved with Shakespeare’s identity, but she gets to the proof before the protagonist can stop her. She goes to finish off the professor and entombs the protagonist.

Resolution: she goes back to help the protagonist who already has escaped and fights her for the information. She destroys the play information and the manuscript she has. The protagonist takes the professor home with him to recover and remember what findings were in the manuscript.

[Amy Falkofske]

Amy’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

Vision: I want to become known as an expert in the family-friendly genre and make a full-time living as a screenwriter.

What I learned doing this assignment is my logline is too vague and I had trouble getting a story out of it. I also learned how to build in the protagonist’s transformational journey.

Concept: When a princess learns that she’s not really a princess, she’s forced to accept help from a neighboring country’s prince who she hates and the two find themselves unexpectedly drawn to each other.

Main Conflict:

Old Ways:

Only thinks of herself

Depends on her name and her clout as a royal to get her way

New Ways:

Concerned about others

Humble

Depends on her own strength

Act 1:

Opening: The coronation of Princess Stephanie

Inciting Incident: Historian informs the family that they are not royals

Turning Point: The news gets out that Stephanie is not really the queen. The country is in chaos. Stephanie must accept help from Prince Jack who she hates from the country next door.

Act 2:

New plan: Learn how to be a commoner

Plan in action: Doing common things like shopping. She fails spectacularly at being a commoner.

Midpoint Turning Point: After Stephanie is properly exposed to the public, news reporters peg her as a horrible person

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Stephanie’s eyes are open to all the suffering in her kingdom

New plan: Uses her fame to help people

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift: Stephanie gets caught up in all the attention. It becomes painfully obvious to everyone that she was not doing “good” for the right reasons. She’s rejected by everyone, including Jack.

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: Stephanie swallows her pride and helps the homeless woman who is the real princess.

Resolution: Stephanie gets Jack back. She gets a cushy job.

[Alan Wood]

Alan’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

My Vision:

I do whatever it takes for me to be a true wordsmith that spins wildly original and entertaining screenplays that are passionately sought out by top industry professionals who turn them into critically and publicly acclaimed major motion pictures distributed by the top studios in Hollywood, all while writing from wherever I may be leisurely traveling the world at the moment.

=====================================================================

Concept: Action/Comedy – After taking out the garbage, a down on his luck, thirty-something fast food employee finds a high tech bracelet that turns him into the world’s deadliest super soldier.

Title – Ninja Burgers

Character Structure: Protagonist vs Antagonist

===================================================================

Main Conflict: Tiberius has a high tech bracelet fused to his wrist that makes him a super soldier, the bad guys who stole it want it back and will kill him and anyone else who gets in their way to get it.

Old Ways:

Depressed

Afraid, bullied, and defeated.

Didn’t believe in himself.

Accepted the dominance of others. (His boss. Bullies.)

New Ways:

Confident.

Can kick ass. No more bullies.

Courageous.

Business owner. A financial success. Living his dream.

4 ACT STRUCTURE

Act 1

Opening: Tiberius late for work. Open in action as we see him riding his bike to work…poorly. He’s bullied by his boss, displays a lack of confidence at every turn, and shows that he’s a weak “yes, man” to all those around him. Depressed, but has a good heart and is kind to a homeless man that lives behind the restaurant.

Inciting Incident: After taking out the garbage, the bag tears on the old dumpster and all of its contents spill out to the ground. He spies amongst the refuse a small case. He finds an awesome looking metallic bracelet inside. He slips the bracelet on and it painfully fuses to his wrist.

Turning Point: The ‘good guys’ track him down and explain what he has on his wrist and make him an offer he can’t refuse, join their experimental team of human test subjects, or they can amputate his arm and take the bracelet.

Act II

New Plan: Tiberius decides to become a human test subject and keep his arm. The plan is to find out what is really going on with this bracelet, and survive the experiments.

Plan in Action: Tiberius is a true fish out of water amongst the perfect human specimens who have volunteered to become super soldiers. He is unable to keep up…the old ways on display again.

Midpoint Turning Point: A critical mission announced. After the class leader is selected for the mission the entire team is wiped out by Crypto’s henchmen who believe they were only going after Tiberius leaving only Tiberius to go on the critical mission.

Act III

Rethink Everything: After the shock of losing the team he had begun to bond with, Tiberius realizes the old ways won’t work anymore. He volunteers to carry out the mission and bring Crypto and his organization to its knees.

New Plan: Tiberius tries to infiltrate and destroy Crypto’s evil headquarters.

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift: Tiberius is captured and set for execution. Crypto will have his super soldier bracelet and be able to create his army.

Act IV

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: Tiberius embraces the new way. He finds a way to defeat Crypto’s henchman and sends Crypto to a fiery death, destroying his evil lair in the process.

Resolution: Tiberius, new ways on display, opens his own fast food restaurant and calls it: Ninja Burgers (even though his best friend keeps reminding his that he never was a ninja.)

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  Alan Wood.

[Joe Donato]

Joe’s 4-Act Transformational structure

My vision is to persevere and stay the course of building steady daily routine, and disciplines that produce consistent writing of exceptional quality. Ultimately, the fruit of those habits and disciplines will be a track record of great marketable scripts that will make other successful talented pros seek me out.

What I learned: I learned that, while I am staying diligent in coming up with these specific plot points, I HAVE to write down the other parts of the plot in between each incident. Otherwise, I’ll get stuck” and won’t allow myself to write until I FIRST come up with the other plot points as mandated. But that does not work. It’s counter to the way my brain naturally thinks. In order to stay un-stuck, I have to start writing details and letting plot ideas flow. After I’ve “flowed” some, I find it much easier to start rearranging like a jigsaw puzzle. It’s a messy, sloppy process, but it’s productive, and its the only way for me to find all those structure points. I have two big empty structure points right now, but before I let myself “flow” and add a lot more plot details, I had at least five empty structure points.

Concept: A pizza maker who doesn’t dance and a recent non-pizza eating dance teacher who rents the space above the pizza shop, must work together to fight the slimy landlord over the elevator’s lease violations, and fall in love in the process.

Main Conflict – RomCom buddy, with elements of triangle.

Old Ways – Each of them are very house proud and defensive of their business “territory”. They only see the other as a threat, instead of an ally.

New Ways – They trust each other, and realize what a powerhouse they can be if they work together.

Act 1:

Opening – Emily arrives, and despite the location (above a pizza parlor of all things!) signs the lease with the all-too friendly landlord. Landlord “warns her” about pizza guy Lorenzo, implying that he’s the problem, and that’s why he has to … charge so much? make him fix the elevator cause the kids that hang out at his pizza shop keep breaking it?

Inciting Incident – One of her students gets stuck in the elevator and has a panic attack and Emily is forced to deal with it. She goes after the Italian pizza guy-Lorenzo, because the landlord leads her to believe it’s Lorenzo’s fault. She vows never to get in the elevator herself again.

Turning Point – One day while carrying stuff down the steps (cause she won’t use the elevator), she falls. Lorenzo finds her and feeds her some of his homemade Stratchiatelli soup. She is enthralled with it, but doesn’t tell him cause she still doesn’t trust him. But she realizes something must be done about the landlord.

Act 2:

New plan – Can she work with Lorenzo to fight the Landlord, starting with helping the student who got stuck in the elevator to sue him.

Plan in action – They reluctantly team up to fight Landlord. But How????????

Midpoint Turning Point – Lorenzo gets stuck in elevator trying to go up to see her. He breaks out of it. She helps him. Landlord blames them for breaking it.

Act 3:

Rethink everything – ????

New plan – They now have evidence to take landlord to court and file a claim.

They win big against Landlord and he is forced to make repairs.

Turning Point: Huge failure/Major shift: both businesses are shut down while indefinitely while repairs are made. Lorenzo goes to Italy, and decides he’s going to stay there.

Act 4: New pizza guy, but he’s not ethnic. Emily notices similar trends with how Landlord treats him and starts to investigate previous tenants.

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: She is now the one saying the landlord is evil, to the new naive pizza guy who misinterprets her warnings and that she has a thing for him. She longs for the sanity and “dont take crap from anyone” attitude/strength of Lorenzo.

Resolution

She goes to find Lorenzo in Italy, but ironically, Lorenzo decides to come back to the States instead? They end up together, either in the states or in Italy, after buying their own building with a nice restaurant/studio/home, in a dream location.

[David Holloway]

Dave Holloway’s Four-Act Transformational Structure

My vision: I would like to be a successful writer in Hollywood, with a number of successful movies to my credit that put forward a core belief about environmental, political, or personal development.

What I learned doing this assignment is that the four-act structure provides a suitable framework within which to develop the elements needed for a believable transformational journey and a successful script.

Concept: Forty years in the future, two young Englishmen must cross an America that has divided into independent states based on primary vocation or social identity, and try to rescue one’s wife, who faces execution in a military state.

Main Conflict: Nigel, the protagonist, must try to free his wife from a military state in which the security, aided by high-tech methods, is incredibly difficult to overcome and must defeat a prison warden fanatically dedicated to preventing escape. His wife, Livia, is a journalist who is reporting on some of the independent states for a British news network.

Old Ways: Nigel has been rather sheltered, growing up in a comfortable suburb and attending good schools. He uses his intelligence to avoid conflict and is uncomfortable with physical confrontation.

New Ways: Through the challenges he encounters on the journey across the country, Nigel becomes more comfortable with action and adventure, and more confident that he can survive it.

Act 1

Opening: Nigel is shown in court, arguing to convince the court that a mother should be allowed to remain with her two children, though she has had some personal difficulties.

Inciting Incident: Nigel engages in a SKYPE communication with Livia, his wife, in which she tells him that the military state she is in is very hostile to journalists. During the call, men enter her room and take her away to a military prison.

Turning Point: Nigel meets with government officials and even appears on a British talk show, trying to stir action that will lead to his wife’s release. He finally realizes he must go to Shiloh, the military state, to try to obtain her freedom in person.

Act 2

New Plan: He and his friend, Roger, who has volunteered to accompany him, get on a plane to fly to Los Angeles, the city nearest to the prison where Livia is held.

Plan in Action: As they are flying to Los Angeles, the pilot informs the passengers that the independent states along the east coast of North America have declared their air space closed to foreign aircraft, and thus the plane must land in New York and go no further.

Midpoint Turning Point: Nigel and Roger realize they must travel overland to the west coast. They take a bus to cross the business state, known as Commerce, where New York is now located.

Act 3

Rethink everything: Nigel gets a communication from Livia, informing him that she might not have many days left to live, because the military state will execute her.

New Plan: Nigel and Roger know they must cross the continent as quickly as possible, and so they cross the next state, Elysium, by taxi. In the state after Elysium, known as Wilderness, they get on a train to take them across the state.

Turning Point: Huge failure/major shift

As they are crossing Wilderness, they become embroiled in a battle between the hunters of Wilderness, a state for rich men to hunt and fish in, and the next state, a Native-American state called Tribal Nations. A battle breaks out, and both Nigel and Roger are wounded in it. Now they must cross Tribal Nations as quickly as possible, because the time in which to reach Shiloh and free Livia is running out.

Act 4

Climax/ultimate expression of the conflict

They make their way hastily across Tribal Nations, then cross the Western Reserve, a state in which there are no laws, before reaching Shiloh. They use their wits to enter Shiloh and cross to the town where Livia is held, then must try to free her with little time left.

Resolution

They use their wits to enter the prison and physically overcome the warden, free Livia from her cell, and escape the military state in the plane of a man who is part of an underground movement of resistance to Shiloh and flies people out of the state when their anti-government activity means they will be put to death if they are captured. .

[Paul Dees]

My Vision: I am a writer/director/producer that writes and makes films of all kinds, and I am recognized by the industry as both a highly successful filmmaker and as a person that’s easy to work with.

What I learned from this doing this assignment is how to set up an initial story structure for a screenplay.

Process 1

Concept

· Genre: Sci-Fi

· High Concept: A nameless villain uses masks to control the minds of the people he sends them to, in order to carry out terrorist acts throughout the U.S.

· Major Story Hook: Will the villain ever be revealed, and will he be stopped?

· Main Conflict: A series of terrorist attacks are carried out throughout the United States by ordinary citizens who have no recollection of what they’ve done or why. Special Agent Rick O’Brien of the FBI and his partner, Special Agent Sean Gray, are assigned to figure out who’s behind it all, and stop the attacks.

· Rick O’Brien’s Old Ways:

1. Rick is haunted by an incident where a hostage was killed during an operation he was in charge of.

2. He’s very distant from his family as a result, and it’s putting a considerable strain on his marriage and his relationship with his children.

3. Rick goes through the motions at work and has been reprimanded more than once for it.

4. Rick has a paralyzing fear of heights.

Rick O’Brien’s New Ways

1. Rick comes to grips with the incident not being his fault, due to his catching the mastermind behind the terrorist attacks.

2. He draws close to his family once again now that he’s at peace.

3. Rick receives the Presidential Freedom Medal with distinction for bringing the terrorist mastermind to justice and is promoted to field office supervisor.

4. Rick conquers his fear of heights after a climatic confrontation with the terrorist mastermind on top of a skyscraper.

Act 1:

Opening

A prologue that shows Rick in charge of a hostage situation that goes horribly wrong. After a tense negotiation, the kidnapper kills both the hostage and Rick’s partner, and escapes into the night.

We get a look into Rick’s home life six months later, which is not good. He keeps to himself, and hardly says anything to his wife or his children.

A 30 something year-old woman walks into a mall and carries a large handbag. She ducks into a hallway on the third floor behind some of the stores. A security guard confronts her. She overpowers him and drags him to a supply closet, where she leaves him and the bag. The woman exits the mall, after which a huge explosion goes off. Suddenly the woman’s face shimmers, and a mask falls to the ground. The woman, whose face looks different from the mask she was wearing, looks around in bewilderment and horror, and runs off.

Inciting Incident

There’s a knock at Rick’s door. It’s his boss standing there with another agent. He tells him he’s needed to consult on a new case that requires his expertise. Rick balks at it, telling him his leave of absence is for six more months. His boss tells him it’s just for this one case, and Rick reluctantly agrees.

At the mall, Rick investigates the crime scene. He finds the mask the woman was wearing and looks at the blast site. He struggles to stay calm as the blast site is on the third floor of the mall, and he’s afraid of heights.

Turning Point

A second terrorist attack occurs much like the first in a different city, except it involves a 60 year-old man depositing a brief case in the bathroom stall of an office building. He emerges from the building right before a massive explosion goes off at one of the floors near the top of the building. His face shimmers, a mask falls to the ground and he runs off in terror. Rick’s boss goes by his house and tells him he’s been reactivated due to the case now involving a serial terrorist.

Act 2:

New Plan

Rick arrives at the field office, and is introduced to his new partner, Special Agent Sean Gray, who has a background in biomedical engineering and is analyzing the mask Rick found at the first crime scene. He says he’s uncovered the mask’s ability to control people’s minds, which starts when a person picks it up and looks at it in the eyes, and it forces them to put it on. Sean then demonstrates. It takes two other agents to pull it off his face. Rick and Sean get ready to head out to the next crime scene.

Plan in Action

Rick and Sean arrive at the crime scene. Rick again struggles with his fear of heights, as the blast site is on the 25^th floor, and there’s a gaping hole in the building.

Midpoint Turning Point

After following a series of leads, Rick and Sean track down and arrest the mastermind behind the attacks.

Act 3:

Rethink Everything

Back at the office, Rick and Sean receive a flash drive in the mail. It has a video file with a message from the terror mastermind, stating that the person they caught at the second bombing was merely one of his pawns. The video then shows a news segment, showing how the man Rick and Sean arrested now looks completely different, and that the prison staff found a mask inside his cell, and that the man has now idea why he’s there. The terror mastermind then says that another attack is coming, and on a much larger scale.

New Plan

Rick and Sean tell all the local news outlets about the message they received, and to take appropriate security measures, as they race against the clock to try and stop a new wave of attacks.

Turning Point: Huge Failure / Major Shift

Five medium sized cities suffer terrorist attacks, which is a complete surprise to Rick and Sean as major cities have been the targets up till now. Each city has the same scenario, with an anonymous perpetrator dropping off an explosive device in a heavily populated area, and leaving, followed by the mask they were wearing falling off their faces, leaving them completely unaware of what they just did.

Rick is devastated, and for the first time in months, opens up to his wife, who is more than ready to listen. She tells him he can’t quit, that the country needs him to find who’s behind the attacks and bring him to justice. He also reconnects with their kids and comes to realize what he’s been missing out on by distancing himself from them the whole time he’s been grieving.

Act 4:

Climax / Ultimate Expression of the Conflict

Rick and Sean are at the office. Sean asks him if they can talk and reveals that he’s been disappointed by the FBI’s lack of ability to stop the attacks, and that’s why he’s kept planning new ones in hopes that they’d finally get it right. He goes on to say that he set all this up in order to give the FBI the opportunity to practice stopping terrorist attacks, where the danger is real, which makes if a far more valuable exercise than some pre-planned fake scenario. So he tells Rick that this time there are ten targets he’s selected throughout the U.S., but he’ll tell him where they’re located, in hopes that this time they’ll be successful. All the bureau has to do, is find the perpetrator. He also warns Rick not to turn him in, because he sent his wife a “package” with a mask the same day he was called in to investigate the first attack, and that unbeknownst to her she’s been wearing it ever since. It currently looks like her, but if he activates it, it’ll change to look like someone else, and she’ll be instructed to plant a bomb at a certain location and stay there when it goes off. Unbeknownst to Rick, Sean activates his wife’s mask anyway, and she heads off to find and plant a bomb in a designated location.

Resolution

Rick and the rest of the agents throughout the country figure out how to identify the people Sean sent masks to. Satisfied that the FBI has finally cracked the case, Sean makes his escape, with Rick in hot pursuit. The chase takes them to the top of a skyscraper, where Rick and Sean have their final showdown. Rick shoots him, which knocks Sean over the edge, and he plunges to his death. Rick is awarded the Presidential Freedom Medal with distinction for his meritorious service and is promoted to field office supervisor. The country is safe once more.

[Antonio]

[WIM2] Antonio Flores’ 4 Act Transformational Structure

======================================

To write profound stories that make the audience feel inspired,

empowered to achieve ongoing growth today and in the future.

— Antonio Flores

======================================

What I learned from doing this assignment:

4-Act outlining facilitates the development of the second act. It is similar to the mini movie method that I early learned in ScreenwritingU, but even more user-friendly, simple, and the plot points are easy to locate.

2. Give us the following:

Logline:

When the stars turn into black holes and people forget the future, a young warrior fights to save a star – it’s the end of the universe… and it was all planned!

Main Conflict

There is a secret plan to make the growing darkness prevail in the universe.

Old Ways: Half-star, half-human, yet, he is more human than a star.

New Ways: Half-star, half-human, yet, he becomes more of a star human.

3. Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.

Act 1:

Opening: Legend has it that two sisters married two star brothers and went to live in the skies. One of them conspired against the other sister and got her expelled. Back on Earth, Weeping-Eyes gave birth to a half star, half human boy named Red Star, who grew as a righteous warrior trained by Bird Spirit and the Protectors.

Inciting Incident: All humans suddenly loose their memories of the future. Meanwhile, unknown to the people, a girl star takes human form and lives among them. Morning-Drizzle knows her destiny is to marry Red-Star, but when Cold-Fire, a cunning youth, steals Weeping-Eyes powers and claims Morning-Drizzle as his bride, she commits suicide.

Turning Point: The soul of Morning-Drizzle returns to Red-Star, but now her name is Water-3. She warns him that an evil force is changing destiny. She can stay as long as their place is quiet, but when the village is in danger and Red Star has no choice but to use Bear Roar to protect them, Water-3 is sent far away. Now Red Star must cross the space-time portal to find her. In the new world, his name will change to Nightwalker and he will be restricted to invoke his Protectors only once each.

Act 2:

New plan: Nightwalker follows the track of Water-3 to a futuristic era. Unknown to them, Cold Fire has genetically developed his own chimeras, similar to Nightwalker’s Protectors. He has a whole army of them. Cold-Fire kidnaps Water-3 to lure Nightwalker into his trap.

Plan in action: Nightwalker uses two out of the four Protectors left to rescue Water-3.

Midpoint Turning Point: Outnumbered, overpowered, Nightwalker is killed by the forces of darkness. As the torture of passing through the portal is unbearable for Nightwalker, Water-3 chooses for them to forget everything. Her memories of the future get erased.

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Upon arrival to a new era, Nightwalker and Water-3 are perfect strangers. But music notes from the early past bring Nightwalker hints about their nature. When he tries to convince Water-3 about these signs, she calls him crazy, gets angry, and refuses to have any further contact with him.

New plan: Nightwalker follows the music notes, finds his sword, continues fighting for the weak. In his battles, he uses one of the two Protectors he had left. There is no hope without her, he realizes. Nightwalker and Water-3 grow old, distanced from each other, estranged. Cyrus finds them and keeps an eye on her.

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift: The darkness once again uses Water-3 as bait to lure Nightwalker into combat and terminate him. He agonizes in the arms of Water-3, which makes her realize that he was right all this time.

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: While the universe approaches its demise, Water-3 invokes her star power. She releases the last of the Protectors: the power of the Black Hole. They travel through the black hole to every era and conquer every evil that had previously defeated them. Finally, they build a new universe.

Resolution: In the new universe, Nightwalker, Water-3 and Cyrus are transformed into a new constellation with a legend of their own, a legend that now is written in the… Chronicles of Stars.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  Antonio Flores.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  Antonio Flores.

[Gregory Kiernan]

[WIM 2] Greg’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

My vision is by the end of this course I have elevated my writing to a professional level and have sold my first screenplay. My vision for ten years from now is I am a multimillionaire, have won an Oscar and I have a wall of movie posters that represent my success.

What I learned from doing this assignment is that good structure points present themselves when I look at the big picture.

Concept: thief gets assigned community service, meets promiscuous old lady and together they plan to rob her grandson in lawMain Conflict: The thief vs the grandson, parole officer and former accomplicesOld Ways: Thief is selfish, hurting and betraying others, his only identity is that of a criminal New Ways: Thief is selfless, stands up for others, new identity as a reformed man

Act 1:

Opening: Thief pulls heist but then betrays accomplices Inciting Incident: Thief gets caught anywayTurning Point: Thief weasels his way out of a hefty sentence that is reduced to only 1000 hours community service

Act 2:

New plan: Thief decides to rob old people blind. The parole officer questions him.Plan in action: Thief targets promiscuous 80-year-old Lady while dodging parole officer’s investigation Midpoint Turning Point: Thief gets robbed by promiscuous 80-year-old lady instead! Parole officer wanted to bust him but fails.

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Thief becomes impressed by the old lady who turns out is very sneaky herself. Grandson-in-law gets introduced and is the kind of guy they both love to hate.New plan: Thief and Old Lady decide to rob her spoiled grandson. A mother/son dynamic starts to develop between these two.Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift: Thief underestimates the grandson’s level of security, and his former accomplices catch up to him. He almost gets caught and the old lady gets arrested!

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: Thief comes forward and admits his own wrongdoing and exonerates the old lady Resolution: Thief serves his time in jail while maintaining friendship of old lady who visits him regularly.

[Scott Billings]

Scott Billings 4-Act Structure

What I learned: It took me a while to get the hang of this because I’m used to the 3-act structure. But it really helped me organize the story and figure out where and when to put in the turning points.

Concept: A suicidal cop has one day to convince an alien not to destroy the human race.

Main Conflict: Cop has to stop an alien from killing the human race

Old Ways: jaded, suicidal, in despair
New Ways: optimistic, wise, confident

Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.

Act 1:

Opening: Mike Spivak and his partner Ray DeSantos respond to a domestic dispute in the Bronx.

Inciting Incident: Ray is killed by the estranged husband. Mike returns fire and accidentally kills the wife when the husband pulls her in front of him as a shield. The husband claims he was just defending himself and that Mike killed his wife to avenge his partner’s death. Mike is suspended and vilified in the press. He faces murder charges.

Turning point: Mike prepares to kill himself, then sees a homeless vet being beaten by thugs. He saves the homeless man, who turns out to be an alien spirit named Damien.

Act 2:

New plan: Damien tells Mike that he can change his life by looking at the world differently. Mike thinks he’s just another crazy vet.

Mike takes Damien back to his apartment. Damien knows everything about Mike’s life: his sense of loss over losing his partner Ray; his ex-wife and daughter living in Texas; his frustration at trying to be a good cop but society is too corrupt to let him.

Damien tells Mike everything that’s about to happen, proving that he has extraordinary powers. But Damien is also a heroin addict, so his body feels the pain that regular humans do.

Plan in action: Mike tries to defend himself in the shooting but just makes things worse. He visits the estranged husband to talk him into telling the truth but is rebuked.

Midpoint Turning Point: Husband burns his kids alive, then shoots himself. Mike falls into despair over the evil in men. Damien suggests maybe all of humanity is better off dead. He gives Mike until sunrise the following morning to convince him not to destroy the human race.

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Mike struggles all day and night with a reason to save Earth. But he can’t think of a good reason. He roams the city looking at all human activities with a different eye. Everything is fragile. So temporary. Nothing lasts.

New plan: At sunrise, he is sitting in central park, contemplating the world and all its wonders. Damien appears. Mike says there are a million logical reasons why people should exist, but he can’t give one single one that will encompass everything and make sense.

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift

Damien agrees and creates catastrophes all over the world: hurricanes, tornadoes, tidal waves, forest fires and volcanic eruptions. Humanity will be destroyed by the very Earth that allowed it to live.

Act FOUR

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict

The natural catastrophes worsen. People are dying everywhere. The apocalypse has finally come. Mike watches this with anger and tells Damien to stop. Finally, Mike tells Damien to kill him instead. Don’t let other people die because of me.

Resolution

Damien stops the destruction of Earth and Mike prepares to die. But instead of killing Mike, Damien says he’s shown him why humanity should survive: they have the capacity to care more about others than themselves. It is that quality that separates people from all other living creatures in the universe. Mike first showed it when he stopped trying to kill himself and went to aid Damien.

Damien then tells Mike that he will leave the body of the homeless vet. His mission to Earth is done. Mike is left with a new appreciation for life and his role in it.

[Wynona Bice-Stephens]

Bice-Stephen’s-4 Act Transformational Structure

2022 is my year to break through!

What I learned—this is a great recipe!

Concept: A criminally insane young mother kidnaps a baby to manipulate the ex who rejected her.

Main conflict: A psychotic young woman pursues her first crush, who ultimately rejects her. She would rather see him dead than with someone else, giving real meaning to “Til death do us part.”

Old ways:

Protagonist Alex—Looking for a good time, carefree, cheerful, has the world by the tail

Antagonist Brandy—Desperate, lonely, delusional, damaged

New ways:

Protagonist Alex—Solemn, withdrawn, quiet, cautious of others, damaged

Antagonist Brandy—Domineering, demanding, in control, has the world by the tail

Act 1

Opening: Brandy sees couples all over TV, computer screen, magazines—everywhere she looks. She’s left out and flips out. She scribbles, wads papers up and tosses on floor from night to dawn. Zoom out: it’s sunrise, floor is covered with wads of paper, walls are covered with pictures of couples.

Inciting incident: Brandy runs into her first crush, Alex, at the city library. He is researching a college paper, she is checking out a book on his she can get her GED. They soon hook up.

Turning point: Soon after, Alex tells Brandy (email) he’s back together with his true love, Emma, who they just learned is pregnant. Then he blocks her. Brandy is livid.

Act 2

New plan: Brandy orders a positive pregnancy test, progressive pregnancy pillows, wigs, makeup.

Plan in action: Brandy trolls the city streets, looking at babies. Starts wearing wigs and pregnancy pillows, tries to find Alex. At home she’s thin and does crazy things, like planning her wedding to him. Meanwhile Alex is oblivious to her and very happy planning his wedding to Emma.

Midpoint Turning Point: Brandy kidnaps a tiny baby girl.

Act 3

Rethink everything: Brandy names the baby Jack, dresses her in boys clothes, files DSHS for child support from Alex, fakes birth certificate.

New Plan: Tries to reel Alex in, guilt trips, lingerie, all she can think of. When nothing works, she drugs him and tries to overdose him.

Turning Point: Emma finds out about Brandy’s baby, believes Alex is the dad, takes baby Sophia and leaves. Alex is devastated, blind-sided, hopeless. Continues to visit Brandy to see “his son” like a good father should.

Act 4

Climax: Baby gets sick, Alex and Brandy take to ER. She says she needs a cigarette break and disappears, leaving Alex to discover with the nurse that his son is a girl. Meanwhile Brandy is packing.

Alex goes to look for her. Finds Brandy is furious that her plan got botched, blames him and holds at gunpoint. Cops arrive and accuse Alex of kidnapping and breaking into Brandy’s house, and she adds attempted murder but she was “able to grab his gun.”

Cops haul Alex to jail. Brandy heads for the airport to see her (dead) mother with 2 miscarried embryos in her diaper bag. Says they need a dad, too.

She sits down by a somewhat shy young guy traveling alone who looks very happy to meet her and seems quite flattered with her obvious advances. She becomes very animated and enticing.

Meanwhile Alex sits in jail. He gets a poem from Brandy, opens the seal carefully, mutters to himself “got ya.” He puts the letter under his mattress and asks the guard if he can call his lawyer. Alex is last seen, standing with his hands on the bars waiting for a guard to help him.

A plane flies overhead in the background.

[Dawn C Crouch]

Dawn C Crouch’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

Vision – In WIM, I will listen and learn to write my best screenplay, which will be optioned and produced.

What I learned from this assignment is to build the story by filling in the blanks along the way; it’s okay not to know all the details of the story. I don’t, but I will…

Concept: After a series of unexplained “accidents” occur at a newly renovated hospital, a reclusive niche medical researcher suspects intentional acts of sabotage and investigates to solve the murders and expose the coverup of the current administration.

Main Conflict: Dr. Carling Hearne wants the accidents at the new hospital to remain a secret. He sends Kingsley Wells to Tallis Porter as a go-between to get his help in the quick repair of the apparatus, but when Tallis discovers intentional sabotage, Carling schemes to eliminate Tallis.

<strong style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Tallis Porter Old Ways:

Distrustful of all medical technology. Afraid of human interaction. Hiding out with the outdated medical devices in the basement of the old Charity. Believes in himself but doesn’t believe that anyone else will. Constantly trying to put off/evade interaction with other people.

New Ways:

Can see the logic and purpose of the new technology and the possible problems. Can interact with others meaningfully. Courageous. Willing to put his life on the line to find the murderer.

External Journey: From the Hermit Medical Researcher that everyone sees as quirky and out of touch to the hero of the hospital who saves Kingsley’s life.

Internal Journey: From solitary recluse to confident man in love, a leader capable of decision and action.

Act 1: 25 to 30 pages — Set up and see Old Ways.

Opening: The gala opening of the newly renovated hospital. All the movers and shakers are present. Dr. Carling Hearne is the man of the hour, fielding questions and showing mockups of the new campus and state-of-the-art surgery suites. Kingsley Welles, a nurse practitioner and Carling’s hoped-for love interest sees Tallis Porter standing alone at the entrance. Tallis rolls his ticket like a cigarette between his fingers. Kingsley encourages Tallis to join them, but he refuses to enter the room.

Inciting Incident: After an accident in one of the surgical suites, Carling approaches Tallis and charges him with looking over the equipment and investigating the failure.

Turning Point: Tallis investigates and determines that the incident was not equipment failure but intentional sabotage.

Act 2: 20 to 30 pages — Challenge the Old Ways.

Reaction: While investigating the hospital, Tallis realizes that an administrator’s child is in danger from faulty equipment. He changes the equipment, and the child is safe, but Tallis realizes someone is after him. He escapes and then questions whether his reaction is a panic attack or real.

The Plan: Tallis tries to alert Carling about the faults in the renovation but Carling is too busy, and Tallis is too inept at explaining his suspicions to anyone, no credibility.

Turning Point 2: MIDPOINT: A problem in the surgical suite escalates, and Tallis rushes into the sterile area to save Kingsley as the suite explodes.

Act 3: 20 to 30 pages —

Rethink: As Tallis recovers from injuries in the explosion, he realizes that he must produce hard evidence, not just suspicions and thoughts about what is happening. He also realizes he was a suspect in the police investigation but is now exonerated by his heroic actions.

The police step in to investigate the explosion as a crime scene. Carling points the finger at the previous victims’ families, who are out for revenge.

Turning Point: The “All is lost” or “lowest of the lows” moment where everything has failed. Tallis returns to his “cave” but finds his inventions and carefully restored antiquated medical equipment in ruins. He has no “cave” to return to. His friend and confidant murdered in the process.

Act 4: 25 pages — Test the change in this character! Prove New Ways!

New Plan – Tallis decides to bait the murderer.

Climax – The suspected murderer somehow is injured and must go to surgery but to the surgery suite that the murderer has set up for the next “accident.”

Resolution – Tallis becomes the new administrator of the hospital

[Nancy Meyer]

My Vision: To create a polished portfolio and do whatever it takes to get a manager, and then sell multiple TV and or feature scripts.

What I learned doing this assignment is that structure helps increase tension and guide the writing. I still have many holes but will continue putting them in.

Title: Survivor’s Guilt

Concept: A grieving war correspondent discovers she’s the reincarnated wife of a legendary fugitive killer that she’s investigating.

Main Conflict: Freya’s conflict with herself, finding the will to live.

Old Ways: Walled, isolated, cantankerous, selfish, lost her will to live, haunted by past memories that she can’t explain

New Ways: Curious about the Caretaker, Let’s wall down to share dreams, Discovers her past life, has the evidence to absolve an innocent man, needs to fight for survival of the storm, brave, finds the will to live – released from her guilt

Act 1:

Opening: A horrific car accident – a car crashes off a bridge and sinks into the dark murky water. A woman bobs to the surface, she can’t swim. Struggles to shore, ends up just only saving herself.

Inciting Incident: Mourning and unable to go back to work, Freya flees to an isolated island to grieve.

Turning Point: Freya learns about the legend of the island, a mother and child murdered by the husband/father – she commits to solving the mystery

Act 2:

New plan: Freya becomes obsessed with solving the mystery of Lisbeth and Hanna.

Plan in action: Freya pushes her boundaries to explore the island. She finds her belongings in the cottage have been ransacked … is she imagining it or is someone else on the island?

Midpoint Turning Point: She is confronted by the only other inhabitant on the island, the “Caretaker”. He warns her she must leave to save her life. But there’s a deep unexplainable connection/attraction between Freya and the Caretaker that she can’t explain.

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Usually a loner, Freya embraces her new companion to mine for info to reach her goal of solving the mystery of Lisbeth/Hanna and absolve her own guilt.

New plan: She sneaks into Lisbeth’s and Lar’s abandoned home for clues. A picture reveals Lisbeth wearing a one of a kind antique amulet that Freya now wears around her neck.

Turning Point: Freya shares what she knows about the murder. The caretaker tells her she was Lisbeth in a past life, that he brought her here to discover this. She turns her back on the story, tries to flee – a deadly storm is coming and there is no way off the island.

Act 4:

New Plan: Join forces with the caretaker and together focus on survival and getting off the island alive. She has to face her fear of water when the only means is to restore a dilapidated powerboat.

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: The Caretaker confesses his deep seeded love for Freya. Freya and the caretaker struggle to survive as they cross to the mainland, Freya has to find the will to survive and get to the other side.

Resolution: Freya wakes up, washed up to shore. When rescued, she asks for the Caretaker, but there is no evidence that he ever existed on the island or boat with her. She discovers he was the spirit of Lars (Lisbeth’s husband) that has been stuck in this life wracked with guilt from wife/daughter’s death … by absolving Lars of the crime by learning the truth from her dreams, Freya enables Lars to cross peacefully to the other side.

[Andrew Foerster]

Drew Foerster’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

MY VISION IS (living as if it is already fact): I am an award-winning produced Hollywood screenwriter with an excellent reputation that is represented by an outstanding manager and whose life is filled with creativity!

What I learned from doing this assignment is…The biggest thing is to just get some ideas down. You can develop them later but once you have a basic framework, it’s so much easier to move forward.

Give us the following:

Concept – When a FATHER becomes a suspect in his daughter TYME’S (10) disappearance, he goes on the run through the dark underbelly of online alien abduction chat rooms, conspiracy theory groups, and secret abduction survivor clubs, convinced that she was abducted by aliens… But is this a fantasy created by his mental illness or is there truly something darker and otherworldly going on?

Main Conflict – Marc against the U.S. Government and Aliens.

Old Ways – A selfish, under-achieving security guard who hears voices in his head

New Ways – Risks his life to become the hero he needs to be to save his daughter

Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.

Act 1:

1. Opening – We meet Marc standing in the middle of a busy road, in his pajamas. Soon after, he’s in a therapist’s office talking about his “episodes.”

2. Inciting Incident – Marc hears his daughter, Tyme, calling for him. When he reaches her room there is a blinding light outside and when it’s gone, so is Tyme.

3. Turning Point – Marc calls the cops. But overhears them talking to the FBI that he is a suspect.

Act 2:

4. New plan – Marc goes on the run.

5. Plan in action – He makes a video for social media. Changes his appearance. Meets Lilly who helps him search the underbelly of the UFO conspiracy world.

6. Midpoint Turning Point – He plans to meet with his wife but discovers that it’s a trap. She goes on TV saying she thinks he took their daughter and that he’s mentally unstable. The audience finds out the Lilly is the daughter of the FBI agent that is trying to catch Marc.

Act 3:

7. Rethink everything – After discovering new evidence, he now thinks that Tyme has been taken by aliens.

8. New plan – Go deeper down the rabbit hole in the Alien Abduction world. Full tin foil hat.

9. Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift – The FBI says they have found Tyme’s body buried in Marc’s backyard. Lilly tells him that she’s the daughter of the FBI agent but that she believes he’s innocent and wants to help.

Act 4:

10. Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict – With help from a conspiracy theorist that Lilly gets him to, he is able to sneak into Area 51. There he finds many children are being used by the U.S. government as test subjects to create hybrid humans. Marc helps an alien that is imprisoned and with their help, he is able to free all the kids.

Resolution – Marc mind is wiped. So is his daughter’s. The go back to living their “normal” life. But Lilly shows up and with a few words, the memories come flooding back.

[Christopher Blanchett]

Chris Blanchett’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

I am a brilliant, massively successful, professional screenwriter who writes incredible movies in a wide variety of genres which become instant-classics. I am respected by my professional peers and bring genuine, thought-provoking entertainment and uplifting emotions to hundreds of millions of movie-goers.

What I learned from this assignment the broad-strokes overview of my protagonist’s journey.

Unwoke

Concept: After his politically incorrect rant accidentally goes viral, a timid office-worker becomes a modern day thought criminal to one half of the country and an unintentional hero to the other. Can he elude the clutches of the “woke” mob and successfully avoid sparking a second American civil war?

Main Conflict: After being viciously vilified by the relentlessly negative coverage of a hyper-liberal cable news network, our attention-averse hero, Tim Walters, feels compelled to seek positive coverage from a hyper-conservative rival network.

Old Ways

· Walking on eggshells

· Scared of saying/doing the wrong thing

· Apologetic

· Hides true feelings and opinions

New Ways

· Speaks mind freely

· Confident

· Happy to point out the Emperor has no clothes

· Treats others with respect without being subservient

Internal journey: From timid and acquiescent to powerful and confident.

External journey: From nebbish office-worker to confident leader inspiring authentic and respectful human interaction.

Act 1:

Opening: Tim is compliant, go-along-to-get-along employee, keeps head down. Careful to comply with dominant woke corporate culture.

Inciting Incident: During a corporate sensitivity training session, Tim does not adequately affirm to trans-sensitivity Trainer Rachel Donahue that he/she (Rachel) is in fact a “real” woman. The vindictive Rachel takes video recordings of the training session, edits together statements by Tim, making him look like an angry “trans-phobe and bigot” and posts the video to social media. It goes viral and the attention-averse Tim gains instant on-line infamy.

Turning Point: Struggling hyper-liberal news network (name) decides to own the story to drive ratings and Tim’s new-found negative notoriety is amplified via mass media into the popular culture.

Act 2:

New plan: out of a job and under severe monetary strain (mortgage payment due – something big and compelling) and on the lam from the “woke” mob, Tim takes up an offer from struggling hyper-conservative news network (name) to help him get his side of the story told and hopefully get his old job (and life) back

Plan in action: Tim gives interviews to a number of hosts who passionately advocate on his behalf and champion his “cause” – despite Tim’s insistence he doesn’t have a cause. He is now more in the public eye than ever, and no closer to getting his old job (and life) back.

Midpoint Turning Point: Tim is invited to attend a rally on his behalf. He is reluctant, but when rally organizers reveal a Go-Fund-Me type account they have set up on his behalf which has more than enough money to handle his financial challenges. He agree to attend.

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Tim is a huge hit at the rally and is swept up by the adulation of the crowd.

New plan: Tim becomes more aggressive in his on-air and public appearances and his fame and power reaches a crescendo… until the liberal network exposes the go-fund me account and paints Tim as a gold-digging hypocrite. Tim schedules a hotly anticipated public appearance to be covered by all major media – cable, broadcast, and online.

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift – Tim discovers both the liberal network and the conservative network are owned by the same person and information is being shared and events are being orchestrated purely to feed ratings.

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: Tim confronts the owner of the two networks and learns the game being played isn’t just about ratings; there is a conscious strategy to generate meaningless controversies to keep people at one another’s throats, keeping them oblivious to the puppet-masters pulling the strings.

Resolution: Tim uses his hotly anticipated public appearance to reveal the truth he has learned to the masses… and is met with stony silence. Just then a video of parents at a school board meeting denouncing drag queen story hour goes viral, commanding the attention of the media and arousing the ire of the audience who depart in an impromptu protest march. Tim is alone on the stage at the microphone.

[Marcus Wolf]

Assignment 5

Marcus’ Four-Act Transformational Structure

My Vision: I have well-founded confidence that what I write is excellent and will be acknowledged as excellent by everyone who reads it.

This lesson gave me a way to start my script outline. Most sources on script writing talk about the three-act structure. Hal breaks up act 2 into two acts, which seems completely logical. I’ve always wondered why act 2 was twice the length of acts 1 and 3, especially when there’s supposed to be a significant event right at the midpoint. Anyway, works for me!

Title: “Beyond the Faded Trail”

Concept: A builder and his team go to a ghost town to dismantle it for lumber and find that thieves’ have been using it as a hideout. The thieves arrive and a fight for survival ensues.

Main conflict: Jake Barnet goes to a ghost town for lumber and fight with the thieves who are using the town.

Old Ways:

Jake Barnet is an adventurer primarily concerned with getting rich quick then getting out.

Good time guy who spends most of his time in the local saloon and whore house.

Fully leaves his business in the hands of his foreman. Some of his crew barely know who Jake is. Jake focuses on wining and dining prospective customers.

New Ways:

Jake is a contributing and respected member of his community.

He is his own foreman at all his ongoing projects.

Act 1:

Opening –Jake parties with a local businessman in the town saloon, while his foreman, Isaac Castle (aka Holland Whitaker) has conflicts with the competition who he accuses of stealing his supplies. The workers are all mediocre carpenters and Isaac continuously tries to get them to improve. He tries to get Jake to help, but Jake brushes him off with the prospect of another payday imminent. The local Sheriff hangs wanted posters all over town for local thieves, Lucien Rickey and Holland Whitaker.

Inciting incident – A suspicious fire destroys all of Jake’s lumber causing him to delay all his construction projects in the booming town by weeks. His customers threaten to go to the competition, who gets a timely delivery of wood. Jake packs up to leave town, abandoning his work. He’ll start over somewhere else.

Turning point – Isaac convinces Jake to stay with it. He tells Jake about an abandoned town he knows about, two days ride away, where they could procure free lumber by dismantling old buildings. Jake isn’t quite convinced. Isaac reveals that he knows of some hidden treasure that might be there. The town is called Justice because thieves were hung in the town and they left the gallows standing.

Act 2:

New plan – during the trip, Jake has trouble gaining the respect and confidence of some of his crew. Jake complains about the conditions, hates sleeping outdoors. Insists on putting up a tent for himself and makes the men help him. He’s worried that Justice is haunted. The men think he’s a little crazy.

Plan in action – Some of the men practice shooting targets. They are all very good. Jake bitches about the noise. The men challenge him: hit a target and they will quit for the night. Jake is an amazing shot. Admits he was a cavalry officer in the Mexican-American War. The men all turn out to be experienced gun fighters. Isaac turns out to be a terrible shot.

Midpoint turning point – They arrive in Justice in the evening and see the gallows. The men go into the town saloon and are surprised to find a fully stocked bar. They commence to party and get drunk. Isaac is conspicuously absent. Jake decides to let the men blow off steam and goes in search of Isaac. Isaac is in the steeple of the church with a telescope. He reveals to Jake that a gang of thugs uses Justice for a hideout. Jake finds out that it was Isaac who burned the lumber in order to convince Jake to go to Justice. Jake wants to leave immediately. Isaac reveals that he knows where the treasure is and there’s lots more than he had revealed before. He believes the gang will be robbing the stage coach and won’t be back to the town for two days.

Act 3:

Rethink everything – Next morning, Isaac gives all the hung-over men coffee and makes them start dismantling the Sheriff’s building which is well built. An old sign on the wall there says, “Sheriff Rickey”. Jake notices that all of the men are very bad at their jobs and there is unnecessary waste. Isaac privately convinces Jake that if they don’t get a substantial amount of lumber, there will be nowhere to hide the treasure where the men won’t find out about it. Jake insists on seeing this treasure. As Isaac leads him through town, they see a cloud of dust in the distance. It’s got to be the outlaws on the way to their hideout, earlier than expected.

New plan – They go to the work site and tell the men. The men want to get out, but Jake convinces them that they have a great tactical position plus surprise If they win the fight, they can all split whatever loot the thieves carry with them. Jake’s army experience kicks in. He directs the men to tactical positions and gives instructions. The thieves ride into town and roll up to the saloon.

Turning point: Huge failure/Major shift – Isaac shocks everyone. He reveals that he burned the lumber so he could bring gunfighters to Justice and take down Lucien’s gang. Then he walks into the street and confronts the gang leader, Lucien Rickey, at twenty paces. Isaac has an axe to grind with Lucien, who holds his girlfriend hostage. Lucien knows Isaac who he calls Holland. Jake’s men hide in buildings and watch as the girl, dressed in men’s clothes, dismounts her horse and goes to Lucien’s side. Isaac is infuriated. He draws and shoots, misses Lucien and shoots the girl in the belly. Lucien guns down Isaac. The girl crawls to Isaac’s side. Jake’s men start shooting and a massive gunfight ensues. Lucien’s men go into the saloon. Now everyone has defensive positions that result in a standoff. Jake’s men get low on ammo, though, and Lucien knows it. Jake takes two of his best shooters with him, sneaks out the back of his building and flanks the outlaws. The outlaws run out in the street and Jake’s men run out in the street and gun them down.

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict – Lucien takes off down a back street with Jake in pursuit. Out of bullets, they fight with knives. Lucien tells Jake that he’d been sheriff of this town and it died because the railroad owners got a better deal from another town and changed the path of the railroad. He formed his gang and has been stealing from the railroad payroll deliveries for revenge. But this revenge only hurt the rail workers who weren’t getting paid. Jake subdues Lucien and hangs him from the gallows.

Resolution – Jake gets back
to town with a load of lumber and two (dead) wanted men. He begins building in
earnest, teaching his gunfighters to be craftsmen.

[George Petersen]

(George Petersen) 4 Act Transformational Structure

My Vision is to direct one of my screenplays as a low-budget indie feature

What I learned from doing this assignment is how much easier ideas flow when presented with a simple map

The Summer of Haight

Genre – thriller (mystery)

Concept: In the summer of 1967, an attorney is baffled when his best friend designates a good-for-nothing hippie as the sole benefactor of his opulent estate.

Conflict: After the hippie inherits the estate complete with its lush Victorian mansion, the attorney swears revenge for his “missing” friend.

Old Ways: By the book. Deferring. Passive. Unable to challenge. Accepts life as Boring, uneventful, something to get through — with the help of a bottle. Dishonest with himself. Fears the future.

New Ways: Takes command, assertive, appreciates the mystery in life. Solves the mystery. Honest with himself and others. Embraces the future.

Act 1:

Opening – a scientist hosts a housewarming party for his lavishly restored Victorian mansion. A cellar apartment next to the lab stands out. The talk of the party is a series of murders of young flower girls, which is haunting the city.

Inciting Incident – the scientist orders his attorney to draw up a new will leaving his entire fortune to a no-good hippie no one has ever heard of. Furthermore, he makes the attorney solemnly promise on the honor of the deep love and friendship they have for each other not to interfere in his arrangements with the hippie in any way.

Turning Point – hungry for an explanation the scientist refuses to give, the attorney breaks his solemn promise to the scientist and surreptitiously follows the hippie into the Haight-Ashbury. He’s got to know and makes a promise to himself that whatever comes to pass, he will protect his dear friend, the scientist, from whatever the hippie is up to — fraud, intimidation or even (gulp) murder.

Act 2:

Reaction:

The attorney confronts the scientist with his concerns about the strange behavior of the hippie. You just won’t believe what I witnessed. You won’t believe the photographs I saw taken by a libertine photographer who also has followed the hippie. In fact, it’s possible this hippie could be the serial killer of flower girls that has the city on edge. The scientist brushes his concerns off: Everything will be OK. Relax. You’re getting way too out there.

Inciting Incident – the scientist mysteriously disappears

Turning Point 2 – the hippie inherits the estate lock stock and barrel. The attorney is helpless to stop it. When he challenges the will he is told that his status as the scientist’s best friend makes the will irrevocable. After all, why would the scientist lie to his best friend? Surely the will represents his true intentions. Irony. Midpoint. Low Point. All is lost. The house, the bank accounts, the patents — even the scientist himself.

Act 3:

Inciting Incident – another flower girl is murdered

Rethink: A New Plan

A plan to catch the hippie red-handed and expose him as the unknown serial killer is worked out with the debauched photographer who hangs out with a harem of young flower girls in the Haight.

Turning Point – in the execution of the plan, the hippie murders the photographer. The plan fails to catch the hippie, but it costs him as evidence is revealed that he is indeed the serial killer.

Act 4:

A New Plan based upon the New Ways.

Everybody is all in. The hunt is on to arrest the hippie at the Be-In

Inciting Incident – The hippie murders an innocent bystander so he can escape capture

Turning Point – The attorney experiences the metamorphosis firsthand and is forced to face the truth

[Erin Ziccarelli]

Erin Ziccarelli’s 4 Act Transformational Structure

What I learned doing this assignment is: the use of a turning point at the end of every act. This helps me zoom out and have a clearer picture of four turning points rather than seven smaller-scale turning points for the seven-sequence outline structure I’ve been using.

2. Give us the following:

Concept: Conditionally released from prison, a former black marketeer must stay clean and leave his old way of life behind. Grudges, secrets, and family ties, old and new, draw him back into the familiar underground world of cocaine hustling and counterfeiting.

Main Conflict: Former counterfeiter Alex Donovan must contend with the reveal that his daughter’s loyalties lie with a rival crime family and stop her from following in his footsteps.

Old Ways: cocaine addiction, grudges/hate against rival crime families, feeling “stuck” in life/being unmotivated, viewing change as impossible

New Ways: sobriety, independence, forgiveness, motivation to change and help others, redemption

3. Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.

Act 1:

Opening: Counterfeiting operation gone wrong – Boston, 1973.

Inciting Incident: Flash forward 20 years, Alex is imprisoned, crosses paths with an old rival, reveal that he has a 24-yr old daughter allied with the rival crime family

Turning Point: Almost one year later, Alex has achieved sobriety and is ready to venture out and start his own business with support from social workers

Act 2:

New plan: Alex as a self-made entrepreneur, starts a car resale business and keeps a low profile

Plan in action: Alex starts up the business, meets Scarlett and offers her a position, she accepts, the cars come in

Midpoint Turning Point: word gets around that Alex is out of prison, his uncle dies and the family wants him back to be their new leader. Alex rejects the offer but is now a target of both sides.

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Alex can no longer remain under the radar – he must confront his past and take a stand against their lawlessness and pointless family feud.

New plan: Alex gets to know Scarlett better, offers her advice about turning her life around, he and his staff become a team, he’s feeling a sense of personal accomplishment for the first time in his life

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift – his old buddies burn his business to the ground, Scarlett finds out she’s been lied to, his other two staff members leave him, one of the social workers is killed, and Alex is left alone/without an ally. It’s up to him to deliver on the contract and avoid going out of business, as well as face his past without any backup.

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: the big counterfeiting operation the story has been building up to, both sides show, Alex’s big speech on the futility of their family feud, the leader of the rival crime family turns the gun on himself, leaving both sides without a leader. Alex walks away without killing anyone, and the family feud will fizzle and eventually die.

Resolution: Scarlett and Alex make their peace.

[Patty Ruland]

(Patty Ruland’s) 4 Act Transformational Structure

[I found Module 2. I will finish it before I get back to 3 and 4.]

My vision: To get better and better so that I may gain representation and earn a good living in this profession.

What I learned doing this assignment is: I should just hold my nose and keep going, not stopping until I’ve completed the assignment. The reason? Nothing comes from nothing (not doing this or any assignment). Only something comes from something; though this is so rough, I do know I have kept things moving with this assignment.

Create a first draft of your 4 Act Transformational Structure.

1. Start this assignment by empowering yourself using our State-To-Activity empowerment process.

State: I feel completely
confident…
Activity: …creating the
structure of my story.

2. Give us the following:

Concept

Two young 19^th century adventurers, a big brother and a younger orphan indigenous girl (her adopted sister), join their parents’ perilous quest to find “Boto,” the elusive pink river dolphin, living in the Amazon River.

Main Conflict

At first, their parents think they are still too young and green for the expedition, but after a series of tests they prove their skills enough to be included.

Old Ways

The brother, who aspires to be an “objective” scientist/naturalist, had believed he must remain aloof and analyze his subjects—rainforest plants and animals—accordingly.

New Ways

During the trial period, the sister takes her brother to a secret place where she teaches him he must “get his hands dirty” and plunge into the muck to study it. Here, he eats raw larvae for the first time.

3. Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.

Act 1:

Opening

Scientists and benefactors gather at their rainforest headquarters to receive their assignments. Other scientists receive the plum assignments, like finding arks and grails and the like. The father’s and mother’s party receives the lowest status assignment: find “Boto,” the fabled pink river dolphin, for a monetary prize and modest renown. No one really believes pink dolphins exist, so the assignment is really a mockery and sabotage of the party’s chances. The husband and wife had once embarrassed the director of expeditions, so this is just another instance of payback.

Inciting Incident

The expeditions dispatch to their respective launch points, awaiting the go-ahead. The mother’s and father’s expedition begins auspiciously, for they are experts and have outfitted their vessel with every advantage. The son and daughter are allowed to pilot a fancy canoe, to improve their skills. Suddenly, a violent storm system assembles in the sky. Not only that, a nearby volcano erupts. Torrents of rain and fire rush down the cliffs into the river. The main boat and the canoe are separated. The father yells for his son and daughter to make camp and wait for him. They shout they will, but then the main boat is swept up and away by rapids laced with sparks and flames.

Turning Point

The storm ends and explorers gather to see who is there and who is not. The parents have not returned. The son wants to return home and wait. The daughter wants to proceed—to look for the parents and the pink dolphin, with the help of her relatives far down river. She says that they have to find the pink dolphin for their parents, whether they are dead or alive. The son reluctantly agrees.

Act 2:

New plan

The son and daughter build a new vessel, a makeshift raft/side canoe. They load it with supplies. Meanwhile, the poachers prepare to follow them.

Plan in action

The son and daughter cope with any number of calamities, using skills they share and perfect. The poachers abduct them and tie them to masts of their ships, forcing them to direct them to where the pink dolphins are. The daughter plots a mutiny and capture of the poachers’ ship.

Midpoint Turning Point

The poachers get wise and take the son and daughter to a camp, where they are imprisoned and questioned, ruthlessly. But there, the daughter’s relatives come, at night, in stealth, to inform them they know where the parents are—captured, too–and where the pink dolphins are. One in their party, a long lost friend of the family, a wildlife warden, also visits them, with the dire prediction that the poachers will sell the pink dolphins abroad to aquariums, where they will surely die. The relatives and warden promise to watch over and guard them, as they gather information from and about the poachers.

Act 3:

Rethink everything

The warden gives the son and daughter a choice: Come with him now and return home safely. Or stay captured in camp, to join an even greater mission—to help bust a poaching ring.

New plan

The rain pours. Night deepens and darkens. The son and daughter decide to stay in camp.

Turning Point: Huge failure /
Major shift

The poachers surprise the party comprised of the warden and relatives, and captures them, too. They are so enraged, they seem to have murder on their minds. All seems lost for everyone.

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate expression of
the conflict

The daughter persuades the son they can and must escape to go get help—despite the gauntlet of guards surrounding them. She whistles a signal and whispers, “Wait.”

Resolution

Just as the poachers are preparing to tie them to a leaky, broken canoe and send them to certain death down the next stretch of violent rapids to plunge into a deep and rocky gorge, reinforcements arrive—their parents, their fellow scientists, the daughter’s relatives, and a whole school of pink dolphins.