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Day 7 Assignments
Post your Day 7 Assignment here.
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9 Replies
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Mark Hawk’s 4 Act Structure
What I learned doing this assignment is that the structure doesn’t have to be that complex for the story to continue to evolve. I know that the structure is going to continue to evolve in ways I’m not yet aware of. The story has already changed…
Concept: When an unknown substance is discovered in an ice core sample, it turns out to be an ancient alien device that will do everything to go back to where it was taken.
Main Conflict: People try to ruthlessly take control of the substance without knowing exactly what it is.
Act 1:
Opening: A research team are in the drill room of a remote Antarctic Research Outpost tasked with extracting ice core samples. A group of wealthy Ecotourists visit the facility.
Inciting Incident: The drill starts having mechanical issues when they try to take a deeper core sample just after the arrival of three wealthy ecotourists.
Turning Point: The maintenance lead is killed when he tries to force the drill core out of the shaft.
Act 2:
New plan: Try to figure out what caused the death in the drill room.
Plan in action: Leo begins the running tests on the unknown substance as Marta investigates her boss’s death.
Midpoint Turning Point: Jeffery schemes with Reggie to steal the unknown substance but are killed when they try to take one of the drones.
Act 3:
Rethink everything: Marta hears a low buzzing from the unknown substance, but no one else does. Leo insists that the sample can only be biologic in nature. An argument ensues between Carol and Leo on what is best to do with the substance.
New plan: Toni tries to steal the sample.
Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift: Toni is killed when the sample breaks the container she is holding and the substance transforms into a very thin spear-like shape that pierces her up and through the heart. Toni drops to the ground dead. The sample returns to a non-threatening shape.
Act 4:
Final plan: The decision is reluctantly made to return the sample to where it came from after Marta reveals her real background, and Leo defers to her expertise.
Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: The ice begins to rumble and deform. Marta drops the unknown sample into the drill shaft and the rumbling stops.
Resolution: Marta, Leo, Carol, and Simone board an emergency drone that has just arrived and safely leave the site.
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Madeleine Vessel’s 4 ACT Structure
What I learned doing this assignment is using the two step process is very freeing. It reminds me of doing brainstorming around a circle instead of a bulleted list. The plot is coming together. Yay!
First draft of my 4 Act Structure.
· Concept:
When a defenseless young woman is taken hostage by a mentally unstable man, she must rely on a police officer struggling with PTSD to negotiate her release. (27)
· Main Conflict
The hostage situation is the main conflict.
Act 1:
Opening. Introduce Dory and Tristan. Dory is depressed after seeing her fiancé kissing another woman on nationwide TV. Tristan, who has missed taking his medication, wonders about looking for someone he can trust.<div><b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>
</div><div><b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Inciting Incident. At a campus activity center, an anxious Tristan seeks help from Dory. He’s missed taking his medication, and he’s afraid he might hurt someone. With Tristan’s permission, she calls 911 and asks for the fire department.<div><div>Turning Point. Fire fighters respond. One of them, Con, recognizes Tristan and knows him to be a paranoid schizophrenic. He encourages Tristan to go with him to the hospital. In the end, Tristan doesn’t trust Con and refuses. He takes Dory hostage instead
Act 2:
New plan. Con calls the campus police for assistance. </div><div>
</div><div>Plan in action. Introduce Duncan, a police officer on desk duty because he is struggling with PTSD flashbacks. He is compelled to answer Con’s call for help because he’s the only one in the station. On the way to the scene, he starts to experience PTSD symptoms. He starts perspiring. He has difficulty getting his breath.
Midpoint Turning Point. Tristan is scared of police officers. He’s had hurtful experiences with them. He uses Dory as a shield against Duncan. Duncan has a flashback that renders his useless for a full minute. Con goes nuts. Duncan comes out of it. Meanwhile, Dory coaxes out of Tristan that he lives in the nearby neighborhood with his mother and sister. She relays this information to Duncan, who is finally getting a grip.
Act 3:
Rethink everything. Duncan sends for Tristan’s family members.</div><div><b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>
</div><div><b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>New plan. Only the daughter, Lilith, arrives on the scene. At first, she’s gung-ho to help Duncan but then when she starts to talk Tristan into letting go of Dory, she realizes that the situation could be an answer to both her and her mother’s prayers, a way to get rid of Tristan—death by cop. </div><div><b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>
</div><div><b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Turning Point: Lilith escalates the situation, causing Tristan to panic and become more threatening. Duncan, barely holding onto his reason, removes Lilith from the scene.
</div><div>Act 4:
Final plan. Duncan, finally relaxed, and Dory, beginning to feel genuine empathy for Tristan, are now talking and working together. Duncan indicates to her that maybe the best solution would be for her to accompany Tristan to the hospital, so he can get back on his medication. She agrees to the plan.</div>
Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict. With Dory’s help, Duncan persuades Tristan to get into the backseat of the police unit with Dory. He promises to take them both to the hospital, so Tristan can be treated.
Resolution. Dory leads Tristan by the hand to the police car. She gets in the backseat and moves over to the seat behind the driver. Tristan gets in, and Con closes the door after Tristan. Then without warning, Duncan opens Dory’s door, pulls her to safety, and slams the door again, enclosing Tristan in the cage by himself. Tristan goes off to the hospital. Dory hugs Duncan. Con cuts Dory’s engagement ring off. Two weeks later, Dory sees Tristan healthy and happy, riding a bicycle on the campus street. He doesn’t recognize her.
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Hope’s 4-act structure
What I learned: I need to make this 10x harder for all the characters. By dropping the pieces into the structure, not only did this help form the skeleton (a good thing!), but it also revealed the weak spots.
Concept: A princess/college student is abducted and held for $5 million ransom, but the kidnappers become trapped when a snow storm shuts down the city.
Main conflict: The princess is an imposter and if the kidnappers discover she’s a hacker/foster kid, she becomes expendable and will be killed.
Act 1
Opening: Princess Rowena Louisa Victoria of the Elsterborn Isles is the only student on campus over Christmas break, and she’s having the time of her life, being waited on by a skeleton crew.
Inciting incident: She is abducted and the kidnappers demand $5 million in 48 hours or they will kill her.
Turning point: A huge snow storm shuts down the campus and city, leaving the kidnappers stuck with no power, lights, or heat.
Act 2
New plan: Princess Rowena escapes into the snowstorm.
Plan in action: She’s disoriented and freezing; the kidnappers are closing in on her.
Midpoint turning point: Roger, a campus custodian, saves her and they hide in the cafeteria.
Act 3
Rethink everything: The princess wants to get to some high-tech computer equipment in the library basement, and Roger says he can get her into the locked building.
New plan: Get past the kidnappers and to the library.
Turning point/huge failure/major shift: The snow has stopped, Princess Rowena and Roger slog through the deep snow to the library. But Roger has a heart attack. He wants the princess to save herself and leave him. She confesses she’s not a princess but a hacker named Ruby Doe, as the kidnappers close in.
Act 4
Final plan: Ruby tells the kidnappers that she will contact her father from the library, but only if they help Roger, too.
Climax/ultimate expression of the conflict: Ruby uses a satellite phone to call her “father, the crown prince of the Elsterborn Isles.” She gets them back outside with the phone, where she can make the call. But when the kidnappers realize they’ve been duped, she locks them outside.
Resolution: She had really called the college president, who knew there was trouble and called the police. The police arrive to arrest the kidnappers, still unable to get off the campus.
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DAN’S 4 ACT STRUCTURE
What I learned doing this assignment was how much I enjoy putting the pieces of the plot structure together and connecting the dots. I also learned to use a four act structure as opposed to a three act structure. It allows more plot elements to breathe.
Concept: A year after the murder of her family, a medium returns to the haunted home they were slaughtered in.
Main conflict: Exorcise the spirits from the property, and stay alive while doing it.
ACT I
Opening: Set up the murders. Set up the trauma. Marsha stands near the graves of her family, but won’t walk over to them.
Inciting Incident: She is invited back to the scene of the murder.
PPI: After attempting to communicate with the spirits, she is locked in.
ACT II:
New Plan: Attempt to reason with whatever has locked her in.
Plan in Action: Holds a séance, calls them, identifies them as her family.
Midpoint: She hallucinates, seeing a dark shadow following the spirit of her child and husband. Something is wrong. They are not her family. Something is masquerading as them.
ACT III:
Rethink Everything: she was not prepared for something so powerful. She tries to settle in and force the malevolent spirit out.
New Plan: She finds a symbol drawn under the bed, realizing this is a demon or maybe even the devil himself. She attempts to draw a new symbol over it and push the devil out.
PPII: Marsha comes face to face with the devil. He climbs inside of her. The only other tenant tries to help her, but is killed by the landlord.
ACT IV:
Climax: Mable (the landlord) is revealed to be a cultist who helped murder her family. They brought her back to finish a ritual and bring the devil into the world. Marsha is incapacitated and taken to the basement.
Climax 2: Marsha wakes in a basement, the devil trying to get out of her. Mable attempts to kill her and unleash the devil. Marsha fights and escapes, killing Mable.
Resolution: Marsha is seen at the grave sites of her family members. She approaches them, putting flowers on their graves and accepting their demise.
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Michael M’s 4 Act Structure
*** I still need to decide, is this enough story as is, or should I add the level of the Ashram having an abandoned goldmine underneath, that they explore/where they defeat villain? But that would also make it more costly, so I may just go with “Ashram has room with gold in it” instead.
What I learned doing this assignment is: thinking in terms of turning points is great to stimulate ideas – and know where to place them – for layers and reveals and driving your characters to be forced to try new things. Thinking in terms of “plan, new plan, plan in action” helped me think in terms of keeping my leads motivated and proactive. Combining this with structure both encourages better brainstorming by giving it a structure to happen in, and builds a better story by having the twists and turns structured.
Create a first draft of your 4 Act Structure.
1. Tell us the following:
Concept – three criminals with a bag of loot and a dark secret take shelter in an ashram after a heist goes wrong
Main Conflict – Money goes missing and they are trying to find it.
Act 1:
Opening – we meet the first three characters and see them escaping, car break down
Inciting Incident – they wind up at the ashram, and ask for help
They get George ahealin
Turning Point – they realize Ashram is on a literal goldmine (or just has a nice stash of gold)
Act 2:
New plan – stick around for George, while getting car fixed, and planning escape with gold
Plan in action
Car somehow impossible to fix
George starts getting into the spiritual stuff
Sarah starts falling in love
Casey having flashbacks of childhood trauma that hasn’t dealt with, and seeing more of Fred
Does FBI drop by and Guru covers for them? Or we lose that?
Midpoint Turning Point
Something happens to incite Casey going to check on the cash. Like… discovering Guru’s gun selection, or getting a mysterious communication (from boss)
Casey goes to dig up their loot and go, and plans on grabbing some of the Ashram gold with or without the others,when…
Act 3: Loot is Missing
Rethink everything – are these holy hippies actually just swindlers?
New plan – search everything, question everyone
The three fight about it, George wants to just leave without it or stay
Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift
Boss shows up asking for the loot
Act 4: Save the Ashram from Mob-Boss and his thugs
Final plan
George and Sarah try to save the place
Casey betrays them to help boss
Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict
Boss has everyone down and recognizes Guru
Conflict moves between Guru and Boss
Casey finally sees the light and tries to save Guru, letting Guru beat boss
Resolution
FBI shows up to collect boss and thugs, but not our three criminals thanks to Guru
They do a ritual for the ghost of Frank
Sarah leaves but takes her lover, George goes back to find his daughter – and Casey decides to stay at the ashram a little longer. Jokes about finding gold, and Guru like “the gold is within you all along” and Casey snorts.
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What I learned from doing this assignment: This structure is more “natural” than the traditional 3 act structure. It has a pattern of how the viewer participates in the storytelling process.
Marc Lynch 4 Act Structure
Concept: After their hot air balloon crashed during a test run, a self-destructive teenager searches the New Mexico Wilderness for medical assistance for her father, while a vicious mountain lion terrorizes everyone who enters the mountainside.
Main Conflict: The mountain lion, “El Lion,” terrorizes and kills anyone who enters the mountainside.
Act 1: Introduce the characters and set up a conflict
Opening: Three youthful mountain hikers are killed by a vicious mountain lion: “El Leon.”
Helen is fist fighting the school bully in the schoolyard. The principal breaks up the fight and takes Helen to his office.
Inciting Indecent: Their hot air balloon, with Helen and her father, the pilot, crashes in the New Mexico Wilderness.
Turning Point 1: Helen meets Little Joe Begay, a Navajo Indian. Little Joe is a spiritual shapeshifter. He gives her food and water. He warns her to beware of “El Leon.” He removes his facial bandana and shows her the facial scars give to him by “El Leon.” He tells Helen to find Fatu and she can help her with medical assistance for her father.
Finally, Little Joe Begay gives Helen “an herb” to help her cope with the desert wilderness. She falls asleep. When she wakes Little Joe has disappeared. Helen walks into the desert wilderness searching for Fatu.
Act 2: Challenge the reality of the characters
New Plan: Helen walks into the desert wilderness. Crows fly overhead up in the sky. Helen follows them into the desert.
Plan of Action: As Helen walks into the desert, she meets several hikers coming down the mountain. They warn Helen of the destructive force of “El Leon,” and advise her to turn around and not go any further. Helen asks each group of hikers she meets to help her but each group refuses.
Midpoint turning Point: The herb that Little Joe Begay gave Helen starts to have an effect on her and the tone of the story changes in the desert from realism to magical realism. Birds, animals, trees, plants, talk to Helen and she walks through the desert mountainside. This is designed to express Helen’s insecurities and explore her internal conflict.
Exhausted. Helen drinks water from a mountain stream. A snake appears and talks to her in the form of her mother. It bites Helen in the face and swims off.Fatu appears standing over Helen. She sucks the poison from Helen’s face and carries her out of the desert.
Act 3: With Mid-Point change, everything must change
Rethink everything: Helen has finally found Fatu. She pleads her case to help with medical assistance. Fatu agrees due to her own conflict with “El Leon.” He kills her favorite dog and bit off part of her hand while trying to save her dog.
She now wants her own revenge on “El Leon.”
New Plan: Fatu and Helen practice using weapons to fight El Leon. They also go over strategies on the best approach to win the fight. They sleep on it and go out the next day.Major shift: Fatu and Helen come face to face with El Leon. El Leon defeats and kills Fatu. El Leon runs off after the kill. Helen is left alone again in the wilderness.
Act 4: Test the change in the character
Final Plan: Take off parts of Fatu’s bloody clothes. Walk in the wilderness and leave Fatu’s scent to a location when El Leon will follow and be vulnerable to an attack and final battle
Climax: Final battle between Helen and El Leon.
Resolution: A helicopter Search and Rescue team, which has been looking for Helen all through the story, has finally found her. The leader puts Helen in the helicopter to take her home.
While in the helicopter, Helen has a vision and asks the pilot to go to Fatu’s house. A cloud of crows circles Fatu’s house overhead. Helen sees her father at the doorstep of Fatu’s house.
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MICAH’S 4 ACT STRUCTURE
What I learned doing this assignment is to continue to revisit structure and adhere to the major beats while always focusing on the main conflict, forcing myself to find the key points and keep the story on track.
Concept: a prostitute’s client has just died, and she needs to get rid of the body before her husband (who doesn’t know about her side job) gets home
Main Conflict: Richard is coming home early and Jennifer has to get rid of the body and the evidence before he arrives, AND before her pimp finds out what happened
Act 1:
Opening: Jennifer is entertaining a high profile client in her and her husband’s summer cabin. She calls her pimp and tells him she can’t go through with it, but he tells her this is her last job.
Inciting Incident: Jennifer’s client, high on cocaine, trips down the stairs and plunges to his death.
Turning Point: Jennifer gets a call from her husband Richard, who is coming home a night early. She has to get rid of the body NOW.
Act 2:
New Plan: Come up with an alibi.
Plan in Action: Jennifer cleans up the house, then plants the idea with a neighbor that someone’s been prowling around. She is going to paint the scene as though she returned home and found a burglar dead in the house.
Midpoint Turning Point: the client wakes up—he’s alive! But seeing the blood, he freaks out and attacks Jennifer. While defending herself, Jennifer kills the man for real.
Act 3:
Rethink Everything: Now that she has murdered the man, Jennifer can no longer get the police involved.
New Plan: Dispose of the body. Jennifer has to steal supplies from a neighboring cabin and then dig a hole for the body. While doing so, she is harassed by the nosy neighbor.
Turning Point: The pimp arrives at Jennifer’s home.
Act 4:
Final Plan: Jennifer confesses to her husband in a voicemail, freeing her from the blackmail of the pimp.
Climax: Jennifer tries to call the police to turn herself in, but the pimp won’t let her. A fight breaks out between the two, and the pimp ends up being killed.
Resolution: The police arrive and Jennifer tells them that the pimp killed the client, and that she in turn killed the pimp in self-defense. Richard arrives home, having not heard the voicemail, and Jennifer deletes it.
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Subject: Monica’s 4 Act Structure
What I learned doing this assignment is the breakdown of the 4-Act structure which I didn’t know before.
Create a first draft of your 4 Act Structure.
1. Tell us the following:
· Concept: The night a new Pope is chosen, he gets a text from someone telling him he has an illegitimate daughter and she’s the second coming of Christ.
Main Conflict: Daughter is the second coming of Christ.
2. Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.
Act 1:
Opening: A mother and daughter
visit the Vatican. The mother has old friends there.
Inciting Incident: The mother
tells the new Pope the daughter is his daughter.
Turning Point: The daughter
performs a miracle to save the Pope’s life.Act 2:
New plan: The Pope can’t have
this woman being the Christ.
Plan in action: The daughter must die.
Midpoint Turning Point: A news
story breaks that implicates the Catholic Church and brings the Pope and
all the institution stands for into question.Act 3:
Rethink everything: Daughter
decides to investigate the truth behind the story.
New plan: She breaks into the secret archives and
finds documents to collaborate the story.
Turning Point: Huge failure /
Major shift: The daughter confronts the Pope for his role in the story
when he was just a new priest. In the dead of night the Pope decides to
shred the evidence only to find the evidence gone.Act 4:
Final plan: An attempt on the
daughter’s life.
Climax/Ultimate expression of
the conflict: The daughter stands in St. Peter’s square and starts to
bring down the physical structure of the Vatican.
Resolution: With the Vatican in
rubble the daughter shows a new way to have a relationship with God. -
Assignment
Create a first draft of your 4-Act Structure
CONCEPT: A 12-step sponsor resorts to using violence to scrub the drug peddlers and other bad influences out of the lives of his sponsees. But doing so brings him face-to-face with his own addictions – not just to drugs, but to savagery.
CONFLICT: The Sponsor must battle against a sadistic drug dealer who is an expert on exploiting people’s addictions.
ACT 1:
· Opening: a man is beaten up badly by a masked individual. It’s revealed the masked man is a 12-step sponsor named Jordan and his sponsees have no idea of his nocturnal activities.
· Inciting Incident: the sponsor learns one of his sponsees, Roy, is being tempted to use again due to a local drug dealer named Cesar.
· Turning Point: Roy has gone missing and the Sponsor goes looking for him.
ACT 2:
· New Plan: The Sponsor decides to go to Roy’s apartment.
· Plan In Action: His visit to Roy’s apartment yields no clues.
· Midpoint Turning Point: Roy isn’t kidnapped; he’s been getting high and working for Cesar.
ACT 3:
· Rethink Everything: Roy has been working “undercover” for Cesar, trying to figure out who the masked vigilante is.
· New Plan: Roy sells out Jordan to Cesar in exchange for more drugs.
· Turning Point – Huge Failure/Major Shift: the Sponsor is ambushed in his own NA meeting hall by Cesar the drug dealer and his goons.
ACT 4:
· Final Plan: a masked archer shoots the rope binding Jordan and attacks Cesar’s men. While distracted, Jordan gets free of the ropes.
· Climax/Ultimate Expression of the Conflict: the Sponsor uses all of his animalistic fury and energy to fight the drug dealer and his goons, killing them in the process. Maybe Roy gets away? During the fight, the Sponsor is aided by the masked archer.
· Resolution: the masked archer is revealed to be Officer Susan Espinoza. She wants to recruit Jordan into her secret society of BLM activists to help fight injustice.
What I learned from doing this assignment is:
It’s nice to have the traditional 2<sup>nd</sup> act of a 3-Act Structure broken out into two separate acts like this. It helps to fill in the puzzle pieces of a screenplay quicker and, in this particular case, created a nifty twist where one of my characters is revealed to be a betrayer.
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