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Lesson 5
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ASSIGNMENT 5
Subject line: Pat’s 4 Act Transformational Structure
What I learned from this assignment is the villain needs to be in every turning point
First Draft of 4 Act Transformational Structure.
1. Give us the following:
Concept: A marriage counselor
returns to the field as his 7<sup>th</sup> marriage fails. <div>Main Conflict: Getting his wife
back. Hank must learn how a real
marriage works.Old Ways Hank uses sarcasm in
his daily life. Alienating his
wives and friends.New Ways: Hank learns better
ways to approach people in his life without sarcasm.2. Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.
Act 1:
Opening: Hanks having a pity
party with his mother, who think he hung the moon.
Inciting Incident: Divorce papers arrive in the mail from
his wife, Elaine. </div><div>Turning Point: Hank discovers his license is out of date
but opens the marriage counseling business anyway.Act 2:
New plan: The plan is to save
other people’s marriages through his new profession and win his wife back. </div><div>Plan in action: Hank goes to
night school to get the license reinstated. Hank continues with his
sarcasm. His clients are not impressed.Midpoint Turning Point: Hanks
business gets closed down by a city official.Act 3:
Rethink everything: He misses
his wife and wants her back. </div><div>New plan: Hank decides to continue
with his schooling. Invites his wife to meet him at a Bistro.Turning Point: Huge failure /
Major shift: Elaine his wife his running late and he gives her a
call. A man answers. Hank sits at the bar talking to a young
lady from night school, when his wife enters. Elaine leaves without him
knowing she came.Act 4:
Climax/Ultimate expression of the
conflict
Hank and Elaine have a major
fight with both of them saying things they don’t mean.</div><div>Resolution
Hank completes his night school program. Students in the class have learned to like Hank.
Hank has an accidental meeting with Elaine, she can tell he’s changed and they make a date for dinner. Hank has high hopes.
His new license comes in the
mail. </div>Visions of Hank’s new clients appreciate
what he can do to help them. He’s a changed man.Elaine moves her stuff back
into the house. -
George Tedino
4 Act Transformational Structure
What I learned from this assignment
that having and opening and ending is great but really knowing how to get there is also important.
Giving the following
Concept: A innocent orphan with special gifts goes from hunted to hunter as he navigates the world at large, finding out about himself along the way.
Main Conflict: George has been hunted for his gifts and Marty has killed everyone knows and love which leads to the ultimate showdown.
Old Ways: George starting out as a young kid trying to learn about his powers and seeking answers to his past, while trying to fit in being different.
New ways: George becomes a wiser still young man who determined to bring an end to Mary and fighters to bring him peace.
Act 1
Opening: George crashing through a window falling to possibly his death. Flashbacks begin to tell his story as it was told to him.
Inciting Incident: during flashback we see his parents killed and then the other incident with bullies at school
Turning Point: George now is on the run from Marty and his forces but George ultimately disappears and starts to learn his powers.
Act 2
New plan: George while still in hiding wants to try in fit in to the world.
Plan in action: George while trying to do normal adultish things meet his Lover Sara.
Midpoint Turning Point: As he gets closer to Sara he begins to get sloppy and becomes back on Marty’s rader.
Act 3
Rethinking Everything: George still looking over his shoulder really wants to be left alone. He is confronted by Marty to join him. He ultimately turns it down.
New Plan: George must now protect not only himself but Sara too.
Turning Point: George eventually can’t protect Sara and now George is now on a mission to take revenge on Marty.
Act 4
Climax: George and friend John enlist help to get George to have a one on one encounter with Marty
Resolution: George is finally at peace and now can live without looking over his shoulder and maybe use his powers for good.
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Janis A. Pryor, Four Act Transformational Structure
What I Learned: this can be fun!
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Concept: A love story that goes on before and after death
Main Conflict: Most people don’t believe this can happen, and if they do, they keep their mouths shut, fearing they’ll be called crazy.
Old Ways: TC – never gets serious about any woman, afraid the right woman will never love him, highly intelligent, very close to his family especially his sister, mysterious job, uses his charm like a weapon!
Old Ways: JP – self contained to the point of being somewhat mysterious, secretive and private, independent, doesn’t date – has no time for it nor does she want to.
New Ways: JP-more relaxed and open, willing to share more of herself, smiles and laughs more.
New Ways: TC-gets serious about JP, willing to put some distance between him and his sister, focuses his charm and affection on JP and doesn’t care who knows it!
Act One – 25 to 30 Pages (Location: Upper West Side, Manhattan)
Opening: JP encounters her old friend, Christine, and asks her to find out who this man is she’s been seeing on Christine’s block for years. Also tells Christine her mother will call, establishing the psychic aspect of her personality. <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Next morning, the inciting incident: TC tells JP, he’s been watching her for over twenty years, she doesn’t change, the dogs don’t change. This leads to a series of synchronistic coincidences over the next few weeks that draw them together. TC shows up at JP’s condo unannounced to show/tell her how committed he is to her/them. <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>This is turning point one.
Act Two – 20 to 30 pages
Reaction: They give in to an intense, passionate love that’s been on hold for twenty years. They spend the rest of the night talking until daybreak. He asks about the photographs. She wants to know who he really is. They become a couple.The secret’s out!
The Plan: To spend time together everywhere and discover the depths and boundaries of their likes, differences, fears, dreams, and boundaries.
Turning Point 2:
Reluctantly, he keeps a promise to some of his coworkers to take them for a sail up the Hudson. Before he goes he gives a small box to JP and tells her to hold onto it until he gets back. The next morning JP finds out there was a boating accident and TC drowned. This is turning point two. She goes a little crazy with disbelief and then many things start to change/happen including a visitation from TC to comfort her. The housekeeper witnesses his presence holding/comforting JP while asleep.
Act Three – 20 to 30 pages
More evidence of TC’s ongoing presence pops up everywhere, at his funeral, in JP’s car, etc. After an incident at his grave, JP feels compelled to tell his sister, Carole. She is shocked but also relieved by what JP tells her and takes a different interest in JP. Meanwhile, JP reads everything she can on the afterlife.
Act Four – 25 pages
JP can’t stand it anymore, drives to a friend’s house (with the spaniels) in NH where things intensify. She finds a local psychic whose reading blows her away. At first, JP’s friend thinks she is either imaging things or has had a breakdown until the friend experiences a few anomalies. Several (psychic) incidents take place, including TC’s manifestation, whole body and soul, to console JP. She asks if anyone will believe her. He answers, kisses her, and they fall asleep in each other’s arms. She wakes up the next morning and knows her life will never be the same.
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H. Vince’s 4 Act Transformational Structure
The 30-Day Screenplay – 2023
Lesson 5: Four-Act Transformational Structure
What I learned from doing this assignment is…
Trying to make a basic outline with the character’s personalities and how they would convincingly transform.
Concept:
Victor Saint is a young man that gets cancelled for jokingly saying something stupid. When he has no issue standing up for himself while people are trying to put him on blast, he gets kidnapped, blacks out and wakes up to an alternate reality where he is trusted with information about who aliens really are.
Main Conflict:
Victor is forced into a new reality beginning from being shown who his real mom is.
VICTOR: PROTAGONIST
Old Ways:
1. Naïve
2. Just cruising through life doing the bare minimum.
3. Gets disappointed with himself but not so much that he does anything to really change.
New Ways:
1. Has been behind the curtain educated and experienced.
2. Has direction.
3. Doesn’t take life for granted.
Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now. Will use Protagonist Journey (PJ) and Antagonist Journey (AJ)
Act 1:
Opening:
PJ:
Victor does same routine: food, meaningless job, hanging out with friends smoking, drinking & philosophizing
Chill acquaintances with rich young adults but doesn’t relate
Blacks out & wakes up early to go home
AJ:
Donna is upset not knowing where Victor was all night
Inciting Incident:
PJ:
Victor makes a joke about the dents on his hood to the mechanic
Mechanic puts Victor on blast on social media
Turning Point:
PJ:
Victor shows up to mechanic shop to talk to him about what he did
People show up trying to get involved
Black-out, kidnapped
Act 2:
New plan:
PJ:
Victor wakes up tied down not knowing where he is
Victor is forced to see alternative outcomes
Plan in action:
PJ: Victor decides he wants to know about his mom
AJ: Donna can’t find Victor
Midpoint Turning Point:
PJ: Victor finds out about his real mom
AJ: Donna was assigned to take care of Victor
Act 3:
Rethink everything:
AJ: Flashback to Donna’s assignment
PJ: Victor finds out why he’s special
New plan:
AJ: Victor finds purpose
PJ: Flashback to Donna teaching Victor alternate ways of living but with caveats
Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift:
PJ: Victor is just a regular guy who mistakes and not a hero
AJ: Donna and her people find information on where Victor is
Act 4:
Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict:
PJ: Victor’s chip was taken out by his kidnappers
AJ: Donna feels lost not being Victor’s “mother” any longer
Resolution
PJ: Victor changes his physical identity
AJ: Donna gets killed
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Tasha’s 4 Act Transformational Structure
By doing this assignment, I learned: Once you stop striving for perfection and pivot to acceptance of imperfection, your ideas and writing start to flow.
Concept:
Unlucky in love, Bethany pursues her soul mate with guidance from her favorite priest and father figure, Deacon Anders, who encourages her to be forthcoming with new potential love interest about her past possession and exorcism.
Main Conflict:
Priest Anders believes it’s his God given mission to stop Bethany from finding love and spreading her evil and corruption. You see thiis from the opening scene and everytime he encourages Bethany to tell her suitors the truth about her past.
Old Ways:
Identity: Unlucky in love, the girl who was possessed by a demon
Looks to Deacon Anders for love advice
Stalked by a demon she is powerless to shake
New Ways:
Identity: Self-loved, girflriend, spiritually powerful and divine
Realizes it’s up to her to make love happen
No longer stalked by a demon and becomes a powerful exorcist
2. Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.
Act 1:
Opening:
Bethany in the confessional telling Deacon Anders about her latest awkward date. Deacon Anders reminds her that she might have more success if she was up front about having been possessed by a demon when she was a teen.
Inciting Incident:
Brad, an old friend from elementary school, reconnects with Bethany on social media.
Bethany asks Deacon Anders if he intends to stay a priest and he tells her once had ambition to be a bishop but finds it more rewarding to be a priest.
She catches up with Brad in person over coffee and a romantic connection is sparked. He asks her out.
Bethany excitedly tells Deacon Anders.
Bethany is stood up by Brad and he ghosts her.
Act 2:
Bethany seeks Deacon Anders counsel, and he tells her that things not working out with Brad was for the best. He tells her that it’s ok if she is not cut out for dating and urges her to stop dating or at least give it a long rest.
Deacon Anders gives her some tea and tells her she’s welcome to crash on the couch in the rectory if she’s feeling lonely and doesn’t want to go home. Bethany has a dream about Deacon Anders contacting Demon 23.
Bethany can’t ignore her feelings. She wants love.
New plan
Bethany tries dating again, but she doesn’t fee the same connection she did with Brad.
She tries contacting Brad but can’t track him down.
Something deep down tells her to investigate why she can’t find love.
Midpoint Turning Point:
She contacts a guy she had a good date with once and asks why he didn’t pursue her. He tells her an anonymous party showed him info about her past possession. It scared him away.
Act 3:
Bethany determines that the parents who abandoned her must be the ones who are meddling.
She tells Deacon Anders her suspicion and asks if he can tell her where she can find them, so she can get them to stop meddling, but Deacon Anders tells her he won’t help because he doesn’t want her to get hurt.
New plan:
She breaks into Deacon Anders’ chambers to find any info on her exorcism.
She finds a video camera set up on a stand. It points to a huge pentagram on the floor and a conjuring book. She watches the tape and sees herself unconscious at the center of the pentagram. Deacon Anders uses the conjuring book and has a conversation with Demon 23 through the unconscious Bethany.
Turning Point:
Bethany is knocked out and wakes up to find herself lying in the pentagram. She is retrained. Deacon Anders uses the conjuring book to put Bethany in a trance.
Act 4:
While in the trance, Demon 23 tells her that Deacon Anders is the one who has been blocking her path to love. And that he has been practicing the dark arts to use on Bethany and repossess her, so that he can demonstrate his power and ascend the ranks of the clergy. He sees Bethany as a way to become the Pope.
Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict
Deacon Anders uses the conjuring book to shorten the tether between Demon 23 and Bethany, so that she will become permanently possessed but Bethany is able to block this from happening inside her trance. After a struggle, she ultimately expels Demon 23 from her body, but he jumps into Deacon Anders body. Bethany enters Deacon Anders mind and tells Demon 23 that she forgives him and she loves him and he must return to from whence he came.
Resolution
Deacon Anders is exposed and stripped of his priesthood. Bethany is in a much better place. She performs exorcisms on possessed kids and offers educational classes for parents on how to move forward and nurture their children’s spiritual well-being as opposed to abandoning them because they are scared. She has many opportunities to date and does with confidence. One day Brad comes back into her life and they fall in love. She doesn’t realize he is possessed by Demon 23 who realizes he never actually wanted to possess Bethany, he wanted to love her.
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Deni B. Sher’s 4 Act Transformational Structure
“What I learned doing this assignment is how important it is to make sure you illuminate the protagonist’s old ways of behavior, so that when they go through their character arc that the new ways are obvious and lead to their change, but also it’s important to include, (in my case) when and how the change agent steps in to keep the protagonist on her journey of healing as a co-dependent enabler.
CONCEPT: A true story of a co-dependent mother’s journey (internal & external) when she attempts to save her son from addiction and alcoholism, but ends up saving herself from co-dependency and learns that only the addict can save themself.
OLD WAYS:
Ignorant of Addiction (naïve)
Head buried in sand (denial)
Gullible
Afraid of her son dying
Would do anything to keep him from failing (enabling)
Enabled him with money
Blind to her own faults and co-dependency
NEW WAYS:
Stopped supporting him financially
Knowledge of Addiction
Let go and Let God
Faced the Truth about herself
Accepted the truth that she was co-dependent and an enabler
Accepted that her son might die without her enabling
Learned about and understood familial dysfunction and codependency
Act 1:
Opening: Deni handing Chris his passport and a one-way airline ticket to Germany and bitching at him for lying, stealing and using drugs. Tells him she never wants to see him again and that he needs to put himself in a rehab, that she can’t save him or takes his aggravation any longer.<div>
Inciting Incident: Chris calls his mom from Germany, begs her to come home, promises he stopped using drugs and alcohol and wants to turn his life around. She agrees to fly him home, but when she tells her fiancé, Arthur (Antagonist) he’s coming home, Arthur reminds her of all his lies and how he sucks her in. Their discussion is the inciting incident.
Turning Point: After Deni invests nearly $8000 to set her son up again with a car, apartment, clothing, cell phone, and food, she learns he is depressed and drinking alcohol. Arthur steps in to remind her that she’s enabling again. She goes to his apartment, they have a huge battle and Deni does tough love; kicks him out, they fight and separate yelling at each other.
Act 2: Deni is now out of her comfort box. Unbearable. No turning back.
New plan: Deni comes home crying her eyes out and asks God, “How does a mother turn her back on her son?” She sits and writes for 4 hours, hears music and God answers her. She believes she has had a calling to write a musical, she titles what she wrote, “Mom’s Opera” at the end of her writing. </div>
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Plan in action: Whenever Deni is inspired, she writes. She shoots from the hip most of the time.
<div>
Midpoint Turning Point: Chris continued drinking and his girlfriend, Rachel found cocaine in his pants pocket and he was keeping money from her. She attempts to kick him out, but they talk and he stays, promising not to use anything anymore. He had hepatitis from drinking so much. He quit drinking and drugging and called me after 5 months. We had a heart to heart and he invited me to visit them. Arthur will say things to me as my antagonist.
Act 3:
Rethink everything: When I visited his apartment, I was shocked at his artwork. And how it expressed his pain. But he was still filled with so much anger. I had no idea of the amount of work involved in recovery. My finger was pointed at Chris and I had no idea how I ignored my own emotions and continued to push them down. My son didn’t die. I was walking on clouds. We were communicating again. Arthur reminds me not to get too excited.</div><div>
New plan: Stayed clean 8 months, then relapsed, drank a beer then did coke, Rachael threatened to kick him out, so he went to NA meetings. Admitted he was an addict 10/28/2003. 2005, and then, went college to study graphic design.
Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift: Rachel emails Deni while she’s in Japan to tell her she’s fearful for Chris’ life, that he’s chemically becoming a monster with a death wish. Was taking Vyvanse for ADD. Relapsed. Lost 40 pounds. Arthur will add to his role as my change agent.
Act 4:
Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: Deni arranges an intervention where Chris’ friend’s call him. </div>
Resolution: Chris goes to rehab for first time. Deni visits him and with a therapist they talk about their history and Chris tells Deni about things she did when he was young, that affected him. Deni admits to her short comings and realizes she too has to deal with her issues of codependency and take an honest look at how she got to where is got to as a co-dependent mother. They don’t speak for many months while each deal with their new realities. Eventually, mother and son both heal. Chris marries a woman who doesn’t drink or do drugs, has a wonderful wife and two healthy sons. Is now 12 years clean and sober. Deni and Chris have an amazing relationship and Chris’ wife is like the daughter Deni never had!
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Suzanne Baird – Lesson 5: 4-Act Transformational Structure
What did I learn for this exercise? I think the Stephanie character could turn against Daria, while in the fight. Daria might feel more alone but has learned enough to challenge Monroe. I need to do more research on the system and flow of Dark Money.
1. Give us the following:
Concept – After the death of her husband and later young son, Daria discovers a common thread between the events. Both could have been avoided through laws and government. At the root is Dark Money in the system. Daria battles Senator Monore to reveal the depth of destruction the system perpetuates.
Main Conflict – Sentaor Monore and his colleagues benefit and see no reason to change the system. Daria gains media attention and becomes the face of campaign reform and the defeat of Citizens United.
Old Ways – Powerless, self-doubt
works in a Luxury Hotel
Dedicated single mother
New Ways – empowered, a fighter for others against Monroe
A student of Citizens United v. FEC
Determined to fix campaign finance and restore honest voting
2. Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.
Act 1:
Opening – Daria is introduced as she works in the hotel, and we see her daily routine—Sans husband but with her young son.
Inciting Incident – Her son suddenly dies because due to a nuance of health care policy and lack of insurance.
Turning Point – When a connection is made between unlimited spending, lobbyist, and healthcare policies, Daria sets her sites on the poster child of CU in her state.
Act 2:
New plan- gather allies and information for the fight
Plan in action – Stephanie from the hotel, creates a powerful network for Daria
Midpoint Turning Point – They confront Monroe, and he threatens them both. That’s when they discover his secret. Daria realizes the game has changed for her.
Act 3:
Rethink everything – Daria is conflicted in using the new information
New plan she goes to Monroe with what she has learned and promises not to tell his family if he starts working for Campaign fin. reform
Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift – Monroe can’t turn from those who put him in power. So he loses his family or his career. Daria discovers nothing is as it seems.
Act 4:
Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict – Daria runs for Monroes seat on the promise to clean up his office. She gets money thrown at her campaign that she isn’t aware of and has to decide how to handle it
Resolution – She exposes the process, how it works and whos responsible so that the public understands why it’s all-important. We end with not knowing if she succeeds.
3. Once you have created the 4-Act Structure for your Protagonist, go back over it to see if there is any big-picture points you need to add to represent your Antagonist.
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5.ASSIGNMENT
Create a first draft of your 4 Act Transformational Structure.
“What I learned doing this assignment is if you rush your story you may lose the deeper poetry of the character’s experience because you have to do something in 24 hours to open the next lesson.
1.
A woman left for dead in the desert by traffickers who steal her two children, survives and vows to get them back. On this journey she is helped by a range of characters who shelter her in situations that range from tents and pick up trucks to her eventual marriage to an American retired police officer who joins her quest to find her son and daughter, a tableaux of characters from the experiences of immigrants in the US. After a new search, they locate the son, now a gang member, who rejects her, breaking her heart, and then the daughter, who embraces her mother as family. Her son is now Ana Victoria’s enemy, but they both feel conflicted about it. Near the end the son re-emerges and recognizes Victoria as his mother, but is it too late to save him from the law or gang members?
INTERNAL JOURNEY: Ana Victoria starts the movie as an abused, abject slave who was trafficked after her dead ex-husband left debt with local criminals. She dreams of starting again in a new life, but she is weak and uncertain of what she can do.
EXTERNAL JOURNEY: From victimized illegal woman to confident, networked American who can still love and seek justice. Ana Victoria learns that she is strong enough to work, love, and find people who she can trust.
OLD WAYS:
Afraid, widow of a debtor
Dominated by others
Single mother can’t protect her children
Manipulative, expects to be preyed on
Violence equals justice, dreams of it
NEW WAYS:
Confident but tested in her search
Mother courageous learns to fight for other immigrants
Becomes respectable by learning to trust better people
Resolves her search and vendetta
Accepts her son and Carminaas individuals on their own path
Act 1: 30 pages
Opening:
A still figure lying in the desert. An animal comes close to the figure. A sharp sound scares it away.
A woman is remembering what happened and dreaming.
Ana Victoria (AV) is in a SUV speeding through the desert. Sounds of the desert and the air rushing by in the night. In the front seat two men on either side of our heroine Ana Victoria. The men are joking with her that she would be happy in a place where they have fun. At first visual the audience cannot tell that she is not a friend or familiar to them, but a woman being driven across the border by traffickers. The driver says they are in the United States now. Near where the church group leaves water she asks. Yes, he confirms, but we are not stopping there tonight. The two men start to molest AV. The two children are asleep in the back of the truck, drugged with a mild sedative. AV objects and starts to fight them. This was not the deal her husband agreed to. But he is dead and she has no money to pay for this trip across the border. One man tells her that they have a buyer for her little girl and some interest in her little boy, so that will repay the debt she and her husband owed them. One tells her she is not a virgin, so she should get some practice. They want to recommend her for a nice brothel outside of Chicago. AV’s resistance escalates. It becomes difficult to drive. She kicks the man in the passenger seat and he opens the door to the truck, it swings open but the driver does not stop. AV is trying to kick him out of the open door or cause the driver to stop. The men start to punch her to control her violent response. She hits back. In frustration the man in the passenger side grabs her and flings her from the truck. The truck slows down but does not stop. The lights recede into the night. AV is knocked out laying near the truck tracks.
A woman is dreaming. She imagines her children. Her husband, their father, loved them. He loved her. In her dream she sees her family. Then something jumps in the darkness. Her memory shifts to a crisis. Her husband says they must leave. Their lives are in danger. His life is in danger here. The decision to leave home and head for the United States was not easy. The local gang controlled the south western city where they lived, where her husband, a local police officer, became a political thorn in their side trying to organize people to reject and resist them. His captain is dead. There is no way to defend the station. It is hopeless. The husband used contacts online to find a trip north. They will have to get on a train heading to the borderland where they will get off in Nogales. There are men there who can make the crossing to the United States easier, with a military connections and a vehicle that can withstand the desert. Flash to La Bestia, a train called the Beast, where the family is squeezed into a small space in a crowded car. The train is full of foreigners from south of the Mexican border. No one will follow them on this route or imagine they are among so many desperate people going north. Sounds of horror, of women crying because they are being raped by men on the train. Her husband stands watch over his family. The children are afraid, but they sleep next to their mother. In Nogales, they find a guest house that will rent a room to them until they can cross. Her husband goes out to find information. He returns and tells AV he wants to go and see the border which is about 40 miles from their location. He will hitch a ride with a local, then walk the last 10 miles at night. Maybe they can save money and cross on foot. AV should stay in the guest house until he returns.
Inciting Incident: In the morning there is some commotion outside. The guest house owner tells AV that her husband was found dead in the desert. She places her hands over the heart. They are willing to bury her husband on credit, but this will increase her debt. Her husband made contacts who know the guest house. They know she is waiting for them.
Optional: AV identifies her husband- or the local officer hands her his backpack that has his id.
Turning Point: The guest house owner tells AV to take all of their things out front. Men are coming to take them across the desert to the United States. AV and the children carry backpacks. A truck pulls up. A man gets out. He approaches AV and the children. He has a bottle with water in it. He tells her that the children should drink something before they start the trip. It will help them sleep and deal with the trip. She realizes he is insisting that she give them some of the bottle. To help them sleep, yes? Yes, he tells her. They carry the children to the truck. The man orders AV to ride up front with he and the driver.
Morning in the desert. Someone is pouring water from a plastic bottle on AV’s face. There are three people speaking English. This is the United States, one says. We don’t want you to die. The group helps get AV into their vehicle. She mumbles that she needs to find her children. The group look at one another. There is no one within miles because they have done a circuit looking for migrants. One points out the deep tire tracks. A powerful SUV went through here. AV mumbles, they took my children. God protect them, a member of the group says. Another says quietly, we can’t catch them and if the patrol gets to them first, they will go into child protective services and get a temporary adoption. AV passes out.
Act 2: 30 pages
New Play
AV is cleaning a church in Arizona. She is working as a day domestic and she volunteers to help the church where she was rescued. She meets an older man who is praying. His wife died two years ago. He is retired from the sheriff’s department in Chicago. He moved to Arizona for the sun and hiking. He asks AV if he can help her move the furniture. She tells him her husband was also a police officer. He died on the trip to the US. They have coffee. He discovers that AV lost her children who were taken north to Chicago by traffickers. She tells him their story. She wants to go north and search for them. Nothing else is as important as seeing her children again. The man is interested in AV and helping her. He feels protective toward her and he wants her to find him interesting. He tells her he can make some calls and see if there are any records of her children being taken into the system. After Church on Sunday he asks her if she would like to come over for something to eat. AV accepts his invitation. He puts a map on the table and talks to her about Chicago, how far it is by train or highway, where Mexicans live in La Villeta and Pilsen. He offers to take her north where they can ask people in the Mexican communities if they know how to find her children. AV is impressed with how this man is caring for her by helping her, listening to her. She knows they both need love. They begin a passionate affair. The search is something they can work on together. It revives his sense of purpose and mission. He grows stronger loving again. AV marries him.
Plan in action: AV and her new boyfriend make trips to search for the children. They get some information about where the gangs who control the desert around Nogales have sold under-age migrants as laborers in the Chicago area. AV finds contacts in organizations that help immigrants reunite their families. They involve her in conversations about strategy and put out messages online with information about her search. There is a panoply or people and places that are new, where all share the label of immigrant. The people they meet encourage her. She feels real hope, but there are thousands of people who lost their relatives on the trip north, generations of people who have a connection to this experience and understand loss. AV meets people with stories about the immigrant experience.
Midpoint Turning Point: Despite the frustration of not finding her son and daughter, AV vows to go on. Her new husband convinces her to rest back home with him so that she can keep up her strength and think through their next moves in the search. Back home, she keeps in touch with the immigrant organizations, helping when she can. One day a woman calls to tell her that she thinks she knows where the traffickers left her children. AV goes out into the desert and prays. There is hope.
Act 3: 30 pages
AV and her husband explore dead ends, one or two dangerous situations, but do not find Gael and Carmina. AV’s husband stays home while AV goes back to Chicago and revisits the people she met there. AV goes to work for a temp agency. She sees how exploited people are in the city. Someone from a church organization thinks they may know her daughter’s stepparents, a couple that applied to adopt and were rejected because of their age and some hostility toward new immigrants. Eventually, AV finds Carmina, who was adopted by an older business couple in Chicago.
Rethink everything. Carmina wanted to find her real mother. She wants to join her mother’s search for her brother. They start searching together.
New plan: Carmina enlists her stepparents who reveal how they found her. Their information leads to organized criminals who do business in the immigrant enclaves of the city and travel to the borderland where their connections bring in people and illegal products.
Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift: People in the community tell AV that she is attracting the attention of the FBI and authorities, bringing too much attention to them by hostile officers. There are many people who are not related to her search who need to hide their origins or their taxes or many things that the authorities could use to hurt their families. AV persists in harassing some gang members. Gang members shoot at AV and her daughter. AV discovers her connections are telling her to go home now. This will get worse. One or two swear they will keep their eyes open for her. Carmina decides to stay with her stepparents instead of moving to Arizona to rejoin her mother. The two form a real relationship that is not going away. With half of her search completed, AV returns to Arizona with mixed feelings. In part, she cannot abandon the search for Gael because that would be abandoning part of herself, her baby.
Act 4: 30 pages
Carmina joins the search for her brother. She finds a woman who knows the gang members. She tells her that there was a young boy who the gang leader adopted in his own family because the child was so attractive, a real devil doll.
Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict
Gael meets AV. He tells her that he loves his family here. He was told that she abandoned them in the desert on the way north. That she made a deal to give up her children to pay off debt. His adoptive father is a successful man. His organization is powerful. Did she make that deal or not? Gael knows that she did, even if she did not understand what it would mean. It was AV’s fault that she lost her family in the desert. She is harassing him and his family. She has to stop or she may be hurt. No one wants to disrupt their relationships. Gael is beautiful, healthy, but menacing, groomed to do more evil as he grows older. AV considers killing his new family to fulfill her revenge, but her daughter’s love stops her from going on a last mission.
Resolution
AV accepts that Gael and Carmina have their own paths. She found them again. Her vendetta would never make up for what people experienced while trying to survive at the mercy of traffickers and exploiters. What is love? The desert in her heart may never entirely close. Perhaps they all died on that trip north and were revived, reborn in a new day where there was more hope.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by Kimberly Reed.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by Kimberly Reed.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by
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What I learned is that we can transform the 3 act structure into a 4 act structure with about equal number of pages for each.
Concept: After the death of her husband and brother in law Dona Gracia finds herself at the helm off the biggest spice fortune in XVI century Europe and decides to help her fellow Conversos escape persecution by the Inquisition.
Main conflict: Dona gracia’s sister Brianda denounces her to the Inqusition in an effort to put her hands on her own par5 of the inheritance which Dona Gracia controls.
Old ways: carefree/guided by husband/apolitical
New ways:Self confident/ in charge/fights for a cause
Act 1:
Opening: carefree life in Venice
Inciting incident: the sister denounces Dona Gracia to the authorities for heresy
Turning point:The inquisition puts her in house arrest
Act 2:
New plan: Escape from Venice and help Conversos escape Europe to the Ottoman Elmore using her own fleet.
Plan in action: find refuge in Ferrara where Jews are tolerated
Midpoint turning point: she converts back to Judaism and assumes the name of Hana Nasi
Act 3:
Rethinking everything: Find refuge in the Ottoman Empire after the outbreak of the plague
New Plan: Organize the boycott of the port of Ancona to punish the ope and the 8 question persecuting the Conversos.
Turning point: huge failure/ major shift. The boycott fails and Dona Gracia shifts her focus to finding a homeland for the Conversos.
Act 4:
climax/ ultimate expression of the conflict: negotiate with the Sultan the use of the city of Tiberius as a homeland for the Conversos.
Resolution: first settlers sent to Tiberius to establish worm farms and create a silk textile industry.
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ASSIGNMENT
Chuck Czech’s 4 Act Transformational Structure
What I learned — Writing fast is tough when you’re involved in world building; but by focusing on the protagonist’s arc helps generate new ideas.
Concept
An autistic lab assistant barely escapes a catastrophic laboratory accident — but he can’t stop driving away or the alien monster he helped conjure will escape from his trunk and consume the world.
Main Conflict
An alien species wants to conquer all the Earths in the multiverse, one after another, by infecting them with a powerful, all-consuming organism.
Old Ways
Isolated and lonely
Dependent and deferential
Awkward and outcast
New Ways
Integrated and social
Independent and influential
Awkward and accepted
Act 1:
Opening We meet Ronan as he drives endlessly across the roads of America. If he stops for more than an hour, the high tech capsule in his trunk will open and unleash the deadly organism. He has no plan beyond just driving.
Through flashbacks, we learn the organism was sent by a hostile species from another dimension (the Strangers) who want to conquer the various versions of the Earth in the multiverse. A team of scientists resisted this plan, but it resulted in a major explosion that killed them all.
Ronan foiled the plan, not by heroics, but by simply driving the capsule out of the reach of the Strangers’ inter-dimensional influence.
Inciting Incident Ronan encounters a woman, Paulina, who says she knows him, but Ronan’s sure Paulina died in the explosion. Because he’s lonely, he takes her on the journey. Turning Point Ronan and Paulina are chased by a Stranger in a car but are rescued by Brendan, another person Ronan is sure died in the explosion. All three take off together in Ronan’s car.
Act 2:
New Plan Reluctantly, Ronan yields to Brendan, who proposes a plan to return to the destroyed laboratory site to see if they can destroy the capsule and close the doors between dimensions. Plan in Action When Brendan has difficulty traveling without calling attention to themselves, Ronan guides them through their journey using his proven driving techniques.
Ronan comes to realize that Paulina and Brendan are not the two people he knows, but their doubles from another version of Earth that was conquered by the Strangers.
Midpoint Turning Point When they arrive at the ruins of the lab, they come to realize that when Paulina and Brendan made the leap one version of the Earth to Ronan’s Earth, they brought a handful of Strangers with them.
The Strangers ambush them, and Ronan escapes alone in the car.
Act 3:
Rethink Everything Ronan could continue driving as he had before — alone and directionless— but decides to contact Paulina and Brendan, knowing his old plan is pointless and he needs extra help. New Plan Ronan proposes a means to reverse the polarity of the capsule and send the organism back the way it came from.
This requires recruiting another lab and research team, whom Ronan knows through connections with his late father.
Turning Point: Huge Failure / Major Shift The new team cannot reverse the capsule. The Strangers’ arrive and disrupt the plan — they steal the car and the capsule.
Act 4:
Climax/Ultimate Expression of the Conflict Ronan, Paulina and Brendan make one final attempt to recapture the capsule, but it slips through their fingers.
Brendan, thinking all hope is lost, tries to take control of the capsule in an attempt to save his skin and jump to another version of Earth.
Ronan struggles with Brendan, takes control of the capsule, reverses the polarity and kills the organism in the resulting conflagration.
Resolution As the authorities begin cleaning up the mess and shutting down the project, Ronan quietly drives away. He asks Paulina if she’d join him on another random journey, and she says yes.
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What I learned doing this assignment is to break down a story into a 4 act structure
Create a first draft of your 4 Act Transformational Structure.
1. Give us the following:
Concept: After the death of her
husband Dona Gracia, the heiress to the biggest spice trading fortune in Europe decides to help her fellow
conversos by taking on the Inquisition.Main Conflict: The main conflict
is between the two sisters, Brianda wanting to recuperate her inheritance which
Dona Gracia manages for her after the death of her husband.Old Ways: carefree, guided by her
husband/ apolitical.New Ways: Self-confident / in
charge/fights for a cause.2. Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.
Act 1:
Opening: carefree life in Venice
Inciting Incident: The sister
denounces Dona Gracia
Turning Point: The Inquisition
arrests herAct 2:
New plan: Escape from Venice and
help conversos escape
Plan in action: Go to Ferrara.and
continue the court case against her sister and to keep custody of Ana
Midpoint Turning Point: Convert
back to Judaism.Act 3:
Rethink everything: Plague
outbreak in Ferrara and Find refuge in the Ottoman Empire.
New plan: Organize the boycott of
the port of Ancona to punish the Pope’s persecution of conversos. Brianda’s
last attempt to put her hands to Ana’s inheritance.
Turning Point: Huge failure /
Major shift: Brianda dies. The Boycott fails and Dona Gracia turns her
attention to create a homeland for her people.Act 4:
Climax/Ultimate expression of the
conflict: Negotiate with the Sultan a settlement for all conversos in the
Ottoman Empire.
Resolution: Begin the establishment
of a homeland in the city of Tiberius with the establishment of silkworm
farms and a textile industry3. Once you have created the 4-Act Structure for your Protagonist, go back over it to see if there is any big picture points you need to add to represent your Antagonist.
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Joy Geldard-Smith’s 4 Act Transformational Structure
What I learned doing this assignment is… The 4 Act structure will stop the screenplay from sagging in the middle. I’ve always loved to have a structure in place when writing (it’s the project manager in me!) but this is almost a ‘tighter’ structure and it helps define the story without getting too bogged down in the details at this stage.
Room of Love
1. Give us the following:
Concept: An accountant trying to prove to herself that she isn’t boring takes a sickie from work to go to a puzzle room, only to find herself accidentally locked in with an artist who is livestreaming the whole thing to build his profile.
Main Conflict: Can they both change their careers and accept each other’s love?
Old Ways: Madison: Accountant, playing it safe, being unfulfilled and unhappy.
Jose: Trying to live up to everyone else’s expectations and making it on his own as an artist.New Ways: Madison: Embracing creativity and happiness, herself and the love of Jose.
Jose: Accepting his own creative vision, the ability to make mistakes, valuing both himself and Madison as true artists.
2. Fill in each of these with the answers you have right now.
Act 1:
Opening: Madison excelling at her boring accountant life.
Inciting Incident: She takes a sick day and ends up locked in the
puzzle room with Jose.Turning Point: She is fired from her job after they see the
livestream.Act 2:
New plan: Manager convinces Madison to do another show/puzzle room.
Plan in action: They are both a nightmare for each other but do
puzzle rooms in several cities.
Midpoint Turning Point: They have gone viral and everyone is
speculating about whether or not they will get together.Act 3:
Rethink everything: Madison knows she can’t go back to being an
accountant but can’t bear to go on working with Jose.
New plan: She wants to try stand up comedy.
Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift: She bombs at her first
gig but Jose is there for her.Act 4:
Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: She agrees to do one
more puzzle room with Jose for money and he proposes.
Resolution: She says yes and they support each other as artists.
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