Lesson 6

[Ira Drower]

Ira Drower’s Action Structure Steps

I learned the three tracks, mission, villain, and action for my story contain the plot points for a 3-Act structure helping to define the story.

1. Look through your three tracks (Mission, Villain, and Action) and find the points that could work for this structure.

Opening – 2 Local Hunters are killed after surprising a lethal Alien
Predator near Area 54, a secret prison for extraterrestrials.

Inciting Incident – Prof Warner activates his teleportation device inadvertently
signaling an Alien Predator his escape route may be working.

First Turning Point at end of Act 1 – Frank is offered a full pardon
for his war crimes conviction if he can capture the Alien Predator.

Mid-Point – Frank captures an unauthorized Alien but it is the wrong
one. He tracks and hunts the Alien Predator in a cat and mouse game.

Second Turning Point at end of Act 2 – The hunted becomes the
hunter. The Alien Predator takes the fight to Frank as it attacks the
prison trying to break in.

Crisis – Frank battles the Alien Predator using his advanced skill
set and senses along with military training to take down the Alien
Predator.

Climax – Frank must now battle an Alien spy, an Alien Bounty hunter,
and a regiment of assassins from the Predator’s home planet whom all want
it dead.

Resolution – Frank kills the lead assassin allowing the Alien
Predator to take its place as the leader of its Warrior race and leave Earth.

[Bob Rowen]

Bob Rowen’s Action Structure!

What I learned doing this assignment is a way of weaving the storyline into a working draft of a three-act structure, and how this process keeps generating more ideas that will probably result in an Action Drama Genre. We’ll see.

Look through your three tracks (Mission, Villain, and Action) and find the points that could work for this structure. Fill in any missing points and tell us the current version of your structure.

1. Opening (Usually last 1-4 pages, be
interesting as possible, and starts with ACTION that give flavor of movie)

Prater (Hero) is introduced in access control of the nuclear facility on his way to Minus 66 for a dangerous job assignment under the reactor.

A nuclear accident occurs under the reactor. Prater and another nuclear control technician, Ray Hastings, become grossly contaminated when reactor water and reactor crud rains down on them during the accident.

2. Inciting Incident (an event that sets movie in
motion, makes big enough change in Hero’s life that he must go on the
journey to resolve it)

During a meeting with Edgar (Villain) immediately following the opening scene, Prater locks horns with Edgar over what happened at Minus 66, a number of reoccurring unsafe working conditions at the nuclear facility, and the company’s attitude regarding needless and senseless radiation exposure. Edgar says “the contamination really isn’t a problem, it’s just a nuisance!” An angry Prater serves notice that he “did not hire on to commit suicide in order to collect a goddamn paycheck”.

Prater continues to be a threat to Edgar’s role of promoting and protecting a failed and dangerous technology in order for the Far-West Gas and Electric Company to “go-nuclear” all along the California coastline.

3. First Turning Point at end of Act
1 (major twist in story and a point
of no return from this point on, Hero can’t go back)

Extremely radioactive “mysterious” particles are found flying around outside the plant’s radiation controlled area. After discovering the company’s removal of the most important element of the radiological monitoring system at the South Bay Elementary School downwind from the nuclear facility, Prater confronts Edgar and all hell breaks loose!

Edgar denies Prater access to an AEC compliance inspector who was in the plant and then threatens Prater if he goes to the AEC on his own. Prater is forced off the road and crashes on his way to meet with a Wall Street Journal reporter. An injured Prater escapes and his documentation disappears

4. Mid-Point/Dilemma (twist that changes the meaning of
the movie – the journey remains the same – but the purpose or meaning has
changed. Hero must make a very tough decision. He loses something either
way. He has to choose between his goal and his need)

In consultation with his wife, Kathryn, Prater must choose between a lucrative career and doing the right thing; that is, pursuing what he sees as a “moral imperative”. Prater, along with another control technician, Forrest Williams, decide to cause a ruckus at a required company safety meeting in order to publicly address management’s illegal and immoral conduct.

There is a barroom fight between Prater’s small group of supporters and a large number of Edgar’s company men who view Prater as a troublemaker and a threat to their livelihoods.

5. Second Turning Point at end of Act 2 (Hero’s plan has completely failed & it looks like there is little hope. Hero feels defeated. He has to accept something about himself or he has to accept that his way of doing things won’t work anymore)

Edgar very publicly engages Prater in the control room.

The verbal altercation between Edgar and Prater turns physical and Prater is fired for striking his superior.

6. Crisis/Dilemma (The Hero is charged with
committing industrial sabotage and involved in a plot to blow up the power
plant. Hero must make another very tough decision. He loses something
either way. This is the toughest decision of his life. He has to choose
between exonerating himself or revealing his source)

Prater is shown a false confidential police report sent to the FBI that would enable him to prove the company conspired to make him a national security risk. In order to clear his record, Prater would have to reveal his source but promised he wouldn’t.

Prater befriended a University professor, Dr. Kasun, who had suggested he must go public as quickly and in as many difference ways as possible in order to protect himself and his family. Dr. Kasun suggests he appeal the decision that he was “terminated with cause” in order to require Edgar and others to testify under oath.

7. Climax (The entire movie has been
building to this final conflict. This is the biggest expression of the
conflict of this movie. The Hero and Villain come face to face for the
showdown. And there will be only one winner)

The two-day Hearing before the California Unemployment Appeals Board provides Prater an opportunity to obtain transcripts of the Edgar’s, et al., testimonies.

Prater wins his case and uses the transcripts of the Hearings to write his book My Mendocino Bay Diary: A true story of betrayal of the public trust.

<div>8. Resolution (After all this conflict, we come
to the end of the journey. The resolution gives us an answer to the
question the Inciting Incident asked. It tells how the conflict ended)</div>

At one of his author events and book signings, Prater is asked, “Whatever happened to Edgar Skaggs? Prater responds, “I have no idea”, as if he could care less!

However, another person in the audience says, “I know what happened to him. He developed terminal cancer and committed suicide.”

Then another person blurts out, “Ray Hastings and Warren Hanson also died of cancer”.

Still another person says, “I’ve buried a lot of my classmates at South Bay Elementary School”.

[Chris Spizuoco]

Chris’s Action Structure

What I learned doing this assignment is scene writing will become much easier with proper structure in place.

OPENING: the opening shows our Hero, a special ops military veteran, returning home and struggling with PTSD. He’s being followed by a mysterious figure in a car, and when he tries to confront them, they drive away. This sets up the question of who is following him and why.

THE INCITING INCIDENT: our Hero’s billionaire father is hospitalized and our hero is accused of attempted murder. This forces him to clear his name and find the true assassin.

END OF ACT ONE (first turning point): our Hero discovers that he’s being framed for his father’s near-death and must go on the run to evade the authorities.

MIDPOINT: our Hero discovers new information (changes the meaning) as he learns that his father’s business partner may be behind the assassination attempt.

END OF ACT TWO: our Hero’s plan to catch the real assassin has failed, and the villain seems unbeatable. Our Hero realizes that he needs to use himself as bait to lure out the villain and confront him directly.

CRISIS/DILEMMA: our Hero is faced with a tough decision – risk his own life to catch the villain and clear his name, or to give up and go into hiding (choose between his goal and need for self-preservation)

CLIMAX: the final conflict occurs when our Hero confronts the villain in a shootout. Using his unique skill set, our Hero is able to outsmart the villain and capture him.

RESOLUTION: shows our Hero clearing his name and being exonerated. He reconciles with his father and comes to terms with his conflicted feelings about power and money. The villain is brought to justice and our Hero is able to move on with his life.

[Christopher Confer]

What I learned doing this assignment is…?

Create the 3-Act structure for your story.

1. Look through your three tracks (Mission, Villain, and Action) and find the points that could work for this structure.

1. Opening: Judge Ken and Judge Jason have a personal gym between their chambers in the circuit court building in which they beat each other with Shinais while fully dressed in Kendo gear. After their kendo workout, they pump some iron and cool down on their tread mills. Judge Ken has to run an errand to the grocery store before court starts that day.

2. Inciting Incident: Judge Ken driving to the grocery store he witnesses Burlyman cutoff a pickup truck carrying pallets, making it go off the road and pallets go flying into a boy and his mother while they are leaving a skills learning center for math.

3. First Turning Point at end of Act 1: The boy dying at the hospital and his mom asking the judges to avenge her son’s death. He was only 11.

4. Mid-Point: Bad guys come after Judge Jason and Judge Ken by trying ram them with a garbage truck after their henchmen see them talking to the mom at the hospital.

5. Second Turning Point at end of Act 2: Kirill, the SBU ringleader kidnaps Judge Jason’s wife.

6. Crisis: Rescue Judge Jason’s wife but they get tortured in the sensory deprivation tank at Kirill’s compound. Judge Jason says, “I’ve these tanks before in the service. Pretend they broke you and us when we come out of here and it will be easier to take them.”

7. Climax: They brake free or are rescued by Judge Jason’s wife who crashes a flying car into Kirill’s compound /mansion taking out a chunk of his little army because the idiots were all eating dinner in the same room.

8. Resolution: Judge Jason kills Kirill with a microwave weapon and Judge Ken fights Burlyman in a hand-to-hand fight and then ultimately with his .22 caliber umbrella.

2. Fill in any missing points and tell us the current version of your structure with a sentence or two for each point. I can’t think of any missing points yet.

[Jeannine Hegelbach]

<div>Jeannine Hegelbach’s Action Structure
</div><div>

Opening

</div>

Jordan gets dropped in a jail cell among gang members, unconscious, beaten up and tortured. He wakes up and has to defend himself against the other inmates.

Inciting Incident

He starts to remember being interrogated and accused of the murder of his twin brother.

First Turning Point at end of Act 1

Jordan heats up gang members against each other and manages to escape the prison and run into the desert.

Mid-Point

Jordan finds out that the CIA is after him and that his brother might connected to them.

Second Turning Point at end of Act 2

Jordan falls for the deception of Beckster and runs right into the trap set up in the CIA training facility.

Crisis

Beckster sends his twin brother out to kill him, controlled by the brain implant, and Jordan has to kill him, if he wants to survive.

Climax

Jordan fights Beckster and was able to reprogram his brother.

Resolution

Jordan finds out from this twin brother, that Beckster was their father and tried to revenge the loss of their mother.