Lesson 7 Assignments

[Paige Macdonald]

Paige’s 4-Act Structure

What I’ve learned is I don’t need perfection now but to start thinking how the drama and action will escalate and keep the audience involved. It’s taking shape. More to come.

INTRAVERSE

Concept: An abruptly awoken eccentric navigator must figure out if it’s the ship’s AI or her madness that is putting the mission and crew at risk.

Main Conflict: The spaceship’s learning AI is becoming schizophrenic, literally and figuratively challenging the course the ship and its crew members will take.

Act 1:

Opening: On the ship, the navigator is abruptly awoken by the ship’s supercomputer to verify a course direction change due to a space anomaly.

Inciting Incident: The navigator questions why the ship’s AI needs her verification.

Turning Point: Fluid starts mimicking Evers’ dead sister’s voice, challenging her, and then reverts back.

Act 2:

New plan: Test the hypothesis. Is she going crazy or is Fluid malfunctioning?

Plan in action: A cat-and-mouse game between Evers and Fluid, both testing each other.

Midpoint Turning Point: Reveal that both her and Fluid, who’s emotionally tied to Evers, are going schizophrenic, and it’s putting the whole mission and crew at risk.

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Validate the data. Verify her diagnosis, the ship’s trajectory and the bond between her and Fluid.

New plan: Evers confronts the voices of people she abandoned from her past through Fluid.

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift: Fluid manipulates Evers into believing that she’ll never be loved by anyone or even needs to exist. Evers threatens to take her own life like her sister did.

Act 4:

Final plan: Disconnect Fluid and supersede her orders in order to save the crew from her and the impending space anomaly. (Evers is needed.)

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: Evers disconnects herself from Fluid by ripping out her ear-wire connection, defies Fluid’s orders and takes an axe to her core, essentially killing Fluid. But the anomaly was real. Ticking clock countdown where the ship goes on emergency systems and Evers has to keep life support going, while trying to pilot the ship manually out of a collapsing star’s pull, which threatens everyone on board.

Resolution: Evers saves the ship, but the irony is she can’t go back into stasis and has to stay awake for the years it’ll take to get to their destination, alone and without going crazy.

[Gayle Jackson]

Gayle Jackson’s 4-Act Structure

What I learned doing this assignment is… it helps to do a first pass purely on instinct. Then once the bones of the story are together, it is easier to add layers and dimensions to enhance each element.

Concept – When a couple
working as paranormal investigators decide to divorce, the ghosts living
in their house try to reunite them accidentally unleashing a demon trying
to kill them all.
Main Conflict – The
estranged couple (Rick and Samantha) are not talking to one another and
won’t work together to save their own lives.

Act 1:

Opening – Rick and
Samantha were a formidable team who are now on different paths
Inciting Incident – They
get offered a reality series that would put their plans for a family on
hold
Turning Point – Rick
accepts the offer without discussing it with Samantha and she files for
divorce.

Act 2:

New plan – Caroline
decides to reunite the couple
Plan in action – Caroline
locks Samantha in the house and Rick has to rescue her
Midpoint Turning Point – Samantha
figures out what is happening and tries to get Caroline to give Rick the
correct ritual to let her out but Rick cannot find the correct ritual to
undo the spell.

Act 3:

Rethink everything – Caroline
and the ghosts want Rick to unite with Samantha but that means Rick would
have to give in so Rick decides to release the evil djinn
New plan – Rick will do a
spell in reverse to get Samantha out and show her they can still be a team
by recapturing the djinn
Turning Point: Huge
failure / Major shift – the djinn wants to kill Caroline, Rick and
Samantha and uses their friend as his human vessel

Act 4:

Final plan – get rid of
the djinn by opening the dimensions that will lead him into the light
Climax/Ultimate
expression of the conflict – Samantha and Rick work together with Caroline
and the ghosts to open the heavenly dimension.
Resolution – the djinn is
released, Caroline is able to move into the light, Rick and Samantha
reunite to work on a book about the experience and start a family.

[Beth Bonness]

Subject line: Beth Bonness’ 4 Act Structure

What I learned doing this assignment is…practice with not getting caught up in too many details. I went back and forth between the psychic being the protagonist and discovered she was really the antoganist vs the storm.

Concept: an epic storm strands 3 couples at a secluded lodge owned by a psychic obsessed with adding their secret thoughts to her library.

Main Conflict: Trying to keep their secrets and escape from the lodge.

Act 1

Opening: 3 couples arrive at a secluded lodge for the weekend: an Engaged Couple, Sisters, and a Retired Couple.

Inciting Incident: An epic storm strands the couples in the lodge without any outside contact.

Turning Point: The Psychic reveals the Engaged Couple’s secrets during a Tarot session to pass the time, creeping everyone out.

Act 2

New plan: Psychic convinces everyone it’ll be a week before the roads clear and to enjoy their time at the lodge getting to know one another.

Plan in action: The Psychic serves up cocktails with a sampling of ingredients from her thought library to make everyone feel more comfortable.

Midpoint Turning Point: Retired husband is a Jungian psychologist and suspects the Psychic is drugging everyone.

Act 3

Rethink everything: Retired Wife thinks Psychic is manipulating everyone’s thoughts.

New plan: Retired couple wants to alert the other couples.

Turning Point: Sisters discover a hidden door in the Psychic’s library filled with viles of secrets from previous guests and some truth serem.

Act 4

Final plan: Couples request a relaxed dinner where they can spike the Psychic’s cocktail with the truth serum to understand her motives and try to figure out how to stop her from ruining their relationships.

Climax: The Psychic switches the cocktails, but the Engaged Couple sees and adds more to the Psychic’s cocktail when they distract her.

Resolution: Everyone starts exposing their secrets as the electricity comes back on and there’s a knock a the door — the real proprietor apologies profusely for being stranded before the storm and not able to greet them. The Psychic has disappeared. When asked about her, the Proprietor points to a portrait behind the bar showing she’s been dead for decades.

[Deanne]

Lesson 7 Structure for a Containment Movie

Deanne’s 4-Act Structure

What I learned = creating a 4-Act basic-elements first draft focused on the central conflict provides a task plan with achievable goals (the turning points.) It isn’t about getting from A to Z. It’s A to B, then B to C, etc., without worrying yet how it will all be expressed visually. Details of action and dialogue that float to the surface during the process can be noted on cards and stockpiled for later reference.

[Margaret Riseley]

Margaret’s 4-act structure

What I learned is to not get bogged down in details that at this stage are still forming and fluid.

Concept: A reluctant thief gets trapped on a boat with his victim on a suicide mission.

Main Conflict: The victim’s so-called ex-lover wants them both dead.

Act 1

Opening: Sam is released from prison, finds his pre-op transsexual sister Storm waiting in a car she stole and makes her return it.

Inciting incident: Anton will drop the charges and give Storm a job if Sam can get close to Anton’s ex-girlfriend Molly and steal back his laptop that she stole from him.

Turning Point: Sam waits on Anton’s boat with the laptop as arranged, falls asleep and wakes up heading out to sea with Molly.

Act 2

New plan: Sam tries to get Molly to turn around, she tries to dump him at sea.

Plan in action: He gives her back the laptop, turns on the charm, learns she’s deep in debt and trouble and on a suicide mission, he thinks he’s talked her out of it.

Turning point/Midpoint: It’s Molly’s boat not Anton’s, there’s a bomb on board and she didn’t plant it.

Act 3

Rethink everything: Sam defuses the bomb. Molly knows why Anton (not her ex-lover) wants her dead and the laptop destroyed but she refuses to tell Sam, and going to the cops would put her in prison.

New plan: Let the boat blow up so Anton thinks he succeeded, return to shore in the tender and get Storm away from Anton but without cops to protect Molly.

Turning point 3

Sam gets an SOS from Storm. Anton is a human trafficker and he’s sending her to Iraq tonight.

Act 4

Final plan: Rescue Storm, keep Anton away from Molly and the laptop.

Climax: (to be properly worked out) Sam breaks into Anton’s secret lair, it’s empty. He charges into Anton’s home, showdown, he shoots and kills Anton. Molly tells the cops she killed him in self-defence and where to find the girls and boys destined for Iraq.

Resolution: Storm is saved, Molly gets a light sentence, Sam visits her in prison with good news from the laptop about recouping her losses.