Module 2 -Lesson 5: Four-Act Transformational Structure

[Michael Fitzer]

Mod 2 Lesson 5
Michael Fitzer’s 4 Act Transformational Structure
My Vision: I am a great writer who is respected by my peers, writes scripts that sell and teaches future filmmakers how to succeed.
What I learned from this assignment is: This is a tough but crucial exercise which is never really "finished." I found through this that my protagonist needs to be more active and better defined in the first act.

CONCEPT: A modern-day vampire gets himself purposely sentenced to an underground maximum-security prison so he can feed on the endless supply of fellow inmates, forcing rival gangs, and a small band of prison guards to work together to defeat him.

Main Conflict: Damon Gabriel Alister is a vampire who, after being sentenced to an underground maximum-security prison, begins feeding on the population of inmates and staff. To protect themselves, inmates and staff, led by K9 officer Katie Mendoza, must band together to defeat him.

Katie Mendoza Old Ways:

1) Katie is a wounded war vet who carries her past failures and haunting visions with her.
2) She wants to protect the men on her watch, her co-workers and her dog.
3) She’s seen as capable but doesn’t see herself that way.
4) She’s afraid of failing.

Katie Mendoza New Ways:

1) ?
2) ?
3) ?
4) ?

ACT 1: 25-to-30 pages – Set Up and SEE old Ways

Opening: Katie in Afghanistan where she is wounded, fails to protect her partner, her dog and the POWs. She first sees a vampire… or does she?

As a guard, we see Katie’s desire to treat everyone with respect and we meet the men she’s charged with guarding in Dorm A.

We meet A.W. Hemenez, Sheldon, Katie’s new Doberman, Valentina, and some of the other guards.

Inciting Incident: We also meet Damon when he is brought to the prison and see he is not like the other prisoners underground. He’s not a criminal because of his upbringing or surroundings. He’s a criminal because he loves it. There is something not right about him.

Turning Point: The first prisoner winds up dead, leading Katie to suspect something is off.
TAT FACE sees it happen, reports what he sees, and Katie is the only one who believes him.
Katie is triggered.

ACT 2: 20-to-30 pages – Challenge the Old Ways

Reaction: Old memories are stirred for Katie. She must confront the fact that what she saw was real.

The Plan: She investigates with only the help of another prisoner (who everyone hates). Her trainee, Sheldon, thinks she’s nuts and tries to subvert her experience and authority.

Turning Point 2: More prisoners die, and others begin to see the real danger. More people believe Katie but the situation is now more dire and extreme.

ACT 3: 20 to 30 pages — With Midpoint change, Profound moments that give us new ways.
Midpoint (rethink): Katie and prisoners discover the only way to survive is to band together.
A) They see staff and gang affiliations are getting them killed.
B) They must overcome petty rivalries to survive.
NEW PLAN: Katie and prisoners develop a sort of army company to combat the vampire (is this the turning point?).
All is lost moment: One of Katie’s most trusted allies is killed, and Valentina is injured (or missing). AND… A.W., Hememez is revealed as a Familiar.

Act 4: 25 pages — Test the change in this character! Prove New Ways!
With Turning Point 3: Katie EMBRACES the New Way:
Katie and prisoners become a fighting unit, finally trusting, relying, and even making sacrifices for one another.
Climax: THE TEST: Face-to-Face with the Vampire. The Vampire wants blood / the inmates test the bonds of blood, Katie discovers her real strength and that she is a fighter, not just a survivor.
Resolution: The small unit survives; the Vampire is defeated and Valentina lives. Katie gets her day off (need to build in a more active want for Katie).

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by  Michael Fitzer.

[Carole Avila]

Michael,
I don’t know about you, but this exercise really forced me to think in clearer details about my story.

Just an FYI, I see Katie's new ways as her not thinking of herself as a failure, learning that she can do only so much to protect others–but even so, doesn't stop caring, and she sees herself as capable.

I am enjoying seeing your story fleshed out. Great job!
~Carole

[Susan]

Very good work for an initial pass Michael! As Hal says don’t expect to have everything come at once. I’m sure you are much farther along by now since I’m behind both of you. You said,
“The small unit survives; the Vampire is defeated and Valentina lives. Katie gets her day off (need to build in a more active want for Katie).”
Maybe the vacation was what Katie thought she wanted at the beginning of the film, but there is a deep subtext need she only fills and recognizes by working with the team in the end, and you can set it up to happen all through the film!

[Carole Avila]

Carole Avila – 4 Act Transformational Structure
My vision for this program is to learn how to create a high-concept screen play and see it through to its success.
What I learned doing this assignment is the importance of mapping out a strong structure for my script.

Concept: The story of a young woman who travels back in time to 1845 and is blackmailed into selling stolen guns to a notorious dictator so he can win the Mexican War against the United States and permanently keep the southern states as Mexican territories. The outlaw dictator is holding the woman’s time travel device for ransom (which she needs to return to her own time.) But if she sells him the guns, he may win the Mexican war and doing so will change the course of American history.

Main Conflict: While staying with her cousin, Mandy finds a time travel device and disappears into a mist. She goes back in time and assumes another woman’s identity. She has no idea how to get back. Once Mandy goes back in time, she assumes the identity of Carmena.

Old Ways:
• Mandy is irresponsible and immature
• She has no direction in life
• Mandy puts herself and her desires first
• She’s waiting for something to happen in her life without putting out effort
New Ways
• Mandy grow ups (internally) and makes decision that aren’t always what her heart desires.
• She wants a better life, to be proactive
• Mandy embraces life and the unknown

Act 1:
• Opening: A crooked army lieutenant wants to take livestock from rancher, Carmena Luebber, supposedly for the army, but he really uses the livestock for his own gain. Carmena fights him but his men disarm her and the lieutenant injures her.
• Inciting Incident: Mandy finds a time travel amulet and is swept back in time, to Texas, 1845. Mandy, now as Carmena, sees through Carmena’s memories. She saw the attack by the lieutenant and how another man in uniform saves her, who turns out to be the captain. Carmena observes things that need changing on the ranch. Realizing she’s the boss, she has to make uncomfortable decisions, relying on the ranch manager, Carlos, to help her. Eventually, she decides to stop letting Carlos sway her decisions. She learns that Carlos is in love with her, but the real Carmena doesn’t feel the same and is interested in the captain who saved her from the lieutenant.
• Turning Point: Carmena learns that her employees sometime act as gunrunners. She is determined to find a way back to her own time, but first she feels compelled to find another way to make the ranch sustainable.

Act 2:
• New plan: Carmena learns to make decisions in the best interest of the employees and the ranch. She hires a new housekeeper in hopes that she’ll serve as a romantic interest for Carlos. She learns of a local woman reputed to be a witch who might be able to help Carmena learn how to use the amulet to return to her own time as Mandy.
• Plan in action: She treats her employees more generously, hires more employees to lighten the work load and uses her knowledge of the future to make stock investments that will positively financially impact the ranch. By now, she has been in contact with the captain several times and is falling in love. She learns the new housekeeper is the lieutenant’s ex-wife.
• Midpoint Turning Point: Carlos confronts the new Carmena, and Mandy tells him she’s from the future, astounded that he believes her. Carmena visits the old woman and learns she has been chosen for a specific reason to time-travel. The old woman told Carlos that a new woman from the future would take Carmena’s place. After leaving the old woman, Carmena comes across an injured man on her property, who is a notorious Mexican dictator. He’s the father of Carmena’s cook, who nurses him back to health out of obligation, but wants nothing more to do with him when he leaves.

Act 3:
• Rethink everything: The time travel device is missing. She learns the dictator has stolen it and wants guns in exchange to start a coup in Mexico.
• New plan: Carmena leads her employees on a mission to steal guns from the U. S. Army; the location of the weapons is under the command of the army captain she’s fallen in love with.
• Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift: The mission goes wrong and one of her men is killed in the ambush. The dictator gets his guns, and Carmena gets her time travel device back. She is caught by the captain and knocks him out, anxious to get back to her ranch. Although she has her device, she feels obligated to stay and make sure the captain is alright and that the ranch will be taken care of.

Act 4:
• Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: The drunk lieutenant goes to the ranch to get back his wife, and shoots Carlos in the leg. The ex-wife shoots and kills her ex-husband. After waiting it out, Carmena and her employees learn that they were not identified in the ambush. They find the captain, who has been court marshalled, drunk and passed out in town. Her men bring him to the ranch, Carmena helps him regain his stability after losing his command They fall in love with each other. She doesn’t want to return home, but the old woman warned her if she doesn’t, Carmena may change the course of history.
• Resolution: Carmena gets back her time travel device. She lets go of the captain, says good-bye to Carlos and returns to her own time as Mandy. The amulet is transferred to her cousin, who disappears in a mist.

[Susan]

Interesting complication with the new housekeeper being the lieutenant’s ex-wife.

[Susan]

My Assignment Module 2 Lesson 4 Transformational Structure

My Vision: I am an amazing writer who has fun every day, is recognized by the industry for my ability to take audiences who love me through surprising experiences, and who has multiple successful movies produced while being highly paid.

What I learned from doing this assignment is:

I really have such a far way to go to get more detail into the outline. This is really only a small sketch.

Create a first draft of your 4 Act Transformational Structure.

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

State: I feel completely confident…

Activity: …creating the structure of my story.

DONE! It feels good.

2. Give us the following:

Concept

A Russian Trapeze Artist Spy must decide if she should trust an American Sleeper Agent whose country’s exploits magnify the ever increasing existential threat to her people.

Main Conflict

BRENDI finding out and stopping the existential threat to Russia and her people

Old Ways

BRENDI was unhappy only being a trapeze performer and a pretty face. She is tired of being undercover in the Circus and waiting to be put into action.

New Ways

BRENDI relishes and celebrates the acknowledgment of her superiors for her spy skills instead of only being a performer.

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

Act 1:

Opening:

BRENDI and her Trapeze partner are at the Russian Circus. He almost drops her into the net during the performance – he is trying to start a big fight with her so he can disappear. It is only due to her strength and agility that she manages to stay up and then finishes this shortened performance. She tells the ringmaster Filipp must have injured his arm and the doctor should take a look at it. While back in their dressing room fighting about Filipp’s weird behavior lately, the Russian police show up and BRENDI is arrested. Fillip has made up lies about her, he is just trying to get rid of her so he can go to a meeting with his Ukrainian handler without anyone knowing and she has been too nosey lately about his disappearances.

Inciting Incident:

BRENDI is suspicious of what happened with Filipp, and is really an imbedded spy in the Circus. She watches from the Police car as Filipp runs from the circus in his costume in the snow and they follow him to the meeting. Using technology they listen to his conversation which turns out to be a previously unknown plan to destroy Russia. BRENDI realizes Filipp is a Ukrainian undercover spy.

Turning Point:

BRENDI calls her handler from the car during the meeting to let him know there is a plan to destroy Russia by the Ukrainians, he contacts his superiors and BRENDI is put on the case all in a matter of minutes. She must now use her newly acquired intelligence training to get to the bottom of it. She is told to follow Filipp’s handler. She does but he goes home and not to another meeting. At least she now knows where he lives. She gets more agents to watch and follow him.

Act 2:

New plan:

BRENDI kidnaps Filipp and questions him. He doesn’t know anything except who his handler is and that the top guy is out to destroy Russia which he is delirious about, he is just out for revenge for the death of his brother in the Ukraine/Russia war.

Plan in action:

BRENDI gets news on Filipp’s handler and she and a comrade continue to follow and listen to Filipp’s handler. She now has another connection, but it is still not the main perpetrator. She calls in for backup to spy on the next link in the chain. There is a shootout outside the building and her spy partner is shot, so she is now alone. She waits for back up and then rushes back to where she is holding Filipp.

Midpoint Turning Point:

When BRENDI arrives back to where Filipp is being held, she is shaken from the death of her colleague. Another man is in the room questioning Filipp and untying him. She pulls her weapon on him. He is one of the Clowns from the Circus – an American who was sent to interfere with Russia stopping the terror attack. The American CIA has embedded him. She waits to shoot. What are you doing here? He explains he had no idea the existential threat to Russia, the US just thought it was a simple terror attack – like blowing up the President’s car (BRENDI… is that a small thing?). CHAZ is supposed to let Filipp go though. BRENDI is supposed to kill Filipp. She will not let Filipp go he must accept that. CHAZ offers to help BRENDI against his countries wishes. They leave Filipp there. He can be put on trial later. BRENDI doesn’t know if she can trust the American or if he will work against her and the innocent Russian people .

Act 3:

Rethink everything:

Every person they find is only a link in the chain. The true perpetrator is hidden behind a wall of deception. How do they find out exactly what he is up to and who he is to put him out of action and stop the existential threat? They are both frustrated and spill their guts to each other which leads to an almost sexual encounter which both stop in time deciding it would interfere with the mission.

New plan:

They follow the next person in the chain. He hides in a warehouse and has a phone conversation with his handler who is in touch with the main guy in which they discuss blowing up a major city in Russia with a nuclear weapon. BRENDI and CHAZ triangulate the calls and find the right hand man to the main perpetrator, but he was given his walking orders – he is no longer needed. He smashes his phone BRENDI has comrades follow the warehouse guy anyway while she and CHAZ rush by vehicle high speed, dodging traffic as they go causing accidents and almost killing pedestrians, to the spot where the handler is supposed to be.

Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift:

When they arrive it is in the middle of a busy street with many restaurants and all kinds of stores and hundreds of people. They cannot locate the next in line guy no matter how much they try.

Then suddenly the phone they were zoomed in on is active again. They follow the Ukrainian spy to his meeting with the main perpetrator.

Act 4:

Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict:

BRENDI and CHAZ find the Monstr, figure out his complete plan, fight him and his henchmen, and stop the nuclear devastation just in time.

Resolution:

BRENDI is a top agent. She has prevented the extermination of millions of innocent Russian lives which would have also destroyed Russia as a country. She receives Russia’s highest honors (privately/secretly of course).

She is embedded in Cirque du Soleil in the US to continue to work with Chaz Kofman who will work at one of the hotels, to search out and destroy Chinese spies who are working to destroy both Russia and the United States.

(Note to self: Possible … another story? and go to banquets etc. as much valued performers. Are the Chinese spies in league with the Mafia in Las Vegas? What about the Russian Mafia in NYC? – where else have they settled?)

• This reply was modified 11 months, 3 weeks ago by  Susan McClaryu. Reason: formatting