Screenwriting Tips

internal arc, LEGALLY BLONDE, midpoint turn, protagonist's goals, protagonist's methods - December 21, 2021

Midpoint Turn

When it comes to conversations around three-act structure, it’s rare to see much attention given to the midpoint turn. And while it might not be as consistently vital as plot points one and two, there is a lot of potential value to be had from a strong midpoint turn. Because: the midpoint turn breaks up the action of the second act. It divides our second act into two halves. The first half is in reaction to plot point one. The second half – from the midpoint turn on – builds toward plot point two and the climax. The midpoint turn...

Plot Point

Screenwriting often works best when it adheres to a very strong three-act structure. Does every movie in the entire history of cinema have a tight structure, or need one? No. But. Especially when it comes to “commercial” writing, as much as possible we want the script to plug into structure. The idea being that structure offers a guide for both the story/writer, and the audience; we know what the story is doing and where it is going, thus giving the narrative contour and momentum. There are several plot points, but here let’s focus on plot point one. Plot point one...

Opening Sequence

One of the most important parts of the script is the opening sequence. This is sometimes referred to as the first-10, as we’re talking about business that happens in the first ten pages or so. Basically, the first, opening scenes of the movie. It’s typically best to use the opening sequence as statement of intention. Simply put: we’re letting the reader/audience know right off the bat what the movie intends to deliver. So if it’s a comedy, we open on a funny scene; if it’s horror, we open on a scary scene; if it’s action, we open on an action...

Theme

Recently, I was working on a script rewrite. Most of the notes I had gotten were fairly straightforward, and I thought turning it around would take perhaps a week at most. But then I realized… wait, we’ve never figured out our themes; the script doesn’t yet have a clear thematic statement. This is really basic, foundational stuff, and it didn’t occur to me until late in the development process. That’s because it’s very easy to get caught up in the spinning gears of plot and character. But the themes are just as important, because this is the true “what this...

Hook

We’ve touched on macro elements like Genre and Sub-genre, and gotten somewhat more specific with Paradigm. Now let’s talk about Hook, which might be described as “the big idea of the movie” or “what the movie is about.” But Hook can also be seen as the “what makes this script/movie unique,” i.e. what sets it apart from all of the other scripts and movies in the same space. Because: simply going through the motions of plugging in the standard beats of a paradigm, checking off all the boxes, isn’t a hook; it’s just an exercise. The older industry term for...

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