Lights, Camera, Action!

Dear Readers (assuming that you all still exist, and are trying to stay updated with this blog),

I know that it has been a little while since I’ve given an update, and that’s simply because I’ve had a very slow past few weeks when it comes to movie watching. Between school work, the play (that just finished, very successfully, I may add), and everything else going on with me, I haven’t had the chance to watch very many (if any) movies.  But, for those of you who enjoy my reviews, I can assure you that I will be watching quite a few movies over the winter break, so, not to worry, there will be more reviews and more features that I hope you have all grown to quite enjoy, I just need a bit of time to finish up the term.

But, to hold all of you over until then, I am going to give a brief lesson on Blake Snyder’s beat sheet. This beat sheet is made to outline the major “beats”, or points, that any given movie should go through, and at what point in the movie (script page/minutes in) you might want to hit each beat. If you’ve ever been interested in writing a movie screenplay, then this might be a good thing to look at!

So, with no further ado, here is Blake Snyder’s beat sheet (and don’t worry, an explanation will follow after each specific point):

1. Opening Image (1): This one’s pretty straight forward.  It’s the first thing that your audience will see in the movie. In Spiderman (probably one of the easier movies to follow to this beat sheet), that opening image is a spider-web. This can sometimes have a deeper meaning that your audience finds out more about later, or just be something that draws your audience in. One way or another, it’s important.

2. Theme Stated (5): Every movie needs a theme, and the theme is often stated very early into the movie. This theme can be blatantly said (using Spiderman once again as an example, “with great power comes great responsibility”), or hidden into its storyline.

3. Set-Up (1-10): This is the general opening to any given movie. This sets up the general plot; you meet your characters, get to know them a bit. In other words, this is your “regular everyday world” moment, which will soon have something happens that could at times turn said “everyday world” completely on its head.

4. Catalyst (12): This is that thing that can turns the “everyday world” on it’s head. In Spiderman (I know, I’m using it way too much as an example, but, it’s the easiest example that I can think of off the top of my head that most people will have seen), Peter gets bitten by a radioactive spider. It’s the thing that really gets the plot moving.

5. Debate (12-25): This is the time where your main character will have some sort of inner argument with himself about what he has to do. In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (a great movie, if I do say so myself), a part of this section is when Cameron is sitting in his car, literally debating with himself on whether or not he should go to spend the day with Ferris.

6. Break into 2 (25): This gets the plot going, and moves it into the second act. It’s a bit of a transition moment, from the introduction in to the main beef of the story.

7. B Story (30): Up to this point, you more or less just have your A story, the main plot that goes on through the entire movie. Well, this is the point that you bring in that secondary story. In the average romantic comedy, this is where two of the secondary characters start going out, or the best friend comes into the plot, or… well, you get the idea.

8. Fun and Games (30-55): Here is your first cheezy montage opportunity. In a romantic comedy, this can be the montage where the two lovers are getting closer. In the process, you can have them painting an apartment together. In other words, this section is pretty much what the title suggests.

9. Midpoint (55): This is the major emotion point. This will either be where your characters are at their happiest or (less commonly) their saddest. In other words, it is the height of emotion in the plot.

10. Bad Guys Close In (55-75): Here’s when things start taking a bad turn. Somebody gets injured, arrested, whatever. After the point where the characters are their happiest, something must happen to make things bad.

11. All is Lost (75): After things start getting bad, there has to be one thing that happens to make things even worse. This is one thing that kind of shatters the metaphorical mirror that is your characters’ happiness.

12. Dark Night of the Soul (75-85): Here’s your second montage opportunity. While the first would’ve been happy, and upbeat, this is the sad one. After everything has gone wrong, your character has to spend some time moping in his or her own misery. That is that character’s Dark Night of the Soul.

13. Break into 3 (85): Luckily though, things can’t stay all bad. The break into 3 is the light at the end of the tunnel, the silver lining. This is where things start getting a bit better. Your character gets a boost that makes him go towards his overall goal.

14. Finale (85-110): This is more or less the entire third act of the movie. This is the final showdown between hero and villain, the hero finally goes through the final aspects of getting to his goal and accomplishes said goal (or, in some cases, fails to accomplish…). In Spiderman, it’s the entire showdown between Spiderman and the Green Goblin, as well as the things leading up to it and the things that comes after.

15. Final Image (110): This is the last thing that you are leaving your audience with (before the credits, that is). Ideally, it’ll be something meaningful to the story, or at least something that leaves the audience thinking something.

So, there you have it. Those are the beats that the average movie (and short film) goes through. Short films often do a majorly condensed version of this (since it’s legitimately shorter than a full length film), but, they still follow the general structure. Also, there are films that don’t seem to follow these beats so clearly, or it’s at least very hard to follow according to these beats. That’s ok, but, you will still almost always find these beats popping up here and there in film.

So, I hope you’ve learned something about the general structure of a film, and that you might actually try writing one of your own one day (I plan on trying this during April, but I’ll give you more information on that another time).

Keep on watching!

R.S.

This entry was posted on December 7, 2009 at 7:57 pm and is filed under Facts and Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.