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How to structure a screen play
The famous French film maker, Jean Luc-Godard said, "All stories should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order."
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Robert McKee outlines the structure of any story like this:
- a key event or an inciting incident
- a struggle against all the forces of life
- a crisis
- a climax
- a resolution.
"Having a clear idea of possible beginnings, middles and ends, is a big help for me. But if the story is strong enough within you, you'll be pressurised a certain way and the story will tell itself. Beginnings and middles and ends are a very good way of trying to work it out in advance. Don't do anything on a whim or because you want to feel really fancy - it just doesn't work. Lies are soon found out. You can't fool an audience."
Shane Connnaughton
"Remember a story expresses how and why life changes from one condition at the beginning, to another condition at the end. For example, take that wonderful screenplay by Shane Connaughton and Jim Sheridan, My Left Foot: A man in utter poverty, suffering from a dreadful disease, leading a virtually meaningless and painful life, eventually finds meaning and achievement in life despite everything against him because he has an enormous will to change.
This story went from the negative to the positive; your story might go from the positive to the negative. You need a key event that throws things out of balance at the beginning of the story, then a struggle against all the forces of life, passing points of no return in terms of the central character's effort, until there comes a moment called the crisis. The crisis is when there is only one possible further choice of action for the character to achieve their desire. When the character takes that action, we call that moment the climax. Then you need a brief resolution at the end to bring things back to normal for the audience! That's the rhythm of any story."
Robert McKee
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