In this chapter, we will introduce examples of drama structure.

What is a screenplay? Is it a guide or an outline for a feature film? Is it a blueprint? Is this a chart? Is it a series of images, scenes, paragraphs and so on? Describe through dialogue and description, like a string of landscape paintings or a collection of ideas? What exactly is a screenplay? First of all, it is not a novel, and of course it is definitely not a drama. If you read a novel and try to determine its basic features, you will find dramatic actions, story lines and so on. It often happens in the protagonist's mind. We (readers) are peeping at the hero's thoughts, feelings, words, behaviors, memories, dreams, hopes, ambitions, opinions and so on. If another character appears, the story line will change with the change of perspective, but it will often return to the original protagonist. In the novel, all actions take place in the minds of the characters-in the "spiritual illusion" of dramatic actions.

In drama (stage play), the action and story line take place on the stage under the arch in front of the stage, and the audience is the fourth wall, eavesdropping on the secrets of the stage characters. Characters use language to talk about their hopes, dreams, past and future plans, and discuss their needs, desires, fears and contradictions. In this way, the actions in the drama are produced in the dialogue language of the drama, and the dialogue language itself is spoken.

Movies are different. Film is a visual medium, which dramatizes a basic story. It processes images, pictures, small pieces and movies; A clock is ticking, a window is opening, one person is watching, two guys are laughing, a car is turning, a phone is ringing, and so on. A screenplay is a story told in one picture, including language and description, which all take place in its dramatic structure.

A screenplay is a story told with one picture. It's like a noun-it refers to one person or several people doing his or her things in one place or several places. All movie scripts carry out this basic premise. Feature film is a visual medium, which dramatizes a basic story. Like all stories, it has a definite beginning, middle and end. If we take a movie script and hang it on the wall like a painting, it will look like the chart below.

Act I Act II Act III

Start, middle and end.

│ │

A-? ———┼———? ——┼—————Z

│ │

Build (set) confrontation (solve)

Page 1 ~ 30 Page 30 ~ 90 Page 90 ~ 120

Plot I (Plot II)

Pages 25-27, 85-90

All movie scripts include this basic linear structure.

We call this model the screenplay paradigm. It is a pattern, a style and a conceptual plan. The example in the table is like a table: a desktop with (usually) four legs. Within the scope of this example, there may be square tables, long tables, round tables, high tables, short tables, rectangular tables, adjustable tables, etc. Taking this example as a model, we can make all kinds of tables at will-they are all (usually) four-legged desktops anyway. This example is affirmative. The chart above is an example of a movie script. Let's break it down: the first act, or the beginning, is about 120 pages, or two hours. Whether your script is all dialogue, all description, or both, it can be counted as one page per minute. The rule is the same-one page in a movie script is equal to one minute of screen time. The first act is the beginning, which can be regarded as the setting part, because you have to use about 30 pages of manuscript paper to build (confirm) your story. If you go to the movies, you will often make a judgment consciously or unconsciously-whether you like the movie or not. When watching movies in the future, please pay attention to how long it will take you to decide whether you like this movie or not. It usually takes about ten minutes. It's equivalent to the first ten pages of your script. You should catch your readers in time. You should use about ten pages to let readers know who your protagonist is, what is the premise of the story and what is the situation of the story. Take Chinatown as an example: let us know from the first page, Jack? Ghitis (Jack? Nicholson (Jack Nicholson) is an unofficial private investigator of the Regional Bureau of Investigation. On page five, we met Mrs Murray (Diana? Ryder Di-ane Ladd)。 She's hiring Jack? Ghitis went to investigate "who is my husband doing?" . This is the main problem of this movie script, which provides a dramatic impetus and leads to the final solution. There should be a plot point at the end of the first act. The so-called plot point is an event or event, which is closely woven into the story and turns the story in another direction. This event usually occurs between pages 25 and 27. In Chinatown, when the newspaper published a story claiming that Mr. Murray was caught in a "love nest", the real Mrs. Murray (Fay? Dunaway faye dunaway and her lawyer came to the office and threatened to file a lawsuit. Did she hire Jack? Is Nicholson really Mrs Murray? Who hired someone to impersonate Mrs Murray? What's all this for? This incident turned the story in another direction: Jack? As a survivor of the incident, Nicholson must find out who is manipulating him and why.

The second act, or confrontation.

Act II is the main part of your story. Usually on pages 30 to 90 of the script. It is called the antagonistic part of the script because all plays are based on conflict. Once you define your character's needs, that is, what he wants to achieve, and what his goals are in the script, you can set obstacles for this demand, thus creating conflicts. In the detective novel Chinatown, the second act is Jack? Nicholson clashed with some forces who were unwilling to let him find out who was responsible for Mr. Murray's death and the water supply scandal. Jack. The obstacles that Nicholson needs to overcome dominate the dramatic action of this story. The plot point at the end of the second act usually appears between pages 85 and 90. In Chinatown, the plot point at the end of the second act is: Jack? Nicholson found a pair of glasses in the swimming pool where Murray was murdered, knowing that they were either Murray's or the murderer's. This leads the story to the end.

The third act, or the ending.

The third act usually takes place between page 90 and 120, which is the end of the story. How does the story end? What happened to the hero? Is he alive or dead? Did he succeed or fail? Wait a minute. Your story needs a strong ending so that people can understand it and make it complete. That ambiguous, ambiguous ending is now out of date. All movie scripts implement this basic linear structure. Drama structure can be defined as a series of interrelated things, plots or events arranged linearly, which eventually leads to a dramatic ending. How these structural components are arranged determines the form of your film. With Annie? Annie hall, for example, is a story told in flashback, but it also has a clear beginning, middle and end. So is Annee derniere a Marienbad. Citizen Kane, Love in Hiroshima and Midnight Cowboy are all the same. So this example is feasible.

Act I Act II Act III

│ │

————? —┼——————? —┼—————

│ │

Construct a confrontation ending

Plot I Plot II

Ⅰ Ⅱ

It is a model, a style, a conceptual plan; This is what a skillful movie script looks like. It gives us a general understanding of the structure of the screenplay. If you figure out what it looks like, you can simply "package" your story. Do all good screenplays fit this example? It must be. But don't trust me blindly. You use it as a tool; Question it, study it and think about it. Some people may not believe it. You may not believe that there will be a beginning, a middle and an end. You may say: Art, like life, is at best just a few personal "important moments" that happen by chance in a huge middle part, with no beginning or end. Like cooter? According to Kurt Vonnegut Jr., it is "a series of random moments connected together".

I don't agree with this view. I want to ask: isn't a person's birth, life and death just like the beginning, middle and end? Think about the rise and fall of great civilizations-such as ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. They all germinated from a small community, developed to the peak of power, then declined and died. Think about the birth and death of stars or the origin of the universe. According to the "great unification" theory that most scientists agree with now, the universe begins and ends. Think about the cells in our bodies! How long does it take them to cycle from replenishment, recovery to regeneration? For seven years-within seven years, some cells in our body will die, while others will reproduce, move, die and then regenerate. Think about your first day at your new job! You must meet new colleagues and take on some new responsibilities until you decide to leave, retire or be fired. The screenplay is no exception. They have their own clear beginning, middle and end. This is the basis of drama structure. If you don't believe this example, please do another test to prove me wrong. Please look at one or several movies to see if it fits this example. If you are interested in writing screenplays, you should do so often. Every movie you watch can be your study material to help you understand what is a feature film and what is not. You should also read as many movie scripts as possible, so that you can understand the form and structure of the script. Now many movie scripts are printed into books and sold in many bookstores. There are also some scripts that are out of print, but you can find them in your own library or borrow them from the library of the drama art department in the university. I ask my students to read and study some movie scripts, such as: Chinatown, Internet, Loki, Three Days of the Condor, and Hastelloy (selected from the paperback version of Robert? Lawson's three plays are now out of print. Hall, Harold and Maud, etc. These plays are all good teaching materials. If you can't find them, read any screenplay you can, and the more you read, the better.

Examples are useful. It is the basis of all good movie scripts.

Exercise:

Go to the cinema to see a movie. When the cinema lights are dim and the movie begins, how long does it take you to make a decision of "like" or "dislike" the movie? Once you have made a definite decision, please look at your watch and write down the time. If you find a movie you really like, you might as well watch it again. See if this movie really fits this example. See if you can break down the part yourself and find out its beginning, middle and end. Write it down: How did the story begin? How long do you need to know the content of this film? Are you attracted by movies or dragged in by movie stories? Then find out the plot points at the end of the first act and the end of the second act and see how they lead to the ending.

————————

The original model book is translated into "examples". However, the actual meaning of this word has a wider extension than the examples we usually understand. In grammar, this word refers to the form change table (of verbs and nouns). The words used by the author of this book refer to the change table of the structure of the movie script. For the sake of unity, this word is translated as "example" in this book.

(2) When analyzing scripts and movies, the author is used to discussing characters and actors together.

Chapter II Main Issues

In this chapter, we will discuss the essence of the theme.

What is the theme of your screenplay? What is it about?

Remember, a screenplay is like a noun-it refers to someone doing his or her thing somewhere. This person is a hero, and doing his or her thing is action. When we talk about the theme of a movie script, we are actually talking about the actions and characters in the script. Action is what happens, and characters are people you meet. Every screenplay dramatizes actions and roles. You must know who your movie is about and what happened to him or her. This is the basic concept of writing. If you want to write about three people robbing chase? Bank of Manhattan, you should dramatize it, that is to say, you should focus on the characters (three guys) and the actions (robbing Chase? Manhattan Bank]. Every movie script has a theme. Take Bonnie and Clyde as an example. Is it about the Great Depression, Clyde? The story of Babaro gang robbing the roots in the midwest of the United States and finally being arrested. Actions and characters, these are the elements that make your overall idea a special premise of drama. And this is the starting point for making a movie script. Every story has a clear beginning, a middle part and an end. In Bonnie and Clyde, the meeting of Bonnie and Clyde and the formation of their gang are dramatized. They robbed several banks and the police are chasing them. Finally, he was subdued and killed by social forces. There is construction, confrontation and ending here. When you can explain the theme in a few sentences through actions and characters, you begin to expand to the elements of form and structure. Maybe at the beginning, you will use several pages to tell the story instead of grasping the basic points at once, and you will not compress a complex story into a simple sentence or two. Don't worry! As long as you keep doing it, you can gradually explain the idea of your story clearly. It is your responsibility to do that. If you don't know what your story is about, who else does? Reader or audience? If you don't know what you are going to write, how can you expect others to know? When a playwright decides how to dramatize a story, he often has to make choices and fulfill his responsibilities. Choice and responsibility-these two words will appear repeatedly in this book. Every creative decision comes from choice, not coercion. Your hero walks out of a bank, which is a story; If he runs out of the bank, that's another matter. Some people already have some ideas and are ready to write them into the script. Some people don't. How do you find a theme? An idea provided by a newspaper or TV news, or something happened to your friend or relative, may become the theme of a movie. Just like "Three Days Afternoon" was just an article in the newspaper before it was made into a movie. When you are looking for a theme, that theme is also looking for you. You may find it somewhere and at some time-perhaps when you least expect it. You can do or not do this theme, it's entirely up to you! Chinatown developed from a water scandal in Los Angeles found in old newspapers of that era. Shampoo developed from several incidents that a famous Hollywood barber met. Taxi Driver is about the loneliness of driving a taxi in new york. Bonnie and Clyde, Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kidd, as well as all the people of the president, were developed from real people. Your theme will find you, as long as you try to find it. It's that simple! Please believe in yourself. Start by looking for an action and a role! When you can express your ideas concisely through actions and characters, and when you can express them in nouns-my story is this person, and in this place, you are already preparing for your script writing. The next step is to expand your theme. Give flesh and blood to the actions in the script and focus on the characters in the play, thus expanding the story line and highlighting the details. Try every means to collect materials. It's good for you. Some people doubt the value and necessity of conducting investigation and study. In my opinion, investigation and research work is absolutely necessary. All writing requires investigation and research, and investigation and research is to collect information. Please remember: the most difficult thing in writing is that the author should know what to write. Through investigation and research-whether from written materials such as books, magazines or newspapers or personal interviews, you can get information. The information you collect enables you to deal with them from the perspective of choice and responsibility. You can choose to use some of the materials you collected, or use them all, or not use them at all, as you like. But it depends on your story. Don't use them, because you have no choice, otherwise they always run counter to you and your story.

Many people start writing when they have only a vague and incomplete idea in their minds. As a result, I often write about 30 pages, and I can't write any more. I didn't know what to write next and where to develop, so I became angry, at a loss, and even depressed, and finally gave up and declared failure. If a personal interview is necessary or possible, you will be surprised to find that most people are very willing to try their best to help you, and they often put down their work to help you find accurate information. Personal interviews have other advantages: they will provide a more direct and natural perspective than any books, newspapers and magazines. For you, personal interview is second only to personal experience. Remember: the more you know, the more you can convey. And when you make a creative decision, please be sure to deal with it from the height of choice and responsibility. I recently had the opportunity to write such a story with Craig? The story of Craig brid Love. He once set and maintained the world record for the highest speed on the ground. He was also the first person to drive on land at speeds of 400 miles, 500 miles and 600 miles per hour. Craig once invented a rocket car. He ran a quarter mile at a speed of 400 miles per hour. This rocket system is the same as that of manned landing on the moon. The story I want to write is about a man who broke the world water speed record by driving a rocket ship. But rocket ships don't actually exist, at least not yet. So I need to do all kinds of research work for my project. What is the highest speed on the water? How can we break this record? Can the rocket ship break this record? How to measure the ship's speed regularly? Can a ship exceed the speed of 400 miles per hour on water, and so on. From a series of conversations, I learned about the rocket system, the highest speed in water, and how to design and build rowing boats. And from these conversations, an action, a character, how to integrate facts and fiction into a dramatic story line.

This rule is worth repeating: the more you know, the more you can convey. Investigation and research work is a concrete element of film script creation. Once the topic is selected, it can be simply expressed in one or two sentences, and the preliminary investigation can be started. Decide where you should go to enrich your subject knowledge. Paul, the author of Taxi Driver? Schrade once wanted to write a film that happened on a train. So he took the train from L.A. to new york. When he got off the train, he realized that he had not found any stories. He didn't find a story at all. It doesn't matter, he just chose another theme. Schrade went on to write Puzzlement. Where's Colin Colin Higgins, the playwright of Harold and Maud, wrote a story called Silver Stripes, which happened on a train. Richard. Before writing the script "Grit the Grit", Richard Brooks spent eight months researching, during which he didn't write a word on the manuscript paper. The same was true when he wrote Professio-nals and In Cold Blood, although the latter was based on Truman? Adapted from a well-studied book by truman capote. Waldo, the author of Midnight Cowboy? Waldo Salt, is that Jane? Jane fonda wrote a screenplay called "Going Home". His investigation and research included talking with more than 26 veterans who were injured and paralyzed in the Vietnam War. All the conversations were recorded for 200 hours.

If you want to write a story about a cyclist, you should consider what kind of cyclist he is. Is it a short-distance runner or a long-distance runner? Where is the bicycle race held? Where do you want to arrange your story? In which city? Are there other different forms of competitions or round robin? What kind of societies and clubs are there? How many competitions are held every year? How about the international competition? Does this competition have anything to do with your story? Who is this role? What kind of bicycles do they ride? How to become a cyclist and so on. These questions need to be answered carefully before you start writing. Research will give you some ideas and let you know who, where and where the story happened. It can also give you a certain degree of self-confidence, so that you can always be higher than your theme, so that you can deal with this theme from the height of choice rather than the position of coercion or ignorance.

Please start with the theme first. When you think about the theme, think about the actions and roles. If we draw a chart, it looks like this:

theme

|

┏━━━━━━━━━┓

Play a role

| |

┏━━━┓ ┏━━━━━┓

Tangible emotions define their needs and actions.

That is, there are two kinds of actions listed in the character list: tangible actions and emotional actions. Real actions, such as robbing a bank in the afternoon; Car chase in "bullets" or "French connection"; A game, competition, or ball game, such as a roller ball. Emotional action is the drama center of other movies. Such as Love Story, Alice no longer lives here and antonioni's masterpiece Alice about a broken marriage. Most movies have both actions. Chinatown creates a delicate balance between tangible action and emotional action: when Jack? When Nicholson exposed the water scandal, what he did was the same as what he did to Fay? Dunaway's feelings are interrelated. Paul in Taxi Driver? Schrade wants to dramatize loneliness. So he chose a taxi driver as his screen image. Taxis are like boats in the sea, and they have traveled from one port to another. In his screenplay, the car, as a dramatic metaphor, is a tragic existence. It has no emotional concern and shuttles through the city without any foundation or connection. Before writing, ask yourself what story you want to write. Is it an outdoor adventure action movie or a movie about complex relationships and feelings? Once you decide what kind of action you want to write, you can continue to think about the characters in the play.

First, be clear about your role's needs. What does your hero want? What are his needs? What drove him to the end of the story? In Chinatown, Jack? What Nicholson needs is to find out who is driving him around and why. In "Three Days of the Condor Heroes", Robert? Robert redford needs to know who wants to kill him and why. You must be clear about your character's needs: what does he want? In the movie "Dog Days Afternoon", Al? Al Pacino robbed a bank in order to have money for a sex-change operation on his boyfriend. This is what he needs. What if your character wants to invent a method in Las Vegas? How much money does he need to win to find out whether his method is effective? The needs of the characters in the play provide goals, objectives and endings for your story. How your character achieves or fails to achieve this goal becomes the action of your story. All plays are conflicts. If you already know the needs of your character, you can set up various obstacles to overcome to achieve this demand. How he overcame these obstacles becomes your story itself. Conflict, struggle and overcoming obstacles are the basic components of all drama. So is comedy. The playwright's responsibility is to create enough conflicts to interest your audience or readers. The story should go on until it is solved. That's all you should know about this subject. If you already know the actions and characters in your script, you can specify the requirements for your characters and then set up various obstacles to realize this requirement. Three men robbed chase. The dramatic demand of Manhattan Bank is directly related to their bank robbery. This obstacle to demand has led to conflicts-such as various alarm systems, vaults, bank locks, and security measures that they must overcome to escape. Nobody wants to be caught robbing a bank! People should plan how to do it, that is to say, they need extensive observation and research, and prepare an accurate action plan before they realize the robbery. Gone are the days when Bonnie and Clyde broke into the bank and robbed it. Jon from midnight cowboy? Voigt went to new york to find a woman to play with. This is his demand, this is his dream! He thinks he will get a lot of money and satisfy many women at the same time. What are the obstacles he faces? He's Dustin? DustinHoffman played a trick, ran out of money, had no relatives and friends, and had no job, and the women in new york simply ignored him. Everything is a dream! His needs are in direct conflict with the cold reality of new york. This is a conflict! There is no drama without conflict. Without demand, there would be no one. No role, no action. Writer Scott? F.Scott F-itzgerald wrote in the book The Last General of the Tokugawa Shogunate: "Action is character!" A person's behavior, not his words, shows what kind of person he is. When you begin to explore the theme, you will find that everything in your script is interrelated. Nothing is included by accident, or just because it is witty and cute. Satubia has a famous saying: "Even if a sparrow dies, there is a special providence." The natural law of the universe is that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This rule also applies to your story. This is the theme of your play.

Know your theme!

Exercise: Choose a theme for the movie script you want to write. Then express it in a few words through actions and characters.

Note: The main films mentioned in this book are briefly introduced as follows:

"Chinatown" screenwriter: Robert? Director: Roman? 1974 Polanski produced by Paramount Film Company, 1974 won the Best Screenplay Award at the American Academy Awards. Based on the water dispute in Los Angeles in 1930s, the film reveals the mercenary and shameless nature of the upper class.

"Godfather" screenwriter: Mario? Puzo, Francis? Coppola, director: Francis? Coppola 1972 produced by Paramount Film Company, and 1972 won the American Academy Awards for Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Actor. This film describes the power and profit struggle between mafia organizations in new york, USA.

"Taxi Driver" Screenwriter: Paul? Schrade directed by Martin? Martin scorsese. 1976 shot, 1976 won the Cannes International Film Festival Award. Through the experience of a young taxi driver, the film reflects the pain and turbulent life of the lower class in the United States, but it also promotes violence.

Bonnie and Clyde was written by Robert? Robert Ben Bolton, David? David Newman, director: Arthur? Arthur Penn. Produced in 1967. Won the Best Screenplay and Best Actress in the 1968 American Academy Awards. The film is based on the true story of the Great Depression in the 1930s in the United States: a couple took great risks to form a gang to rob a bank, were chased by the police, and finally died tragically. This story has been filmed several times.

Alice doesn't live here anymore. David wrote it? Martin's Suskind? Scorsese. 1974 won the actress award at the American Academy Awards, and 1975 won the Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at BAFTA.