Week One

We started our first semester back by quickly looking at the brief, I had all ready seen the brief prior to the semester and was looing forward to a good discussion as the brief doesn’t have much content however we didn’t spend as much time on the brief as I would have like as we dived straight into the task which was looking at Syd Field Three Act Structure.

Syd Field outlined a Three Act Structure that most screenplays and films follow:

 

Diagram of the three act structure

Act 1 (the set up) this is the first quarter of the film/screenplay where the protagonist and other characters are introduced, the baddie and possible love interest. Act 1 is all about setting up the narrative and we as the audience are first introduced to the inciting incident (an event or decision that creates a problem for the protagonist or directly effects the character).

Act 2 (confrontation) is the main body of the film where the protagonist encounters problem after problem that prevents him from achieving resolution or equilibrium. Act two consist of two main plot points, according to Syd Plot Points are events that thrust the plot into a new direction. First culmination where the character looks close to achieving his goals and second the Midpoint where the character is at the lowest and seems a long way of achieving this goals.

Act 3 is the final quarter of the film and where the equilibrium is restored. The protagonist gets with the girl and the baddie is defeated. The climax of the film is also I the act 3 this is where the plot reaches it maximum tension where the opposition confront each other at the peak of physical or emotional action.

 While studying Media at A-level I came across a similar concept Todorov theory of equilibrium. Todrov suggested that they where Five stages of equilibrium

1. A state of equilibrium

2. A disruption of that order by an event.

3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.

4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.

5. Equilibrium restored

The structure was quite simple to understand but was quite difficult to pin point the exact location of the certain plot points which was clear when we tried to work out the inciting incident in Cinderella, haven’t seen the film but knew the basic of the narrative. It was interesting to see that we couldn’t make up our mind up what the inciting incident was the, Cinderella getting invited to the ball, the prince wanting a wife or the godmother making it possible to go to the ball.

Films are very complicated and even with a simple film like Cinderella it was clear that the inciting incident was could be one of a number of different events.