How to Write a Screenplay
Similar to the events in The Antipodes, writing a screenplay is no easy task!
From the book Screenwriting Tips, You Hack: 150 Practical Pointers for Becoming a Better Screenwriter (pgs 46-52),
Xander Bennett writes about the process and outline of creating a successful screenplay:
“Remember that the ultimate goal of a writer is to move people, to make them feel something. Nothing does that better than the three-act structure. Once you learn it, it's like being handed the keys to the emotional Ferrari. Please don't think of it as a straitjacket or a checklist – it's more like a mathematical formula, a fundamental truth of the universe. You know, one of the really important ones that makes quantum physics work. Three act structure's not reductive. It's beautiful. And here it is:”
“It starts with the setup – a few scenes to establish the baseline of the world and the protagonist’s place within it.”
“Then somewhere between pages 10 and 18, or possibly even earlier, we get the inciting incident (some people call it the “call to action”). This is not a drill – it's the actual, for-real start of the story.”
“Next up is accepting the call. This is when the protagonist resists change, rejecting the inciting incident and trying to walk away from the plot, only to eventually come back and decide she's on board after all.”
“Which brings us to the point of no return. It hits somewhere around page 30, and it marks the end of Act 1 and the beginning of Act 2. Some people call this the ‘Act 1 turning point’ or ‘Act 1 out,’ ... The protagonist has made a decision, and there's no easy way to unmake it.”
“Act 2 kicks off with something I like to call the opening up. This is when the protagonist's world expands, she meets a lot of new people, good and bad, and everything generally becomes a lot more complicated.”
“That's when the midpoint – so named because it falls somewhere between pages 50 to 60, right around dead center of the script – comes along to ruin everything. ... It's a moment of revelation or change that tilts the plot on its ear. It could also be a massive raising of the stakes or a broadening of the setting's horizons.”
“The protagonist struggles on for twenty-five more pages, and things are looking better. ... And then the Dark Point happens. The goal slips away, or is destroyed, or turns out never to have existed in the first place. The Dark Point is the bad bit, the vicious gut-punch, the part where the protagonist is at her absolute lowest point.”
“But never fear, because here comes the recovery. The protagonist pulls herself out of the hellish slump of the Dark Point, or more commonly, she gets pulled out by the relationship character (or someone acting on behalf of the relationship character, or even just a reminder of the relationship subplot). Suddenly, she's back in the game. And she's changed. She's been tempered by her dark experience, transformed into the person she needs to be to face...”
“The final battle. Good versus evil. Hope versus despair. Love versus death. Or just the protagonist facing down a manifestation of her ultimate fear. The final battle could be as literal and explicit as a blue avatar alien fighting a giant battle-mech, or it could be as intimate and internal as a time-trapped weatherman letting go of selfishness and learning how to live for today.”
“What's left to do after the protagonist wins the final battle? Nothing but the wind-down – a few short scenes showing how the protagonist and the other characters have changed, how their world has been forever altered, and maybe a little hint of what the future will hold.”
“The first thing you should know is that a TV episode doesn't have three acts. It has anywhere between two and six acts, depending on the show.”
“Comedy shows (or “half-hours” in the industry ...) have a very simple structure based around the concept of the A, B, and C story. Basically, each episode has three different stories of varying “weight” or importance, with each story (usually) involving different characters. The A story is the main plot, and the B and C stories are more minor plots involving the secondary characters.”
“So a one-hour television script is structured around four key act outs – the ends of Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, and Act 4 (with Act 5 featuring the climax in the middle and finishing with a wind-down). When structuring a one-hour episode, you simply plan these four moments in advance and then make sure everything builds towards them. If film structure is climbing up a mountain, television structure is riding a series of waves. It's all peaks and troughs, peaks and troughs.”
Xander Bennett writes about the process and outline of creating a successful screenplay:
“Remember that the ultimate goal of a writer is to move people, to make them feel something. Nothing does that better than the three-act structure. Once you learn it, it's like being handed the keys to the emotional Ferrari. Please don't think of it as a straitjacket or a checklist – it's more like a mathematical formula, a fundamental truth of the universe. You know, one of the really important ones that makes quantum physics work. Three act structure's not reductive. It's beautiful. And here it is:”
“It starts with the setup – a few scenes to establish the baseline of the world and the protagonist’s place within it.”
“Then somewhere between pages 10 and 18, or possibly even earlier, we get the inciting incident (some people call it the “call to action”). This is not a drill – it's the actual, for-real start of the story.”
“Next up is accepting the call. This is when the protagonist resists change, rejecting the inciting incident and trying to walk away from the plot, only to eventually come back and decide she's on board after all.”
“Which brings us to the point of no return. It hits somewhere around page 30, and it marks the end of Act 1 and the beginning of Act 2. Some people call this the ‘Act 1 turning point’ or ‘Act 1 out,’ ... The protagonist has made a decision, and there's no easy way to unmake it.”
“Act 2 kicks off with something I like to call the opening up. This is when the protagonist's world expands, she meets a lot of new people, good and bad, and everything generally becomes a lot more complicated.”
“That's when the midpoint – so named because it falls somewhere between pages 50 to 60, right around dead center of the script – comes along to ruin everything. ... It's a moment of revelation or change that tilts the plot on its ear. It could also be a massive raising of the stakes or a broadening of the setting's horizons.”
“The protagonist struggles on for twenty-five more pages, and things are looking better. ... And then the Dark Point happens. The goal slips away, or is destroyed, or turns out never to have existed in the first place. The Dark Point is the bad bit, the vicious gut-punch, the part where the protagonist is at her absolute lowest point.”
“But never fear, because here comes the recovery. The protagonist pulls herself out of the hellish slump of the Dark Point, or more commonly, she gets pulled out by the relationship character (or someone acting on behalf of the relationship character, or even just a reminder of the relationship subplot). Suddenly, she's back in the game. And she's changed. She's been tempered by her dark experience, transformed into the person she needs to be to face...”
“The final battle. Good versus evil. Hope versus despair. Love versus death. Or just the protagonist facing down a manifestation of her ultimate fear. The final battle could be as literal and explicit as a blue avatar alien fighting a giant battle-mech, or it could be as intimate and internal as a time-trapped weatherman letting go of selfishness and learning how to live for today.”
“What's left to do after the protagonist wins the final battle? Nothing but the wind-down – a few short scenes showing how the protagonist and the other characters have changed, how their world has been forever altered, and maybe a little hint of what the future will hold.”
“The first thing you should know is that a TV episode doesn't have three acts. It has anywhere between two and six acts, depending on the show.”
“Comedy shows (or “half-hours” in the industry ...) have a very simple structure based around the concept of the A, B, and C story. Basically, each episode has three different stories of varying “weight” or importance, with each story (usually) involving different characters. The A story is the main plot, and the B and C stories are more minor plots involving the secondary characters.”
“So a one-hour television script is structured around four key act outs – the ends of Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, and Act 4 (with Act 5 featuring the climax in the middle and finishing with a wind-down). When structuring a one-hour episode, you simply plan these four moments in advance and then make sure everything builds towards them. If film structure is climbing up a mountain, television structure is riding a series of waves. It's all peaks and troughs, peaks and troughs.”
The Antipodes playwright Annie Baker does not believe in the stereotypical Hollywood screenwriting formula. This is displayed in her many works especially in the writers room of The Antipodes as many of the characters have different ideals about different types of stories.
"We all pretend there's something magic about it but actually it's just algorithms."
—Annie Baker, The Antipodes
—Annie Baker, The Antipodes