Dan O’Bannon’s guide to screenplay structure

Very concise and useful for screenwriters and filmmakers. What is good about this book is that it gives you a summary of five important screenplay systems used in the industry:

1. Aristotle’s Poetics that focuses on plot (the arrangement of incidents) and change/action that necessitates choice.
2. Lajos Egri’s The Art of Dramatic Writing where character is everything and that premise(idea) is the starting point. Crisis-climax-resolution structure.
3. Howard & Mabley’s The Tools of Screenwriting: A writer’s guide to the craft and elements of a screenplay that talks about conflict between protagonist who wants something and antagonist who is the obstacle, Act I as introduction and set-up, Act II as going through the series of obstacles to reach the main tension at the culmination and Act III that resolves the tension.
4. Syd Field’s Screenplay: The Foundation of Screenwriting uses the “paradigm” model which is basically the 3-act structure of setup, confrontation and resolution using plot points and character bios as guide.
5. Robert Mckee’s Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the principles of Screenwriting which talks about the inciting incident, story beats, climax and resolution, character and conflict, conscious and unconscious desires, personal/extra-personal/internal conflicts, expectation/result gap and a whole lot other analysis totally worth reading.

His own system is called the “dynamic” structure which is simply put a 3-act system which sets up different conflicts (between characters, character vs the world, character versus himself) and a point of no return at the end of act II that forces the character down one single path, allowing act III to fully resolve all conflicts.

There’s much more inside, go take a look at this book!

July 8, 2013 | Categories: Learning | Tags: film, filmmaking, screenplay, screenwriting | Leave a comment