What are acts for, and how can you best utilize them to tell your story? 

It can be argued (as many have done) that all stories have three acts: a Beginning, a Middle, and an End. Yet what does that tell you, the potential screenwriter, about the structure of storytelling?

Firstly, to define an act:

• act - A finite block of story action, its conclusion leading either a new direction for the story's conflict, or to a resolution.

An act is like a story all unto itself. It too has a beginning, middle, and end. Acts should be treated not just as part of a larger whole, but also as separate entities with their own internal structure and rhythm.

The "Hollywood paradigm," as espoused by Syd Field and others, is that Act One is the first 25% of the script, Act Two is the middle 50%, and Act Three the final 25%. Screenplays are timed using a rule-of-thumb which estimates one page equals one minute of onscreen time. Thus, a 120 page script would be a two-hour film. Therefore Act One is roughly 30 pages (or 1/2 hour), Act Two 60 pages (or one hour), and Act Three, the final 30. There are many films that break this form, but for the purposes of this discussion, we'll stick to this traditional, mainstream style.

If you think of drama as being about the building and releasing of tension, then it helps to see act structure as the rails upon which the oncoming train of conflict rides. In other words, act structure guides the direction, flow, and acceleration of dramatic action.

If Act One is the Beginning, then what does a beginning entail? What do we need to know as a viewer in order to understand the story and its purpose? Several important elements are character introductions, a sense of place and time, any background or history necessary to follow the present story action, and a direction for the characters and story to travel. Act One, then, is about laying a foundation.

As first acts tend to be short (and Hollywood currently leans toward ever shorter first acts), how can you convey the necessary information to get a story off the ground, without becoming bogged down in exposition, or without short-changing the story or characterizations? One way to look at it, is that once you have a skeleton of essential structural information, you have a clearly visible form upon which to add the remaining flesh to bring it to life. It is the skeleton which will suggest to you which elements are absolutely necessary, and which are merely decorative or excessive. And in a screenplay, you must cut anything unnecessary!

The Initiating Incident

A screenplay needs to begin with an initiating incident. This is the event or action that sets the plot in motion.

Here are several examples if Initiating Incidents, each with an example of their resulting effect on the story. The title links are to copies of the screenplays discussed.

"Alien"
Event: The ore-carrier Nostromo receives an apparent distress signal from a dead planet.
Result: The ship’s computer, Mother, awakens the crew to investigate.

"Clockwork Orange"
Event: Dim insults a woman singing Beethoven's 9th in the Korova Milk Bar, & Alex whacks him with his cane.
Result: Dim challenges him to a fight, then backs down.

"Jerry Maguire"
Event: Jerry has a revelation about his work as a sports agent.
Result: He writes a radical "Mission Statement".

"Star Wars"
Event: The Empire boards the Rebel blockade runner.
Result: Princess Leia hides the Death Star plans in R2-D2’s memory.

You see how neatly the Initiating Incident causes the next event in the story. This is exactly the kind of inevitable chain of events you are trying to create in your screenplay. Notice also, that it is the characters that determine how events are to proceed, and that their unique psychology dictates exactly what will happen next (their next action) based upon their personal goals.

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