One of the least discussed, least understood components of a screenplay is also, ironically, one of its main units of story measurement, character development, and plot information: the scene.

Too many beginning writers unfortunately seem to think that most scenes are throwaway moments, and that somehow the overall story structure is more important than its individual pieces, or that most scenes are simply stepping stones to act climaxes. This is a huge, and fatal, mistake. Until a writer begins to see a script's every moment as indispensable and intimately interconnected to every other moment, many of their middle-of-the-act scenes will continue to fall flat, and their climaxes will be unsupported by all that has come before them.

The Structure of Scenes & Scene Sequences

A scene is a like a miniature model of the story itself, in that it also has an act structure. More importantly, a scene is like an act in itself, in that it is part of a larger three-act structure composed of scenes.

The way that this works is that roughly every ten pages of a screenplay has its own three-act structure, which is built from scenes or scene sequences (a series of interconnected incidents that function like a single scene) that function as individual acts. So, a scene itself can be looked at as an act. And, a scene can also be thought of having its own tiny "acts," which I refer to as "beats."

To reiterate:

Screenplay = 4 acts of 30 pages each
One act = 30 pages, or three ten-page subacts
Ten pages = three scenes or scene sequences
One scene or scene sequence = three beats
Beat = the smallest unit of a scene

An easier way to look at this is that all stories have a beginning, middle, and end -- three parts. Acts and scenes are simply smaller stories, and like building blocks, stack together to make an entire story. So, each part can be broken into three smaller parts, the smallest unit of all being the beat. Beats, scenes, acts, and stories are to screenplays what seconds, minutes, hours and days are to telling time.

Note that if your script is shorter, then the timing of these units must naturally be shorter. For a 100-page script, for example, an act becomes "25 pages" instead of "30," and "Ten pages" becomes "eight or nine pages." But, another caveat is that third acts are often shorter than other acts, so this also may not apply! And first acts have their own unique structure that serves to jump-start the story, and so these measurements will also not always fit when looking at a first act.

Like all such "rules" of script construction, these scene structures are not written in stone. But if you observe their use in the works of others, maintain awareness of them in your own work, and use them when appropriate or useful, they can often help you give your story the tightest, most dramatically effective structure possible.

The Function of a Scene

Scenes are not just a way to get your characters from point A to point B, but an integral part of act structure and character development. While this statement may seem obvious on the surface, its actual execution is often completely mishandled by many writers, whether novice or advanced. What these writers fail to grasp is that all good scenes should have both macrocosmic ("big picture") and microcosmic ("in-the-moment") dimensions. In other words, they should create a vivid and immediate impact, and they should also relate to the overall telling of the main story at large.

Scenes typically have four possible functions:

• Forward either a story's plot, one of its subplots, or both.
• Reveal or explore a character's personality or behavior through their actions.
• Introduce or deepen thematic ideas.
• Give expository information.

Good scenes do at least one or more of the above -- great scenes do all of them! This does not mean that every scene should do all of these things, only that you should be keenly aware of when a scene should or should not have these elements. But scenes that pull "double-duty" and contribute to the story in more than one of these areas are highly desirable additions to your script. The overall benefit of such information-packed scenes is that your story will feel much more dense and layered, and such scenes will conserve ever-so-valuable script time.

It is important to note that the emotional effect of a scene, such as to make the audience laugh or cry, is entirely related to its function (especially as it relates to character).

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