Lesson 5/10 Learning Screenwriting Through Plot Points

1. Intro: Hello and welcome to Part five of my ten part series, where I'm going to take you all the way from an idea, all the way to your first ever short film scripts. So like always, I'm sky Buehler. I will be your instructor today. So looking forward to this one, what we're talking about today is we're zoning in on plot points in the past. So we've kind of built on characters, on structure, and then we moved over to Acts, endings, and beginnings. Those are the first force. Again, if you haven't seen those, go check those out. But now we're switching over and away are doing plot points. So a very pivotal in terms of your film and we're going to talk about it's a state tuned and hit the next one. 2. Plot Point Summary: Okay, so here we are. We're talking about slot points. Plot points kind of serve in a central purpose in the screenplay. They are a major story progression and keep the storyline anchored in place. So plot points don't have to be a big dynamic scene or sequence like they can be in quiet scene in which a decision is made. And a plot point is whatever the screenplay or the screenwriter chooses it to be. So if you, as a screenwriter, intended for this to be a plot point and not this one. That's fine. Every writer is born to do it their own way. It can be a long scene, it can be short one, it can be a moment of silence or of action. Again, it's simply just depends upon the script being written. It is the choice of the screener, but it is always an incident, episode or, or event that is dictated by the needs of the story. There are many plot points in a screenplay, but the ones that anchor the storyline in place, our plot points 12. It's like we talked about last week. Plot 0.1 is kind of taken you from aquifer intact to plot point to takes you, of course, from Act two into act three. When the screenplay is completed, it may contain as many as ten to 15 plot points, which of course most will be enact to. However, how many of the screenplay has depends upon the stores. So the purpose of a plot point is to move the story forward toward the resolution. So it's going to be different from your script. Screenplay for mine, for comedy, for action, for drama. They're all going to be different in one of the reasons why, and the analogy that I like to do for plot points is it's like doing a screenplay without kind of plot points, without planning out what you're going to do and what you're gonna write where everything goes. Similar to if you're going on a road trip. So let's say we're going on a road trip from California to Florida. Simple enough, but not quite simple. It's doable. It's doable to do a screenplay without planning ahead. It's possible to do that road trip. But it's easier if we're going from Los Angeles, maybe all the way to Tampa, Florida. Isn't it easier to have some markers on our maps so we kind of know where we're going. We need to hit Texas, we need to hit this rope. We need to what's in the way? Where should our first stop in the road B. That is what a plot point is. It's points that you as a writer are trying to get to topsy raise tension on a road trip, drugs and not trying to do that. But in terms of getting to your destination, which is the, obviously the final finale, the climax of your screenplay and ultimately just ending it. So we'd go there, plot point to plot point to plot point until we eventually get to that stage. 3. Difference Between: Difference between a beat and a plot point. So this might be a question that you might be asking. What is the difference between a beat and a plot point? Very similar, but the beat is everything. Every scene regardless of direction, wouldn't be considered a beat. So it would go in your beat sheet. So a simple car driving scene where not much is happening. It's not a big dramatic moment that would go as a beat, but a plot point count trends us around in another direction and spins the action a bit. So you'll find a vote. Quite a few enact one, obviously potentially double that and act two. And then kind of similar again to act one. You're going to find that in your third act. I was seeing example would be mother turns out to be a spy midway through R2. That's not just another beat. That's a plot point that's quite important, where it kind of puts us in a spin. It's a bit of misdirection. 4. Three Act Structure: So as we looked at this last week, this is the three-act structure. So you can see in act one is the setup act to confrontation. Act three is that resolution. So with all that being said, you're beginning and setting incident and second thoughts. All of those can be described as potentially where you should put your plot points. Again, you should have maybe four in your first act. Obviously climax of act one, that has to be a plot point that's plotted 0.1 because it has its own name, but may not necessarily be the first one. They're going to act to confrontation. So this is where obstacles, disasters, everything is kind of hitting our characters. There's going to be a lot more if you look at this diagram here, There's at least six in there. If we're counting act one as, as plot 0.1 being an apt one, and plot point to being enacted three, you can still see six there. So that's the midpoint and that's should be the minimum. We're looking for more twists, we're looking for more things to happen within all of this. Then obviously Act three X4 resolution. Again, very similar to act one, where there is still some twists, still some important moments pharmacy not as much because they were starting to go to into that resolution. 5. Need to Know: Need to know. So before you put one word down, you need to know your ending, your beginning plot, 0.12. So I talked about this last week as well because it is quite important. Many writers use carding as a way to gain plant and lay out your story more officially. And so I wanted to talk but it on the next slide. So again, it's very similar to what I was talking about with preparing your road trip or for me because I'm from Canada, if I were to go all the way from the West Coast, maybe Victoria, British Columbia, all the way to St. John, New Finland. That's a long trip. But if I'm obviously planning out where to go, maybe I know in order to do this in two or three weeks. Okay. Be in Calgary at the end of three days. I gotta be in when a peg three days from there. Honestly take a couple of spots here and there. That is kind of what carding is and why you should have a roadmap because it's just going to make things easier for you. 6. Carding: Carvings, the process of writing down all of your scenes down on physical cue cards to map on your story. Your app one, and your act three, they should have about 14 cards for about 14 scenes, give or take. Then your act two should have about obviously double that because it's double the length. So 20th cards for about 28, since this method really shows you where you're storing might be lacking. It also allows you to move storypoints around a lot more freely. Some writing programs like Final Draft do this for you. So there is an option to do carding within their software. I just prefer the physical ones. I just feel like it's a lot easier to move stuff around because you might do something in A2. You might actually think, Oh, well, this might be better if it happens before the action. As a more exciting opening scene where something obviously very, very intense happens in the kind of move on from there. And we are confused because it's in the beginning, but it's okay. It kind of set us off. It was exciting and that would work out better. So it allows you to kind of move stuff around. So again, that's kind of why that is so important. It's also important to see everything visually. You also can color-code it. If for example, this is a multiple protagonists or maybe there's just a lot of storylines going on. You can color-code them so many red is your first protect and it's maybe in green, it's your second protagonist. And then the third one is maybe a very strong D plot. You can kind of look at it visually and see, okay, I go like four or five scenes without ever coming back to my main character if that might be a bit long. So I might have to rearrange these a bit to make sure that everyone knows. This main character is not forgotten. I haven't forgotten about them. You should, either. He needs to have a bit more screen time here. 7. Plot Points: Plot points. So try to create scenes where our physical action triggers an emotional response. If a happens, what is the obviously be, what is the result of that? If someone does a physical action, they hit someone with a car. But what is the emotional response to that? Maybe that person their kid died. They were the one that hit them. Their kid died in the crash because they were trying to bond with their kids, their kids up in the front seat, they died. That's obviously a huge, huge, huge plot point. Very emotional response to that kind of action. Remember, the dramatic context for act two is confrontation. So we need to constantly be creating obstacles that keep the action going. But remember, if you know your characters dramatic name and you can create obstacles to better put in front of them. Because if my character is money hungry and I've put stuff that doesn't even matter to what that character is. Nina's, they're not going to care about it. And it would just feel forced if I was kind of putting stuff like that in front of them. Like if all they wanted to do was be the next Jeff Bezos, there are obstacles. Wouldn't make too much sense for me to throw in. Maybe some subplot about him getting a cat. Like obstacles should be, his business fails, the bank turns him down. He's cut off from his family. Well, those are real, realistic, not forced obstacles. But if he sees a stray cat and now he has to adopt a stray cat, a conflict. But it doesn't progress. Map my story for it. It's not as interesting as those ones because it's not taking away from that character is dramatic needs. These incidences, episodes and offense are all plot points, so they're all straight progressions that move the story forward. 8. Parallels: Parallels. Try to do a full circle term for your story and use parallels as a test. See if you can locate the plot points at the end of Act One and Act to 20th, 30 minutes in for the first one at age 90 minutes for the second one. In terms of your own screenplay, you're going to look for stuff that obviously happened in the beginning and then try to show it off again at the end. Maybe it's a funny line, like we said, see that a lot in communist where something happens in the beginning, it's a good joke and then it's brought back-up was a big bang kind of kind of joke, but also going to be other stuff like maybe your main character was fearful of riding their bike down this alleyway. That could be early on. And now, honestly later on, they are able to do it. 9. Exposition: Exposition. Kind of the definition of exposition is the information needed to move the story forward. And that's exactly what we get next. So sometimes you'll have a reluctant hero. That's a lot of the times where you can get exposition is because that Thoreau doesn't know about it and doesn't want to hear about it. So now you have another character who's trying to force them to listen to it and kind of forcing the audience to listen to it as well. Obviously very famous of that is matrix where Morpheus obviously has to tell them a whole bunch of information. And it's a very complicated movie. But because he's reluctant, he doesn't jump right on board. It allows us to kind of get some exposition in there. Again, if you want to go deep, like the matrix, kind of mythological echoes, that's a simple way of adding more insight and dimension to the storyline. Named doesn't have to mean anything, but you can make it so that it does obviously Trinity, Neo Morpheus, that they're shipped, they're all biblical. It's all very honestly insightful. It's very, it adds a very nice layer to it. But then I'll see when Harry Met Sally, nothing underlined to those themes. But then again, his struggles kind of guide them to the understanding that he can wear the mantle of the one. Only few chooses to kind of wrapping up that reluctant hero. 10. Film is Behaviour: A little side note here as well. So film is behavior. So if we're setting up a movie and we have intercutting of two people capping. There's a lot to tell. They're like What is messy and maybe That's a big factor. And then also the way that they packs, which shows not just these characters talking, the way that they talk to each other, their demeanor, but what's going on behind them? Because again, film is behavior. One is clean and orderly. Packs a week before what is messy, and they pack five minutes after they were supposed to have left. So let me see two very different instances, but always try to remember that the film is behavior. So there's a lot to tell in every scene, not just from dialogue but from the background. It's your job as the writer to reveal stuff like that. 11. Hold Everything Together: Hold everything together. You don't need to say anything for it to be plot 0.1 or two. It doesn't have to be this big dramatic moment or a matrix sequence. It can be a quiet moment, an exciting actual moment, a line of dialogue or a decision that affects the storyline. It can be a long scene, it can be a short scene. It can be a moment of silence. When Luke's parents are killed at the beginning of Episode four, he doesn't go into a big rampage long speech and kill a bunch of sand. People. Economists understands that I wanted revenge. It's a bit of a quiet scene and we kind of know right there. That's a plot point. This is going to change Luke's character because now he wants to fight the empire he already did before. But now he has an even deeper, meaningful, there's nothing holding him back. Now at this point, plot points at the end of each act are anchoring pits of dramatic action. So they kind of hold everything together. 12. Famous Example: Talking about famous examples. So I've been telling you guys again and again, beginning, ending plot 0.1 m plot point to. Those are very important to know before you even begin. If I was the writer form matrix, obviously it'd be much richer. But I would kind of go in already knowing that this is kind of what I would want. In the beginning. Neo is a reluctant heroes, so his call to action, and it has to make a choice of what pill to take. So that's kind of what happens in the beginning. I don't know the ending is that Neo accepts that he is the hero, he is the one and defeats Agent Smith. And then plot 0.1. So neo is pulled out of the matrix and into the real-world. There's no turning back once you take that red pill, There's no coming back from it. And then plot point to kneel and Trinity go back into the matrix to rescue Morpheus, were leading up into our climax where Neo kind of almost as there were. He admits that, hey, I am the one. 13. Project: Continue working last week. So again, if you haven't seen lesson number four, go back, checkout that one in this one. So continue working. We're going to be now going and moving forward. We're going to try to have our beats all done. So last week I had to do all of the kind of beats on your sheet for act one. Now we're going to act too. Get to it. Hopefully. You've had no problems with Act One. You did it perfectly. So again, our scenes were kind of shut. It slowed it down. So it's three pages, six pages, three pages. So that's quirky or short film script. We're going to do about two to three scenes, even about two to three scenes in our act two is going to be similar to that, so forth to sixteenths. That's what you're going to be working on as we continue to move forward. 14. Outro: So that is all I have for you today. So that was Part five of ten parts. So we're obviously getting there or beach sheets should be progressing along. We should start to be having a better understanding of kind of screenwriting, of not just the fact that I'm going to sit down and write for four weeks straight and kind of complete the screenplay. But there's a lot that goes into it. There's a lot of planning that goes into it to make it honestly a lot better. So I hope that you guys enjoyed. Let me know if he did and I'll see all of you next week. Take care.