Transcripts
1. Intro to ACT 2: Hi, I'm Jordan. The meal as a writer with
many produced projects, published works, and I've
sold several screenplays. Every great story has
a three-act structure. And in this course, we'll
dive into how to write your act two in the
middle of your story. And I'll cover the
reading principles needed to keep your
audience engaged. I'll be using examples for critically acclaimed and
commercially successful movies, books, and TV shows. But you can use the
three-act structure for any type of story. Now, let's break down how to
write an excellent tattoo.
2. Embrace Change: Act two starts when you hear it, Let's go their old ways
and there are Old World and they decided to take
action and embrace change. Many times. Two will be the start of a brand new world for
your protagonist. And the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy is not in
Kansas anymore. Everything in Act One was back home in Kansas and not in color. But now enact to Dorothy
wakes up and a brand new world filled with color and new characters and wonder woman, Diana leaves her home
for the first time. It is now on a new
adventure with Steve. In act two of the Hunger Games, keratinous leaves her home
and district 12 and enters the capital Xi now prepares to fight and will enter
the Hunger Games. In act two of Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer's Stone, hairy leaves the
Dursleys family home and enters the wizarding world. Your hero doesn't need to
leave their world physically, but they need to have
a new way of thinking. They will meet new
characters and build new relationships in the
fault and our stars. The two main characters
stay in Indianapolis, but Hazel and Augustus started
relationship after they meet each other and
a support group and bond about literature. To keep the story
moving forward. Think about their goals. And if they had one goal and X1, they might have
more goals and act to with embracing change
and meeting new characters. Act to also brings in B stories, which is another subplot. Many times, but not always. Abby's story is a love story. In Wonder Woman, Diana
and Steve flirt a little bit as they set sail over
the ocean and bridesmaids. And he gets pulled over by Officer roads and meets
him for the first time. In Spider-Man. Peter Parker
is in love with mary jane. In mary jane falls in
love with Spiderman. Your BI story does not
have to be a love story, but it usually involves
another character and gives us a break
from the story. You can also have more
than obese story too. If you have several characters, you can have a c story, a D story, ie story, etc. But make sure you're, a
story doesn't get lost. Keep the, a story focused
in the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy's a story and
goal is to get home, but actually meets
the scarecrow, the Tin Man and the
car or the lion. They get their own goals
which become the Beast story, see story and D story. The scare crows goal
is to get a brain. The tin man wants a heart, and the cowardly
lion wants courage. Think about your heroes
New World and how are they changing externally
and internally. Also write down their goals and brainstorm some
possible be stories.
3. ENTERTAINMENT EXPLOSION: Once your hero has embraced
change and entered act to think about all the ways you can entertain your audience. These are the pages
that are the most fun. Whatever your genre is, you want to showcase your
genre in these pages. If you're writing a comedy, pump up the funny in these
pages in bridesmaids, the most memorable scenes
happened in this section, like when Maya Rudolph and
the other bridesmaids have to go to the bathroom and
they can't hold it. So Maya Rudolph has
to go number two and a designer dress in
the middle of the street. If you're writing a horror, the antagonist will
probably start killing or haunting characters. If you're writing an adventure, then launch your hero
into the adventure. In Harry Potter, all of
these magical things are happening is Harry
enters Hogwarts. And we're showing all
the awesome things that wizards can
do in this world, gets super creative
in these pages. You do want to push
her story forward, but you also want to
entertain the audience. This is the section
where we also get the most quotable lines and
moments and meet the parents. Everything Greg tries
to do to impress pans parents just goes wrong
and backfires on him. During dinner. Greg is caught in a lie and he talks about how he used to milk
his sister's cat. Greg says, you can milk
anything with nipples. And Jack replies to
Greg, I have nipples. Greg, can you milk me? These pages are always
fun for the audience, but they might not be
fun for your hero. We laugh at Greg and
meet the parents, but he's not
laughing at himself. He just wants
things to go right? In these pages. Keep the
promise of the premise. In the Hunger Games, the premise is about kids who
kill each other. And this is where the
kids start killing each other and warm bodies. The promise of the
premise makes a story different than every
other zombie story. And the premise is a love story between
a zombie and a human. This is the section
where we see are the zombie start to fall
in love with Julie, the human in parks
and recreation, Andean April's fancy party. There's a ton of great jokes and characters that make us laugh. But Andy in April
constantly remind us what they're all here
for, which is the wedding. For the first half
of Act to brainstorm several entertaining
moments and have fun.
4. Midpoint: After delivering
on the promise of the premise about halfway
through your story, your hero, where
the midpoint and this is a major turning point. Think about what's
the major thing that happens halfway through your story that could shock your main characters
and elevate the story. In alien, the midpoint is
when the alien bursts out of Keynes chest and now the alien
somewhere around the ship, they can't contain the alien. And the aliens killing
spree has just begun the conflict intention has
drastically increased. In Jurassic Park. The midpoint is when
the Tyrannosaurus Rex escapes the gates and
attacks our heroes. Not the park was safe, but now it's definitely
not safe anymore. And the godfather, the midpoint is when the godfathers
oldest son, Sonny, is shot and killed. Sonny was next in line to be the next godfather of the
family, but not anymore. Now it falls to the youngest son and protagonists, Michael. This moment marks a total shift in Michael's involvement
with the family business. When the story started. Michael had nothing to do
with the family business. But now he's next in line
to be the godfather. In The Grapes of Wrath. The job family reaches the
destination of California, only to find out they
have been deceived. California does not have the jobs and prosperity
that they were promised. In psycho. The midpoint is the
famous shower scene when Norman Bates kills the
hero that we were following. The movie takes complete turn. After our first
protagonist is dead, a similar beat
happens in Gone Girl. In the first half of the movie. The girl has gone, but now she comes back and
the story changes. We all thought her husband
might've killed her, but that can't be the case now, if she's alive, spend time on figuring out
what your midpoint is. If you're having
trouble, think what is the biggest thing
that can happen here? What is the one thing that
creates the most conflict?
5. Amp Up the Stakes: From your mid point to
the end of Act two, you want to raise the stakes
and increase the conflict. Amp up the stakes. You want to raise the stakes and conflict even more as they say, Let the **** hit the fan. Let's look at the pilot episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The first half of the episode, midges life is pretty stable
and she hasn't altogether. She thinks her
husband is faithful and her marriage is good. But the midpoint is when
her husband bombs onstage, midges so supportive
of her husband Joel. But after Joel bombs on stage, all the **** hits the fan. After Joel image get back home, Joel starts packing up my
suitcase and he reveals to manage that
he's been cheating on her with the Secretary. Made was planning a
huge dinner the next night with all her
family and the rabbi. But she can't go through
with it now because Joel is leading her
and not coming back. From this point on, everything is crashing down on message. And to make things worse, midges parents blame
her for Joel leaving. Mitch has no one on her side. In psycho. Norman Bates is winning as his lies let him get
away with murder. In Alien. Alien keeps growing
more and more. It kills crew
members one-by-one, including the
captain of the ship. The more people the alien kills, the bigger the alien gets. The crew tries to go after
the alien, but nothing works. And the alien is getting
more and more powerful. Keep thinking about how the
antagonists can win and tear hero has reached their
lowest point possible. This is called the all
is lost moment in Alien. It's when Ellen Ripley has
no one else to help her. She's all alone in the ship, just her and the
alien in bridesmaids. Aeneas fired from the
jewelry store and is kicked out of our
apartment by her roommates. She then throws a tantrum
and Lillian's bridal shower, Lillian than kicks Annie out of the shower and the wedding. Annie is no longer
the maid of honor. Making this the all is lost. During the first
half of your story, you are introducing characters, but now you may be
losing characters. Often in all his last moments, characters close to
your hero will die. In Happy Gilmore. Happy as mentors hubs Peterson dies after seeing the alligator, the tickets hand away.
In the Hunger Games. Ketoses friend and companion
Ru, gets killed off. In Star Wars. Luke loses Obi-Wan Kenobi. Towards the end of Act two, relationships may be ending and family and friends
maybe killed off. All the plans your hero is
made may fail epically. These pages, think about how
to make your protagonist lose at the end of act to your hero should be
worse off than one. The story started.
6. Act 2 Review and Writing Advice: Here's a quick review
of what to do and act to and some advice that
may help you write more. Enact to your hero
must embrace change, and enter their new world.
In their new world. Built some memorable
and unique moments by exploding the entertainment. Towards the middle
of your story, your hero will hit the midpoint. This is a major moment that will change and propel the
story drastically. From there, you want to amp
up the stakes, conflict, intention as things come
crashing down on your hero. Advice for E2 and
following through. Keep moving forward. A very common pitfall that
many writers fall into when they reach act two is
they keep rewriting the pages. They had an act one. Instead of moving forward. Rewriting is always easier than writing, but
here's the thing. You're going to rewrite anyway, once you get to the
end of your story and finish a first draft, only then you'll have a grand picture of
your entire story. You can drive yourself crazy rewriting Act One over and over. So don't, the best
thing to do for your story is to
get to the end of the story and then rewrite, set times to write
and do nothing else. We live in a world where
distractions are so easy. And this makes writing hard,
e-mails, text messages, phone calls, and just reminds, being curious about random
things can distract us. But what often helps me as setting a timer on
my phone and making sure I don't check my email or phone until the timer goes off. I often will do 1 h blocks
for that period of time. I will only write if my mind
wants to Google something. I won't Google it unless
it's research for my story. If it's not, then it
can wait till later. If I don't have time to do 1 h, then I'll set a
timer for 20 min or even five or 10 min if it's late at night and I haven't
written yet that day, stick to your deadlines. It's so easy for us to say, we'll do it later and
then later becomes never. So many people have act
ones of their story done. And then just sit
on doing Act 2.3. I'm guilty of this myself. The first screenplay
I ever sold, I had the first accurate and for about eight months and
never kept moving forward. And it wasn't until
I sat and stick to my deadlines that I finished the script a few months later. A few weeks after that, I optioned and sold
the screenplay. Keep your goals in check. Your beginning of Act. You can have a lot
of fun moments, but always keep your main
character's goal and check. Let the a story
drive the narrative. Never stray too far away
from your protagonist goal. It's also your goal
to finish the story. If you liked this class, please follow me on Skillshare and check out my other classes. You can watch my course
and X1 if you haven't yet. And I'm working on an act three course that'll upload
the Skillshare soon. I hope this course
helps you write an excellent actor to thank
you for watching, right on.
7. SkillShare Superpeer Coaching Promo: Hey, if you're interested in one on one coaching sessions, I'd love to help you during your creative process to make sure your project gets finished. You're interested, you
can book a session on SkillShare using their
new Super purer feature. To book a coaching session, just click on my SkillShare
profile and click Book Now. These coaching
sessions can be weekly or bi weekly,
whichever you prefer. I offer coaching sessions on
writing movies, TV shows, web series, producing
your own film or series, and much more. I can coach you once a week or every two weeks to
make sure you stay on track and create the
accountability you need to finish your
story and project. Contact me to book your
first session now. Thank you, and now back to your regularly
scheduled course. H.
Jordan Imiola, Screenwriter
