How to Build Your Story Structure
Summary
TLDRIn this insightful video, the speaker discusses the importance of story structure in filmmaking, dispelling the notion that it stifles creativity. Using Christopher Nolan's 'Inception' as a case study, they demonstrate how even innovative films adhere to structural principles, emphasizing the midpoint's role in raising stakes. The video advocates for structure as a guiding tool for storytelling, comparing it to building a house with a foundation. It also highlights the value of originality in execution and the speaker's personal approach to a six-act structure, using 'The Ring' as an example. The speaker shares their experience with Millinote, a digital creative tool, for organizing story development, and encourages continuous writing, shooting, and editing as the core of the craft.
Takeaways
- 📝 The script discusses the importance of story structure in filmmaking and counters the notion that adhering to structure stifles creativity.
- 🎬 It uses Christopher Nolan's 'Inception' as an example to show that even original films follow a structural framework, emphasizing the midpoint of the story where stakes are raised.
- 🔄 The speaker advocates for the use of structure as a roadmap for storytelling, comparing it to the foundation of a house that allows for unique expressions in execution.
- 💡 Originality in filmmaking is often found in the execution and the filmmaker's unique voice, rather than in completely disregarding traditional structures.
- 📚 The script references 'Save the Cat' and other resources that emphasize the importance of the midpoint in raising stakes and changing direction in a story.
- 📈 The speaker shares their personal writing process, which involves a six-act structure and ideas from the 'Save the Cat' beat sheet.
- 📑 The use of Millinote as a digital creative wall for story prep and development is highlighted, showcasing its utility in organizing and visualizing story elements.
- 🎞️ A detailed breakdown of 'The Ring' is provided to illustrate the six-act structure, explaining how each act contributes to the overall narrative.
- 🔑 The concept of considering each act as a short film and hitting specific story points or 'beats' is introduced to make the writing process more manageable.
- 🎥 The speaker reflects on their own short films, noting that even when not consciously applying structure, the films still align closely with traditional narrative frameworks.
- 🔄 The importance of writing, shooting, and editing as a cycle of continuous improvement in filmmaking is emphasized, regardless of the approach to structure.
Q & A
What is the main topic of discussion in the video script?
-The main topic of discussion in the video script is story structure, particularly in relation to film, and the importance of understanding and applying it even when creating original content.
Why does the speaker mention 'Feed America' and other charities?
-The speaker mentions 'Feed America' and other charities as a reminder for viewers to consider donating to those in need, especially during the holiday season, and provides a list of charities in the notes for additional giving options.
What is the speaker's stance on the use of structure in filmmaking?
-The speaker believes that structure should not be disregarded in filmmaking. They argue that even though some filmmakers like Christopher Nolan are considered original and not bound by traditional structure, they still follow a form of structure in their storytelling.
Can you provide an example of how the speaker uses 'Inception' to illustrate the concept of a film's midpoint?
-The speaker uses 'Inception' to illustrate the midpoint by pointing out the scene where the stakes are raised and the direction of the film changes. This happens when the character states that they will be killed if they do not continue with their mission as quickly as possible.
What is the significance of the midpoint in a film according to the speaker?
-According to the speaker, the midpoint in a film is significant because it is a moment where the stakes are raised, often leading the film in a new direction, and is a key element in the overall structure of storytelling.
How does the speaker address the idea that structure leads to unoriginal filmmaking?
-The speaker argues against this idea by stating that originality is often found in the execution and the filmmaker's unique voice, rather than in the adherence or non-adherence to structure. They emphasize that all filmmakers are inspired by previous works and that structure can serve as a foundation for creativity.
What is the speaker's personal approach to using structure in their storytelling?
-The speaker uses structure as a roadmap to guide them through their story. They start by being conscious of structural ideas, then forget about them to focus on telling the best story possible. They have adopted a six-act structure that incorporates elements from the 'Save the Cat' beat sheet.
What tool does the speaker mention for story preparation and development?
-The speaker mentions 'Millinote' as the tool they use for story preparation and development. It serves as a digital creative wall that allows them to structure and rearrange ideas easily.
How does the speaker apply the six-act structure to the film 'The Ring'?
-The speaker breaks down 'The Ring' into six acts, detailing how each act sets up the world and characters, raises the stakes, introduces the midpoint, and leads to the climax and resolution, using specific moments from the film as examples.
What advice does the speaker give regarding the use of structure in writing and filmmaking?
-The speaker advises not to discount the process of structure too soon and not to look down on others for using it. They emphasize that writing is a skill with a craft to it, and structure serves as a foundation that allows for creativity to build upon.
Outlines
🎬 Embracing Story Structure in Filmmaking
This paragraph discusses the importance of story structure in filmmaking, challenging the notion that structure inhibits creativity. It emphasizes that even acclaimed directors like Christopher Nolan follow a structural framework, using 'Inception' as an example to illustrate the film's clear midpoint and stake-raising. The speaker argues that structure can serve as a guide, not a constraint, and that originality often lies in execution rather than in disregarding established narrative techniques.
📚 Utilizing a Six-Act Structure for Storytelling
The speaker introduces a six-act structure as a method for organizing narrative elements, referencing 'The Ring' as a case study. They describe how each act serves a specific purpose, from establishing the world and characters to escalating the stakes and reaching the climax. The paragraph also mentions the use of Millinote as a tool for organizing and visualizing the story development process, highlighting its features for note-taking, idea mapping, and maintaining structure.
🎥 Reflecting on the Unconscious Adherence to Structure in Short Films
In this paragraph, the speaker reflects on their experience with short films, noting that while they don't consciously apply a structured approach, their work still aligns closely with narrative structures. Using 'Ballistic' as an example, they demonstrate how key narrative beats naturally fell into place, adhering to a structured timeline without premeditation. The speaker concludes by advocating for the importance of writing, shooting, and editing as a cyclical process to hone one's craft.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Story Structure
💡Midpoint
💡Originality
💡Six-Act Structure
💡Millinote
💡Stakes
💡Character Development
💡Call to Action
💡B Story
💡All Is Lost Moment
💡Resolution
Highlights
Story structure is often misunderstood as a constraint, but it serves as a guide for filmmakers.
Feed America charity is supported, encouraging donations to help those in need during the year.
Christopher Nolan is cited as an example of a filmmaker who supposedly defies structure, yet his films like 'Inception' do follow a structured approach.
The midpoint of a film is crucial for raising stakes and shifting direction, exemplified in 'Inception' at the 70-minute mark.
Originality in filmmaking is not about ignoring structure but about how one executes and brings their voice to the story.
A comparison between 'Inception' and 'Paprika' shows that even original films draw inspiration from previous works.
Every filmmaker stands on the shoulders of those who came before, using knowledge and creativity as a foundation for originality.
Structure can act as a tool for guiding the storytelling process, especially for long-form narratives.
The speaker shares their personal journey with structure, moving from a strict adherence to using it as a flexible roadmap.
A six-act structure is introduced, with 'The Ring' used as an example to illustrate how acts are broken down and function within the story.
Millinote is recommended as a digital tool for story prep and development, allowing for organization and flexibility in idea placement.
The importance of considering setup and payoff in every element of a script is emphasized for creating a cohesive narrative.
Each act is treated as its own short film, making the overall structure more manageable and allowing for easier adjustments.
The speaker's short film 'Ballistic' is analyzed, showing an organic adherence to the six-act structure without intentional application during creation.
The use of images, tone, and character boards in Millinote helps to convey the story's mood and provides inspiration during the writing process.
The final message encourages writers to find their own process, whether it involves strict structure or a more freeform approach, as long as they continue to create.
Transcripts
we're talking story structure today but
before we do a reminder that we do have
that donate button down below this week
we have feed america
so as always if you do have the means
please consider giving help to those who
really need it especially
at this time of year and i have a list
of some other great charities i give to
in the notes below as well if you do
want to do more including being able to
help some kids in foster homes have a
christmas so give that a look as well
the structure shouldn't be a dirty word
but often it is it doesn't mean you need
to follow the details of any one
specific formula or format every movie
has a beginning middle and end or in
more
structured terms setup midpoint and
payoff but inevitably
whenever we talk about structure some
people get triggered often christopher
nolan will be brought up as a very
original filmmaker
that doesn't adhere to structure and
that's why his movies are so great
and i agree that his movies are great
and he is pretty original with his
stories and execution
but i would disagree that he doesn't
follow structure to talk about that
let's look at inception before we do
that let's talk about what a midpoint of
a film is it's personally one of my
favorite moments because
it's a moment where you make a shift
often raise the stakes and
take the film to a new direction in most
places that i've read about structure
including save the cat there's an
emphasis on the midpoint
raising the stakes like i said before
now inception is a 2 hour and 20 minute
movie so
going along the general rule of thumb
that one page equals one minute let's
assume that this was a 140 page script
which
puts our midpoint at 70 pages or 70
minutes or
1 hour and 10 minutes so let's jump to
that point in the film and see what we
have
we go any deeper we just raise the
stakes i am sitting this one out on this
level boys
fisher security is surrounding this
place as we speak 10 hours of flight
time is a week at this level that means
each and every one of us will be killed
that i can
guarantee you you have no other choice
but to continue on and do it as fast as
possible
i mean i
the character literally states in the
dialogue that the stakes are being
raised the film doesn't just
adhere to the structural idea it says it
out loud the dialogue even goes on to
say how things are changed
again out loud and we move in a new
direction of the film i'm using this as
an example because i've seen so many
people
combat structure with nolan films
specifically with inception
often saying that any form of structure
leads to unoriginal uniform
filmmaking but let's talk about that
idea of originality let's compare some
scenes from inception
to a film called paprika which came out
four years earlier
intruding into another human's dream is
a technological nightmare
and eventually that kind of personal
intrusion into the mind can only lead to
violence
that many contraptions should never have
been created now to be clear i'm not
bashing nolan i'm not saying he's
unoriginal or stole anything inception
is easily one of my favorite films of
the last 20 years and i think
he's a brilliant filmmaker the point
here is is that all filmmakers are
inspired by other work standing on the
shoulders of knowledge and creativity
that came before them and that doesn't
make it
unoriginal often originality is found
largely in the execution and the
execution
is based on your voice who you are and
how you see the world
think about a house you need a
foundation walls electrical work
plumbing a roof but every house can look
entirely different from each other and
they can feel
entirely different from each other and
of course i'm not saying that every
filmmaker thinks about structure or even
follows it i think most do but
if it goes against the way that you work
if it doesn't work for you
ignore it completely craig mason has an
amazing podcast that talks about writing
and structure
and how good writing just inherently
lands into one link for that in the
notes below so what i'm saying is
don't get wrapped up in film school
prestige thinking that makes you
discount the process too soon or
look down on others for using that
process if it doesn't work for you
it doesn't make you wrong and it doesn't
make the other filmmaker wrong either
the way structure has worked for me
so far is as a road map to help me
through my story we talked a bit about
this in an episode we did earlier this
year with ricky staub
but the gift that looking into structure
and using it gave me in the beginning of
my career
was to be a guiding light toward
wrapping my head around telling a long
form story
if you've ever tried to craft then write
an effective feature narrative
you know how tough it can get when first
starting out it's like being dropped in
the middle of a dense forest that you've
never been in
than being told to find your way home so
for me structure acted as a tool like a
compass or a map to help guide me in a
direction
at this point i have been doing it for a
while in the past two years i've been
diving in
a lot more than ever before and though i
feel my process
is always changing i have one now that
has been working pretty well for me and
that is a sort of six
act structure thinking that peppers in
some ideas from the save the cat beat
sheet i'll be conscious of these ideas
when first starting to plant my story
flag then at some point i'll forget all
about them
and focus on just telling the best story
i possibly can but let's explain
how i look at six acts using the ring
which if you haven't read the script
definitely worth a read if you're a
horror fan and if you haven't seen the
film this
is your spoiler warning and to build
this out a little bit let's jump into
millinote here who is a partner on this
episode i did talk about them before in
another episode but
i've completely moved over to millinote
for my story prep and development
it's like a digital creative wall i like
to keep things structured and have the
ability to move ideas around so this
thing
has been a godsend with its columns and
its boards i love how you can create
boards in here and keep drilling down to
stay clean and structured
then you have these columns that you can
drop notes into
images to drive the tone links that
populate with a preview
and an app so you can drop ideas in at
any time i'm always waking up
at like two in the morning three in the
morning and i have an idea that i want
to drop down but it ends up being put in
so many different
places so now instead of using like five
different apps
i'm mostly just using this one it's
pretty great and you can get a free
account
to start using it right now too there is
a paid account which is the one that i'm
on and it gives you a lot more but the
free account is also pretty badass and a
great place to start so definitely
check that out in the notes below but
inside of this board i'm going to start
creating
columns for my six act structure which
isn't my original idea plenty of people
have talked about this and refined it
again
i'm just standing on the shoulders of
creatives that came before me but we
have act 1a
1b 2a 2b 3a and 3b
in act 1 of course we're setting up our
world and our characters in act 1a
specifically
we land the stakes of horror with
katie's death then we meet aiden and
rachel set up our themes
then katie's mom asks our lead rachel to
look into what happened which this
is our call to action our catalyst that
kicks the story into motion
and that moment also moves us into act
1b rachel accepts the journey but isn't
fully committed
she follows the mysteries which begin to
reveal things that perk her curiosity
and that takes her to the cabin katie
stayed at and the videotape that she
ended up watching
rachel watches the tape the phone rings
and that is the moment
that kicks us into act 2 or act 2a
there's no turning back now
she has to do this because her life
might depend on it in act 2a you also
often have a b story kickoff in this
film the b story is her difficult
relationship with noah
we also move into what a lot of people
call the fun and game section in an
action film
we get exciting set pieces in horror
films we get the scares
we continue building our story and
momentum to the midpoint
which shifts us into act 2b like i said
before the midpoint is where we raise
the stakes it's truly our point of no
return in the ring that moment comes
just three minutes before dead middle of
the film when aiden watches the tape now
it's not just her life on the line it's
her sons in act 2b
i've noticed that more often than not
there's a change somehow we shift up
scenery often the story literally moves
to a new location like in the ring when
rachel goes to the island but that shift
can be found in other ways as well i
think
the idea here is sort of like a bridge
and a song
something that changes it up keeps the
story from feeling redundant or
predictable and now
we're headed toward act three things are
getting worse we find
out what's really going on and we have
our all as lost moment which in this
film is where richard kills himself
this will never stop you coming here
proves that
where is she please i have to stop her
if i don't my son will die oh yes
she never sleeps wait no
and that kicks us into act 3 with 3a in
act 3a we move into our final push
everything that we learned so far has
brought us to this point
it's the go for broke section that leads
to our climax which in the ring
is our well moment rachel finds the body
all seems okay after this
and that moves us into 3b the aftermath
that can be a resolution a glimpse at a
new normal or in the case of the ring
the realization that things are not okay
after all so with that in mind i'll fill
out these boxes with general must-have
ideas like you see
there and something that can be very
useful is keeping
other mile markers in mind as well like
story points you want to hit
and when i consider everything a setup
and a payoff every character moment line
of dialogue
scene and so on are all in service of a
setup or a payoff and this creates
landmarks in my script from where
certain things can happen
it's also helpful to me that i consider
each one of those acts their own sort of
short film
1a 1b 2a 2b so you're not trying to
cross this massive hill all at once
you're taking little hills at a time
but i'll build it all out in here in
millinote and then i can start shifting
things around
i'll have all these story beats that i
know i want to hit and where i
originally think i can place them but
what happens if i push this moment over
to here instead
and so on it allows you to reorder
things quickly and see a sort of 35 000
foot
view of your story overall and how
things seem to play out and something i
think is really interesting with my own
work like with my short films for
instance i'm never thinking about
structure with short films i always just
do
what i feel is right for the project as
i'm going i know my beginning middle and
end
of course which is a structure but no
more than that but when i take these
same ideas
and look at one of my shorts like
ballistic i found that it stuck
incredibly close to that structure for
instance let's just build that out in
here with all the main structure points
i normally
think about the six acts and the markers
so we'll base where things should be
on around a 15 page count so with that
in mind our theme stated moment should
be between one
and two minutes and in my short film
right at the one minute and 11 second
mark we had this
wake up dave wake up
baby look at me listen the sirens
there's a man in the house we're going
to keep moving
right we can hide get
up then at the end of 1a our catalyst
should happen between
2 and 3 minutes and at 2 minutes and 12
seconds
this happens
[Music]
next we have our shift in act two which
should in this framework happen at the
three minute mark so when we jump there
we find this our no turning back moment
she is in this thing now
then our fun and game section should be
happening between four and eight minutes
and that's where we get the set piece
until we hit our midpoint around seven
and a half minutes in the moment where
the stakes are raised then we have the
all is lost moment of 2b
which in this format should be around 10
minutes and at
exactly 10 minutes here's what happens
please
don't i just want to share your phone
shoot him or he will kill us
both no i will not hurt you
i won't hurt your mother dana i swear
[Music]
leave her alone i was gonna leave it
alone i was gonna leave you both alone
after that of course we move into act
three and our final climax and it all
lines up
very closely what's interesting is i
never once thought about structure not
while writing
and certainly not while editing but in
the end there it is
again i'm building all this out in
millinote and at some point i'll be able
to show you guys the current work that
i've been building
in it but of course i can't do that
right now but this is pretty similar to
that sort of idea i'll often throw in
images to help convey the tone or a
moment
or as inspiration i'll also build out
character boards to flesh out those
ideas
often doing some fantasy casting just
wish list of people
that i would like to play the roles
which does help me get specific when
writing we did a much deeper look on
millinote and its functions in another
episode so definitely give that a look
it was a game changer for me i think
you'll like it too
and again you can use it for free to
start so link in the notes on that and
while you're in the links check out some
great blog articles
on our site from colin kelly he did a
fantastic series on color grading that
is really a must read he also has a
solid youtube channel
of his own all about color work so look
into that too but to wrap it up
of course i'm not saying you should
stick closely to any one structure i'm
not saying mine is the one you should
use either all that i'm saying
is that writing is a skill there's craft
to it and just like a dp
probably isn't thinking about the
science behind her craft at all times it
is there and it's the foundation that
lets her get
more creative and build on that sturdy
foundation
so throw it all out or find your own
regardless of what works for you the
only thing that really matters in the
end is that you continue to write
shoot edit repeat
[Music]
you
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