I think it fair to say that you pretty much just answered your own question enit. Make a drama about a couples relationship where ones gelouse. Or not even? I find that when I'm not in the mood to write I write complete s**t, which is why I never ever write when I dont feel like it. I write more interesting narrative that way. you could always try writting it about some thing that your passionate about or even some thing that you know a great deal about, mabey even a personal experience? Hope this threads helped ya. Cleary UK.

www.myspace.com/holteendproductions

yes i guess in theory i do know what to write, however, who wants to see another relationship gone bad film? i need some aspect or some sort of twist that makes my film different from other videos of its type.

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilhall017

yes i guess in theory i do know what to write, however, who wants to see another relationship gone bad film? i need some aspect or some sort of twist that makes my film different from other videos of its type.

---

Every film and plot has been done, nothing really original, so "they" say. What makes your film/story "original" is your characters, location, setup, dialog, etc.

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilhall017

yes i guess in theory i do know what to write, however, who wants to see another relationship gone bad film? i need some aspect or some sort of twist that makes my film different from other videos of its type.

---

True, but if its going to be the first film that you have made then I wouldn't say any ones going to judge you harshly for doing so. If its your first then realistically you should be using it as a steping stone to make better films (In my opinion). Unless of course your planning to set the world on fire, in which case I wish you the best of luck. Cleary

www.myspace.com/holteendproductions

Maintain a 3-act format and write good dialog.

Act I sets up your situation
Act II expands the story (usually with a monologue near the end)
Act III resolves the film (with either drama or a twist)

Repeat your dialog aloud and continually edit it until it sounds natural. Go over it with another person if you can. Film it and play it back. It should sound like a conversation, not forced, not a lot of big words or technical terms.

And, oh, yeah: it will probably suck. 🙂
Don't get discouraged. Filmmaking requires a lot of experience and a lot of trial and error. You're going to make a lot of mistakes in your first film, fix them in your second (while making a whole new set of mistakes, which will be fixed in your third (while making a whole...)). I think you know where that's going. 🙂

quote:

---

Originally posted by bbrazil

Maintain a 3-act format and write good dialog.

Act I sets up your situation
Act II expands the story (usually with a monologue near the end)
Act III resolves the film (with either drama or a twist)

Repeat your dialog aloud and continually edit it until it sounds natural. Go over it with another person if you can. Film it and play it back. It should sound like a conversation, not forced, not a lot of big words or technical terms.

And, oh, yeah: it will probably suck. 🙂
Don't get discouraged. Filmmaking requires a lot of experience and a lot of trial and error. You're going to make a lot of mistakes in your first film, fix them in your second (while making a whole new set of mistakes, which will be fixed in your third (while making a whole...)). I think you know where that's going. 🙂

---

The 3 act stanza method, is just one of the methods of filmmaking. it?s a good way to make a structured narrative, depending on what you are trying to achieve. If your making a documentary then its not the same. How ever if your making a drama or something that requires narrative. Its true that a lot of film writers favorite this method. http://www.musik-therapie.at/PederHill/Structure&Plot.htm is a link for you to look at in order to check out how it works. How ever personally I choose not to use this sort of structure, because I feel that it makes the narrative restricted. I like to write Domestic, Social Drama?s which portray a sense of realism. I?m not a political writer, I just like to represent reality. If I was to use a structured convention then It would take away from my narrative, when I write I like it to flow and be natural, as opposed to forcing the writing because an ideological structure says so. When I write my own narrative I like to position my self as the character when I?m writing dialogue. It sounds a bit weird an might not work for every one, when I write I have a mirror next to me to practice what they would say and how they would say it. This way I see how they would, could or should deliver their lines, so in some ways I act it out as Im writing. How ever if writing using the 3 act stanza works for you then by all means go with it and let it carry you. My self though I only write when I?m feeling inspirational. I feel my narrative benefits from it, but its down to what you to find works for you. This is just how I like to write. Cleary.

www.myspace.com/holteendproductions

There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. However, the vast majority of plots tend to follow the simple 3-part layout. In film, it's usually fairly straightforward because the plots are straightforward.

Feature films follow the same format as a short story: one main character, one main conflict. This makes it fairly straightforward to create a 3-act movie (introduce the main character and conflict, expand the conflict, resolve the conflict). It also explains why novels tend to translate poorly to film (too many characters, too many plots, too much character development).

If you really, really know what you're doing, you can circumvent some of the "standards" of a 3-act movie. For example, the main character is usually introduced immediately; however, some great films have introduced the main character late in the 1st or even into the 2nd act.

Without "constraining" your writing to an "arbitrary standard", it's very hard to write something compelling. Your story has to have a climax, or it's boring. It has to have a climax near the end or it's anticlimactic. It has to have characters or it's way too abstract for me. 🙂

That's not to say you want to sit down with your 3 act chart as a starting point for writing. You want to develop your idea and see how it fits into 3 acts.

Just last night I was working on translating a song into a short screenplay. As I was writing I could not for the life of me figure out how to shoehorn this song into 3 acts. Songs don't really have acts. So I thought it would be 2 acts or maybe one. I reassured myself that it's just an art piece, not really a complete plot. Today I realized that the first three brief shots is the first act. We meet the main character and we learn that he has a problem. Then he tries to resolve the problem. That sounds like a second act. Finally, he gives up and literally stumbles upon a solution. Climax, closure. Three acts.

As you mentioned, a documentary style doesn't really have 3 acts, but it kind of does. Look at most documentaries. They start by informing you what's going on. Maybe it's not necessarily a character or set of characters, but it may be a concept (say, global warming). They then expand upon it, telling you why global warming will kill us all. Then there's the dramatic conclusion: how to avoid global warming! That may not seem to be a compelling plot, but it keeps the documentary from being 90 minutes of someone rambling.

"As you mentioned, a documentary style doesn't really have 3 acts, but it kind of does. Look at most documentaries. They start by informing you what's going on. Maybe it's not necessarily a character or set of characters, but it may be a concept (say, global warming). They then expand upon it, telling you why global warming will kill us all. Then there's the dramatic conclusion: how to avoid global warming! That may not seem to be a compelling plot, but it keeps the documentary from being 90 minutes of someone rambling."

Yeah your right, you make a good point that some documentaries do use structures similar to the 3 act Stanza, but even though all documentaries have structure (Obviously) it depends on what the purpose of the documentary is. For example a nature documentary might choose to use this technique how ever a wildlife documentary might not. Take the Michael Moore style of documentary making (I'm not sure what this is called but theres bound to be a technical name for his style of documentary. Help any one?) for example, where he uses editing to get his point across and ridicule people giving their honest opinions to position the audience.

The point which I was making in my previouse contribution, which might not seem that clear looking back on it, is that you shouldn't feel as if you have to do some thing because its the traditional way of writing. I suggest that you have a little play around with both methods, to see which best suites your writting skills.

What genre are you thinking of writing for? Cleary.

www.myspace.com/holteendproductions