Now that we've identified the main beats of the movie, our story, and we know what kind of events need to appear on what pages of the script, we need really good visual means of organizing our sequence of scenes. Blake Snyder recommends a simple cork board with cards pinned to the board in certain locations, to help jog our memories of what should be there, and how we should organize the scenes. This is my planning board for a story I'm working on at the moment. It's about 90%, complete and almost ready to be written out as a script. I'm going to turn it around and demonstrate how it's built and used from scratch. Although there are three acts, the board is divided into four parts, which can be done with masking tape.
The first section represents act one from page one to 25. The second represents act to page 25 to 55, which is the midpoint of an ideal script have a 110 pages. The third represents act to page 55 to page 85 and the fourth represents Act Three, which goes from 85 to 110. If you wanted to, you could write the page numbers for each section on the masking tape to help you decide where to place the events. Now we can mark the major points on the board. Take From the 15 beats described in a previous video, first of all the points break into two, midpoint and break into three.
You can add the first and last images, and also the theme on page five, to remind yourself that the theme should be stated in the first five pages. Mark of the catalyst point on page 12. This is the event that changes everything. And leave a note reminding yourself that the debate occurs between pages 12 to 25. This is the time when the hero sees himself. Should I go or shouldn't I can I can't I?
Mark page 30 in Act Two with the beast story. We're loving trading Maybe introduced from page 32. The midpoint on page 55 is where the fun and games section happens. This is the time where the hero has some success. And there's some kind of action before the plot turns around at the midpoint for the worse. The bad guys close in between pages 55 and 75.
And on page 75, all is lost. This is when the hero situation is the worst it could possibly be. It seems that defeat is imminent, and he can't possibly win. But of course, this defeat is temporary. The dark night of the soul occurs between pages 75 and 85 before the script breaks into Act Three finale is the whole of Act Three. This is after the hero has had the brilliant idea and starts to turn things around and defeat all the bad is.
The next stage is to gather a pack of yellow cards or any color that you prefer, and begin to develop your script idea, making it more concrete by writing down the ideas and pinning them to the board. Think of an image or an image sequence that represents the tone and style of your movie. And now pin it to the board. Pages one to 10 is when we set up the movie when all the main characters are introduced, or at least referred to and also shows what the heroes life is like before everything changes. Write down things like the character's name Their main personality features and in the car to the board. Use a separate card for the hero and list his character false, because these will be corrected throughout the movie, allowing him to change so he can meet his challenges.
Imagine scenes that clearly show his normal life and his faults, but also his nice side. So the audience identifies with him and wants to know what will happen to him. Right all these on a card and pin it to the board. sometime before page five, a colleague or friend or even a pastor by will ask him a question, a very relevant question. This question will represent the theme of the movie as you move forward and will be addressed again and again. Before resolved at the end.
What is this question? What is the theme of your movie? You should be very sure of this. Who will ask it? How will the hero reply? Write it on the card and pin it to the board.
Write a description of the catalytic event on a card and pin it on page 12. From 12 to 25 is the period when the hero is deciding if and how to react to the catalyst, the event that is risking to change his life. He's asking himself lots of questions in this debate period. Is it safe? Can I do it? There's a lot of self doubt here.
He may consult an older friend or a family member or some other kind of Guru such as a college professor in this part We must be clear on what the stakes are. If he enters the quest and he fails, they must be very serious. Imagine the scenes, write it all down and pin it on the board. At the end of this scene, the hero acts decisively and decides to enter the game. Describe how and why and pin it to the board with another card. whatever other ideas come to you join this process, dialogue or events, anything at all, jot them down on a separate colored card and pin them to the board in the right place.
You'll find that the process is great for stimulating the imagination, and also bringing up new ideas that you can add into your movie script. This is a great help when you get to the point where you You need to turn this storyboard into a written script. Now I've shown you the first act. Using the beat structure we've demonstrated and discussed in a previous video, take each event and pin it in the correct place on the board. Trying to describe that event in the terms of seems, any dialogue and the characters involved. In the next video, I'm going to demonstrate how to use the same kind of planning tool in a software format by using a demonstration platform online.