How to Format a Three-Act Structure for Movie Scripts

Video Transcript

"Okay, so we have Act 1, Act 2, Act 3. This is your basic story formula. So what happens in Act 1 that makes it different from 2 and 3? Here's how it works. You have a formula, let's say it is a boy meets a girl. And in Act 1 that's what we're going to describe. The meeting, what happens to them, who they are and that information. In Act 2 you're going to have boy loses girl. And here in Act 2 you are going to describe all the problems that they are having in their relationship and he loses her. He's found her and he's lost her. In Act 3 boy gets girl back. That is the basis of your story. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Okay, I can hear you, what you're saying. You're saying to yourself well my story's not a love story. I don't have any boy meeting girl. It doesn't matter and you'll see how the same format it used for any situation. Let's say you're going to write a Western instead. Okay, so you might say - the farmer buys a farm. And, following our formula as we did before. The farmer, what happens here, he's going to lose the farm, right? And what's going to happen in Act 3? I can hear you saying it before I do. The farmer gets the farm back. So you see, it doesn't matter what your story is. The idea is the same. The format, this is how it follows."