The Midpoint | The Craft Of...

there's nothing more exhilarating than pointing out the shortcomings of others is there hello those new to my channel and richard macabros and welcome to my latest recurring series entitled the craft of which will serve as a crash course on traditional 3x structure which is the script structure that the vast majority of hollywood films released over the last god knows how many decades have utilized as always if you enjoyed this video or some of my others make sure to subscribe like turn on notice comment and share i appreciate any and all engagement and feedback and consider supporting me on patreon as the page now has some new perks you may think are cool if you haven't checked out the previous entries of this series i would recommend doing so as i will be building off of each entry as we continue keep in mind that there also may be spoilers for not only the films i will be discussing in this episode but the films i discussed in those episodes so make sure to check the description so you don't get any of them spoiled for you today we will be discussing the third of the five major plot points the midpoint now the midpoint well it the the midpoint is when it um okay let me back up a bit so the average film is roughly two hours and traditional 3x structure is obviously broken up into three x now on average acts 1 and 3 each take up about a quarter of the film's run time with act 2 taking up the remaining half usually running around an hour if not longer act 1 establishes and introduces a disturbance to your protagonist way of life the inciting incident and then has them make a decision in response to said disturbance the first act turn which leads to them entering a new world the second act features your protagonist confronting said disturbance within this new world which eventually leads to them reaching a do or die moment the end of the second act which leads to a final decision which brings about the confrontation resolution of the main conflict of the story the climax okay that seems clear but how does the midpoint fit into this equation well let me put it this way you ever sit down to watch a movie and it starts off great it has an attention-grabbing opening the inciting incident is captivating and as the protagonist sets off on their journey following the first stack turn you're down you're game and excited ready to see how the protagonist is going to confront the main conflict of the story and maybe it goes well for a bit but after a while the story sort of loses its way and you start to lose your grasp on what it is the protagonist is trying to do or why maybe the main conflict doesn't seem as pertinent or urgent as it once seemed and thus you start to get a bit bored tune out a bit maybe check your phone or something and then eventually you get to the end of the second act where the final showdown is set up which leads to an awesome climax but said climax has sort of dulled a bit since the second act really dragged and resulted in you losing some of your initial investment in the story as it was not able to maintain consistent rising action yeah probably on more than one occasion right this is what i like to call the second act trap and it is perhaps the number one factor that results in solid and interesting premises being turned into ridiculously mediocre movies most writers can somewhat easily generate an entire first act to their story the setup the inciting incident and the first decteron and will often have an idea as to how it's going to end but the second act is where they run into most of their trouble as an entire hour is a long time to sustain your story's rising action maybe they can get 30 maybe 40 pages but then they start to run out of ideas and or plot points which in turn results more often than not and them adding pointless scenes or subplots just to fill up time which throws off the pacing turning the plot into a complete mess or worse a snoozefest and this is where the midpoint comes in handy the midpoint is when something happens that adds a new element to the plot or changes the circumstances of the story or throws a wrench in the protagonist's goal or raises the stakes it basically can be anything and will be completely dependent on the specifics of your story but its function is always the same to keep the audience engaged again i know super vague but as much as i preached at a story's individual plot points are dependent on the specifics of said story this is far and away most applicable to the midpoint to demonstrate let me just run through the midpoints of some of the films we've already discussed in this series in chinatown gettys decides to discover who hired the fake mrs monray and killed hollis so he starts poking around okay cool not much going on getting kind of slow spinning our wheels a bit but then he meets noah cross evelyn's father who asks him to find the girl whom hollis was having an affair with but wait why does he want her were they having an affair is noah hiding something is evelyn hiding something oh [ __ ] what's gonna happen in the matrix neo takes the red pill and enters the real world okay so he's adjusting to his new circumstances the dojo training is pretty sick he's learning the ropes coming to terms of being the one okay getting a little old here not much conflict oh wait what the [ __ ] the oracle tells him actually he's not the one and he will have to decide between morpheus his life and his own oh snap buckle up [ __ ] and old boy odesu decides to seek out the person who imprisoned him for 15 years okay he's adjusting to life on the outside he meets my dough he's making some progress okay sort of slowing down is something gonna oh [ __ ] the dude just [ __ ] reveals himself and tells dey sue he has five days to find out why he imprisoned him or he's going to kill my doe oh [ __ ] in the social network mark and eduardo set forth to develop the facebook.com okay cya is growing at a nice rate it won't go viral fuming but aren't all that threatening not much going on everything seems to be going smooth what could possibly i'm sean parker ah [ __ ] jt coming in and ruining the party seducing mark with his effortless charisma and driving a wedge between him and eduardo leading to the end of their friendship god damn it you ramen haired [ __ ] so you get the idea the midpoint basically serves as a defibrillator if you will to your story sending a jolt of energy into the plot right around the time the viewer is just about to lose focus and interest which maintains the rising action until the third act as i said the midpoint can basically be anything but let's look at three examples of how the midpoint can affect the story in different ways i'm going to break the second act into acts 2a and 2b to differentiate before and after the midpoint just as sid field does and his godly guide let's start with the dark knight now some may argue the film utilizes 5x structure which as i have said i think is just sort of a rebranding of 3x structure but in any case let's not get into that right now the dark knight utilizes perhaps one of the most common midpoint templates what is referred to as the false victory this is when the goal that your protagonist sets out to accomplish at the first dark turn is well accomplished batman decides to set out and stop the joker and he does oh nice okay movie over a little anticlimactic but that was a solid ride oh oh oh wait we're like halfway through the movie oh oh geez um is something bad gonna the false victory makes it appear as though the main conflict has to some extent been resolved but then something occurs that kicks the plot back into gear almost serving as a calm before the storm the false victory has been used in films like the dark knight the avengers and skyfall bad guy gets caught gets some one-on-one time with our heroes but then actually no [ __ ] pops off and things start to go wrong leading to all the progress we've made unraveling maybe even leaving us worse off than before which leads to the end of the second act which in the dark knight is when the joker successfully corrupts harvey dent and batman must face off against both men in the film's third act la confidential is also an amazing example of using the false victory in a brilliant and innovative way you know what i'm talking about right la confidential you know russell crowe guy pierce wait you haven't seen it dude get on that [ __ ] you will not be sorry so that is a pretty common example of a midpoint template and one that is directly related to the trajectory of how the plot unfolds however sometimes said unfolding of the plot can remain intact but something can occur that results in shifting your character's main goal an eternal sunshine of the spotless mind the first act kicks off as joel barish agrees to have the memories of his ex clementine erased in order to cope with the pain of losing her as the procedure begins joel while unconscious begins reliving the memories of his relationship with clementine in reverse order before each memory is ultimately erased but as joel begins reliving the more cherished and happy memories of the earlier days of his and clementine's relationship he changes his mind and wants to cancel the procedure but of course joel is asleep and can't tell the mind erasing peeps to piss off and thus he desperately tries to prevent his memory of clementine from being erased so in this case the unfolding of the plot remains the same but our protagonist's goal changes midway through the mind erasing people are still doing their thing nothing has changed on their end but now joel's all like i don't want it as opposed to in the dark knight where our protagonist's main goal remains roughly the same throughout the entire film also note that as a result of joel's goal changing the antagonist of the film also changes in 2a the antagonist was joel's memory of clementine which he wants to get rid of in 2b it is those who joel is trying to stop from erasing her from his mind in the dark knight if batman was just succeeding over and over and over again in his pursuit of the joker well it would get a little stale but by having batman's fortune begin to change seeing him fail and chaos within gotham continuing to reign this makes the final showdown that much more tense and exciting in eternal sunshine while seeing joel relive his own memories is interesting and entertaining it probably would get old after a while since there really isn't any tension as everything is going according to plan but when joel decides he no longer wants to lose clementine suddenly the stakes are ramped up in a big and sudden way so here we have two completely different midpoints and two very different films one which keeps our protagonist's goal consistent but shifts the trajectory of the plot and one which keeps the plot trajectory intact but changes the character's main goal but they both serve the same purpose of breaking up the second act bringing the story in some sort of different direction to keep the audience engaged on their toes invested in the story again i know i sound like a broken record but the midpoint will entirely depend on the specifics of your story so much so that i was struggling to even write this script since it was hard to nail down a single and concise definition but i hope it was at least somewhat clear so as i said earlier the midpoint is perhaps the most vital element you as a writer must focus on to prevent your story from falling into the second act trap and not only can the midpoint save your story from falling into said trap but it can actually completely transform your film and make it something truly special and to demonstrate let us now discuss what is unarguably unquestionably undoubtedly the greatest film of all time get in loser now obviously i was being a bit hyperbolic about being the greatest film of all time but i will unironically stand by the assertion that mean girls is perhaps one of the best overall films of i'd say at least the last 20 years the insanely perfect casting the absurd amount of endlessly quotable dialogue even the smallest of characters being fleshed out and hilarious every time i rewatched a film i am floored by just how [ __ ] good it actually is and as for china face script once again unironically absolutely fantastic i honestly think i could put an entire course focusing on just this one film aside from the excellent dialogue and characters the script economy the use of callbacks all top-notch it is undoubtedly a film any writer can learn a lot from but i want to discuss how mean girls uses its midpoint to turn what could have been an extremely generic teen comedy into a far more complex and layered tale so the movie begins with catty it's katie uh sorry katie struggling to adjust to her new high school after being homeschooled in africa for her entire life the inciting incident occurs when katie is asked to join the plastics the most popular girls in school regina gretchen and karen katie at the behest of her new friends janice and damien decides to join the plastics so they can laugh at all the stupid stuff they say but things get real when after ka discloses that she has a crush on absolute snack aaron samuels regina gets back together with aaron just to slight katie upon coming to the sullen realization that in actuality regina is she along with janice and damian decide to set out to destroy regina's reputation so now let's talk about how an inexperienced or mediocre writer would proceed from here said ryder would probably have the rest of the film chronicle the trio's attempts to ruin regina's life with the climax being at the prom or spring fling dance or something where they make their final big move against regina resulting in her losing her reputation and the film ending with katie janus and damien being victorious so here's the problem not only would this approach be incredibly generic but imagine trying to stretch katie janus and damien ruining regina's life for the entirety of both the second and third acts sure it'd be funny for a while but it would just be the same thing over and over and over and eventually it would just get boring but mean girls doesn't go down this path in fact they actually wrap up this entire plot regina's reputation being completely destroyed halfway through the film which not only maintains the lightning fast pace of the film but also encourages as i stated before writing economy aka finding the most time efficient way to hit your plot points and get your point across like the dark knight the film utilizes the false victory where the main conflict of the film is seemingly resolved but by this point katie has become so drunk on being queen bee she becomes the new regina which in turn like in eternal sunshine changes the entire dynamic of the film with katie's goal if you will now being to rule the school and bag once again absolute snack aaron samuels however the film also keeps regina in the picture moving her from the primary to more of a secondary antagonist and after losing aaron her friends the respect of her parents and regina getting hit by a bus we reach the end of the second act where katie has regressed to her role as a social outcast which leads to the climax where she does her best to write all the wrongs she committed over the course of the film so as you can see while at first glance mean girls may seem just like some generic teen comedy there is actually a lot going on here the midpoint not only serves as a false victory but also changes the entire plot trajectory turning what could have been just a generic let's take down the popular girl plot into a surprisingly astute story of high school hierarchies clicks and relationships and it also gives a surprisingly accurate depiction of current public school sexual education chlamydia k l a so aside from hopefully understanding what the midpoint is and what function it serves as well as the numerous ways it can be executed in your story the big takeaway i would like you to walk away with is just how much of an opportunity the midpoint is to truly allow your story to reach its full thematic potential if you have an idea for a film and you have the first act down pat and maybe you even have an idea as to how it's going to end if you find yourself struggling with filling up the second act consider what if you took the ending and put it at the midpoint what would happen next where else could you take your tail perhaps it will result in you discovering an angle to your story you had never considered before getting out of your comfort zone and sometimes considering the least obvious thing that might happen next is not only the most rewarding thing you can do in terms of breaking yourself out of a stint of writer's block but also in terms of just being a writer as opening yourself up to being able to see a story from a number of different angles is one of the best disciplines you can learn to not only be able to write but to take any subject or topic and find out how to tell that particular story which i would say is one of the true hallmarks of what makes one a truly great writer i hope you enjoyed this episode of the craft of next up we will be taking a slight detour and instead of discussing the next major plot point we will be discussing what i will refer to as the episodic approach which is an alternative strategy to maintain the pacing of your second act this episode is also subtitled why finding nemo and apocalypse now are basically the same movie once again subscribe turn on the notice like share and comment below and consider supporting me on patreon thank you again for your support and i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Macabre Storytelling

Views: 12,029

Rating: 4.9433961 out of 5

Keywords: 3 act structure, three act structure, story structure, 3 act structure movie examples, 3 act story structure, 3 act structure explained, 3 act structure example, 3 act story structure film, 3 act structure screenplay, three act structure novel, three act structure explained, lindsay ellis three act structure, 3 act, the dark knight, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, mean girls, macabre storytelling, the craft of

Id: z_UdhmVUeQc

Length: 16min 34sec (994 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 18 2021