How Do You Structure A Screenplay Into Three Acts?
Not only does Three Act Structure work, but what I’m going to tell you today is that you should use more of it. I’m going to suggest that you apply Three Act Structure to your overall script, to each act, within each act there are “sequences,” within the sequences are “parts,” within the parts there are “scenes,” within the scenes there are “beats,” and even within the beats there are the sub-atomic particles of story-telling, “words.” Generally speaking, most screenwriting classes, books and teachers will tell you that all (successful) screenplays are written in Three Act Structure, where Act I (the set up) is 25-30 pages long, Act II (conflict) is 45-60 pages long, and Act III (resolution) is 25-30 pages long, with the shorter page lengths for a 90 minute movie and the longer page lengths for a 120 minute movie. The origin of Three Act Structure came from the early days of film where studios would analyze the films that did well and those that didn’t, eventually deducing that audienc
