- In the last two videos, we talked about our theme
and how to break your story into beats using the story spine. The next step is to
divide your story spine into larger sections, which we call acts. Throughout history,
storytellers have experimented with everything from one
act to eight acts or more, but the most common structure for film is the three act structure. Act one consists of the first three steps of our story spine, "Once upon a time." This is where we meet our main character, known as the protagonist, and we find out when and
where the story takes place. For example, in Finding
Nemo, we're introduced to Marlin and Nemo who live
in the safety of the reef, and we learn why Marlin worries about the dangers lurking in the open ocean. The first act also tells the audience what type of movie they're about to see. Is it a science fiction,
a romantic comedy, a historical drama, or something else? Every day. This is where we learn more
about how the world works. For example, in Finding
Nemo, we learn about the other creatures who inhabit the reef and what life is like there every day. Until one day. This is often called
the inciting incident. It's an event which
leads to a key obstacle your protagonist faces and sets the rest of the story in motion. In Finding Nemo, Nemo ignores
his father's instructions, swims out to touch the boat, and is captured by a scuba diver. In order to save him, Marlin is forced to face his biggest fear, the open ocean. The first act can also introduce something called the antagonist. You probably know this as a character we sometimes call the villain,
but it can take many forms. Generally, the antagonist is a force that gets in the way of your
character's wants and needs. Marlin's antagonist is something, something that stands in his way, the ocean and his fear of it. Getting this first act
figured out is critical, so let's ask our storytellers
for some more information. - In act one, we want to
introduce our characters, introduce the story, and get a landscape of where the story is trying to go. - What's essential in the first act is that you meet the main
character in her or his world and you understand
their place in the world and you understand their
problem in the world. - You learn enough about this character that you like this
character and you want to go on this journey with the
filmmaker and the character. It's very important to hook
your audience in act one. - For our movies, I think Wall-E has one of strongest first acts. The world is set up. I mean, it's a trash planet
and it's an abandoned dystopia, and yet you have an
idealist, you have Wall-E, who believes as a robot
that love is possible in an environment where
he's meant to clean up the remnants of the opposite world view, and it's beautiful that he doesn't, he has almost no evidence
other than a little green leaf that what he believes and feels is real, and then Eve comes in and confirms to him his idealistic tendencies
that we can rise above our programming and that we
can be more than we're told and we can be more than what's around us. - Sometimes the inciting incident
will introduce a conflict that will launch the main
character into a journey that will take place throughout the film. - In most cases I can think of, the inciting incident comes
toward the end of the first act. You spent the first act setting
up who the characters are, what's important, what the
status quo is in the world, and the inciting incident
that's gonna pull the rug out from under that status quo is
gonna launch you into act two. - In Wall-E, the inciting incident is when Eve is taken off
of earth into the axiom, and Wall-E follows her up
to the axiom on the rocket 'cause he now has a goal
which is to get Eve back. Even though he's a robot and
he cannot be further from me, I completely empathize
with him and I want for him connection and love and the
things that he aspires to. To me, it's an elegant, beautiful,
heartbreaking first act. - And I think a successful first act gets you to invest in your character, care about your character, care
about what they care about, so when the thing they
care about is threatened or the rug is pulled out
from under them in some way, you're rooting for them to
launch into the second act and solve that problem. - Ultimately, the first act
is the setup for the story. It's where we learn
everything we need to know about our main characters and the world, and we find something out which gets us invested in the journey which follows. In the next exercise, you'll have a chance to identify the first act
in your favorite films, as well as start developing the first act for the story you want to create.