Based on the three-act drama structure in Syd Field's "Fundamentals of Screenwriting", and the beat table structure in Blake Snyder's "Saving the Cats" volume 1 and volume 3, this paper attempts to create an The screenwriter's perspective pulls the film.
Act 1, Build
1. Opening screen: 0-3:03
The opening scene of a movie usually sets the tone, mood, and style.
Joanna was coaxing the child to sleep, and seemed to be thinking. After the child fell asleep, she packed up and went out
2. Foreshadowing: 3:03-5:00
Set goals for protagonists, bounties, and stories. Also see all the main characters in action. This is the world before the adventure begins, the mature state of the protagonist's world, the calm before the storm.
Dustin often works overtime, the boss wants to give him a promotion, and Joanna is packing at home
3. Catalysis: 5:00-7:38
The first "hard hit" in the film. A life-course-altering event is usually bad news that upsets the balance of all of the protagonist's life and provokes the protagonist's desire to restore it.
Joanna is running away from home, and Dustin tries to keep her, but fails.
4. Theme presentation: 7:38-10:57
Indicate the theme of the movie through the mouth of the characters in the play.
Neighbor Margaret said, "She ruins one of your five best days," a line that suggests Dustin can't be empathetic, always self-centered, and rarely consider his wife's feelings.
5. Disputes: 10:57-24:13
The protagonist has experienced a catalytic event and already has a desire to restore a balanced life, but it is difficult for him to immediately accept the fact and deal with it readily, and he still needs to struggle. Disputes are also expressions of indecision before the protagonist hits the road, with both desire and doubt.
Ted kicked the stove after failing to make breakfast; got angry when he spilled juice on documents; got into an argument with his kids when he bought snacks because of the different color packaging... These actions are all actions that he is not ready to be alone with the kids all the time
Act Two, Confrontation
6. Plot point 1: (24:13-32:33)
There is also a name called "Second Act Convergence Point", in fact, it is already the second act from here. This matter is a matter with enough influence to let the protagonist who is still in tangled disputes leave the old world and take the initiative to enter the new world. The catalytic event allows the protagonist to passively accept the task, while the plot point 1 allows the protagonist to actively accept the task.
Ted receives a letter from Joanna, reading to the child that Mommy is not coming back. He took the initiative to throw away all the photos and objects of Joanna in the house. He voluntarily gave up the office party and took the initiative to pick up the children. When the child complained, he was not as angry as in the arguing stage, and had voluntarily accepted to raise the child alone. Not only did he go home to cook smoothly and skillfully, but he also kept a picture of his mother for the child to put on the bedside, which shows that he has put it down and no longer resents his wife. He also stopped complaining that the child was affecting his work, and even when he was late for a meeting at the company, he did not forget to remind the secretary to buy a toy.
7. Story B: 32:33-34:39
A B-story is about the same theme from a different angle, it's a subplot used to reveal the moral premise of the movie. This rhythm acts like the presentation of the theme, in order to imply the theme. The themes of genre films are mostly based on emotional resonance, so B stories tend to be more direct than A stories, and in most cases are emotional stories.
The marriage of neighbors Margaret and Charlie is a B-story. She does not plan to remarry, because Charlie will always be the child's father, and the relationship between parents and children "will last forever". Not only the theme is revealed here, but even the final direction of the plot is revealed. Dustin asked him what if his ex-husband Charlie came back and begged her to remarry, and she said that if she loved her, she shouldn't have left her at the time. Love is overwhelmed, now everything has happened, accept the reality, don't always immerse yourself in the memories of the past.
8. Games: 34:39-45:10
Game time is the easiest part of the movie. After the protagonist accepts the challenge, he ushered in a series of victories. Everyone thinks that victory is in sight.
Although there was a conflict over ice cream, it was quickly reconciled. Go to the kindergarten to watch the children's kindergarten performance. After dating the female secretary Karama, she brought it home to have a relationship, and the child saw the naked Karama early.
9. Midpoint: 45:10-55:45
This is the apex of game time, a pseudo-victory for the protagonist, who ostensibly reaches his peak.
Margaret talks about her having no interest in a married French teacher and her child falling.
10. The Bad Guys Approach: 55:45-69:59
This is the middle to nothing part, the hardest part of the whole story.
Joanna asked to meet and wanted to get back the child, and Dustin's lawyer said it was not easy to win the case. Ted lost his job, and after a lot of hard work, he found another job at the cost of a $4,800 annual salary.
11. Nothing: 69:59-71:29
The protagonist is like a complete failure, and every aspect of the protagonist's life is a mess, scarred and hopeless. There is often an air of death in this beat, or something in the story, or something symbolic, as long as it implies that something is dying.
While Ted was telling the story to the child, he got a call from the lawyer saying that Joanna had asked to see the child and that Joanna was seeing a psychiatrist. When he continued to tell the story to the child, he said, "What if that person drowned?", revealing a hint of death.
12. Night of the Soul: 71:29-72:13
This beat is a continuation of nothing, the difference is that the night of the soul is the feeling of the protagonist, and nothing is the event that the protagonist encounters. This beat needs to reveal the inner world of the protagonist after all hope is lost.
The child happily runs into the arms of his mother Joanna in the park, and Ted is small and helpless in the distance. For 18 months, I thought that I would be with my child, but I never thought about letting go of my child or kissing my mother.
Act Three, Ending
13. Plot point 2 (72:13-83:28)
The solution to the problem came, it was dawn after dark. The protagonist has new opportunities, new ideas, new inspirations. In most films this inspiration is done by the characters in the B-story.
In the first round of the court debate between the lawyers of the two parties, Joanna admitted that the most important relationship in her life had failed, so she admitted that she might not be responsible for her child's life.
14. Gather the troops: 83:28-84:39
According to the first volume of "Saving the Cat", there are 15 beats in total, and this is the "end" of the penultimate step, but according to the "Five Points Ending" of P61-65 in the third volume of "Saving the Cat", starting from this beat , refined into five new beats, so the overall beat is 20. Calling the troops means that the characters who stand with the protagonist take action one after another. After being affected by the plot point 2, everyone blew the "Assembly Horn" and blew the horn in the face of powerful enemies.
Dustin's night at home was peaceful with the kids, who seemed to be on his side. Neighbor Margaret, who stood by her wife during the theme presentation beat, also sided with Ted.
15. Execution plan: 84:39-86:54
Gradually deal with all the bad guys from low to high, the captain and minions die first, and finally the boss behind the scenes. A lot of times, this is also where the supporting characters grow, to show how their flaws in the beginning have been corrected, and even the flaws are now useful. Thanks to the protagonist for pulling these companions and experiencing a journey together. So far everything looks good, but as we get closer to the goal, it all seems too easy.
Margaret testified that Dustin was a good father. There is a stark difference between Margaret's attitude towards Dustin and the difference in the opening. When Joanna's lawyer questioned Margaret, Margaret admitted that she had persuaded Joanna to leave Dustin if she was unhappy. Margaret ignored the judge's warning and told Joanna that Dustin was not the same as before.
16. Tower accident: 86:54-92:18
This step proves overly optimistic in the execution plan, when our protagonist arrives at the tower where the princess is imprisoned, and is shocked to find out: the princess is not here! The protagonist finds that all his plans have failed and there is nothing he can do. All the efforts seem to be in vain, the protagonist and his allies are trapped, the countdown begins, and doom is about to come. "Nothing" is on again!
Dustin said there is no law that says a man can't have children like a woman. The wife apologized to him and said that she mentioned the child's injury to the lawyer before February, but she did not expect the lawyer to ask questions in court. Attorney Joanna found evidence that Dustin was in decline at work and nearly blinded him by caring for the child. In the end, the lawsuit was lost, bad luck was about to come, and "nothing" was staged again.
17. Digging deeper: 92-18-100:34
All efforts by the protagonist to follow the old way have failed, and he can only accept the way that was completely unacceptable before. That's the whole point of storytelling, it's by no means a formulaic thing. This part is the "touched by the gods" beat we've been waiting for. Here the protagonist abandons his old logic and does things he would never have done at the beginning of the film.
In Story B, Margaret said she had called her ex-husband and he wanted to get back together. After the judge failed the verdict, the lawyer suggested that the retrial would require the child Billy to testify in court, but Dustin immediately refused in order not to harm the child. This is very different from the fact that he does not consider other people's feelings at all, and is always self-centered. He accepted the ending of his wife raising the child. In order not to cause harm to the child, he euphemistically told the child that he would go to his mother's house. Similar to the opening scene, before the child left, the two of them skillfully worked together to make breakfast at home.
18. Implementing the new plan: 100:34-101:29
As the protagonist abandons old beliefs, old ways, he is awakened by the meaning of the story and ultimately succeeds. The protagonist makes a last-ditch effort, and it succeeds. The protagonist succeeds, but in a way the audience didn't expect.
Joanna went downstairs and didn't go upstairs. She chose not to take the child away, she knew that this was the child's home. Wives give up children for their own happiness at first, husbands neglect their wives for their work at first, they are all selfish people. At this moment, the husband grew up first, and after his wife won the lawsuit, he refused to prosecute in the second instance considering the adverse impact on the child. The wife has also grown up. After winning the lawsuit, she gave up taking back the child considering the close relationship between the child and the father. They can empathize and grow.
19. Epilogue
The "synthesis" of the two worlds, from the past and this experience, the protagonist finds a third way. Bind loose endings together and find a way to express the theme visually. With some refined lines if necessary, this is where the film's true intentions are told to all viewers.
This movie doesn't seem to have an ending. This beat, I doubt it, Mark first.
20. Final screen: 101:29-104:41
She asked to go up to see the child, and Dustin asked him to go up alone, leaving blank the scene of the mother and child meeting.
——————
At this point, we can see that the theme of the whole story is "empathy that mature people understand". Whether it is the protagonist Ted Dustin, or his wife Joanna Cheryl, or neighbor Margaret. When they were just starting out, they were all "selfish" people who could only think and act from their own standpoint. But when the story ended, Margaret, who never planned to remarry, took the initiative to call her ex-husband, and her ex-husband also begged to get back together. The mother who ran away from home without thinking about the child gave up custody after winning the lawsuit because she found out that the father was the child's home. And the protagonist Ted also complained from the beginning that his wife had delayed the best five days of his life, and grew to consider the harm to the child and gave up the retrial, and calmly accepted the child away.
In many cases, there is no right or wrong, only a position. Different people, with different positions, will advocate different interests, and thus conflicts will occur. All kinds of conflicts and disputes are constantly staged in our lives, which are actually disputes of positions. The more people who cannot empathize with each other meet, the greater the conflict that can be caused. The so-called size of the layout is to see how many positions you can change at the same time to think about the problem. A lot of people don't know that they just think about themselves, and it won't work.
That's one of the reasons why this film still has real value.
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