Film Courage: Can you explain the Blake Snyder beat sheet?
Naomi Beaty, Writer, Screenwriting Teacher and Consultant: Sure,
Blake [Author Blake Snyder] came up with this idea of the 15 beats that make up any story.
He put them on a beat sheet it's become famous now for it is a great tool for
people who are developing a story idea or trying to learn about story structure.
The one thing that I think people who are introduced to the beat sheet may be overlook and
then have to learn later, this is a shortcut, some of the beats are turning points and then some of
the beats are sections of the story. I'll go over them but it's useful to note that because I think
that's one of the things that confuses people when they're trying to learn about the 15 beats.
The opening image is the first image of your screenplay or of your movie, it sets the tone,
establishes when and where we are in the world. The world of your story the next beat that shows
up on the beat sheet is the theme stated and Blake wrote in Save The Cat. I think the theme stated
shows up on page five of your screenplay, it's the theme is usually the like guiding principle
or the the big idea of the story what it's about behind the plot and behind the characters right
and he liked to say that it was stated somewhere in the story or on page five of your screenplay
it was stated outright usually in a line of dialogue by one of the characters the
next beat on the on the beat sheet is the setup and that's one of those beats to pay attention
to because the setup is actually a section of the screenplay right so it's not just one page or one
scene it's a whole section I think he notes that it the setup is like page one to page 12 or so
and so that's introducing us to the main character and with their ordinary world or their normal
world where they are in their life right now before the story gets started right and one of
the things he wrote about in Save The Cat was that you can use the idea of at home at work and at
play to introduce your protagonist so seeing them in these different aspects of their their normal
World gives us a sense of who they are the next beat on the beat sheet is the Catalyst and that
is a beat that should be more of a turning point like one scene or One Moment In Your screenplay
the catalyst is also something that other people refer to as the inciting incident it's the event
that kicks the story into motion sometimes you can think of it as the why now of the
story it's this event throws your protagonist world into disarray or forces them into action
by creating some problem or opportunity for them that they have to take advantage of that they have
to deal with right and that's how it starts the story into motion the next beat is the
debate section and again it's a it's a section of the screenplay so this isn't just one scene
I keep emphasizing that because I've seen writers get confused and when they're trying to outline
their stories they get to like the debate section and they they put in one scene and then when they
go to write the screenplay they don't have enough story to fill out the pages right
so the debate section is where is that section in between the Catalyst or the
inciting incident kicking the story into motion and your protagonist deciding what to do about
it so there's that debate section in between there where we try to close all of the obvious doors for
your protagonist and funnel them toward this main thing that they're going to do over the course of
the story right I also like to look at the debate section as getting the audience on board so you
tell us what's at stake for the protagonist why they have to do this thing because usually the
thing that they're going to do in Act two is this big audacious crazy scary dangerous thing right so
the debate section use that to get the audience on board and show us why do they need to do this
thing why is it so important what happens if they don't do it help us understand what the potential
consequences are so that we have that tension of like wanting them to do it but being a little bit
worried about them right before they go into Act two so the next beat is the break into Act two so
at the end of the debate section after you've gone through all of that gotten the audience on board
shown us why the character has to do this thing the break and Act 2 is the turn in your plot where
you send the protagonist into Act 2 onto that main Adventure pursuing that story goal engaging in
the main conflict however you want to look at it that's where that's what the break into Act 2 does
the next section is the B story then the next beat is the is the B story so Blake liked to
say that after that main or that after that major plot point of the break into Act two
it was a good time to give your protagonist and your audience a little bit of a breather and then
introduce a subplot he talked about the B story being the relationship or the subplot where your
character could discuss learning the theme so a lot of times it'll be it might be a romance or
it might be a friendship or something but it's giving your character an opportunity to talk
about what he's learning talk about what he's going through and what he's learning from it
the next beat on the beat sheet is fun and games and again this is a section of the story so the
fun and games is actually on the beat sheet it's all of the first half of Act two right so it's
it's basically everything after the break into two up until the midpoint which we'll get to in a sec
but so the fun and games Blake wrote that it was the is where we see the promise of the premise so
whatever the concept is of your story the thing that's hooky and intriguing about
this story that's where we see it come to fruition is in the fun and game so
I think his famous examples are Liar Liar it's where we see Jim Carrey getting used to not being
able to tell a lie or in Legally Blonde it's where we see L getting acclimated to Harvard Law and
she's very much a fish out of water so that's fun in game stuff you can also think of it as trailer
moments right those those very entertaining and very like on concept moments or scenes
that you would probably cut into a trailer to show somebody what's so entertaining about your movie
the next beat is the midpoint so that's the middle of your story the midpoint is a is a
more of a moment or a scene instead of a section so again just making that distinction but the
midpoint can be a few scenes in a row right it's not a section of your screenplay but it can be a
sequence because usually it's a big set piece or like an action sequence or something that
is a little bit bigger than other scenes right and the function of the midpoint is to increase
the opposition and or raise the stakes of your story so basically what it comes down to is the
midpoint is increasing the tension in your story to give it more momentum to get through the second
half right so sometimes it turns the story in an entirely New Direction but doesn't always have to
in any case what it does is it it increases that that tension feeling so that it's like winding up
a toy and letting it go so it gives us that extra momentum and energy to get through the second half
of the story then after the midpoint the next beat on the beat sheet is the bad guys close in
so Blake liked to say that this is where things start going wrong for your protagonist right
so you can have both external and internal bad guys so it can be plot stuff is going wrong the
literal bad guys can be closing in getting closer gaining on your protagonist but it can also be
emotional stuff they're struggling with what they're doing they feel like they can't succeed
and maybe they're having a crisis of Faith or of confidence and then you can also have conflict
within the protagonist team so that's also causing things to fall apart right and basically the bad
guys close in section is leading us downhill towards the next couple of Beats which are the
All Is Lost and Dark Night of the Soul Beats and these are separate beats on the beat sheet
but I like to talk about them together because they are complementary and they work together
to create that low point at the end of Act two so I I like to think of them as one is
more external or plot focused and one is more internal or character focused the All Is Lost is
usually the what I think of as the plot focused one right where it's it looks like the character
the protagonist is not going to succeed it you might think of it as he's as far away
from his goal as he'll ever be or he feels like he's failing he feels like there's no hope he
doesn't know how he's going to keep going on and try to get that goal and then the Dark Knight of
the soul is the emotional reaction to that other things that can happen at the All Is Lost can
be like the death of a mentor I think this is where Blake wrote that there's like that whiff
of death right so it can be the loss or death of a mentor or of a friend or of a support system
it can be a major setback like being exposed to the bad guy so now they know who who they're up
against or it can be like losing an advantage but you want it to be pretty big because we're talking
about the big turning points of the story and then the darkener the soul is the emotional reaction to
that right so it's now that this big setback has happened or it looks like I'm not going to be able
to achieve my goal the protagonist sitting in that for a moment and wondering what do I do from here
and a lot of times that's where they have a glimmer of I finally understand the lesson
of the theme I finally understand what I should be learning from this experience
they they're not always ready to embrace that lesson at that point yet right but
they're starting to understand like oh this is what all of this has been trying to teach me
and then after that the next beat is the break into Act 3.
so that's the major turning point where we go from Act 2 to Act three and basically it's the
beginning of the resolution section of the story right so that turn you usually want it to feel
like it's pushing us in a new direction that is toward however the story is going to resolve right
so your character your protagonist might have a new plan so after that Dark Night of the Soul
moment they might have a moment of inspiration where they're like oh okay now I know what I what
I need to do I now I know how to defeat this bad guy and so the break into three is where
they begin that that final push to resolve that story right that main conflict or however you
want to think about that that story so the next beat on the beat sheet after the break into Act
3 is the finale and this is the section that most people forget is a section of the story instead of
one scene right so your finale or the way Blake wrote about the finale is that the finale was
all of Act three so it's what you would call the resolution right or he called it the finale
so this is where we see that new plan that your protagonist has play out or we see them execute
that that final push toward trying to resolve the main conflict so finale all of Act three
I think that is that is that beat 14 and then there's 15 is the final image okay so the last
beat on the beat sheet is the final image so that's after the finale has played out we've
seen how the main conflict has resolved we've seen if the protagonist has achieved his goal
if they've succeeded or failed how the out how the story ends basically like what is the final
outcome and then we have the very last beat which is the final image which is that you might think
of it as like almost the aftermath of the of the finale it's now that the story is over give us
one final scene or image or moment to send the audience out feeling how you want them to feel
knowing maybe what the character is going to do next or if you need to recalibrate the the emotion
at the end of your story maybe the maybe the the end of the finale was a big action sequence and
you want to leave us feeling like knowing that your protagonist is okay and he won and he's
safe and he's rested and not injured anymore or something like that the final image can can do
that Blake also liked to write that it was the final image is like a bookend for the opening
image right so I think some people look at it as you want the the change or the contrast between
the opening image and the final image to be big enough to show that there was a transformation in
that in that story right so we went from point A to point Z and there's a big enough contrast there
that we can see this story covered some ground and had some consequence to it if that makes sense.