Writer/Instructor and Script Consultant Shannan E. Johnson (The Professional Pen): Let me be specific
about those beats because I’ve said that word a lot but I’m talking specifically about the normal,
the inciting incident, the goal or the problem.
Film Courage: What is your process for teaching screenplay structure?
Shannan: I start with the Pixar formula. I go into character work. I am someone in my own time
who likes to psychoanalyze things. I'm always asking people Why? How? What happened to you?
So we do some work like that for the characters. The more that you understand people, the more you
can understand your characters who are people. In my class which may make some people uncomfortable
but in my class we talk about ourselves a lot. We're doing a lot of inner work
because my class is also about fighting writer's block and in my opinion writer's block comes from
lack of confidence and lack of preparation so we spend a lot of time talking about confidence,
talking about what our fears are, what our flaws are, what our wants are, what's standing
in the way of those wants. Why? Because that's what's happening for your characters. What do
they want? What do they need? What's standing in the way of that. What are afraid of? What
are their flaws that are going to get in the way of them getting the thing that they want
so if you start to understand how your own life the life of your tribe members I call my classes
tribes the life of your tribe members if you start to understand why they do the things they do then
you start to understand characters a little bit more and now your characters can be more authentic
in their journey because oftentimes I can feel the writer making characters do things versus it
feeling like an actual decision that the character would make so we spend some time on characters
so i'd say that's week two that's actually just what I did on a couple of days ago week two that
was last night it was just last night it's hard to keep up with time these days it's all one
it's all one big thing then we start to talk about goal setting because every single story is about
your protagonist solving a problem reaching a goal that's why we are here so we have to figure out
what's the best goal for them to reach or who's the best character for that goal depending upon
which one you begin with and then we start talking about now how are they physically
going to achieve it because again going back to they need to save the world well that's general
what are they going to do how are they going to save it and start asking ourselves well what are
the things that get in the way so in the fourth week we start talking about the complications we
started talking about the stakes in week three we also talk about world building because every
single story you have to teach us the rules of that world if it's just regular old present-day
earth something that we see in the first three minutes are gonna tell me that that's what it is
so you're still teaching me if it's a new industry like I love to use The Devil Wears Prada I'm not
in the fashion industry so you have to teach me how it works here so they open up by showing me
how all the other women are nicely dressed and our protagonist is not they show us by when she gets
into that office how everyone is looking at her judging her and then when Meryl Streep's character
is going to show up everybody it's chaotic because they're trying to make sure they get in line
I'm learning about this industry I'm learning about what the rules are here even if there's
not much being said out loud so we talk about that and especially if you're doing something
that's science fiction fantasy supernatural horror then there are rules you have to set up I need to
know candyman comes when I say it how many times because if not then I don't have the suspense
now if I see a person standing in the mirror and they only say it twice should I be afraid because
I don't know how many times they're supposed to say it if I understand they have to say it
five times I don't even remember if it's five or three but they have to say it x amount of times
and now I know when she gets on number four that I should be on the edge of my seat but I don't know
that if you haven't given me the information so we talk about world building and then in the last
week that's when we finally start talking about outlining because I want people to know there's
not one way to do it you can do it a million different ways so I show them different examples
of how you can outline but all of those things that we're learning basically break into those
large beats and let me be specific about those beats because i've said them said that word a lot
but I'm talking specifically about the normal the inciting incident the goal or the problem
getting into act two knowing what your midpoint is knowing what your rock bottom is knowing what your
point of no return is which some people kind of mix into that rock bottom midpoint place it
basically just means we get to a place where something changes so much that our character
has to change tactics that's just all it means everybody gives it a different word but then
we got to get up to our climax which is your highest point when your bad guy is going to
meet your good guy or your character is going to meet their problem head on and then we get
to come down to the resolution where we say what have they won because they succeeded or what did
they lose because they didn't yet throughout that entire journey we were following them emotionally
so even if they didn't succeed we still feel satisfaction with the story so all of those beats
are what I mean when I'm saying structure all of those beats fit into your act one act two
and act three and so I utilize those different weeks to talk about those
different elements because they all break into those big beats and how can you tell
and I realize this is very specific and we don't have something to workshop but
just vaguely when someone is really forcing an action from their character it can be because the
evidence is just not on the page or the evidence is on the page and your character isn't doing
what you've told us that they do so if you've said this is a really shy character every single thing
you've shown us is that they're shy and then on page 15 they stand on top of a table and dance
what that's not who you told me this person was so unless you showed me something that motivated this
then now I know you just needed her on a table dancing because of whatever else is going to
happen in the screenplay not because she would get on that table and dance I see okay yeah so
we're missing what would ever cause that if this was truly what the characters would do okay yeah
so we're missing that so either it's just not there at all or it's the opposite of what you
told us yeah and so it's like we know that you needed this character to end up in jail because
now the son has to avenge whatever's going on with with the parent being in jail
but it isn't set up that our character would have even done any of those things that they did to be
in jail so now I know you're just forcing them into this position because of what you need to
happen from that so it's like you got to set me up with the information so I can believe it
because if I don't believe it then now now the stakes aren't as high now you just start to
lose me an audience member yeah so it's just like I need the evidence so that's a lot of
what I’ll write in my notes I don't there's no evidence of this this doesn't ring true like
where did this happen when do we meet that well you said on page this
that this is how they feel but on page this they feel this way what motivated that change
where where was that because maybe I missed it I probably didn't but maybe I missed it
but if I didn't if I didn't miss it then now it's missing and you can figure out how to make
that connection because everything is cause and effect people are cause and effect if I have an
argument in this room when I walk into that room my energy is going to be different if I had not
had an argument in this room so the same thing is true about your characters why are they doing the
stuff that they're doing what happened on the page to show me that motivates any of their decisions.