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Hollywood 3 Act Structure September 28, 2007

This past week I attended yet another set of lectures by Wendall Thomas from UCLA. She seems to be Northern Film and Media’s favourite script guru at the moment.

I would always attend these events regardless because you never know what you might learn, and since they are free thanks to Northern Film and Media you would have to be a fool to turn the opportunity down. Why pay through the nose for expensive courses when you can get great education free from your local screen agency?

That said though I did go into this event feeling a bit “hmmm”, since 3 Act structure is something I would consider myself as knowing like the back of my hand. I was especially apprehensive about the second day given that the entire day would be spent going over Fatal Attraction scene by scene, and well, if you already know 3 act structure that sounds like a terrible bore.

But I am glad to say that the two days were really informative and I learnt at least 3 things that have made me think differently about the way I approach structure in feature films.

Which kinda goes along with what I have been saying all along. Even if you think you know all there is to know about these things, simply hearing the same theory from a fresh perspective or with a slight spin on the emphasis can make all the difference.

The more I see of Wendall’s ideas the more I come to really appreciate her as a good teacher.

Now onto the moan. It wouldn’t be one of my blogs if I didn’t moan about something.

The problem with these lectures is you always get at least 1 or usually 4 or 5 people who feel they should be able to put their hand up very other minute and offer the group their opinion on something.

There’s nothing wrong per say with people offering a point that the lecturer hasn’t mentioned, but the way these guys do it comes across as some tragic attempt at boosting their egos. I mean, do they really think that if they don’t say whatever it is on their mind everyone else in the room will go home having missed some super valuable input? Its more about them and how they wanna come across than actually offering anything of interest to anyone else in the audience.

And it’s not like I’m just being a moaner here. I think just about everyone come break time was complaining about these annoying people. I certainly didn’t have to get the ball rolling in the conversations I was privy to.

But just think, you might be paying through the nose to get annoyed by these people! God bless the UK Film Council throwing money at screenwriting training.