It is presented as a fairly basic model, from which variations can be extrapolated. It establishes a reference for talking and thinking about structure. It draws upon elements from Syd Field, The Danish Film School, Ingolf Gabold and Joseph Campbell.
Each act has a general purpose to play in the drama. As beginning and ending of acts, we have the major plot points, which creates essential developments for the main conflict and character(s) and the structural foundation of the drama, in terms of both rhythm and narrative logic. Each major plot point has a specific function to perform in the transition from act to act, propelling the drama towards its conclusion. The descriptions of these functions are approximations and you should feel free to re-think your perception of these functions for every drama. First a graphic representation:
Act One
The initial act serves to introduce conflicts, characters, locations and thematic elements. As a rule of thumb, by the end of first act all relevant components of the drama need to have been introduced in one way or the other. This act sets up the game and the basic rules of the drama and in the following acts you cannot change these or introduce new elements. Unless you have a very clever way to circumvent the rule, take it very literal. It can even become an extremely creative limitation and lead you to some real innovative plotting. The first act should build up, step by step, to the Initiating Plot Point, which is the 'real' beginning of the drama.
The Pitch
This plot point is also sometimes called The Hook and takes place in the very opening of a drama. The purpose is to pitch the whole drama in one scene or short sequence and to plant a hook of curiosity in the audience. 'To pitch' means to strike the basic tones (comedy/tragedy) of the drama, to lightly touch your main conflict, but in a discreet way so it doesn't come off as being forced upon the audience. Rather it should sneak in below the radar of consciousness. Really elegantly structured dramas are also able to hint at the eventual conclusion of the main conflict. There are countless ways to pitch your whole drama in one scene. In the opening of Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal' the main character, Max von Sydow's religious knight, is confronted with Death, who has come to take his life, but the knight tempts Death into a game of chess - and if the knight wins, Death will let him free. At it's core the film is about faith and the search for a meaning in a life where the plague, religious zealots and the baser instincts rule. The use of Death personified as an unsentimental figure and the chess game as a central metaphor and plot device pitches this main conflict elegantly.
The hooking is perhaps of lesser importance, because, as the drama has just begun, the audience are naturally curious, but applying a hook further strengthens this. 'To hook' can be achieved by the surprising and unexpected nature of the opening. It could simply be the novelty of what we are seeing, like an odd pair of lovers sitting in a diner, with him reassuring his wide-eyed, nervous lover of the simplicity and brilliance of his plan to rob both customers and the diner, and just as they spring into action, we cut away from the scene - leaving the audience with the question of what the outcome will be - a prologue with a cliffhanger, brilliant plotting. An example of a very standardized 'hook' is the usual opening of a Bond movie, which always features an over-the-top action sequence, but exactly because we know what to expect, it doesn't really work properly as a hook.
The Call
The Call to Adventure is a concept from Joseph Campbell, who describes it as an early moment in countless myths and fairy-tales, where the hero has not yet begun his or her proper quest. An event takes places that eventually will make the hero leave the safety of home. It is an event that will lead more or less directly to the Initiating Plot Point. In 'Silence of the Lambs' the FBI-student Clarice Starling is sent on a small errant by her future FBI-boss, to conduct a standardized interview and observation of the jailed serial killer Hannibal Lecter. It seems no more than an interesting school-assignment for a talented student, but it leads to the Initiating Plot Point, when Clarice finds a clue to hunt for Buffalo Bill, the present serial killer at large. The Call can also more directly lead into the real drama, like in fairy-tales when a young man sets out to marry the princess early on, but then again, more often than not, there is a deeper mystery or challenge to be overcome, which is not revealed at the time of The Call. Nine minutes into Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal' Jof, the traveling actor, has a vision of Virgin Mary with the Jesus child, and he hurries to tell his wife the good news, but she hardly believes him, but Jof nevertheless maintains an almost naive belief in the promise of a better future for their own son. This event is the film's Call to Adventure, in an almost classic mythical form, as it has the form of a vision - something which is not the adventure itself, but a promise of things to come.
After The Call the main character(s) will be involved with the activities set in motion by it. Often it takes the form of a new opportunity - a new job, a new person (to hate or fall in love with), a journey - something which alters the usual balance of things in the main character(s) world. Before The Call we might have been at 'Home', the initial location of the main character(s), but now we meet the real arena of the drama. Clarice Starling leaves the FBI-academy to seek out the truth about serial killers - and the prison dungeon where Hannibal Lecter is held, is just the first of such 'gothic' arenas in which she will confront him and later on, Buffalo Bill. In 'The Seventh Seal' the knight and his squire sets of on a journey through a swedish landscape plagued by death and religious madness - and we sense that this is 'the location' for the remainder of the drama - it is a 'road movie' and so we have an expectation of ever changing locations, but which are all essential the same: On the road in an existential emptiness.
The Initiating Plot Point
This is the transition between act one and two and initiates the real objective of the main character(s). Thelma and Louise left home for a road trip without any irritating men, but when they kill a man to prevent a rape, their real object becomes finding an escape from the punishment and tyranny of men, In this way the drama is transformed from being an ordinary story of two women looking for a little time off and into an existential struggle for freedom and survival. Campbell would call this plot point 'the threshold' because it leads the 'hero' from the world of the mundane and initiates them to the more mystical, unpredictable and dangerous regions of reality.
In 'The Seventh Seal' The Knight opens his heart to a robed figure, he believes to be a priest, and reveals that he is playing chess with Death, but with the only purpose of gaining enough time to do at least one single meaningful action in his otherwise meaningless life, and just as he has explained how he is planning his chess moves, the robed figure reveals himself to be Death. Cheated in this way, it becomes clear that The Knight is in for a very difficult game, but instead of losing faith, he realizes the miracle of being alive and able to challenge the meaningless of Death. This happens 21 minutes into the film and reveals the deeper level of the plot, not to cheat Death in a game of chess, but to defy Death by doing a meaningful action. In 'Silence of the Lambs' FBI-student Clarice Starling finds a clue to the identity of serial killer Buffalo Bill and becomes a part of the investigating team. In 'Thelma and Louise' the two women avert a rape by killing the man and now has to flee the law to find freedom.
So The Pitch and The Call hints at, or sets up a superficial version of the real plot, which will be revealed in the Initiating Plot Point, where the real objective has to be established.
This plot point sets the course directly for the conclusion of the drama - when the object has been obtained or lost, we know the drama has reached its end. It might sound simplistic, and it truly is, but simple is the greater art. Complexity is the multitude of simple things interconnected.
Act Two
In the second act we get into the conflicts of the drama, as well as nuances and new aspects of the elements presented in the first act. Because the main character(s) have found, realized and begun a quest for the true objective, they will now enter into conflicts with the forces standing in their way. Often they will work dedicated towards the objective, only meeting moderate opposition and making good progress - but only seemingly as they are only touching the surface of the real conflict, and hence the opposition is not strong, yet. We have left act one's introductions, but we might still be able to sneak in some additional introduction of elements, as we are still exploring the universe of the drama.
Especially throughout act two and three it can be useful to sequence the action and establish minor plot point as transitions for the sequences - depending on the type of drama. The idea is to establish a structural logic which work with the genre and content of your drama. For an externally plot driven crime mystery, the easy way to sequence and add additional plot points is to work along the lines of 'secrets' or 'clues' to be discovered. A fairy-tale-type of drama, the typical lay-out of act two could use the traditional series of tests to be passed - there would typically be three tests, so one could perhaps be the entrance to the Initiating Plot Point, one could fall midway through second act and the last would be give access to the Turning Point. Are we dealing with a theme-driven plot, like in The Seventh Seal, the plot points should relate more to the theme, than to strictly following the characters' external plot - although we still need the plot points for those, emphasis should be on the thematic conflict. Often a theme driven drama will have a broader circle of characters - and even though we want to follow all of them throughout the drama, the important plot points might be associated with different characters at different times.
Turning Point
This plot point has to make things drastically worse and more difficult for the main character(s). Often this is achieved by some kind of reversal (thus the name, turning point). In The Sixth Sense we learn that the child is really haunted by ghosts - they are real and not just his imagination. The world as we know it is turned upside down. Thelma and Louise gets robbed of all their money (by young and seemingly innocent Brad Pitt) and their plans of escaping to Mexico suffers a huge blow - but more importantly the event also reverses the balance between Thelma and Louise, where the older and more mature Louise so far has taken charge and responsibility, she now breaks down, and Thelma, realizing her responsibility for the theft, steps up and for the first time takes charge of her own (and Louise's) life.
The technical purpose of The Turning Point is to set the stage for the third act, which is characterized by serious complications to reaching the objective. The plot point can have a number of functions apart from introducing a new level of danger to the main objective. In general it is a good practice to examine in how many ways relations, perspectives, themes or any other element can be 'turned 180 degrees'.
Beyond the 'turn' there are other ways to think of this mid point of a drama. Personally I like to think of it as the beating heart of the drama. Even though the later climax and resolution is the most intense and important moment of the drama, at this mid point we could be closest to the emotional core. 'Silence of the Lambs' has a strong emotional moment right at the middle, when Clarice interviews Hannibal the last time, in secret, under time pressure, as she and her team has been taken of the case. In order to get the information from him, she so desperately needs, she has to subject to his psychoanalytic questioning, which leads her to reveal her inner, driving motive, a childhood experience of a deep existential nature: How she was not able to save a single lamb from the slaughter, the confrontation as an innocent child with the brutal realities of life. Hannibal savors her honesty and innocence, rewards her with a clue by handing her back the case file, and then, most importantly, for a moment their hands touch and his finger caress her hand, in a gesture bestowed with conflicting emotion - the love and approval of the father, the forbidden erotic love and innocence touched by corruption. This is a huge pay-off for which the drama has made a lot of set-ups - all the warnings against letting her guard down around Hannibal ("He'll get inside your head"), all the shots establishing Clarice as a lonely, single woman up against a world of men, the constant focus on sexual desire as the prime motivator for all behavior and her own childhood story of loosing her father.
Joseph Campbell refers to this moment as either 'world navel' or 'the belly of the beast', the place where the hero finds 'the elixir', the object which can restore balance to the world.
Act Three
The purpose of act three is to complicate the conflict to a point where it appears almost unsolvable. And that point is of course called Point of No Return. In act three there is absolutely no room and time for introduction or exploration. The pace has to pick up, the intensity must rise.
Going along with Campbell the job of the hero is to find the way of applying the elixir to restore balance to the world. This effort will be met by obstacles.
Usual this happens because the world around the main character(s) reacts. Things have been set in motion in the previous acts and are now being released into a re-action. Thelma and Louise are now not only wanted by the police, they are being hunted. Hannibal escapes captivity in an orgy of violence and the new serial killer, Buffalo Bill, is getting ready to skin his new victim - time is running out for Clarice.
As with act two, it can be a good idea to break down this act in shorter sequences, often two or three, each with their own mini-objective - a problem or conflict to be solved.
In conjunction with The Point of No Return there might often be one of two things happening. The False Harmony, in which something happens that makes things appear to be resolved without too much of a struggle. In 'Silence of the Lambs' a lucky break in the hunt for Buffalo Bill has given the FBI the identity and address of the killer - Clarice is not needed for the take down and is assigned to some routine task - everything seems back to normal. Or the opposite can happen, The Moment of Absolute Despair, in which it seems there is no way out of the mess and the hero might as well give up. In "The Sixth Sense" the child therapist has no luck in reaching the boy and he questions his own ability to the point where he is ready to give up.
The Point of No Return
Named so because this is when the main character(s) finally get it - they have to confront the dragon, there is no way around it - from now on everything leads directly towards the end. No time for deroutes, second-thoughts or anything but staying focused on the reaching the conclusion. In 'Last Tango in Paris' the Marlon Brando-character confronts his dead wife, which opens up the possibility for him to go after his real objective - a new love (and life). In the Sixth Sense, the therapist confronts his past in the form of audio tapes from the sessions with the boy he couldn't save and he finds a clue which convinces him that ghosts are real - and so now he can go after his real objective - to redeem himself by saving the haunted boy.
Act Four
The general purpose of act four is to quickly escalate the conflict until it reaches the fullest possible climax. This escalation often falls in a succession of quick steps of the protagonist(s) moves and the antagonist's counter-moves until they face each other. In Silence of the Lambs Clarice Starling stumbles upon Buffalo Bill at his house, she tries to arrest him, but he escapes into his underground dungeon, where she has to follow alone and without back-up. She finds the abducted woman, but he cuts the lights. In the darkness, he closes in on her using his night-vision goggles, toys with her, decides to shoot her, but the sound of his gun cocking alerts her and she shoots him. In Last Tango in Paris the Brando-character spends a night wooing his lover into embracing a real relationship with him, to which she is tempted, but as the morning breaks, so does her courage and she runs away from him. He gives chase and catches up with her in her parent's apartment. Just as he thinks everything is OK, she turns on him with her father's gun and convincing herself of a story that he came to rape her, she shoots him dead.
The Main Scene.
This is the scene leading directly up to the conclusion of the drama. In this scene the basic conflict of the drama is exposed most clearly and strongly. In Last Tango we see how the Brandon-character reaches out for love without fear and how fear of love makes her invent a story of rape. In Silence of the Lambs Clarice Starling fully becomes the object of a man's twisted desire, as Buffalo Bill toys with her in the dungeon, she is the lamb ready to be slaughtered, but exactly because the man believes himself to be superior and takes his time cocking his gun, she, not giving in to fear, has the time to shoot him. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest McMurphy, the Jack Nicholson character, confronts Sister Ratched as she shows her full demonic and manipulative powers over the patients, and he ends up trying to strangle her. The main scene often take the appearance of the major climax, but doesn't necessarily involve the real resolution of the conflict.
Resolution.
Here we get the consequences of the main scene, both relating to the fundamental conflict of the dramatic universe and the main character's conflict. McMurphy gets the electro-shock and is turned into a vegetable (tragedy), but Chief inspired by his example and sacrifice flees the institution to gain his freedom (comedy). Oh, and remember when I refer to tragedy it means disharmony and comedy means harmony, not necessarily funny. In Silence of the Lambs the girl is saved and Clarice graduates as an FBI-agent (comedy) ready to work for her mentor, but Hannibal is still free (tragedy) although he promises never to hurt Clarice (comedy), he will kill and eat Chilton, the obnoxious/narcissistic psychiatrist (comedy? Tragicomedy?).
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