Story construction

Story Construction

Once you decide what genre film opening you want to make, you need to start to map out

your story.

CRISIS

To being you need a crisis that is going to happen in the life of our main character, that is 

going to turn their world upside down. It will then force them to take immediate action and 

seek to put it right. The crisis will somewhat depend on what genre you have picked. It might

be an easy way to think about this is to suppose.

Suppose -
a teenage girl gets an anonymous letter threatening her life
a women saw her husband in a restaurant with a glamourous blonde
a man was shot death on a train on his way to work

There are some rules for the crisis, it must be appropriate for the genre . It must turn 

life upside down for your main character and it should capture the viewers imagination.

Once you have your crisis, do some audience research to see what they make of it. And 

adjust it if necessary. It is important to take time at this is the foundation.

STORY GOAL

Once you have the crisis you need to identify what they are going to do about it. The goal 

which if achieved should rectify the crisis and solve it for them and return life to normal.

There are come guidelines for this.

The main character should be trying to gain possession of something or relief from

something, eg loneliness, fear pain etc.

There should terrible consequences of the goal is not reached. The lead should have a lot 

at stake.

Te main character should have at least one worthy motivation. Your lead character needs to

 have the audience relate to them, so needs to be likeable.

The lead should be working against all the odds and it should appear almost impossible to overcome the odds.

Express this in the following form

My lead's story goal is to ......................................................................

STORY IDEA

Is a combination of the suppose and story goal.

Write this in the form below.

Suppose: A young woman gets diagnosed with cancer. She decides that they must 

spend as much time together as they possibly can.

Also to express it in these terms.

My film is about a young woman who is diagnosed with cancer who wants to live her life

to the fullest because it's too late. She wants to cherish every moment she has left with

her friends and family.
PROTAGONIST

Who is your lead character? Male or female? What age? This might again be driven by the genre. A romance is likely to be a female lead or any age, a thriller a man in his thirties/forties.

Description - Gender, age, appearance, mannerisms, personality, background, personal life, private, work life, strength, weakness, name.

OTHER CHARACTERS FOR OPENING

The other two main characters that might be in your opening are the oppositional character and the confidant.

The oppositional is a character who stands in the way of the lead character achieving their goal. Sometimes a villain, but always have a goal in opposition to that of the main character.
the confidant is someone close to the lead who shares their hopes fears etc. They should be someone who has a relationship with the lead, almost any can be turned into a confidant such as work colleague. sister etc