And So It Begins... Crafting The Killer First Act For Your Screenplay

This is what a script reader SHOULD experience...

• Meet the Protagonist… and immediately feel empathy.

• Meet the Nemesis… and chuckle with glee, this is going to be great!

• Delight in the evocative language that makes the story world vivid.

• Get hooked on the clarity of mission.

• Know that the writers has made a pledge to deliver an experience worth your time.

• Feel that peril.

• Time to switch off the phone, fifteen pages in and they are going to read this in one sitting.

Does your story deliver all this?

Act One… In the Beginning, YOU create the Heavens and the Earth.

The First Act is where you work with laser like focus on the
story, characters, and the reading experience. It’s a setup, a promise
and an accelerant all at once.

You dedicate your fealty to the reader, and assure them that their
investment in your and your script, of their hard earned time, is
well-placed.

It is where you literally create something from nothing. And it is where your script lives and dies.

Most scripts fail because they fail in the first ten pages, and then as we all know, end up in the reject pile.

While most courses will help you with the cosmetics of Act One, we are
going to get deep and foundational and help your get total clarity on
how to elevate your opening 30 pages, setting up a story that will get
readers recommending.

• Align your plot, story, and voice with genre, audience and producer expectations.

• Establish and exploit the inevitable and irresistible connection between the Nemesis and Protagonist.

• Imagine evocative worlds and make them real in the mind of the reader.

• Plan and prep for Act 3 and Act 2… in that order.

• Ignite your story and immediately for lift off from page one.

All of your planning, outlining, and prep work will be rejected if you trip at the starting line. You will leave at the end of the day with a first draft story beats for your first act, and all the tools necessary to launch your project from page 1. Whether you are starting fresh or rewriting. Show up with a completed draft, an outline, or just an inkling of an idea and you will leave with a revitalized project. And like all the classes we run, we want you to leave with a new toolset that you will use for every project moving forward.

So let’s get that First Act sorted together.