Do you guys use the Midpoint as guide when you plan out your next movie ideas? I'd quickly says MP is the dividing line between two halves of a movie. One you can clearly see by story beats.
I heard about this from screenplay books at first and to be honest it was made most clear to me in SAVE THE CAT. (I think it's a great book -- even if it's easy to make fun of it because people love to make fun of popular things!!!! It's so cool!!!)
Anyway, I think you should take a look at them all and take what you like, ignore what you don't like it. But I find the whole thing clicked with me. I was already doing many of these things from just writing screenplays over and over -- but talking about it and thinking about it does help you focus.
Here's some definitions of the MIDPOINT that I found on internet even though I have the book right next to me and could look it up.
Dependent upon the story, this moment is when everything is “great” or everything is “awful”. The main character either gets everything they think they want (“great”) or doesn’t get what they think they want at all (“awful”). But not everything we think we want is what we actually need in the end.
Things change. You have the same goal but a new way to get there.
Anyway -- the idea that at the Midpoint of your story, the stakes should be raised. Basically 1/2 through you story, it goes from it being say a fun comedy into something to lose for the hero. Or the story changes and takes us in new direction. It's just not the same thing for 60 pages, but we spice it up!
Basically to me it's simply this. Act 2 being 60 pages of the same thing gets boring. So having a big beat that raises the stakes or totally changes the direction of the movie is huge.
We had a spec go out and it did well (didn't' sell). And many people talked to us in meetings about how they liked it, but it was repetitive and if something happened at the MP to twist the story in another way it may have sold. Wish our reps told us this before it went out...
Anyway -- just thinking about midpoint today.
I heard about this from screenplay books at first and to be honest it was made most clear to me in SAVE THE CAT. (I think it's a great book -- even if it's easy to make fun of it because people love to make fun of popular things!!!! It's so cool!!!)
Anyway, I think you should take a look at them all and take what you like, ignore what you don't like it. But I find the whole thing clicked with me. I was already doing many of these things from just writing screenplays over and over -- but talking about it and thinking about it does help you focus.
Here's some definitions of the MIDPOINT that I found on internet even though I have the book right next to me and could look it up.
Dependent upon the story, this moment is when everything is “great” or everything is “awful”. The main character either gets everything they think they want (“great”) or doesn’t get what they think they want at all (“awful”). But not everything we think we want is what we actually need in the end.
Things change. You have the same goal but a new way to get there.
Anyway -- the idea that at the Midpoint of your story, the stakes should be raised. Basically 1/2 through you story, it goes from it being say a fun comedy into something to lose for the hero. Or the story changes and takes us in new direction. It's just not the same thing for 60 pages, but we spice it up!
Basically to me it's simply this. Act 2 being 60 pages of the same thing gets boring. So having a big beat that raises the stakes or totally changes the direction of the movie is huge.
We had a spec go out and it did well (didn't' sell). And many people talked to us in meetings about how they liked it, but it was repetitive and if something happened at the MP to twist the story in another way it may have sold. Wish our reps told us this before it went out...
Anyway -- just thinking about midpoint today.
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