Wednesday, October 26, 2005

DMc has noticed that shows like Lost are going to five acts. It certainly feels that way sometimes. But maybe what we're seeing is just metastasizing teasers?

As for comedy, yes, I think it's all three acts now. Not so much to squeeze in another commercial, but to accommodate more story. Three acts just feels more natural. The old two act shows really drag when you watch them now.

UPDATE: Several readers write in to say, yes, some shows are going to five and even six acts. YIKES. I guess I'm going to have to change some language in my book, aren't I?

I wonder what this does the "flavor" of the act outs? Where is your "moment of greatest jeopardy" (normally act three out)? When do you upend the plot (normally act two out)?

I have to say, the script we're writing now works rather well in five acts, as the tag has gotten a little bit long. Four acts with teaser and tag don't have to be much different than six acts without teaser or tag.

This may seem fairly petty or arcane to you if you're new at this, but a lot of learning to write TV is learning to write within a specific structure of acts -- four for hour drama, three for half hour comedy. (Used to be two for half hour comedy.) If this five act thing catches on, it will require some retraining.

11:07 AM

4 Comments:

There's definitely a move to five acts. ABC insists on it now from what I understand, and other networks have pushed for it, though some showrunners of longrunning series have managed to avoid making the change. Desperate Housewives has a teaser and six acts.

By  Peter, at 12:55 PM  

I know, they don't recognize the WGC either.
Y'know, solidarity forever and all that.
Wonder if they have cocoa and complain about runaway production a lot.

By  DMc, at 10:09 AM  

Someone ought to use a fake WGA number -- or a real WGA number with the wrong name -- and see if it gets through. Then we'd know if the WGA is giving out info or not.

By  Alex Epstein, at 10:16 AM  

Re: "How can the WriterAction BBS work?

1. It isn't run by the WGA
2. The privacy policy of the WGA is to NOT give out information that can identify members."

Hold on...as a Guild member and WA member, I have to tell you that you're over-analyzing this in the extreme.

WA simply gets confirmation from the Guild that a given writer is a member. End of story.

This fantasy about the Guild not giving out info is out of whack.

By  Unknown, at 6:05 PM  

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