Act Structure By Minute?

I am looking for a structure outline by minutes of how a pilot should be written. I am also interested in act structures that account for commercials and arc of story by episode and for season bible.

Act structure is not locked down by minute, not even in TV; it can drift a few minutes either way. The best way to get a handle on act structure is to look at multiple scripts of a show like the one you want to write, and see where they make the act breaks.

Act Outs in Pay Cable Specs?

Q. I've written a spec destined for pay cable. But I was taught to have strong act outs, and the script actually has them. Should I leave them in my spec (so people notice my excellent act outs?) or take them out (so people recognize that I'm aiming at pay cable)?

I've wondered about this myself. On the one hand, you don't want to look like you don't know what an act out is. On the other hand, if you're aiming at pay cable, then shouldn't the script reflect that? On the other other hand, with no act outs, are you precluding having an exec think, "Huh, this would actually make a great pilot for CBS if the main character just solved crimes"?

If you read scripts as part of your living, would you expect a pay cable spec to have no act outs? If your specs are circulating, what do you do if your script is a natural for pay cable?

Buffy Act Outs

Neil Baker has helpfully broken down the act outs from BUFFY: THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Season 3.

Note that B:TVS is four acts; most one hour drama has moved to five acts. But this is exactly the sort of analysis you should be doing when you spec a series, so you get a sense of the bones of the show.

I suggested to Neil:

Check out FIREFLY, too. The act outs often turn the entire episode on its head.

Also, consider doing a five act show, and characterizing the acts outs. In general in 4 act structure, the act 1 out is "it's not that simple" and act 3 out is the "all is lost" act out. But what about 5 acts? Which is the "all is lost" act out in 5 acts? Often the act 3 or act 4 out is a "soft" (emotional) act out. In FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, the act 4 out is usually the plot finale, and act 5 is all emotional aftermath. But is that true of other shows? Those are the questions I'd try to answer if I were you.

Let's see if he takes the bait.

Updating Your Spec

You've talked about how most readers aren't necessarily going to be fanatics of the show you're speccing, so you don't necessarily have to be completely up to date on where the characters' stories are in the show. But what about act structure? Like HOUSE. It used to be teaser and four acts, this season is teaser and six. Is this a change i need to re-write to?

I think you do. There has been a big movement towards 5 and 6 act structure. A four act drama is going to feel old hat to a lot of readers. And HOUSE in particular is a show that everyone specs, so your readers, even if they don't watch every HOUSE, will for sure know that the show has gone to 6 acts.

Coming up with new act outs is going to be a pain, but it's something writers have to do often enough, so consider it a worthwhile exercise, too.

Commercials?

Quick question: given the fact that commercials per hour are going up this fall (to 15 min/hour in both US and Canada) and, as I understand, in two years they'll be going unlimited, what impact do you think this will have on the length of dramas, comedies, and basically anything written for TV?

I dare say they will be shorter, and more disjointed. Nobody is crazy about the new five act structure except advertisers, and I hear writers complaining that they hate the ABC six-act structure. It's hard to get up a head of steam in such short bits between commercials.

The more commercials they push, the more people they will push to buying a DVR and skipping the commercials entirely. That will force TV entirely out of the advertising-supported model. The shift is probably inevitable, but what's the rush?

It's interesting to note that J.J. Abrams "Fringe" this fall is only having 5 minutes/hour, which I'm suspecting means each episode will be chock full of delicious product placement.

I dare say. But I'd rather have product placement -- so long as I can choose what products I'm placing -- than ads. I don't care whether the character drives Ford or Toyota, so long as the environmentalist can drive a small car and the selfish jackass single guy can drive a big SUV.

How Many Acts?

I'm trying to write a spec pilot for a half-hour comedy... I'm reading scripts and I'm confused as to how many acts I should have.

Comedies are either two acts or three. Unlike drama, which has traditionally been four acts and has largely now moved to five acts, I don't see a clear movement in comedy. If you're writing a spec pilot, pick a show that your show is like, and use that act structure. Simple as that.

The White Board

We're breaking story today on a rewrite. It's a horror feature, so I'm restructuring it as 7 acts, complete with act outs. Time for the white board.

So in that spirit, here's a household tip. How do you get old dry-erase marks off your white board?

For a few marks, you can always write over it with fresh dry-erase marker, and then erase that. The solvent in the marker is exactly the solvent for the dry markings.

But what about an entire board?

Toothpaste.

A little bit of toothpaste on a rag will nicely remove old dry-erase from a whiteboard, it turns out. Toothpaste contains a very mild abrasive that leaves your whiteboard minty fresh!

Now where's my fifth act out...

A Messy Desk is a Sign of a Working Mind

Q. I kept wondering how "The Office" fits into your breakdown of acts and storylines. It seems very nontraditional in so many ways...First off, I can only seem to find a very obvious A and B storylines--no C. And the acts--they don't seem to be clearly defined beyond the cold opening and Act1.

Acts are easy to find on television. It's not a conceptual thing. When they cut to a commercial, that's the end of the act. If they only cut once, you have two act comedy. If they cut twice, it's three acts.

Likewise, if you're finding only A and B storylines, then maybe that's all they have. There's no law says you have to have C stories. An A and a B give you the ability to cut out of one story and go to another. Then you can give your secondary characters things that they want, which interfere in interesting ways with the protagonists of the A and B stories getting what they want ... and now you have an episode.

I think there's an interesting trend away from defining A and B stories too strictly. A show like FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS tracks all its characters as they move through their overall character arcs for the season. When two characters come across each other, are those two stories weaving together? Or is the interweaving the story itself?

I think you can overthink storytelling. It's good to know what your A and B stories are so you know that you have them, and so you can make sure something interesting is happening in every act. But the point is to keep things moving along, not to conform to some theoretical notion of structure.

Just bear in mind that a loose show like FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is actually much harder to write than a more traditional show like LAW AND ORDER. Free verse was always harder to write well than rhymed verse.

Aladdin and the Original Act Out

On the plane, I was listening to Neil Gaiman read his Sheherezade story from Fragile Things. To go by his blog and his take on the famous storytelling wife, Neil depends on inspiration to visit him. Which she does a lot, to judge by his output. Me, I'm one of those blessed with few inspirations and a lot of analytical tools.

But the story of the 1001 Nights struck me because it's a metaphor for TV and its relationship with the audience. Every night, Sheherezade told a fantastic story ... and stopped at the moment where her king and husband would most want to know the outcome.

That way, he wouldn't cut off her head in the morning. Because if he did, he wouldn't find out how it turned out.

That's an act out.

Would your act outs prevent a homicidal king from chopping off your head in the morning? Is there a way you could twist or amp up your act out so that you get to keep your head?

Because the king could also tune to American Idol. And that Jordan Sparks sure does sing good.