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Screenplay Structure Summaries
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Casablanca demonstrates how to create drama through key Sequences that establish the conflicting needs for each character and shows how they are unified through Rick.
(hide)North by Northwest is a classic example of a pursuit-mystery and is based on a mistaken identity.
Excellent use of flashback to explain character's interpersonal relationships and motivations.
A tense superbly constructed screenplay with each Scene targeting a specific plot point.
Built on the question of whether men and women can, 'Just be friends', this script forms a prototype romantic comedy of, 'Boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back'. The pacing, plot point timing and reversals are ideally placed.
(hide)A relentless Quest story that progresses at a breathless pace from clue-to-clue and location-to-location.
A superbly constructed mystery, with every danger in plain sight. Clues are presented and developed at a perfect pace. Excellent forshadowing.
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Alien is a classic example of a pursuit story: Jaws, Predator and Jurassic Park.
The Matrix interweaves multiple story lines and themes of rescue, love, faith and loyalty. The script is also one of the best examples of how to present exposition (the rules of the Real World, the Matrix and Agents).
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Enemy of the State has an excellent a pursuit-counter attack profile. Includes a free PDF download of the draft screenplay dated 2/10/97.
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Perfect Road Movie: Unique characters, common goal, complications and an underlying morality theme. Everybody has an underlying character flaw and attribute.
(hide)Robert Towne's beautifully balanced plot matched with strategic foreshadowing of clues.
This is an excellent Sequence structure for a pursuit-investigation plot where the protagonist persuades a woman to help him.
High accolades for this beautiful Coming-of-Age screenplay. An ideal model.
Billy Elliot is a lesson in how to superimpose a primary conflict (Billy's determination to participate in ballet against his family's and society's prejudice) in the context of a broader conflict (miner's strike in Margaret Thatcher's Britain).
(hide)The Screenplay Summary captures the 'Pursued-Becomes-the-Pursuer' structure - with the added dimensions that the protagonist has amnesia and must solve the mystery of why he is being targeted.
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