Day 17 – Story structure for TV

Today, you will be transcribing the words of John McClane – and those of David Mamet. 

I guess DIE HARD doesn’t need an introduction.

HOUSE OF GAMES was the first film Mamet wrote and directed, around the same time Brian De Palma helmed his screenplay for THE UNTOUCHABLES.

By now you should have let go of your craving for screenwriting theory. Have you noticed how you can learn so much more by just discovering it for yourself from the source?

And whatever you learn from practice, you will never forget.

In the first half of the course, you were forced to think about story structure as you wrote the synopsis for Wait List.

This time around, you are facing a tougher challenge. As Yellowstone revolves around a handful of key characters, the structure is no longer determined by one central hero.

In the one-hour serial drama, you’ll often find four acts, each of roughly the same duration. A show may have more acts, including a teaser and/or tag, but we’ll keep things simple for now.

If you analyse the finished TV pilot, you may discover eight distinct sequences, which is often the case in properly structured feature films. For TV, these sequences would likely be called ACTS. (*)

However, and unlike other shows, this draft of the Yellowstone pilot does not have the acts labeled. Typically, you would start a new act on a new page, with the act heading centred at the top.

However, the finished episode is quite different from the script that you will read. If you’re up for a challenge, see if you can detect that 8-sequence structure in the script…