Screenwriting : Can I skip ACT ONE? by Mike Boas

I can't think of any films that skip over act one, Mike Boas, but it sounds like an interesting idea, and I'd watch the movie.

Mike Boas Many films have used this technique and to be honest, Mike, I'm not a big fan of it. I have even used it in my film Nowhere Street but it was very subtle. Here are some of the problems with style of storytelling.

1) You're starting off the story with a spoiler alert. Everyone hates watching a movie for the first time and then having some blabbermouth chime in and tell you what's going to happen. Now you're doing it with your tale. Now if the flashbacks aren't as exciting as the scene you open up with, now you are putting your audience in a pacing nightmare. If you're starting off with action and your flashbacks are more dramatic set ups, you wind up messing with the audience adrenaline levels. Now they have to reach those levels again and then you flashback again. To build tension, a linear approach has a greater foundation.

2) You run the risk of making the story too confusing and making the 3rd act anti-climatic. If there is an element of good versus evil in the story, how are you going to delay revealing the evil element without giving it all away? The slightest slip could give away your big reveal way too early.

It can be done effectively, but the story elements have to be planned precisely in order to make someone's first viewing memorable. It's in the future times an audience will rewatch your work that's the key to success in the entertainment industry. Don't think so much in how to make your story different, which is not to say that's not important, but also why you think people with a night of really nothing to do would rather watch your story again more than any other form of entertainment.

That can work. Several films start with the protagonist already in the middle of the action and allowing the audience to play "catch-up" later. "Jason Borne" opens with him floating in the middle of the ocean and getting picked up by a fishing boat. It isn't until much later that we find out that he is a superspy with above average skills.

Hi Mike, I love Dark Tower. I don't aim with my hand

Rashomon begins with two dudes mentally messed up and the audience sees individual pov flashbacks of what happened, until a possessed woman reveals the men are all liars & cowards.

Dont think this is a bad idea: just very differcult to execute with a cast, crew & camera. Reservoir Dogs is basically all flashbacks. Begins (skip the diner/QT telling Virgin joke) with undercover cop shot and bleeding in car.

Dan, you’re right, Reservoir Dogs does start in act two. I should have thought of that one, since I was listening to Tarantino’s True Romance commentary earlier.

(The way Tarantino originally wrote True Romance, he started in the middle, and jumped back to tell the beginning. Scott straightened it out and the film was made chronological.)

I think the flashbacks in Reservoir Dogs do a good job of keeping the audience on their toes, answering questions as it goes along, but then posing new ones. Once we know “who is the cop,” we then wonder “what will happen when the others find out?”

Anthony, I think you mean the first Bourne Identity? I see your reading, but I think you could also put the typical act structure on it. Act one: Bourne’s staus quo is that of an amnesiac. He discovers he has a killer’s defensive instincts and decides to act as people come after him (break into act two).

Mike, I think we can do everything we want and try new ideas, options, and sometimes we create something new for our industry! I call that innovation:)) Try it!

whatever you write at the beginning of the script will be the first act. The question is, can you write the first act in your own way? Yes you can.

Arthur Charpentier That is probably the most logical answer anyone could have given, Arthur. I salute you for your cut to the chase observation that seems to have escaped everyone else, including me.

Hi Mike Boas - there are, I believe, many films that start with a "cold open" to hook the audience into the story and then SUPER - SIX MONTHS AGO. Used properly, I think this can be a wham-bang opener, but I'm not aware of anything skipping Act I (so to speak) in a spec script.

If your name is Tarantino, you can structure however you want (Dusk to Dawn?), but if you're referring to a spec script, I like to keep mine within the 3 or 5 act structure. But hey, it's your creation, so have at it - maybe you'll alter the paradigm for all spec writers :-)

Maybe I should rethink it. Yes, he's already on the road to vengeance when we meet him. But THAT'S his status quo in act one. When he meets someone who offers him a deal, sending him on a new mini-mission, that's his break into act two. I just have to make that deal enticing but dangerous.

Hi ,I think it it makes sense in your head and the story is understandable, why not? It is making new things that the world moves on. At least you can try.

Philip David Lee

I understand what the author of the topic and the rest of the interlocutors meant. I just decided to put on my big snob glasses. :)

I mean, technically, no you can't, as Act 1 will always be the beginning of your actual story, even if you start really late on into your plot. You have to present an antithesis before you present your thesis. Reservoir Dogs may revolve around the planning and aftermath of a heist gone wrong but ultimately it's about male bonding and masculinity.

Good point CJ. The plot of Dogs is already in motion, but the personal stories are probably told in order, similar to Memento. I should watch it again with that in mind.

As long as there is enough purpose to the start of their journey at the start of the film it can be influenced by events before it without the audience being lost or feeling too out of the loop. Think Once Upon A Time In The West and The Quick And The Dead.

@Mike Non linear time jumps & often parallel narrative more than one story seems mainstream now but @CJ has a good point in importance of “opening” theme. EG Reservoir Dogs was about bonding & audience needs to care about characters or wouldn’t hang around to find out what went right or wrong with their particular plot. Aside characters Macro theme is also strong in some non linear. EG Nashville where political campaign was the umbrella for different story versions of how affected the whole of society. Regards flashbacks some of my favourites are in f/b dreams such as in The Green Mile.

Ewan, thanks for suggesting The Quick and the Dead. When it starts Sharon Stone is already in her vengeance mission… I’ll have to see how they ramp it up to shift into act two.

Okay, I just watched the first 20 min of Quick and the Dead. Sharon Stone goes to town to find Gene Hackman and get revenge. But she’s visibly scared whenever he’s present. She lets everybody else join the quick-draw contest first, and we get a look at the steep competition. Hackman joins. Still not enough for her, until Hackman goes to hang Russell Crowe publicly. This has meaning for her (we’ll find out later). She stops the hanging by shooting the rope, a dramatic way of entering the contest— no turning back. End of act one.

So is this a major change for her? No, but it is a change. She still had doubts about making the choice to compete until she saw Crowe about to get hanged. Stone plays it well with little dialogue.