Contents
Screenwriting Basics
How to Come Up with an Idea for Your Screenplay
How to Determine Your Audience
How to Create Characters
How to Write Dialogue
How to Create a Plot
Act I: The Setup
Act II: The Confrontation
Act III: The Resolution
How to Structure Your Story
How to Format Your Screenplay
The Screenwriting Process
After the Screenplay
Is Written
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Act III: The Resolution
Act III is the final portion of your screenplay—the section in which all the conflicts come to a head and then get resolved. Act III should be about 20–30 pages long (usually somewhat shorter than Act I) and fast-paced. It should include:
- The climax
- Scene(s) that show the repercussions of the climax
The Climax
The climax is an event or sequence of events that:
- Occurs around pages 110–115
- Makes the protagonist confront her biggest obstacle yet
- Answers the major dramatic question
The climax in Tootsie, for instance, is the moment when Michael Dorsey tears off his mask on live television, revealing that he is, in fact, a man. The climax is the moment that all preceding moments have been leading up to. It should be:
- Memorable: Depending on your genre, it should be the funniest, scariest, most dramatic, or otherwise most unforgettable moment of the film.
- Surprising: The climax forces your protagonist to make one final choice. In a successful screenplay, the choice that the protagonist must make, and the action that he decides to take, should not be predictable.
- Believable: The climax is always a direct result of the preceding events. It needs to be in line with the characters that you have developed and the world that you have created through those events.
- Irreversible: The climax is such a big moment that everything changes as a result of it. There is no going back to the way things used to be.
After the Climax
The scene that occurs right after the climax should move right along and wrap up the story. That is not to say that the scene needs to answer all of the questions that were posed—it’s nice for a story to leave us wondering about a few things. But the major dramatic question must be answered for your audience to feel satisfied. Scenes beyond that can:
- Establish changes in the protagonist
- Show the repercussions of the climax
- Answer the question “So what?”
- Suggest a future for the characters once the film is over
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