When I was a student in the MFA screenwriting program at UCLA our first assignment was to read two books: Lajos Egri’s THE ART OF DRAMATIC WRITING and Aristotle’s POETICS. Egri is all about character and theme; Poetics is all about structure.
I became fascinated by the three act structure. It became my creative guide; the anchor of every script I wrote. I spent thousands of hours watching films and reading scripts – charting out their structural patterns.
When I started my teaching career at UCLA, I immediately became known amongst the students as “the structure guy.” Students who were struggling with comprehending the three act structure within their screenplays pitched me over and over for admittance into my graduate workshops.
My first professional screenwriting gig was to do a rewrite on a project that was facing “structural issues.” Those thousands of hours of prep finally started to pay off.
Everything has a beginning, middle and end. Screenplays. Novels. Plays. TV. Jokes. Speeches. Our days. Our lives. Film and TV scripts are no different. But how we break down that beginning, middle and end and craft it into a story can take many different forms which leads us to the idea of the TEN MINUTE SEQUENCE STRUCTURE.
Let’s look at the TEN MINUTE SEQUENCE STRUCTURE in the film CONCLAVE.
CONCLAVE is a political thriller set in the Vatican during…you guessed it…A CONCLAVE. The script, based on the novel of the same name written by Robert Harris garnered a Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award for screenwriter Peter Straughan.
CAST OF CHARACTERS:
Ralph Fienes plays CARDINAL THOMAS LAWRENCE, a British liberal and the Dean of the College of Cardinals. He’s in charge of the Conclave.
Stanley Tucci plays CARDINAL ALDO BELLINI, an American Progressive Reformer and the late pope’s Secretary of State.
John Lithgow plays CARDINAL JOSEPH TREMBLAY, a Canadian moderate.
Lucian Msamati plays CARDINAL JOSHUA ADEYEMI, a Nigerian with conservative social views.
Carlos Diehz plays CARDINAL VINCENT BENITEZ, a little known Mexican Arch Bishop who plays a major role in the climax of the film.
Sergio Castellitto plays CARDINAL TEDESCO, an Italian traditionalist.
Isabella Rosselini plays SISTER AGNES
SEQUENCE 1: 1-10
I always say the beginning of your movie should be the promise of the end. CONCLAVE begins with the death of the Pope, illustrating that principle. And, by the end of the movie, a new Pope will be elected.
“The throne of the holy sea is vacant.”
Everything in this first ten minutes is classic set ups for later pay offs.
Five minutes into the movie the responsibility of the conclave falls on CARDINAL LAWRENCE’S shoulders. He’s in charge.
In those first ten minutes we set up character and situation. We have a crisis (the death of the Pope). We know the movie will take us into the conclave.
And we establish Lawrence’s attitude and pov. He refers to the conclave as being “hell.” Not a happy camper. We’ll also come to learn later that Lawrence had told the Pope before he died that he wanted to leave his position within the church.
Of course, that request wasn’t granted because the Pope died.
And that’s one of Lawrence’s PROBLEMS. He’s in charge of serving an organization that he’s come to no longer believe in.
Great internal conflict.
SEQUENCE 2: 10 – 20
Now that we know our main character, the situation and his problem, we broaden the story with the deeper introduction of all the other main characters.
Basically, in this sequence we’re setting up all our “candidates.”
We set up their positions within the church, their beliefs, and their alliances. We’re setting the narrative table, if you will.
And, we have a MAJOR COMPLICATION:
TREMBLAY WAS FIRED BY THE POPE IN THEIR LAST MEETING JUST BEFORE THE POPE DIED.
And he’s a leading candidate to replace the deceased Pope.
So now we have a story goal (elect a new Pope) and a character mystery (why did the Pope dismiss Tremblay).
And we lock all our characters into a location together.
As I always say, the most interesting characters are the ones who are TRAPPED. Physically and emotionally. We’ve now got our characters physically trapped in the Vatican. And we have a main character (Lawrence) who is trapped in a world/organization he doesn’t believe in anymore.
And things may not be all that they appear.
SEQUENCE 3: 20-30
MORE REVELATIONS AND COMPLICATIONS
Now that we’re trapped in the Vatican, we have more character revelations and complications.
We rank the candidates. We establish what each candidate stands for. And another complication:
The arrival of a new candidate: CARDINAL VINCENT BENITEZ, the Archbishop of Kabul.
The twist: Nobody has heard of Cardinal Benitez.
The mystery grows. All our players are established. And now the conclave officially begins.
And that’s the END OF ACT ONE.
We’ve established all the characters and their povs. We know what our goal is. And we have a larger character mystery.
ACT TWO:
SEQUENCE 4: 30-40
The first round of voting. But before they start, CARDINAL LAWRENCE gives a homily to the assembled Cardinals.
And in this homily he states the larger THEME of the movie.
“If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery – no need for faith. And therefore, no need for The Church. We must fear certainty for it is the enemy of unity and tolerance.”
The fight between certainty and doubt will now be the lens through which we’ll see the rest of the film.
SEQUENCE 5: 40-50
Now the story isn’t just about who will become Pope but it’s also become a mystery. Who will win? Who is Benitez? What happened between the Pope and Tremblay?
We have our first vote. No clear majority for any one candidate.
The screws tighten. Alliances form.
LAWRENCE and BELLINI, who we previously establish as allies, start to feel the strain.
Bellini admonishes Lawrence. “It is a war. You have to choose a side. Save your DOUBT for your prayers.” (there’s that pesky theme).
So not only are we moving the narrative story forward in this sequence with the first vote, we also reiterate the theme and heighten the character conflicts.
SEQUENCE 6: 50-60
2ND DAY OF THE CONCLAVE
Vote #2. And #3. And number #4. We speed things up. Still no clear favorite but alliances are forming as others crumble.
Now Lawrence’s homily about DOUBT and CERTAINTY is the lens through which we see every interaction. And we start to doubt the motives of many of our characters.
SEQUENCE 7: 60-7O
OUR MIDPOINT TWIST: CARDINAL ADEYEMI FATHERED A CHILD!
So, he’s out as a viable candidate. Other alliances take center stage.
The MYSTERY DEEPENS.
We learn the deceased Pope had paid for a trip for Cardinal Benitez to see a medical specialist. We don’t know why.
The tension escalates. It’s starting to take it’s toll on all the characters.
Finally, Lawrence declares NO MORE INVESTIGATIONS. NO MORE SECRETS. LET GOD’S WILL BE DONE.
A faction of Cardinals meet secretly to put together a coalition to back TREMBLAY’S nomination. But BENITEZ won’t back down in his support of LAWRENCE.
SEQUENCE 8: 70-80
LAWRENCE DIGS DEEPER INTO THE FINAL MEETING BETWEEN THE PREVIOUS POPE AND TREMBLAY
With the help of Sister Agnes, Lawrence discovers there was an investigation into Tremblay’s activities.
We discover that Tremblay brought a nun into the conclave to expose Adeyemi’s secret child.
And Tremblay then threatens Lawrence.
Lawrence breaks the seal on the deceased Pope’s room and discovers the report on Tremblay and that the Pope had ordered Tremblay to step down.
Could Tremblay have murdered the Pope to hide his secret?
SEQUENCE 9:80-90
Tremblay was basically blackmailing Cardinals to vote for him. Lawrence shows the report to Bellini.
Bellini says “BURN IT.” That’s a huge complication.
And now, we force our protagonist to MAKE A CHOICE.
We enter the third day of voting.
Lawrence distributes copies of the report exposing Tremblay.
Sister Agnes corroborates the information.
Tremblay is out.
END OF ACT TWO
SEQUENCE 10: 90-100
We’ve run out of favorites for Pope. Somebody needs to win a majority of the votes. Who could it be?
Now it’s come down to CARDINAL TEDESCO or CARDINAL LAWRENCE.
Lawrence ends up voting for himself. He went from wanting out to actually wanting to be Pope.
Then, a CAR BOMB EXPLODES outside the Vatican. Chaos. Raises the stakes.
We have our final debate. BENITEZ makes a heartfelt speech cementing his pov and it differs from all the others’. And it is in that moment BENITEZ becomes the front runner.
SEQUENCE 11:100-110
BENITEZ WINS. He wants to be known as Benitez The Innocent.
And it turns out Benitez is INTERSEX. He was raised as a boy believing himself to be male. His intersex condition was discovered during a medical examination following an injury which revealed he had a uterus and ovaries. He chose not to have a surgery to align his body with his assigned gender stating that he is “as God made me.”
Benitez states in the finale: “I know what it is to exist between the worst certainties.”
Which takes us back to Lawrence’s homily in which he declared that we need to eschew CERTAINTY and embrace DOUBT.
So, we have a BEGINNING/ACT 1 that sets up all the characters, the narrative and character goals and a complication that creates doubt over all that’s to come.
We have a MIDDLE/ACT 2 where votes take place, secrets are revealed, complications upset the narrative drive, character alliances are formed but also broken.
And we have an END/ACT 3 where we answer the central narrative question of the film and deliver the affirmation of the larger theme of the story.
And we do it in eleven 10 minute sequences.
Take a look at your structure. Find the patterns, but also the complications. The end of each sequence should complicate the narrative drive and raise the story and character stakes.
Tim Albaugh