[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: What is a big beat?
Steve Douglas-Craig, Owner/Teacher at The New Screenwriter, Financier, Screenwriter and Producer: A big beat for me is the pulse of a screenplay, it’s like the heartbeat and there are certain, if you want to get technical and call it page count, I try not to do that. It’s very limiting if you say by page 20 this has to happen. I think that can be very limiting when you’re trying to teach it. The big beats for me are the driving force or the signposts behind where your story is going.
As I mentioned, the inciting incident should be around page 10 to 15 roughly, that if you can get it on page six, all power to you. But that has a function in the script which is to split the character’s wants and needs, to be the explosive beginning of our story. This is what our story is going to be about and this is the decision our characters are going to have to make. Then you got the debate section with Blake, okay do I want to …it’s that Hero’s Journey…do I want to accept this? Is this really the way that I need to go? We explore that through other characters’ relationships, the actions that your main character will take to try and reject the journey or accept the journey.
By the end of act one another big beat. This is where the character is forced to make a decision to go on the journey that we’re going to watch or they’re pushed into it. Either way there’s no turning back, there’s absolutely no road back, they’ve got to now tell the story. Adhering to those big beats (the midpoint journey), once we get to the midpoint of a script that’s an important part of a screenplay for me because it’s where the characters’ wants and needs come really close…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
About:
After graduating from the AFI, Steve Douglas-Craig was recruited by Sony Pictures Entertainment to work as a Story Editor & Acquisitions Executive for the Worldwide Acquisitions team in Los Angeles where he received an induction into story & business development, feature film packaging, domestic & international distribution, theatrical marketing & product acquisition. He helped develop & shepherd film titles including Terminator: Salvation, The Book of Eli, Django Unchained, War Room, Don’t Breathe (Sequel current in post-production), the Insidious horror movie franchise, Manchester By The Sea, The Grudge (reboot), Searching, Arrival, Whiplash, The Call, Attack The Block & many others (including TV releases – The Tudors, House of Cards). Steve’s tenure at Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions was followed with a promotion to Senior Story Editor & Creative Executive at Screen Gems where he was involved in the development & release of theatrical titles like the recent releases of Monster Hunter & the adaptation of James Herbert’s novel – The Unholy. Before that he helped shepherd Black & Blue, The Intruder, Possession of Hannah Grace, Brightburn, & Slender Man. He was also heavily involved in developing content strategies that attracted financiers & talent to specific projects for the studio. Steve is also a professional screenwriter having worked as a freelance staff writer for the hit CBS TV series Hawaii Five-O over a number of seasons & currently has a pilot & several feature films (including a creature feature) going out through his literary managers in Los Angeles.
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