Notes

What becomes apparent relatively quickly as we begin this breakdown is that the most important obstacles that our main characters are battling are internal. The major conflicts in this story are within the characters themselves. We will discuss in Chapter 7 ("The Rehearsal Process") how the creation and adjustment of obstacles is a very powerful directorial tool. Recognize that when we are dealing with a story wherein the major obstacles are internal, then we know we are going to be facing a very delicate directorial process.

6. ANALYSIS OF THE SCRIPT UNITS

We will now look at the sequences and individual scenes. Now that we have established what the entire story is really all about, done our point-to-point description, act definition, and defined the objectives and obstacles of our characters, it's time to look at these smaller units and determine how they function in the telling of the story.

Consider this: You have a story (such as Forrest Gump) which in real time is a thirty-year story (it starts in 1951 and ends in 1981). But we have only two hours in which to tell this story. We can't take thirty years; that would be ridiculous. Since we only have two hours, we have to be sure that each component of this story (every episode, scene, sequence, or event) is absolutely necessary and functions to move the story forward. If it's not an integral part of the story, then it shouldn't be in it. We have very little time to tell a very big story, and every moment has to count.

Look at some of the units in Forrest Gump and see how they functic in the telling of our story.

The opening sequence of Forrest Gump.

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