Ten Ways the conventional Hollywood three act one hero chronological structure will let you down

If you’ve ever wondered why so many experienced film and TV writers have serious doubts about scriptwriting theory it’s because it works on the assumption that all stories are about one dynamic proactive hero on a single chronological journey when they clearly aren’t -and professional writers have personal experience of this. As just one evening’s TV viewing will show you, many films and much TV drama involve multiple protagonists, time jumps, flashbacks, fracturing, multiple storylines and non-linearity.  Here are ten types of film that the conventional model - useful as it is for certain types of story,  doesn’t help you with.
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1. Films and TV like Rain Man, The Elephant Man and The Shawshank Redemption – in which a normal, but often passive reactive protagonist is troubled by and learns from a much more interesting charismatic dynamic wild card outsider (a ‘mentor antagonist’).
2. Films and TV like The Full Monty or Calendar Girls or Little Miss Sunshine that are about a group of heroes (not just one) all on the same quest or involved in the same siege or having a reunion.  
3. Films and TV like Traffic or Nashville about a group of people all with separate but interconnected stories on the same theme.
4. Films and TV like Brokeback Mountain or The Queen that feature two characters, each a different versions of the same type, each having their own separate story as well as a story in which they appear together.
5. Films and TV like Blue Jasmine or The Story of Pi that need flashbacks jumping back and forth between the past and the present
6. Films and TV like Twelve Monkeys or The End of the Affair that involve a ‘woodshed incident’ in which an incremental flashback gradually reveals and explains a traumatic event
7. Films and TV where we see different perspectives on the same event like Rashomon
8. Films and TV where we see different outcomes from the same event like Atonement
9. Films and TV like Pulp Fiction or The Joy Luck Club or City of God that show a series of separate stories consecutively and often in fractured form, linking them at the end.
10. Films and TV like 21 Grams or The Hours where one event triggers a number of stories, that are fractured and told in a nonlinear way

If you are interested in writing in these forms (and frankly, I don't think you'll have a career in a few years' time if you don't have some idea how to do them, particularly in TV, because they are now so prevalent) I  provide practical guidelines for these forms (and more) as well as in the conventional one-hero model in my book The 21st Century Screenplay.

UPCOMING SEMINARS
(in conjuction with the National Film and TV School of Australia AFTRS )

Sydney: 22-23 February 2014.
Melbourne: 1-2 March 2014
Two-day seminar New Structures for Film and TV (including material  originally created for BBC TV Writers' Festival on how to use nonlinear structures in short and long form TV series)

This seminar on how to construct a wide range of nonlinear and multiple storyline films that don't fit the conventional model is the only one of its kind in the world. It has proved extremely popular internationally particularly with experienced writers, but is suitable for writers of all experience levels, also screen editors, directors and script development executives.
PLease note: numbers are limited.  Full details and bookings via AFTRS

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