ACT 2 - what is enough action? Western

vigilante · Jan 30, 2010

I am rewriting a script. I have more theoretical answers so I am not posting this in SYW.

In ACT 1 I have choices, as present MC first or the root of the incident instead, - I think I have no problem there. MC and main antagonist are presented before page 15. They meet in a Museum and there is a clear scene where you can tell clearly how different they are.

From 15 to 25, MC has to "face the music" and take/admit action relating to the incident. From 25 on, he is on the "battleground."

Now we are suppossed to be in page 25.
MC:
-organizes his task in the west.
-negotiate with a tribe, gets job started
-Receives first antagonist, a preacher
-visit an abandoned mine, gets shot, learns the story of the miners who left the mine and populated the new town.
-meets main antagonist-he was the gunman.
-gest his job done, but is attacked
-buys a gun, a wagon
-tries to avoid a rebellion indians vs bluecoats
-is attacked again, this time for some indians
ACT 3
-Antagonist steals him the wagon. MC rides again to the mine, where the main antagonist is hiding. there are some shots, kills the bad guy.
-peace comes.
-MC returns home with his job done.

The paradigm of the good guy. Well, the question is simple: He seems to be more passive than active. But I´ve seen that in Western compared to other genres, action is more opposition. Is it? Open Range is an example, or Dancing WW. There is a clear motivation in the MC: to do a job. But he arrives to the "wrong place in the wrong time" - the antagonist wants the same that the MC, there is an Indian uprise and the is just in the middle. Bad luck. He is about to loose everything-also his job and prestige.

I would like to know what do you think. ¿Is this enough action?
and,
even the antagonist is acting, and only revealing late- Should there be a DIRECT confrontation of MC-Antagonist before ACT 3? I am using lots of exposition in the scenes they meet- the third time they meet face to face they use guns and the bad guy is killed.

Any other major failure in the structure?

icerose · Jan 30, 2010

Quick note, westerns are extremely difficult to get made and the majority that do get made, flop. The recent westerns that were made were backed by parties with enough captitol and weight to get them off the ground on their own.

That being said, every page should be important to the story, every sentence every bit of dialog should move the story forward, reveal character or both. Idealing something big happens every 5 pages.

A bullet list of points isn't going to tell me or anyone else if there's enough action. I could give a pretty exciting bullet list for Contact, a boring as hell drool fest. It all matters in how it's written.

Also it's a matter of pacing. You can have an armlist of exciting things happening and it can still be boring as hell. I could have a movie with car chases, with shoot outs, with buildings blown up, robberies, murder. If I spend the other half of the movie having a guy sitting around waiting and forcing the audience to watch him sit there and wait and glance at the clock and wait and sip on coffee and wait it's going to be boring as hell with all the wrong pacing.

Master your pacing, master your plot, master your characters and you'll produce an exciting movie. Don't and it'll be like watching that guy wait and wait and wait.

*The waiting example is a real one. It was in a script I was forced to read and man, it was eye-gougingly painful and it took everything I had not to rip it up into tiny little pieces and dance on the ashes.

vigilante · Jan 31, 2010

Dear Dream-killer:

A question.
Dancing WW... is a western? I liked it very much. Not exactly a Western ¿Is it? Compared to Open Range (same actor, similar story -an ex...-) While DWW is a nice story, Open Range is a bit boring in the middle, has a very brave shot sequence, and the proposed love story at the end does smell funny and doesnt match to me. In general, I prefer old Westerns. And WWII movies.

What I mean is that if it is a 100% Western I agree it will have problems. But if it is just a story happenning in Colorado in 1870, ¿Is it a Western?

The more appealing frame for my story is a western or a drama. My original story happens in Europe in the XVI Century, but could have happened-I´m sure somehow happened- in US in 1870. mo/less

Somehow...are you proposing that if I put my story in 1890, in the badlands, I get the Indians out, the sheriff, and so on, ¿Would my story be more commercial and still get the reader preference? Before rewriting I would like to make a shot in the right direction.

BTW I loved the sound effects in Contact. I agree the ending is a real foul, extremely heart-appealing and a bit out the rest of the movie.

icerose · Jan 31, 2010

Yes, Dancing with Wolves is considered a western and when he made it it was a big surprise it actually made money. Westerns and likewise anything set in the old west are a pretty big gamble. Ditto with Open Range. Open Range does start to sag but it has enough attachment to the characters that it works. You already care greatly for the characters at that time and there's enough going on, enough tension that it carries through the slower parts which work to build both sides.

Whether or not it would be considered a western it would still be considered a period piece and period peices are still hard to get made no matter where they're set for cost alone.

All that being said, write what scripts you want to write and go from there.

vigilante · Feb 4, 2010

My story goes on the period fm 1850 say to 1920 or so, and it must be on CO UT AZ or similar places. So then this is a Western, as ie. Sundance. As from 1920 would loose it appeal. Here I am again with a script finished and trying to rewrite and I dont know exactly how- I mean, to try to make it successful. Funny.

Regarding the question of activity and action, I understand there is not a dogma.

Thank you anyway.

ACT 2 - what is enough action? Western

vigilante

A Spanish water cooler

icerose

Lost in School Work

vigilante

A Spanish water cooler

icerose

Lost in School Work

vigilante

A Spanish water cooler