Movie acts?

[starthorn]

I hear the guys talk about the acts of movies. How can you tell how many acts a movie has and when they separate ?

[nshady]

This should help you out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_(theatre)

[az0madman]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_act_structure

In general, there are three acts in a movie. Without going into too much depth, you can usually tell when an act breaks because there are specific moments that happen. The first act ends when the main character leaves his comfortable world behind and starts on his journey, whatever that is. You know the stakes at this point and you know what he has to do. The second act ends when it feels like all is lost and the main character has done what he can but everything around him is kind of closing in. The third is the when the main character figures out how and goes about to defeat the bad guy and win the movie.

The first act usually ends about 25-30 minutes in (or pages in if it's a screenplay). The second act ends at about 60-75 minutes in.

[jabber]

Star Wars is an easy movie to recognize in terms of acts. If you think about the general events of each of the three acts of Star Wars (I'm talking about the original 1977 film) and apply the general principles of each to other movies, you can begin to recognize the acts of other films.

Act One ends when Stormtroopers destroy Luke's home and murder his aunt and uncle. Luke even says, "There's nothing for me here now. I want to come with you to Alderaan..." This is a very blatant END OF ACT ONE announcement. The protagonist is forced to leave everything he knows and is comfortable with and venture out into the great unknown.

Act Two ends when Luke and his new companions escape the Death Star. They've made it through a harrowing experience together, learned a bit about each other, begin to trust each other. The relationships between the members of the "team" have become pretty clearly established.

Act Three is the rebel attack on the Death Star. The Empire is prepared to make their final strike and claim permanent victory. Luke has been through a lot and uses those experiences to help him through his most difficult life event to this point.

This is a very crude and basic example but hopefully you get the idea.