Week 5

Three Act structure.

In principle, every film follows a three act structure, It follows the basic format of beginning>middle>end, although they don’t have to follow that order. This can also be seen as establish>crisis>resolve. This means that stories generally first set up the scene of who the characters are, where they are, their lives/relationships/etc. Then something happens that disrupts the normal everyday flow of this environment. A large part of the movie is spent dealing with these events/issues before finally reaching resolution or a new equilibrium at the end.

The movie I have chosen to represent this is a melancholy yet simple story, “White Oleander”, a film dear to me.

Act 1: Establish

• Astrid (the protagonist) is a young girl, living with her single mother Ingrid, a poet whom she greatly admires. They have been together, as a “team” her whole life.
• Ingrid is headstrong, independent and carefree, with very strong opinions that will later act as a factor in Astrid’s turmoil and self-discovery
• Ingrid meets a man who she initially doesn’t like, but he eventually woos her around and she falls crazily in love, “breaking her own rules”, until he leaves her for someone else.
• Astrid watches in worry as her mother slowly becomes more and more unhinged, eventually plotting the murder of the ex-lover.

Act 2: Crisis

• Ingrid is arrested and imprisoned for murder, leaving Astrid in foster care.
• Thrown into a new life without Ingrid, Astrid lives out her teenage years in various foster homes and care centres. Meeting and getting to know various kinds of people and being in polar opposite environments to what she had known and where she felt safe, she grows to question everything her mother had taught her and who she thought she was.
• Ingrid still struggles to maintain control over an increasingly unsure Astrid from prison, through her first love affair, alcoholism, a shooting and various other experiences, until the suicide of a foster parent when Astrid finally grasps the extent of Ingrid’s poison and control and cuts off contact.

Act 3: Resolve

• Astrid, now eighteen, is contacted by her mother’s Lawyer to testify at a retrial, claiming the murder was self defence. Astrid consents, but only if her mother will meet her to answer honestly any questions that Astrid has.
• Ingrid at first is resistant, but soon caves in front of the now defiant Astrid. In an emotional scene, she learns about her father and her childhood, as well as things about herself and why her mother is she the way she is.
• At the court on the trial date, Astrid is waiting to be called to testify, when the court lets out and she sees her mother going back to the prison van. The lawyer tells Astrid that Ingrid didn’t want her to testify, and she is ready to “let her go.”
• The film finishes with Astrid now living in Berlin with her partner Paul, and the voiceover discusses how she now has understanding and is at peace with her mother and what has happened.

Character Design.

The main character whose story we follow, or protagonist, is very important. Their design and overall make-up are crucial. We don’t have to like them, but we do have to understand them and how who they are is effecting what and why is happening throughout. Key elements include appearance, dialogue, action, inner conflict and interaction. These things give them personality.

I have chosen to use Ariel from my childhood favourite, “The Little Mermaid”, as an example. Below are a few drawings from her concept design to the final movie.

Appearance: She had to be warm, endearing and likeable. She has round doll-like eyes and soft, feminine and expressive movements. Like all disney heroines she is very pretty but never vain or concious of it. The animators chose red for her hair to help symbolise her vibrant, bubbly personality but also her rebellious and independent tendancies.

Dialogue: It is key that we get to know and understand Ariel in Act 1, because for a large chunk of the film she cannot speak, yet we have to remain with her on her journey. Through conversations with her friends, arguments with her father, and the song "part of your world" we build up a picture of who she is and how she feels about her life.

Antagonist: The antagonist is arguably Ursula the sea witch, who makes more trouble later on, but I would say the main element is Ariel's inner turmoil and conflict about who she is and what she longs for. This is the catalyst that makes her, of her own free will, cause the event that begins the crisis of Act 2.

Action and interaction: She makes a wrong decision which, although not to be foreseen, in turn brings worry and danger to those who love her. When she sees what has come about because of her arguably selfish actions, she feels guilt and redeems herself towards the end of the film by going to rescue Eric and overcoming the witch.