This week I'll go through Act I of SELMA to demonstrate the Story Elements we’ve been talking about, and then do some more general posts on the Elements of Act II before we go on to demonstrate thoses elements in several movies.
Start with the Introduction to SELMA, here:
As we’ve been talking about, movies are traditionally structured in eight 15-minute sequences, for a 2-hour movie. That’s approximate! SELMA’s Sequence One is 16 minutes long.
In Act One you will tend to see these Key Elements:
Opening Image
Meeting the Hero/ine
The Hero/ine’s Special Skills
The Hero/ine’s Desire
The Opponent and Opponent’s Desire
The Hero/ine’s Ordinary World
The Inciting Incident or Call to Adventure
The Theme
The Stakes
Into the Special World
Introduction to Allies
We also may see:
Meeting the Mentor
Meeting the Love Interest
Bonding with Allies
Attacks by Opponent
SELMA packs a lot of those elements into Sequence One! Let’s see how the filmmakers manage it.
SELMA Sequence One video:
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