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An act is a major division of a theatre work, including a play, film, opera, ballet, or musical theatre, consisting of one or more scenes. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The term can either refer to a conscious division placed within a work by a playwright (usually itself made up of multiple scenes) [ 3 ] or a unit of analysis for dividing a dramatic work into ...
The three-act structure is a model used in narrative fiction that divides a story into three parts , often called the Setup, the Confrontation, and the Resolution. It has been described in different ways by Aelius Donatus in the fourth century A.D. and by Syd Field in his 1979 book Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting .
A scene is a part of a film, as well as an act, a sequence (longer or shorter than a scene), and a setting (usually shorter than a scene). While the terms refer to a set sequence and continuity of observation, resulting from the handling of the camera or by the editor, the term "scene" refers to the continuity of the observed action: an ...
Act I contains the setup. It is approximately the first quarter of a screenplay, and reveals the main character, premise, and situation of the story. Act II contains the confrontation. It lasts for the next two quarters of the screenplay, and clearly defines the main goal of the protagonist. Act III contains the resolution.
A drama is then divided into five parts, or acts, which some refer to as a dramatic arc: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and catastrophe. Freytag extends the five parts with three moments or crises: the exciting force, the tragic force, and the force of the final suspense.
He proposes that a well-structured movie has two main plot points within a three-act structure. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The first major plot point occurs 20–30 minutes into the film (assuming a standard 120-minute running time), and the second major one occurs 80–90 minutes into the film.
The third act, or resolution, is when the problem in the story boils over, forcing the characters to confront it, allowing all the elements of the story to come together, leading to the climax, which is the answer to the dramatic question, being hand in hand with the end of the conflict.
A concise play may consist of only a single act, known as a "one-acter". Acts are further divided into scenes. Acts and scenes are numbered, with scene numbering resetting to 1 at the start of each subsequent act (e.g., Act 4, Scene 3 might be followed by Act 5, Scene 1).