
Build a story arc
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Your next task as a will be to come up with a general story for your film. What happens in your movie? We will be creating a story arc, that we can then pick apart for our movie trailer.
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Stasis / Overview. Viewers discover the main character, the setting, the context of what everyday life is like for the character.
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Trigger. Something happens to start the story--an event or incident starts a chain of events.
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Quest. The trigger sets the main character on some sort of a quest or mission. What has to be done?
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Surprise/ Rising Action. These are complications that prevent your main character from achieving his goal. Conflict, challenges.
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Critical Choice. This is when your main character chooses what path to take and confronts the obstacles.
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Climax. The critical choice results in the climax, the peak of tension in your story.
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Reversal. Your character is changed in some way.
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Resolution. The story ends with a satisfactory closure. In a trailer we do not give this away, but we may allude to it.
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Your trailer must include the first 5 parts of the story arc.
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