I like the ideas regarding the four major plot points. I think that, of these, the ending towers above the rest. It will be the last thing the audience sees, and if you can burn it indelibly in their minds and have them leave the theater buzzing, you've really got something.
The caveat is, of course, the earlier plot points give the ending its weight, its stakes and build up to the catharsis. But damn, if you can give them the Death Star attack or Neo evolving into the One you'll make history.

Hey Scott - re: 10 major plot points. How would define a major plot point?

@Unknown: That's a great question. Arguably something should happen in every scene that alters the flow of narrative events. But I wouldn't consider each of those events to be a Major Plotline Point. Rather to qualify as an MPP, the event must do at least two things:

(1) It must be momentous enough that it spins the Plotline in a significant way.

(2) The event must not only be momentous, it must shift the Plotline in a specific kind of way. For example, most movies build to what we can call a Final Struggle, where the Protagonist has to overcome the story's Big Test in order to attain a goal. Oftentimes this struggle is one between a Protagonist and a Nemesis. So whatever transpires must not only test the Protagonist and engage the Nemesis in the contest, it must also resolve: The Protagonist wins or loses. If it does all that, then it would seem to qualify as a Major Plotline Point, specifically a Final Struggle.

There are all sorts of variations of plot paradigms and screenplay structures. I have one I have used and taught for a decade, and it has 10 Major Plotline Points. While I didn't develop it with the sequence approach in mind, it just so happens to accommodate eight sequences quite nicely.

Circling back to your question, again two things: (1) Event has to be big enough to alter the course of the narrative in a significant way; (2) Has to provide a narrative function that moves the Plotline in a specific way.

Great stuff, Scott. I'm loving this series. It's very interesting to get an inside look on how you work.

An interesting thing about plot points is that they don't have to be a big event on screen to make a major impact. For instance, in The Apartment, Baxter sees the broken mirror and puts two and two together in regards to Sheldrake and Miss Kubelick. It's very subtle and done almost without words.

Sometimes the plot point is completely hidden, like when Andy Dufresne receives the rock hammer in The Shawshank Redemption. It's beautifully misleading and pays off big later in the movie.

Billy Wilder said “The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.”

@Teddy: That's a good point. The event itself does not necessarily need to feel big, but the impact it has on the Plotline does to be a Major Plotline Point. Your example of the cracked mirror revelation in The Apartment is a great one. I would see that as Part 2 of that particular MPP, the first part being when Miss Olsen tells Kubelik about Sheldrake's many affairs, a scene that takes place directly before Baxter sees the compact broken mirror and puts 2+2 together.

You're absolutely right. Those two events change both Baxter's and Kubelick's paths. It leads to Baxter feeling hopeless and getting drunk at the bar and picking up that other woman, and at the same time Kubelick attempts suicide in the apartment, which leads to the two of them being able to spend time together while Kubelick is nursed back to health. Oh, it's beautiful. It all fits!

@Teddy: As I've said before, The Apartment is a perfect movie.

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