I don't use it, but I'm certainly going to consider it! On my last Screenplay I tried splitting it up into four pieces instead of eight, and it didn't work for me very well.

Thanks for the post. Right now I'm trying to think of four things that can go wrong on my protagonist's journey. I wish I could post my logline to get feedback about the myriad ways I can mess her life up but I doubt it would be smart to do so.

Thanks again for the help!

Absolutely love sequencing -- when I learned it, I was able to cut nearly an hour out of an overlong script (which went on to a placement in a bigger contest).

And I don't think the method is distinct from a character-based approach, given that the action in the sequences should be motivated by the characters' arcs, flaws and emotional interactions/conflicts/responses.

It really is a fantastic way to tackle writing films.

I try to work w/in an approximately 40-beat structure, broken out into 4 10-beat mini-acts. A beat or two before the 10, 20, 30 beat is what I call a "holy shit, now what?!" moment which in essence tears the story away from the protagonist, forcing him/her to act.

Any Act II problems I encounter are usually do to a poor Act I setup in which I didn't sufficiently raise the stakes.