In response to some requests, I’ll be posting some background on various screenwriting gurus. Today we start off with the ‘dean’ — Syd Field. Why dean? Because Field was the first to publish a book on the modern screenplay, appropriately called “Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting,” all the way back in 1979. In it, Field coined the phrase plot point: a significant event in the plot that digs into the action and spins it in another direction. Field also proposed the first screenplay paradigm. It has evolved over time, but here is a current version of it.

How did Field come up with his famous screenplay paradigm? From an interview which I link to below:

I based Screenplay on my teachings and my two-year experience in the 1960s as a reader for a movie company called Cinemobile, where I read more than 2,000 scripts. The thing

is, of those 2,000 or so scripts, there were only 40 that were memorable to me, that really worked well. It got me thinking [about] what makes a great screenplay. I was determined to find out what made those 40 better than all the others. So I broke them down, analyzed them. The book is an outgrowth of the conclusions I ultimately came to.

Basically in reading all those scripts, Field discovered some recurring patterns, certain beats happening at the same time. In “Screenplay,” he notes these key beats:

Plot Point I: pp. 25-27

Plot Point II: pp. 85-90

These plot points demarcate transitions between acts, Plot Point I from Act I to Act II, Plot Point II from Act II to Act III. Field ‘names’ the acts this way:

Act I: Setup

Act II: Confrontation

Act III: Resolution

Field added a Midpoint (P. 60) to the paradigm, then divided Act II into two parts: First Half (P. 30-60) and Second Half (P. 60-90).

In working with Act II, Field brings in the concept of dramatic context: The idea or principle that holds the action in place. Once the writer determines the dramatic context, they can then provide its content. Each half of Act II has its own dramatic context and, therefore, its own distinctive content.

Field also incorporates the idea of the pinch: A scene or sequence that “pinches’ the story line together. He uses them to break down each half of Act Two:

Pinch I: P. 45

Pinch II: P. 75.

Field has continued to evolve his theories over the years, but the guts of it, as detailed here, remain the pretty much the same.

Thinking about screenplays as structure seems old hat nowadays, but certainly a major reason for that awareness derives directly from 30 years ago when Field introduced the idea of the screenplay paradigm.

For more information, you can visit Field’s website here.

Here is a good interview with Field about his background. And another interview I already posted.

Any of you who have anything to add about Field’s ideas and/or his place in the pantheon of screenwriting gurus, please post your thoughts here.