3 act structure to drama film

After holding a group meeting to discuss the development of the idea, we have decided on following a basic structure of three main shots within our film, in order to follow through with our intended approach which is to keep the film as simple and realistic as possible. Five minutes is quite a short amount of time for a film like ours, as we want to keep it slow paced and avoid cramming too much in, but instead connect with the viewer through showing a steady progression through our character’s fear.

 Taking this into consideration, the first section of the film will be purely focused on introducing the character to the viewer, and although not much is happening on screen, we would like to introduce the fear itself through bringing sounds from the outside indoors during a scene in which the character is waking up and following what appears visually to be a normal, structured morning routine. The panic attack scene will also occur here, but will have a very slow moving and steady build up to it, as the character will be shown to pace the room a few times and struggle to mentally prepare themselves to get closer to the door.

The second section of the film will be quite different visually to the rest of our film, as we are aiming to show the passing of time through showing an empty room very gradually adapting to a messier, more busy and lived in looking space. Through not showing the character at all within this scene (as they are in the wardrobe, which becomes clear to viewers in the next section), we want to make the viewer question the whereabouts of the character, but also question why the room is changing so much.  Because our film is focused on giving the viewer an insight into what the fear of Agoraphobia consists of, at times we intend for them to not really understand what is happening and want them also to feel a sense of being stuck in the room when they really want to see footage taken from outside of this one space.

The third and final part to the film will be the character’s own progression; their journey from having another day stuck inside and following their strange but familiar routine, wishing that they could go out, to making the next step of going to put their shoe on, as well as the coat that they always wear inside. The aim with this final part to our film is for the viewer to not actually know if the character finishes putting his shoe on, but be made aware of the addition of this to his usual routine, and the suggestion that he might be considering making the next step towards facing his fear.