Tips for Motion Pictures

The Rule of Threes

Many rules and guidelines work fine until you sit down to write. As soon as you get inspired, creative frenzy takes over and the muse bolts forward like a mad bull. But there is one rule of thumb that sticks out like a sore thumb: The Rule of Threes.

Interactions and the Rule of Threes

Overall Story Characters represent dramatic functions that need to interact to reflect all sides of solving the story problem. The first interaction sets the relationship between the two characters. The second interaction brings them into conflict. The third interaction shows which one fares better, proving one as more appropriate than the other.

This is true between Protagonist and Antagonist, Protagonist and Skeptic, Skeptic and Sidekick -- in short, between all essential characters in a story. A good guide while writing is to arrange at least three interactions between each pairing of characters. In this manner, the most concise, yet complete portrayal can be made of essential storyform dynamics.

Introductions

You must introduce each of the characters before the three interactions occur, and dismiss them after the three interactions are complete. These two functions set up the story and then disband it, much like one might put up a grandstand for a parade and then tear it down after the event is over. This often makes it feel like there are five acts in a story when three are dynamic acts and two have been borrowed from the structure.

Introducing characters is so well known that the author often forgets it. A character's intrinsic nature must be illustrated before he interacts with any of the Overall Story Characters. This is so basic that half the time it doesn't happen and the story suffers right from the start. (Keep in mind that an author can use storytelling to fool his audience into believing a character has a given nature, only to find out it made assumptions based on too little information in the wrong context.)

Introductions can be on-camera or off. They can be in conversation about a character, reading a letter that character wrote, seeing the way they decorate their apartment—anything that describes their natures.

Dismissals

The Rule of Threes should be applied until all the primary characters are played against one another to see what sparks are flying. Once we understand how they interact, it is time to dismiss the company. Dismissals can be as simple as a death or as complex as an open-ended suggestion of the future for a particular character. When all else fails, just before the ending crawl a series of cards can be shown: "Janey Schmird went on to become a New Age messiah while holding a day job as a screenplay writer."

The point is the audience needs to say good-bye to their new friends or foes.