Ovexious

Seven. Apparently it’s the number of the gods. I believe it’s the number of strength. Seven in it’s prime is the mystical lure to the unknown. Some people stick a coin in a machine and pray for three sevens. Me… well I’m just gonna work on the seven step outline.

The Seven Step outline defines nearly all tales which have been told to date. In this blog (notice the ‘l’ I’m not on the dunny) I’m going to break down the seven step outline using two examples.

But first what is the seven step outline?

1. The setup – Where are we? Who is the protagonist? What do they hope to achieve by the end of the story?
2. Inciting Incident – what happens when the Protagonist is challenged by an event that adversely affects their pathway through to the goal.
3. Act One Turning Point – The protagonist is given further complications adding to the conflict
4. Mid-point – Protagonist has hit rock bottom. All seems lost, nothing can save the protagonist now…
5. Act two turning point – Protagonist responds to the key conflict and steers the drama into act three
6. Act three turning point – Protagonist is shoved in the midst of a major build up and breakdown of all conflicts in the great build up to…
7. Resolution/denouncement – The protagonist solves the problem and deals with the outcome of it. The end of the story.

So now we know what the seven step outline is, I’m going to use two examples. First, let’s feed testosterone and spin the disk of a major male action flick. (coz everyone knows) DIE HARD

1. The setup – John McClain just wants to meet his wife at the Nakatomi Plaza in L.A. He want’s to rekindle his marriage if possible and be with his wife.
2. Inciting incident – Hans Grueber and his group of buddies want to screw things up by seizing the Nakatomi Plaza in search of money, but John McClain becomes the “fly in the ointment” and does whatever he can to get police on their way down.
3. Act one turning point – McClain learns these guys are smart, and worst of all, he’s on his own. All he can do now is try to survive as the bad guys come at him with machine guns.
4. Mid Point – Finally police are on the scene, but they are lead by a total arsehole who doesn’t respect or thank McClain for his hard work at capping off a few dead guys. McClain thinks he’s gonna die before much longer and things ain’t lookin too good.
5. Act two turning point – The FBI have gotten involved and decided to negotiate with the terrorists who decide to shove all the hostages on the roof. McClain finds out that they are all being lead to slaughter coz the roof is rigged with explosives, and does something about it. The FBI try to take McClain out thinking he’s a terrorist.
6. Act three turning point – McClain, battered, bruised, bleeding, and barely able to stand, comes face to face with Hans himself. “Yippie Kai Ai mother–”
7. Resolution – John gets to go home and have a merry Christmas with his wife while the credits roll and the audience sings along to “well the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful, and since we’ve no place to go… let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.”

COME ON EVERYBODY SING IT!

Okay don’t sing it…

Just for the hell of it (coz I’ve got nothing better to do at the moment) I thought I’d do one more rundown of the seven step outline (incase Damien decides that my understanding of it is shithouse)

This time, I’m going to do it for a script that I myself have written. Thus proving that I can also put this seven step into perspective in my own work, not major Hollywood blockbusters blah blah yadda yadda.

So here it is, the seven steps to THE HUMAN EXISTENCE

1. The setup – After the fall of the thermonuclear war, our three protagonists, Kenny, Josh and Kasey all fend for their lives in a “Cruel world” where “to survive is to be scarred for life.” Kenny is one of the few who survived the blast and radiation poisoning, while Josh and Kasey grew up after the blast. Josh living in underground societies, and Kasey with her family on the surface, hunting for any kind of human existence.
2. Inciting Incident – When Josh get’s separated from his father on the surface, he finds and rescues Kasey from the animalistic beasts that roam the earth and feast on the flesh of humans. With their past far behind them, they live together in order to survive.
3. Act One Turning Point – Kasey and Josh meet Kenny and learn that although all who were exposed to the blast were temporarily diseased with animalistic urges, all of the “creatures” who hunt and kill humans were once humans, and they choose to feast on their own kind. They are lead to an underground settlement where they can live in safety. But is there more to Kenny than meets the eye?
4. Mid-point – The underground is ravaged. Many die in the great battle. Josh dies, but not before making Kenny promise to find and protect Kasey. (thus introduces the love interest)
5. Act two turning point – Haunted by the past, Kenny struggles on, hunting down the one who he thinks is responsible for the disappearance of Kasey. But he finds himself in another fight for life.
6. Act three turning point – When Kenny finds Kasey, we find that the one who is responsible for a lot of the attacks is in fact a man (not one of the animalistic beasts, which defines the title of the movie “The Human Existence”) A final battle rages. Kenny dies. The bad guys die. And Kasey is left with a shocking secret, that Kenny couldn’t take to the grave…
7. Resolution/denouncement – Kasey survives. Although it’s a resolution in one way, it’s a denouncement in another… because: “To survive is to be scarred for life.”
   

If anyone has any interest with helping me pull off “The Human Existence” contact me. ovex_214@hotmail.com

Well I believe I’m done.

Stay tuned, next post will be my idea for the Montage project.