Story Campaign Acts

Act 0

1898: Grindelwald expelled from Durmstrang at age 16

1899: Dumbledore and Grindelwald fall in love, duel at age 17 at Dumbledore’s hometown, Godric’s Hollow

   * Dumbledore’s sister Ariana killed
   * Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth, almost killed

• Grindelwald steals Elder Wand from European wand maker Gregorovitch
• Grindelwald builds Nurmengard fortress and prison (Voldemort only person ever known to have broken in)
• Grindelwald has been at Nurmengard, somewhere in Europe or North America, laboring long into the night to reclaim the Deathly Hallows.

   * Has Elder Wand, suspects Dumbledore of Invisibility Cloak, unsure of the resurrection Stone

• 1917: Ellen Takagawa arrives from Canada to matriculate at Ilvermorny as a Thunderbird

Prelude: 1917: Snakewood Wandwood, Ilvermorny Inner Courtyard, Spring, Introductory Tour

Eulalie Hicks says: “…It was there that President Elizabeth McGilliguddy presided over the infamous ‘Country or Kind?’ debate of 1777. Thousands of witches and wizards from all over America descended upon MACUSA to attend this extraordinary meeting, for which the Great Meeting Chamber had to be magically enlarged. The issue for discussion was: did the magical community owe their highest allegiance to the country in which they had made their homes, or to the global underground wizarding community? Were they morally obliged to join American No-Majs in their fight for liberation from the British Muggles? Or was this, simply put, not their fight?”

“The arguments for and against intervention were protracted and the fight became vicious. Pro-interventionists argued that they might be able to save lives; anti-interventionists that wizards risked their own security by revealing themselves in battle. Messengers were sent to the Ministry of Magic in London to ask whether they intended to fight. A four-word message returned: ‘Sitting this one out.’ McGilliguddy’s famous response was even shorter: ‘Mind you do.’

“While officially the American witches and wizards did not engage in battle…

Prelude: 1917: Sorting Ceremony and Uniforms There are four houses at Ilvermorny: Horned Serpent, Wampus, Thunderbird and Pukwudgie. When a student starts their education at Ilvermorny, they step onto a Gordian Knot on the floor in the centre of the entrance hallwith large wooden statues of the mascots for the four houses facing them. The carved statues react if they want the student in their house. The older students watch in silence from a circular balcony on a floor above them as the new students are sorted. The carvings react in different ways: the crystal in the Horned Serpent carving's forehead glows, the Wampus carving roars, the Thunderbird carving beats its wings, and the Pukwudgie carving raises its arrow. However, sometimes more than one carving will try to select the same student and so the student is then able to choose the house they prefer. This happens very rarely. Sometimes— as rare as once a decade or even a generation as in the case of one student — a student will be selected by every house.

The robes of Ilvermorny are blue and cranberry. The colours honour Isolt and James: blue because it was Isolt's favourite colour and because she had wished to be in Ravenclaw house as a child; cranberry in honour of James's love of cranberry pie. All Ilvermony students' robes are fastened by a gold Gordian Knot, in memory of the brooch Isolt found in the ruins of the original Ilvermorny cottage.[1]

Prelude: 1918: Pukwudgie and Wampus A number of Pukwudgies continue to work at the school into present day, all grumbling, all of them insisting that they have no wish to remain there and yet all of them mysteriously present year after year. A single, enormous Wampus pads around campus silently from time to time as well, mostly sleeps by the fire and looks irritable at the cold.

There is one particularly aged creature who answers to the name of ‘William’. He laughs at the idea that he is the original William who saved Isolt and James’s lives, rightly pointing out that the first William would be over 300 years old had he survived. However, nobody has ever found out exactly how long Pukwudgies live.

William refuses to let anybody else polish the marble statue of Isolt at the entrance of the school, and on the anniversary of her death every year he may be seen laying mayflowers on her tomb, something that puts him in a particularly bad temper when Ellen mentions it.

• 1922: Grindelwald begins horrific string of Muggle murders across Europe

   * Becomes Wizarding world’s most wanted man
   * Ministry of Magic and MaCUSA create Auror task force to hunt Grindelwald, including Theseus Scamander (eventual World War II hero) and Percival Graves
   * Accomplish: The conflict's origin gets setup, often over many years.  Revealed only in flashbacks or brief explainers because this part is boring.  

• 1924: Ellen Takagawa graduates from Ilvermorny
• 1925: Grindelwald steals Percival Graves’s identity and fingertips to use MaCUSA to search for Obscurials and useful magical beasts
• [1926: Fantastic Beasts]
• How did the hero come to occupy their spot in the world when the plot begins? A lot has already happened in the setting.

This is the first five minutes of a TV show, always briefly summarized.

Act 1: Establishing Shot/Opening Image

• Accomplish: clearly answer the basic setting questions: Fantasy? Sci-fi? Dark and gritty? Light and whimsical?
• Time period in history/present day/futuristic? In your backyard/recognizable city/faraway galaxy?
• What's the story's theme? The theme gets little nods and reminders everywhere across the story from this point forward.

‘“Welcome!” he said. “Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!”’ Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling

a. Luke watches the twin sunset on Tatooine. b. Bilbo's eleventieth birthday party in The Shire of Middle Earth. This is the second five minutes of a TV show.

Act 2: Something Bad Happens/The Hook

• Accomplish: the story leaps into motion with an event that we cannot ignore. Often a henchman, rarely the Big Bad.
• Crucial: the goal implied by the end of this scene is the wrong one for the hero. Avoid a boring slow start with a great hook!

a. The rebel blockade runner is boarded by Darth Vader (but not the emperor). b. The Ringwraiths enter the Shire (but Sauron doesn't). This is the third five minutes of a TV show.

Act 3: Enter the Hero/Heroine

• Accomplish: We meet the naïve proto-hero and his/her friends.
• We get attached/invested into them, while
• the hero gets three increasingly strong nudges out of normal life and into the epic plot.
• We also see how scary the henchman is, because the True Villain must be even scarier.

a. Luke Skywalker is bored on Tatooine, gets shut down on joining up as a stormtrooper, goes to visit Obi-Wan Kenobi. We meet Luke, Obi-Wan, Leia, Han Solo, and Chewie. b. Frodo chats with Gandalf, Bilbo gives Frodo the Ring, Bilbo disappears completely. We meet Aragorn, Frodo, Samwise, Gandalf, Pippin and Merry, and mention the rest of the eventual crew (Boromir and Faramir, and the Dwarves. This is fifteen minutes/several scenes of a TV show.

Act 4: Commitment

• Accomplish: the hero/protagonist gets an irreversible shove into the epic plot.
• There's no going back and it cannot be refused by the hero.
• This choice is Better Than The Alternative/For Your Own Good/A Trap/An Outright Lie.

a. Uncle Owen and Beru are killed, Luke finds their still-smoking bodies; he must flee to space and leave everything he's known once he uncovers Leia's message. b. Frodo must run for his life out of the Shire and everything he's known, to the Inn of the Prancing Pony. This is usually a single scene in real-time, about five minutes in a TV show.

Act 5: The First Goal Is Wrong But Fun

• Accomplish: The hero goes after the obvious/wrong goal created in Act 2 (Something Bad Happens). The hero goes for the right goal for the wrong reasons or the wrong goal for the right reasons.
• Plot proceeds via three complication "whammo" scenes: complications, blunders, narrow escapes. Mysterious strangers, backstory reveals. The three whammos finish with
• a short, critical rest period with the hero battered into his/her lowest moment. The Hero is facing death and defeat. Basically the darkest hour before dawn is now.

a. Luke Skywalker battles his way out of Mos Eisley on his way to Alderaan with the Death Star's vulnerability, and then Alderaan is blown up. Oh shit moment. b. Frodo and Sam fight through Moria, then escape the Ring Wraiths with Aragorn, then run out of gas after entering Mordor, convinced they'll fail. Oh shit moment. In a TV show this is about 30 minutes, 8-12 minutes for each of the three complications/battles/sub-quests/whammos.

Act 6: Reversal Moment

• Accomplish: the hero reaches the critical reveal (the True Villain gives a history lesson/Help From a Friend/Awful Realization) and now knows the real goal hidden by the obvious wrong goal.
• The hero must redefine their goal instantly. In an epic this is usually switching focus from the henchman onto the real villain.
• This short scene explains Act 2 and sets the true goal in front of the Hero, but
• the true goal will cost him/her everything (risking or agreeing to death). Nothing exists outside this moment: the story is laser-focused on this critical transition.

a. Sam convinces Frodo that Aragorn, the Rohan riders, and Gondor itself will be obliterated unless the One Ring is delivered, even though they probably will not survive the journey. b. Luke can't reach a destroyed Alderaan anymore so his focus shifts now to defeating the Emperor's Death Star directly once the plans reveal the Death Star's vulnerability, even though they probably will not survive the journey. c. In a TV show this is 5-10 minutes, usually a single scene.

Act 7: Go For The Real Goal

• Accomplish: The hero faces a ticking clock, some deadline to doom.
• Now the hero and the true villain battle it out, each gaining and losing the advantage.
• Favors Repaid/Magic and Divine Intervention/Help From All My Friends. The hero is uncertain but must follow through!
• Eventually, the Hero plays whatever trump card he/she gained in the previous Act (6, Reversal Moment) to
• defeat the True Villain, but it comes at a terrible cost. Maybe even death.
• The True Villain is killed/judged/banished and their evil empire crumbles.

a. Aragorn lays the armies' lives on the line to distract Sauron while Frodo tosses the Ring into Mount Doom. Gandalf defends Helm's Deep then sends the eagles to rescue Frodo. All in parallel, all in real-time. b. Death Star rebel fleet assault, trench run, Millenium Falcon assist, Force-guided torpedoes. Kabewm. All in parallel, all in real-time. In a TV show this is 20 minutes.

Act 8: Back to the Beginning

• Accomplish: peace restored! Kiss in the sunset!
• Back to normal yet Nothing Is The Same anymore since the hero has been transformed by destiny/gods/magic/technology/sacrifice.
• Indications of Something Accomplished. They get the guy/girl.
• You send the audience home feeling whatever emotion you want the story to show.

a. Frodo retires to live with the Elves now that evil is defeated. b. Luke is a Jedi now and must train with Yoda. In a TV show, this is only 5 minutes since you can predict what happens easily, but you gotta give fanservice!

Sources: http://www.jordandane.com/writers_9.php http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue%2015/websitereview.htm https://gideonsway.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/the-nine-act-structure-of-screenwriting/ https://killzoneblog.com/2011/05/9-act-screenplay-structure-novel.html http://www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/wright/9act.html The Nine Act and Three Act Screenplay Structure