Film and TV viewership among younger audiences is in steady decline as they turn to dopaminefueled browsing of bite-sized content like Tik Tok and YouTube shorts. As screenwriters, we have to adapt to this new reality. And the solution may just be found in the past. When the structure of stories told in film had to adapt to the early limits of the medium, in particular, the length of a single reel of film. At the advent of film making, that was all the story had to work with, the 10 to 15 minutes of runtime per reel. Eventually, multi-real films began releasing and dual projector setups began to deliver the seamless featurelength experience we're more used to today. That's the cue for a changeover. He flips the projectors. Movie keeps right on going and nobody in the audience has any idea. But the 10 to 15 minute sequences had already made their mark, persisting explicitly through the 50s and according to Paul Golino's book, Screenwriting the Sequence Approach, based on Frank Daniels USC curriculum, continuing to influence story structure to this day. If you finish this video and think the sequence approach might be right for your screenplay, be sure to check out the full book with tons more info and examples at the link in the description. While it can sometimes be tough for audiences to consume stories 2 hours at a time, it's exceedingly more difficult to conceive of stories so broadly. So, we've come up with a number of structures and outline approaches, many of which we've already covered in this series, to help us weave a satisfying narrative. But with these approaches, a mistake at any beat can spell disaster for the overall piece. And there's no guarantee that any individual section of the story is all that compelling on its own. But with Gulino's sequence approach, we can break the whole design down into a series of blocks. Eight sequences, each intriguing in their own right, around 10 to 15 minutes long with their own protagonist, tension, rising action, and resolution. Essentially, the aim of the sequence approach is to create eight short stories strung together either by leaving conflicts only partially resolved or using their resolution to generate new conflicts. I think the easiest way to understand this concept is to think about an episode of serialized television. Each episode will have its own conflict. He sounded sick, which is exactly how you'd want to sound if you wanted someone to think you were sick. Yeah, drop what you're doing. Make this a priority. That is either resolved or leads to a new conflict in a future episode. Should I have reported Oscar's malfeasants? H probably. But now I know something he doesn't want me to know. So I can and there will be other storylines that began in earlier episodes. You remember that thing I told you on the booze cruise about Pam? That was personal but may not resolve until later. Um I know that Jim had like a crush on me when he first started but that was a long time ago. So it wasn't that long ago. It was on the booze cruise. To see how that plays out in a movie. Let's take a look at DreamWorks Shrek. In the first sequence, the titular ogre lives happily in his isolated swamp until it's invaded by a fairy tale donkey trying to escape Lord Farquad's campaign of exile. As more fairy tale creatures show up, Shrek sets out with Donkey to confront Farquad and convince him to return the creatures to their homes. Shrek has figured out a plan to resolve the issue created in this sequence, but it's not yet resolved. In sequence 2, Shrek and Donkey arrive at Farquad's castle, where they become the target of a tournament throne to find a champion to rescue Princess Fiona so she can marry Farquad. As more and more knights pour in, Shrek and Donkey defeat them and strike a deal. Go on this quest for me, and I'll give you your swamp back. While Shrek thought that confronting Farquad would resolve his problems, it's actually led to a completely new quest, retrieving the princess. The third sequence is about Shrek and Donkey making the dangerous journey to Fiona's tower, where they must escape a dragon to rescue the reluctant princess. You can tell Lord Farquad that if he wants to rescue me properly, I'll be waiting for him right here. Hey, the dangers of the tower and the dragon are overcome, but Fiona still needs to be returned to Farquad. In sequence 4, Donkey pushes Shrek to open up emotionally. They judge me before they even know me. That's why I'm better off alone. And Fiona overhears his struggles. The internal conflict is brought to life when a self-appointed hero with those exact prejudices tries to rescue Fiona from Shrek. But in an unexpected move, she rebukes the merry men and helps Shrek and Donkey fight them off. We're finally starting to confront Shrek's internal conflict. But this is only the beginning, and he's still got a princess to deliver. Sequence 5 sees Shrek grow closer to his companions, including falling for Fiona. But she's keeping a major secret from him. Princess, the romance is the tension here. But Shrek's insecurity and a misunderstanding. Who could ever love a beast so hideous and ugly? Destroy any progress. Just when it feels like we're making some headway with Shrek's internal conflict. We face a major setback and Shrek's focus returns to delivering the princess. Sequence six sees an emotionally wounded Shrek determined to wall himself off. He turns Fiona over to Farquad, then pushes even Donkey away, and finally gets his swamp back. This resolves the original tension of the story, but success here is bittersweet. In the seventh sequence, Shrek returns to his swamp, but is clearly alone and unhappy. A frustrated donkey shows up to claim his half of the swamp for his part in helping retrieve the princess, and an argument ensues. As it escalates, Shrek becomes aware of the misunderstanding. She wasn't talking about me. and realizes he's made a huge mistake pushing his friends away. He needs to confess his feelings to Fiona. The wedding will never make it in time. Donkey drives the action here, helping Shrek to realize his mistake and launch a new goal for the story. Donkey also provides the transportation from the tower dragon he actually befriended or romanced. In the final sequence, Shrek crashes the wedding to confess his love for Fiona, delaying the final kiss and revealing Fiona's secret to everyone. Farquad turns on her and tries to imprison the ogres. But with help from their friends, Donkey and Dragon, Farquad is defeated, and Shrek and Fiona accept each other as they are and realize they're worthy of love in return. With Farquad gone, the humans and fairy tale creatures are free to live as before. But Shrek is now happy to have them visit his swamp. internal and external tensions are truly resolved. You've probably already noticed that these eight sequences follow the traditional three-act structure we've discussed so many times in this series. Two sequences in act one, four sequences in act two, and two more sequences in act three. And just like the hero's journey, save the cat, and other step outlines, Gulino has some guidelines for what you can usually expect from each of these sequences. The first sequence contains all the usual setups and often an inciting incident. Then sequences two through six each see the protagonist try to solve the problem, often in progressively difficult manners. The second usually sets up the main tension caused by the inciting incident and sends us into act two. The fourth generally culminates in a revelation or some reversal that marks the midpoint of the story. And in the sixth, the protagonist often appears to resolve the main tension, but really only hints at the true resolution or shows its opposite. unintended consequences of the seeming resolution are now tackled in the seventh sequence, sometimes directly at odds with the original resolution. And the final sequence sees the true resolution to the true conflict, often accompanied by an epilog. The structure of Shrek is pretty traditional and fits this model well. But to show how flexible the sequence approach can be, we're also going to take a look at a film that's more difficult to fit into some of the other structural paradigms we've covered in this series. in Glorious Bastards. In sequence one, a farmer hiding a Jewish family suffers a chilling interrogation by SS Colonel Hans Landa until he reveals their location. Landa orders their execution, but a lone woman, Shosana, escapes. The second sequence features a whole new cast of characters, the bastards, led by Aldo Rain, who terrorize the Germans to spread fear among their ranks. And this won't be the last time a sequence has a different protagonist. In the third, we jump ahead a few years to find Chosana living under an alias and operating a cinema in Paris. She's trying to live unnoticed, but a German war hero, Frederick Zoler, takes an unrelenting interest in her and determines to move the premiere of his propaganda film to her theater. Tensions rise further when the man running security for the premiere turns out to be Hans Landa himself, but she navigates the conversation and appears to avoid detection. The tension of the fourth sequence comes from the discussion and debate of two independent plans to kill the Germans at the premiere. First, Shosana and her projectionist and lover Marcel commit to burn the theater to the ground with the Germans still inside. Then, we jump to yet another perspective. British Lieutenant Hickox. Lieutenant Archie Hickox reporting south. Left tenant Hickox. He plans to find a way into the premiere with the help of the bastards who are none too happy that his plan includes a meeting with German actress and double agent Bridget von Hammersmark in a basement tavern. In the fifth sequence, a couple of bastards accompany Hickox to the meat. But a suspicious German officer sniffs Hickox out and a gunfight erupts that kills everyone but Von Hammersmark. The remaining bastards and Von Hammersmark pivot and come up with a new plan to get into the premiere. We finally get to the actual premiere in the sixth sequence with Shosana preparing her plan while the bastards and von Hammersmark infiltrate the premiere and run into Hans Landa. The tension again comes from maintaining their cover and they appear at least briefly to succeed. But just as the film is about to start, we're launched into the seventh sequence where Landa discovers Von Hammershmark's betrayal, kills her, and captures Aldo rank. But in a twist, Landa offers Aldo a deal. Let the bastards still inside proceed with their plan in exchange for his own immunity after the war. In the final sequence, Zoler confronts Josana in the projection room and the two kill each other, but Marcel is still able to ignite the films and the bastards open fire on the mustache man and his high officer. Then in the epilogue, Landa officially turns himself over to Aldo, anticipating a cushy postwar life. But Aldo isn't quite satisfied with that plan, so he marks the SS officer for life. Shossana is the closest thing we get to a traditional protagonist in this movie, but her arc feels more like a binary switch from helpless victim to avenger, and she only leads a few of the sequences. The film also juggles two storylines that are largely unaware of each other and seem to only intersect rather than converge or coalesce. But even if they're a bit loosely connected, it's hard to deny that Tarantino managed to pack eight highly entertaining sequences into one film, making the critical and commercial success a testament to the sequence approach. But with so many structural paradigms based on beats or steps or sequences and a lot of overlap between them, how the hell are we supposed to figure out which one to use? That's the question I'll be tackling in this next video, comparing and contrasting step models like The Hero's Journey, Save the Cat, and more to help you discover which structures right for your screenplay.