I remember first hearing about the Sequence Method. I was appalled. It sounded like a math equation. And since art should never be boiled down to a set of variables, I was insulted. In order for art to be successful, it needs to come from that subconscious place from within – that place that emotes, that expresses – that thing you can’t quantify via numbers.
However, as time passed and I read more scripts, I began to realize that unlike other art forms, screenwriting was heavily dependent on structure. The screenplay was originally created as a blueprint for a film, and that little fact had me rethinking everything I knew. Blueprints are all about measurements and space. And when you look at a script, you see exactly that. A script isn’t like a novel. Things need to be where they need to be. The courier font with spacing between paragraphs was used specifically so that each page would approximate 1 minute of screen time. I began to realize that there was more math going on here than I was originally willing to admit.
So what is The Sequence Method? Well, in order to understand it, you must first understand the importance of the character goal. Ideally, you’d like to establish a central goal for your story’s hero early on. The movie, then, is about your hero’s pursuit of that goal. Movies tend to work best when the hero is active all the time. And by placing a goal in front of your hero, something he’s pursuing, he’s basically forced to be active. Not all movies will have a clear overarching goal, but most will (Indiana must find the Ark, John McClane must save his wife). Either way, as long as you understand the importance of the character goal and why you would or wouldn’t use it, you’re in good shape.
The Sequence Method basically says this: If our main character is only pursuing one goal, the audience will become bored. That’s because today’s audiences are impatient. They don’t like waiting 2 full hours to see if their character wins or not. They need something in the meantime. The solution to this is dividing your screenplay into 8 little mini-movies, each with their own immediate character goals. This is called “sequencing.”
A big reason why this works is because audiences love constantly being rewarded. They like to feel like they’re achieving something as the movie/script progresses. We might not find out if Indy gets the Ark until the very end. But we find out if he gets that Gold Monkey out of the cave. We find out if he gets the headpiece for the Staff of Ra from Marion.
Each of these mini-movies, then, establishes their own little character goal. Goal – Get the monkey out of the cave. Goal – Get the Staff of Ra headpiece. It’s beautifully simple, yet surprisingly effective. So why are there 8 of these sequences? Well, you don’t have to use 8. You can use 6. You can use 4. But 8 gives you about 12-15 pages for each sequence, and 12-15 minutes of movie time is the perfect amount to create a little mini-movie, the ideal wait time for an audience to be rewarded.
Now I can’t get into all the specifics of sequencing because there’s too much to cover. But so you don’t get confused, let me remind you of one more important thing. It isn’t always the main character who has the goal that’s driving the sequence. For example, Darth Vader is driving the opening sequence of Star wars – he’s trying to get his hands on those Death Star plans. C-3PO and R2-D2 are driving the next sequence, as they’re trying to find Obi-Wan Kenobi. A sequence can be driven by any character with a goal, yet most often is driven by either the hero or the villain.
Once I began to understand the Sequencing Method, I realized how genius it was. You see, one of the biggest problems with amateur screenplays is that they wander. They get into that middle area and completely lose themselves, mainly because character goals are murky and the writer isn’t really sure where everything’s going. The Sequencing Method breaks the story down into more manageable pieces. No longer do we have to figure out how to fill up 110 pages. We only have to fill up 12-15 pages to see if our character reaches his current goal. And then fill up the next 15. And the next 15 after that. I’m not saying that using the Sequence Method guarantees a good script. But there’s no question that sequenced scripts are more focused and easy to follow.
This brings me to the point of this article. The Sequence Method has one giant flaw. It’s TOO STRUCTURED. It FEELS too sequence-y. True, eight 15 minute mini-movies are going to keep the script focused, but if those mini-movies feel too individualized, too “now this sequence happens and then THIS sequence happens and then THIS sequence happens,” you lose that organic feel that helps a story feel effortless. For this reason, ironically, once you’ve mastered the Sequence Method, you must learn how to make it feel like you haven’t used the Sequence Method.
Introduce – layering.
Layering occurs when you take storylines, mysteries or secondary character goals and expand them over numerous sequences. Because you’ve layered these story threads over the sequence breaks, the audience is less likely to realize that a break has happened. Without layering, it feels like you’ve created 8 completely separate movies. Now I’m not going to lie. This is really advanced stuff. You have to learn how to sequence before you can layer. But let me give you a few examples so you can see how the technique works.
In Star Wars, the first sequence is Darth Vader trying to get back the Death Star plans. He fails when C-3PO and R2-D2 escape. End of sequence. The second sequence is C-3PO and R2-D2 trying to find civilization, presumably so R2 can deliver this “message” to its recipient. This sequence ends when Luke buys them from the Jawas. The third sequence is Luke trying to figure out what this message is about. It ends when he finally locates Obi-Wan. Each time, a goal is put forth in front of a major character, and that character goes after it.
The layering here occurs with the mystery of Princess Leia’s message. It’s set up in the first sequence, when she places the message inside R2. It’s discussed in the second sequence, when R2 stubbornly looks for the recipient of the message (Obi-Wan). And then, of course, it sets Luke off to find Obi-Wan when he sees the message himself. Think of layering as a series of bridges between sequences. If there’s nothing crossing over those bridges from sequence to sequence, then your sequences are too isolated. Here, the mystery of this message crosses over two bridges.
Bad sequencing would’ve shown Princess Leia physically record the entire message into R2-D2 in that first sequence on the ship. We then would have already known what she was saying, what was going on, and therefore there’s no mystery crossing over.
In Back To The Future, the third sequence in the movie (once Marty arrives in the past) is finding Doc. The fourth sequence is Doc and Marty figuring out how to get him home. And the fifth sequence is Marty trying to get his dad to ask his mom out to the dance. In sequences 3 and 5, we see Biff Tannen targeting George (Marty’s dad) and Marty himself. Biff, our villain, then becomes the layering. His goal isn’t isolated to a single sequence. His subplot of trying to take Marty down expands over several sequences.
Another layer is Marty needing to tell Doc that Doc dies in the future – killed by the terrorists. He tries to tell him first in sequence 4 (but Doc tells him he can’t know anything about the future), struggles with telling him during the “jump back” demonstration, and then tries to tell him as Doc’s setting up the electrical equipment at the clock tower. Ditto the famous “disappearing siblings” picture. This is used in multiple sequences to show that bit by bit, Marty’s family is disappearing. You layer these little storylines over multiple sequences, sometimes 2 or 3 at a time, and your script stops feeling so segmented.
So the first question is, do you want to sequence? Do you believe in sequencing? If so, it’s pretty easy to learn how to do it. Buy the book, The Sequence Approach, and you should have a pretty solid idea of how to create sequences after a single read. From there, you have to learn how to layer. They teach The Sequence Method at USC Film School. The thing I’ve repeatedly heard from readers, though, is that they know when they’re reading a “USC script,” because of the blatant use of sequencing. I think a big reason for the tell is the lack of layering. The writers are so focused on each individual sequence, they don’t focus on creating enough threads that cross over those sequences.
If you can master this technique, you’ll become a very dangerous screenwriter. That’s because the Sequence Method is the best weapon to rein in that dreaded endless second act. And the layering makes your use of it invisible, leaving others to wonder how you wrote such a focused screenplay that feels so effortless. What do you guys think? Do you think screenwriting should be broken down into terms this structured? Or do you think it’s all bullshit and writers should let their story be dictated solely by imagination and whatever they come up with next? Share your views in the comments below.
