Week 0 (concept)
Week 1 (outline)
Week 2 (first act)
Week 3 (first half of second act)
Week 4 (second half second act)
Many a time people have asked me, “Carson, what’s the key to a great third act?” And I answer, “A good retirement plan.”
But seriously, writing a great third act is all about planning. And planning out your third act isn’t that difficult. You only need to hit a couple of key beats and the rest of the ending should write itself.
On last week’s episode, we brought you right up to the third act of your comedy screenplay. And, as astute students of the screenwriting profession know, that means we’re at our hero’s LOWEST MOMENT (known as the “All is Lost” moment). Through the eyes of our protagonist, everything is f$#%@. He’s given it his all. But his all wasn’t good enough. He. Has. Failed.
The reason you do this is because at the end of your movie, your hero will win. We, then, want to create the largest emotional leap that we can. We can only do that if we start at the bottom. If our third act ends with our hero only at a ‘sort of low’ point, there’s a much shorter distance to success and, therefore, the emotional payoff isn’t as intense.
You know those movies where you’ve had the biggest emotional reaction at the end? You’re either crying with happiness or flush with emotion? That emotion came because, 20 minutes prior, you were CONVINCED your hero had failed. That’s the power of going from the bottom to the top.
But let’s start at the beginning (of the third act)
We’re at our hero’s lowest point. You can’t go straight from a character’s lowest point to immediately defeating the bad guy, or winning the tournament, or getting the girl. You need the ‘feel sorry for yourself’ scene and you need to follow that up with the ‘pick me up’ scene.
“Feeling sorry for yourself” is not literal, by the way. It can be. Your hero has just failed to achieve his goal. He thinks it’s over. Technically speaking, this is the single worst moment of his entire life. It’s only natural that you would feel down in this moment. But the ‘feeling sorry for yourself’ scene is more about giving your character a moment to process what’s happened and emotionally recover.
This scene is almost always followed by a “pick me up” scene. That pick me up usually comes from a friend or a family member. They tell the hero, “Hey, it’s not as bad as you think.” And, often times, they’ll say something in the conversation that inadvertently gives the hero an idea they can use to TRY ONE LAST TIME.
From there, it’s a quick scene where they go over their plan, and, off they go!
This brings us to the final sequence. If it’s an action-comedy, like Spy, it’s when everybody squares off against each other to stop the bomb. If it’s Popstar, it ends at an awards show with a big performance. If it’s Happy Gilmore, it’s the final day of the tournament. If it’s Neighbors, it’s the big end of the year frat party.
By the way, if you’re ever unclear on what your big ending sequence should be, your concept will tell you. The writers of Wedding Crashers couldn’t figure out their ending at first. Until they realized… this movie is called Wedding Crashers. It needs to end at a wedding. In the movie, Notting Hill, they could’ve ended at an airport like every other romantic comedy. Instead, because the movie was about a regular guy dating a movie star, it ended at A PRESS CONFERENCE. Your movie’s concept will tell you how to end it.
Naturally, your ending is going to work best if your character has a strong goal with high stakes attached to it (going after the girl, defusing the bomb, taking down the bad guy, nailing the performance, getting the time machine to send you back to the future). This will make your hero ACTIVE, which is ideal.
And since everyone here is writing a Hollywood comedy as opposed to a dark comedy, I don’t see any scenarios where you should have a passive final act. I’m thinking of something like “The Kids are All Right” – character driven comedies that are more about sitting around tables and talking. None of you should have anything like that. There’s a way to do those endings but we’ll cover that another time when it’s relevant.
From there, you want to frame the ending in a way where IT’S IMPOSSIBLE to succeed. Your entire third act should be dictated by the audience’s doubt that the hero will succeed. If the audience has mild doubt or no doubt that the hero will succeed, you’re writing a boring third act.
In screenwriting, we talk about being cruel to our heroes – throwing a lot of bad shit their way. Your ending should be that x10. Lean into making things impossible for your hero. The more impossible it seems, the more doubt we’ll have that they succeed, the more ecstatic we’ll be when they finally win.
Another thing most of you will be doing is having your main character arc in the final sequence. It’s not necessary. But, when done well, it elevates the experience. The thing about comedy is that the arc should be extremely simplistic. You shouldn’t be doing complex arcs in comedy. For Happy Gilmore, it’s about a guy who always lost his temper things got tough. The final day of the tournament, then, has Happy given the chance to, once again, lose his temper. But he’s learned from his mistakes over the course of the movie and, therefore, stays calm, which allows him to win the tournament.
And that’s pretty much it, guys. Don’t make things overly complicated for yourself.
I do want to offer one final warning. Don’t fall for the 3RD ACT DRAMA TRAP. I remember when I first noticed this. It was in the movie, Keeping the Faith, a comedy about a priest and a rabbi who both fall for the same girl. That movie has some really funny scenes. However, once it gets to the final act, they straight up ditched the comedy label and went full drama. I remember watching it and thinking, “Why aren’t they being funny anymore?”
It’s because, in the process of wrapping up everyone’s story, there are naturally going to be some emotional moments. But never forget that you’re still writing a comedy. People came to laugh. And since a final act should be the ultimate embodiment of what you promised with your premise, you need to deliver laughs first. Laughs first laughs first laughs first. Always with comedy. Don’t let anybody tell you differently.
Okay, so, you have until next Monday to finish your first draft. But you actually have a few extra days because next week is about taking a few days away from the script and then going back in with fresh eyes to prepare for your rewrite.
Congratulations to everyone who’s kept up. And for those of you behind, don’t get down. Keep writing! If all you get out of this exercise is a first draft, that’s still huge. :)
