[dadoum]

The paragraph in the beginning reminded me of the 5-step story structure I was taught at school, and I just noticed that it is only featured on the French Wikipedia page [0]. In my experience it worked quite well for classical linear stories, and highlighting it in a text back at school also scored a lot of marks during exams, so now I am somewhat trained at recognizing it.

[0]: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%A9ma_narratif (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%A9ma_quinaire is also describing the same thing)

[phaedrus044]

You are spot on. The simpler version of this is the three step story structure - setup, conflict, resolution. Which is what is used in most pitches etc.

But as stories get more complex, with multiple stories weaving in and also as you bring different genres in, some structures are better than others for different stories.

While I have figured out 15 so far, I want to take the WGA 101 screenplays of all time, which goes all the way from Casablanca, - and i want to see how some of these structures have evolved and are evolving over time.

For eg, since the past 2-3 years, leaving an open end (like in the case of Project Hail Mary in a new universe) shows up in 12% of films, compared to less than 1% before that. Those kind of insights are interesting.

Thanks for sharing that link.

[jesuslop]

The music analogy is very pleasant. Let me share another stab with similar inspiration. The parallel I'd make is with harmony. For instance in LOTR Dominant is when Frodo and Gollum struggle at the cliff of Mount Doom, they lose control of the Ring that makes an upwards arc spinning. Max tension. Fast forward, Frodo returns to Shire, music is at home again. Tension resolves. (Tonic). So setup, conflict, resolution would be pre-dominant, dominant and tonic. Subplots are secondary dominants.

[phaedrus044]

You are spot on. That peak is the climax at the mountain.

https://postimg.cc/nM9cTkpt

[jesuslop]

amazing this is measured