THREE-ACT STRUCTURE BEAT SHEET

[Revised version]

Genre: Romance, Drama, Historical

Main characters:

- Tràng Giang: A gentleman, a famous author who is devoted to art, loves beauty and uses art
to express his ego (including love). Believe in art for art's sake (pure art).

- Thanh An (real name) - Thi Hàm (pen name): As a loyal reader of author Trang Giang, An has
always read each of Giang's works since he was still in school. He loves writing and refers to
Giang as a monument, a senior/teacher in his heart.

(Thi Hàm is An’s pen name, given by Giang. It means “the one who has exceptional talent in
literature”)

Opening Image: 

The film begins with a scene from Hanoi's streets in the 1940s. In the largest bookstore in
Hanoi, many people are gathering around the bookshelf near the entrance. It is packed with
Trang Giang's most recent work. From the bookstore to the back alleys of the street, everyone
is talking about the new released book. All of them are enthralled by the writer and voice their
admiration for him.

There is a newsroom called Anh Sang located humbly on a street corner. In a small room on the
2nd floor of that newsroom, a man is writing a draft in silence. That is the well-known author
Trang Giang, whose newly published work has caught everyone's attention.

Set-Up:

Hoang Linh, the chief editor at Giang's workplace, enters the room with a bright smile on his
face. Linh teases Giang, saying that his work is as successful as expected. Linh hands Giang
today's newspaper, which features an interview with Thanh An, the first prize winner of the
national writing competition. Linh compliments An's talent and says he wanted to invite An to
work at their newsroom. He asks Giang to go meet An with him. Giang is busy writing a new
draft, so he just agrees nonchalantly and tells Linh to inform him when the meeting schedule is
set. Giang glances at the newspaper Linh left in his room but does not read it. He continues
working until late so he sleeps at the newsroom.

Next morning, Linh arrives at the newsroom early and finds Giang asleep. Linh tells Giang that
he had made an appointment with An and a representative from the ‘Saturday Novel’ this
weekend. Giang is not very pleased to go because of the unfinished work. But he still agrees
seeing Linh’s excitement.

Inciting Incident: 

The four people Linh, Giang, An and Nam - editors of the 'Saturday Novel' meet at a tea room.
Linh and Nam go out to discuss some things, leaving Giang and An to stay and talk to each
other. Giang and An argue about Giang's newly released book. The two have different opinions
about the ending. This makes Giang lose interest and he shows an uncomfortable attitude.

Linh and Nam go in after finishing their work. Linh happily says that Nam had agreed to let An
move to Anh Sang newsroom with Giang from next week. Giang is so surprised by this decision
that he rudely stands up, blaming Linh for not letting him know sooner. Seeing that Giang is not
pleased to stay, Linh finds an excuse for the two to go back to Anh Sang newsroom.

When they leave the tearoom, Linh asks Giang why he acts rudely like that. Giang tells Linh
about the disagreement between the two. Linh advises Giang to give An a chance, maybe when
working together, everything will be different. 

Debate/Reluctance:

During the first time working together, Giang and An cannot find a common ground. Giang is
clearly a fastidious person. He often loudly makes negative comments about An's works.

The only thing that makes Giang happy is letters from a fan named Thi, who always writes to
him every time a new work is released. One day, Giang finds out that Thi is actually An. Giang's
view on An has changed, and the two gradually become more compatible when working.

One day, Linh assigns Giang and An to collaborate on writing a romantic story to attract young
readers. Both are hesitant at first because this is a new genre that they rarely write, but they still
agree. By the time they officially start working on it, they both find difficulties in coming up with
an usable idea. In order to get inspiration, they ask the chief editor for a business trip to the
countryside. The peaceful suburbs have inspired them to write, but the weird thing is they only
think about each other while composing love stories. Both are confused by their strange
thoughts. 

Point of Attack/Break into Two:

Giang tries to hide his feelings by avoiding An for a while. An cannot stand being avoided by
Giang anymore, so he finally decides to ask for the reason. Giang deliberately avoids the matter
by asking An to show him his draft. An is confused by this offer and says that he would show it
to Giang when he finishes writing. Suddenly, a neighbor comes and asks An to help with an
urgent situation. He hurries out, leaving his draft notebook on the chair. Giang picks it up and
tends to just leave it on the table, but the sweet moments of the two characters in the novel
catch his eyes immediately. Because their names are exactly the same as Giang and An.

Giang finally realizes that An has special feelings for him. He also finds the answer for those
emotions he has been confused about for a long time. Giang is so absorbed in looking at the
diary that he doesn’t notice An approaching the front door. An stares at the draft still laying on
Giang’s hand, being scared with the thought that it is the last thing in the world he wants to
expose to others, especially Giang. He snatches the draft from Giang’s grip and runs out of the
room. 

Giang runs after An. An expects Giang to give up soon, however, Giang chases after An for a
very long time. An knows he cannot escape anymore, so he decides to turn back and asks
Giang if he doesn’t feel gross after seeing these things. Giang confesses his love, making An
feel surprised and happy. By the time the two return to the newsroom after the business trip,
their relationship has progressed to a new level. 
-  Major Dramatic Question (Conscious Object of Desire): Those two desire to live a peaceful
life away from the public's chatter.

-  Super Objectives (Unconscious Objects of Desire): 

 Giang: Willing to sacrifice his career for love

 An: Not willing to make a trade-off, longing for a balance between career and love

-  Theme: Romance, Drama, Historical

B-Plot (primary subplot):

As the only son in the family, An is always expected to soon get a good wife by his parents. One
day, he is told that he actually has a fiancée. His parents introduce him to Bach Diep - daughter
of a famous merchant in Hanoi. Bach Diep is a talented, beautiful young lady pursued by many
boys, and comes from a well-educated family, so An's parents are very satisfied. An is very
shocked when he hears that his parents had already discussed the marriage with Bach Diep's
family. An uses the reasons that he is still young, still wants to go to higher education, wants to
go abroad as an excuse for delaying the marriage, but he knows sooner or later he will have to
marry Bach Diep.

Bach Diep has heard of Thanh An since she was a student at the Girls School of Dong Khanh.
Many female students love Thanh An’s compositions, and Bach Diep is no exception. Being
engaged to the author she secretly admires is her joy, but Bach Diep vaguely feels that Thanh
An is not excited about this marriage.

During the date their parents arranged for, Bach Diep directly asks Thanh An if he already had
someone in his heart, and that she didn’t want to force Thanh An to marry her if he didn’t want
to. Thanh An is very touched by Bach Diep's kind-heartedness, but he says that even if there
was no love between them, they couldn't change anything. Bach Diep says she agrees to
become Thanh An’s wife even though their marriage was just kind of a play to reassure both
parents.

Friends, Enemies and Tests/Fun and Games:

After confessing their feelings, Giang and An start dating. One evening, they decide to meet at
Hanoi Opera House to watch a play together. The play ends at midnight, when most of the
streets become silent. Giang offers to accompany An to his house. On their way home, Giang
tends to hold An's hand. At first, An refuses because of his shyness. However, Giang seems
unconcerned and still tries to hold his hand. The couple walk happily on the street hand in hand.

The worst thing happens: the romantic moment of Giang and An is captured by the rival
newsroom. That newsroom used to spend a lot of money expecting that Giang would join them
but he refused their offer. That’s why they try to ruin Giang’s reputation and career by creating a
scandal. 

The chief editor of Anh Sang newsroom - Hoang Linh, knows about this, so he questions Giang
and An. Both have to admit the relationship, making Hoang Linh very awkward and doesn’t
know how to solve the scandal. In the end, he has to spend a lot of money and effort to prevent
the scandal from spreading widely. Although in the end, this news is not published in the
newspaper, rumors still appear, causing the reputation of both Giang and An to be more or less
affected.

Midpoint (point of no return):

An's parents are already skeptical of An’s hesitance to marry Bach Diep, and they often advise
him that he could still study for a higher education even after getting married. They say he
shouldn't let Bach Diep wait so long. After hearing rumors surrounding the relationship between
An and Giang, An's parents get increasingly concerned and urge him to marry Bach Diep. An is
also asked about his actual relationship with Giang, and because of being scared, he denies
their love right away. In order to avoid further rumors from the public, which could damage their
family's reputation, An's parents ask him to prepare for a wedding with Bach Diep as soon as
possible.

The news of An and Bach Diep's engagement soon becomes the talk of all people in Hanoi as
both come from well-known and affluent merchant families. Giang also hears the news from
people in the newsroom. At first, Giang doesn’t believe so he asks everyone around and all of
them are surprised because he knows the news too late. Giang decides to wait for An to come
to the newsroom, then asks him for the truth. An has no choice but to admit that he is indeed
going to marry Bach Diep, which makes Giang feel very disappointed. Giang is upset by the fact
that An hides his marriage from him and he even thinks An has cheated on him. They decide
not to see each other for a while so that they can have time to think about this relationship
again.

Crisis:

During their time apart, Giang and An realize that they can't live without each other, as they both
consider each other not only as lovers but also as literary friends and soulmates.

When Bach Diep sees An’s despair, she tries to ask him why and finally finds out that the
person in An's heart is Trang Giang - a well-known author. Bach Diep decides to go meet Giang
and explain everything to him directly. After hearing Bach Diep telling about An’s current
condition, Giang knows that An is also suffering just like him, but neither of them has the
courage to go find each other in person. Bach Diep advises Giang to find a way to contact An as
soon as possible. Giang sends a letter to An and asks Bach Diep to give it to him.

Although Giang and An cannot meet each other due to their fear of gossip from people around,
they still keep in touch on a regular basis through letters. Bach Diep is the one who delivers the
letters and helps them keep secrets. Thanks to her, the fact that Giang and An are still together
is not revealed. 

Giang tells An that literature is the only thing that can forgive and accept their love story, so they
decide to write a novel called "Dạ Hành" (Night Passage) together. In order to keep An's identity
hidden, Giang gives him a pseudonym - “Thi Hàm” (which means “the one who has exceptional
talent in literature”). The story in the novel "Night Passage" is told in a very special way: through
the form of letters written by the two authors to each other. The novel quickly becomes famous
to the surprise of Giang and An.

Peripeteia/Dark Night of the Soul:

This is also the time when the Revolutionary officially begins, and both of them are drawn to it.
However, each makes different choices. While Giang chooses to teach and fight using the
strength of his writings, An decides to join the army. An's family is also supportive of his
decision, mainly because they want to keep An and Giang apart.

Climax:

Giang cannot stand letting An go to the battlefield without seeing him for the last time. So he
decides to go meet him the night before An leaves. Giang gives An a souvenir, a love letter and
reminds him to keep in touch through letters. No matter how long it takes to receive a letter from
the field, he can wait. They exchange letters on a regular basis. In those letters, they talk about
the beauty and worth of life even in war, their expectations, their hopes for the future once the
war is over. They even promise to write a book together and enjoy a peaceful life forever after.

After a while, Giang no longer receives any letter from An. The fear of losing An begins to
overflow his heart, but he still waits patiently. Giang has a check every single day to see
whether any new mail has arrived, but there is still no news. Later, Giang learns that An had
died in battle. All of the beautiful future plans that they’ve drawn up together can no longer be
done.  

Resolution:

Although being separated from An by death, Giang never stops longing for his lover. After many
years, he still keeps all the memories of them in a box, not allowing anyone to touch them.
Giang decides to carry out the plan they had made in the past - writing a book together. He
writes a memoir about An, a talented person who deserves to be recognized but died in battle at
a too young age. The memoir is written on behalf of them both, as a way for Giang to keep the
promise between him and his beloved. 

In the memoir, Giang mentions the pen name he has given An, “Thi Hàm”, which means “the
one who has exceptional talent in literature”. Thanh An’s talent in writing has always been
Giang’s favorite, unchanged throughout time. This memoir is a mixture of Giang's favor and
admiration for An's talent, as well as resentment and sadness at the fact that he is no longer
with him anymore.

Giang opens a press conference to announce the release of his new work. Bach Diep, who now
becomes an old lady, also attends with her husband. In the Q & A section, she asks Giang why
he suddenly published this memoir. Giang says the book is a very meaningful promise he must
fulfill with a person who will forever be in his heart.
 REFERENCE FILM BEAT SHEET
[Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind]

Writer: Thu Giang

Opening Image:

Joel wakes up in his room on a winter day. Joel goes out and sees a huge scratch on the body
of his car. He leaves a memo on the windshield of the car parked next to him, assuming the
scratch was caused by the owner of that car. 

Joel stands at the station waiting for the train to go to work but then he decides to quit work and
boards the train to Montauk. In the white snow, Joel walks along the shore then sits on the stairs
of a beach house, writing a few lines in his diary. 

Joel is walking along the beach when he sees a girl walking alone. Joel sees the girl again in
the restaurant. Their third encounter is at the train station. The girl purposefully waves her hand
to attract Joel’s attention. On the train, they sit on the opposite side. Joel draws this scenario in
his diary. The girl approaches Joel first and takes a seat in the row right in front of Joel. They
talk for a while on various topics: from the girl introducing her name ‘Clementine’, her workplace,
… Clementine specifically tells Joel not to make any jokes about her name.

After leaving the train station, Joel goes to get his car and chases after Clementine. Joel asks
Clementine if she needs a ride. Clementine gets in the car. When they arrive downstairs at
Clementine's house, she asks Joel if he wants to go up and have a drink. Joel hesitates for a
moment before saying yes. Clementine prepares drinks for the two of them and during their talk,
she makes close gestures to Joel. Before Joel leaves, Clementine reminds him to call her. As
soon as Joel arrives home, he picks up the phone and calls her.

In the middle of the night, Joel and Clementine walk together to a vast ice rink. It is already the
next morning when Joel drives Clementine home. While Joel is waiting for Clementine to come
in to get something, a man knocks on Joel’s car window and asks what he is doing here, making
Joel feel quite weird. 

Joel drives in the rain. The music tape on the car plays "Everybody’s gotta learn sometime",
Joel stops the music and throws the tape into the street. Joel parks the car and walks home,
carrying a bag in hand. Two men, Patrick and Stan, driving vans go to Joel's home address.
Set-up:

- Joel is downstairs collecting mail and talking to his neighbor, Frank.

- Frank asks Joel if he has plans for Valentine with Clementine. Joel replies not yet and tells
Frank that he’s going to bed now.

- Joel arrives home, changes into new clothes, then takes a pill.

- Joel looks out the window and sees the van from earlier, then pulls down the curtains.

- Joel goes to turn off all the lights in the house.

- Patrick and Stan open the trunk, take out their belongings, and carry them to Joel's house.
Joel is sprawled on the ground.

- Joel wakes up. Before his eyes is the scenario of his conversation with Frank earlier.

Writer: Hai My

Inciting Incident:

Joel enters the bookstore, bringing a Valentine's gift as an apology to his girlfriend Clementine
for offending her a few days ago. However, he discovers that Clementine not only has no
memory about him, but also has a new boyfriend. After talking to his best friend Carrie and Bob,
Joel is shocked to learn that Clementine has come to Lacuna company to erase all memories
between them. Joel then arrives at Lacuna Inc. and he is told the truth by Dr. Howard:
Clementine decided to forget him because she no longer feels happy around him.

Debate/Reluctance:

How will Joel react? Will he decide to move on?

Point of Attack/Break into Two: Heartbroken by Clementine's decision, Joel goes to

Lacuna Inc. and offers to erase all memories about her just a day later.

- Major Dramatic Question (Conscious Object of Desire): Can Joel forget Clementine and
begin a new life without her?

- Super Objectives (Unconscious Objects of Desire): Can Joel and Clementine fall in love with
each other one more time even when their memories were being erased?

- Theme: Romance, Sci-fi, Comedy - Drama

B-Plot (primary subplot):

The story of Dr. Howard and employee Mary at Lacuna company. Mary confesses to Dr.
Howard that she has loved him for a long time, but her confession is accidentally discovered by
Howard’s wife - Mrs. Hollis. While trying to explain to the doctor's wife, Mary finds out the fact
that she had loved Howard before and had erased her memories to forget her love for him.
Shocked by the truth and by Dr. Howard's concealment of this past, Mary decides to take all the
files of the patients at Lacuna, sends them the truth and leaves the company.

Friends, Enemies and Tests/Fun and Games:

- The memory erasing process starts. Joel is sleeping, while Patrick and Stan start their work.
Joel’s memories are being deleted step by step, starting from the most recent one. 
- While sleeping, Joel can still hear Patrick talking to Stan, confessing that he asked Clementine
out soon after her memory is erased. But Joel doesn’t know that he is staying in his memory
and tries to make sense of Patrick and Stan’s voices in his head.
- When Clementine asks Joel where her boots are, Joel smears ketchup on his neck and
pretends to be dead. Clem walks past acting as normal. 
- The erasing process moves to the unpleasant memories in their relationship. Joel and
Clementine quarrel on the street.  
- Outside Joel’s memory, Mary - Stan’s girlfriend, joins Patrick and Stan. Patrick calls
Clementine and she’s freaking out. Patrick refers to her as tangerine leaves to meet her. In the
past, Joel used to call Clementine ‘tangerine’ because of her orange hair. When hearing what
Patrick says to his ex-girlfriend, Joel figures out that Patrick is making moves on Clementine
using the memories of what Joel did before. 
- Joel finally moves to good memories where he has sweet moments with Clementine. 

Midpoint (point of no return): 

In the dream, Joel realizes that he no longer wants the memories of Clementine to be lost.
While Lacuna's technicians don’t notice, he manages to evade the memory erasing process and
hide Clementine’s images in parts of his memory that originally don’t include her.

Crisis:

Technician Stan finds out that there is a problem with the memory erasing process. He
immediately contacts Dr. Howard. Howard goes to Joel's house and eventually discovers a
trace of Clementine in Joel's memory, and he tries to erase all the images of her. In his dreams,
Joel gradually loses sight of Clementine, and the final image is when she whispers to his ear,
telling him to meet her in Montauk - where the two first met.

Writer: Thu Giang

Peripeteia/Dark Night of the Soul: 

Joel and Clementine receive their tape from Mary. Clementine plays the tape in Joel’s car and
from the tape comes Clementine’s voice saying that she hates either herself and her
relationship with Joel, and that she doesn’t want to see him anymore. After listening to the tape,
Joel opens the car door and chases Clementine away. Clementine returns home crying hard. 

Climax:

Clementine drives to Joel’s house, seeing that he is also listening to his own tape. Clementine
hears the awful things Joel said about her. They have a fight over exactly the same reason that
caused their breaking up in the past. Clementine leaves once again. But this time, instead of
letting his lover go, Joel asks her to stay. 

Resolution: Despite having been hurt, broken up, and even forgotten about each other, Joel
and Clementine resolve to begin a new love again and stay together.  
 REFLECTION PAPER

To me, this course is very interesting, and I surely have learned many helpful things during the
semester.
Until now, I believe that I had made a right decision when deciding to register this course.
During this course, I had the opportunity to watch various type of movies, including lots of movie
that I have never tried before. I can also understand the basic structure of a movie, as well as
know how to create a simple script by myself. This course also improve my ability of team-
working. I had many memorable discussions and even created my own script by working with
my teammate.
The knowledge about three-act structure would be very useful for me in the future. Now I can
not only enjoy a movie but can also have a deeper view on it, or even be able to analyze it to
some extent. And as a student being major in Media, having a deep understand about
storytelling will definitely help me conduct projects involving in films or advertisement-making
better in the future. It’s clear that there are still many things I must learn, however, at least now I
know how to write a script without major mistakes.
I think this class will become much more interesting and effective to students if we can go meet
each other face-to-face. It was hard for me to pay attention to what Professor and other
classmates said especially during the second half of the class. Maybe it’s because the class
lasts during nearly 3 hours, quite a long time for me. However, I believe the main reason is
because we can only join in via Zoom. If I’m able to come to class, I surely will be less
distracted. And I also think it would be better if we could have more examples of other types of
script, such as scripts for stage play, advertisement, etc…Of course there were some examples
being shown at class, but I hope Professor can give me more references about various types of
script.
It’s my honor to attend Professor’s course and I had a great time participating in this class.