ONE IN A SERIES…

One of the ways GameChangers defines a ‘Scene’—no matter what its duration, could be minutes, could be months—is with a classic three-act structure.  We label these acts Connect, Adapt and Deliver.  Continuing with our analysis of ‘Los Mineros,‘ the Trapped Chilean Miners scene, we can clearly see that the scene is entering its third act. The drill boring through the 2,300 feet of solid rock to the hollow where they are trapped has just made it through to them. That’s a clear signal for the heightening of energy and emotion, increasing tempo and sharpening focus that typically indicate the beginning of Act Three of any scene.

Here’s how the three-act structure has defined Los Mineros to date.

Act One:  Connect.  This is where we first heard about this story.  We were introduced to the main characters.  The conditions of their life-threatening predicament were explained to us.  With the news that it was going to take a long time to reach them, a kind of ticking clock was set in motion.  The clock was not life-or-death, but it helped us frame the scene in our minds.  The ‘Game’ —defined by Objective, Environment, Roles and Rules—came into focus.   A lot of the meaning associated with this act was cosmetic—that is, strongly oriented toward data, raw information, clinical analysis.  A mythic theme, one you might call, ‘Trapped in a Cave,’ got defined.   All of this earned the audience’s attention on a global scale.  Clearly, this was going to be a story that many, may people could relate to.

Act Two:  Adapt.  In this act, complications were introduced to the scene, and communication began to turn toward the Emotional level of meaning, as emotions like Urgency, Fear, Jealousy, Camaraderie, Patience, Frustration and Surprise colored the events during this stage.  We began to learn more about the main characters, and new characterss–wives, mistresses, politicians, drillers, NASA scientists and a newborn baby—entered the scene to interact with the main characters and make the scene deeper, richer, more complex.   This is where the scene often takes unexpected turns, hence the need for the characters to adapt.  Three drill bits were tried before one worked.  Original plans were discarded in favor of new ones.  A miner’s wife and mistress both showed up at the rescue site on the same day.  The newborn baby’s name got changed from what its parents originally intended—to Esperanza, the Spanish word for ‘hope.’   In other words, everyone involved rolled with the ever-unfolding reality.  They had to improvise.  There was no script for this.

And now…

Act Three:  Deliver. Typically, the third act is shorter than the first two.  This has the effect of compressing time, as does the increasing tempo of entrances and exits, and the steady release ‘new news’ by the world’s media.  We are building toward a 24-hour news cycle in a couple of days in which Los Mineros will dominate current events. It is during this cycle that the scene will reach its emotional apex, and the audience will feel more pull and lean forward more than it has at any other time in the scene.  There will be a lot of postscripts added after this climactic 24-hour cycle, but in terms of the three-act structure, this scene will have ended, and new scenes (you can think of them as ’sequel’ or ’spin-off’ scenes) will begin.

For business communicators, the three-act structure is a really useful framework.  It gives players and audience alike a sense of where you are in your scene, and helps you organize the many narrative elements that are part of it.   It will give you the ability to put the emphasis where it belongs, when it belongs there.