In "Reel" Time

Part 2 of breaking down the JHS Beat Sheet

Picture this…

…It’s the golden age of Hollywood cinema. You head to your local movie theater, where a singular film is advertised on the lit marquee.

After paying twenty-five cents for your ticket, you enter the gilded auditorium, with its high ceilings and ornate, golden molding. You settle into your red, velvet seat, and as the lights go down, you’re instantly entranced by the black and white images that radiate off the silver screen.

For a solid fifteen minutes, you’re riveted by the larger than life performances of the biggest movie stars of the age: John Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Carole Lombard.

And suddenly, just as things are getting good… the movie stops.

Huh?

You look around the room. But no one else in the theater seems the least bit phased!

So, what’s a moviegoer to do? Should you head back out to the box office and demand a refund from the ticket taker?

No!

You simply sit tight and wait for the projectionist to change the reel of film.

Because, back before the age of streaming services and digital cameras, movies were printed onto reels of film. And in the earliest days of cinema, each reel could only hold about fifteen minutes worth of content.

That means, for a two hour movie, the film would be spread out over eight reels. These reels needed to be changed mid-film, causing small intermissions between segments.

Because of this, screenwriters of the time began crafting each reel of film to have a clear beginning, middle, and end before leading into these small breaks. After all, you needed to leave the moviegoer on the edge of their seat, so they came back from each reel change wanting more. Modern broadcast writers use the same technique, to make sure the audience returns to viewing after the commercial break.

8 reels. 8 shorter sequences to make up one longer movie. Thus, the “8 Sequence Method” of screenwriting was born.

Breaking my work into 8 sequences has completely changed my writing practice… and the method plays a large part in the Julia Has Notes beat sheet template.