Preproduction: Save the Cat's Beat Sheet Structure

 Introduction

During our production's teams research process from previous blog posts analyzing the 2022 horror, dramedy "White Noise," we learned that this step in the planning process of a film is crucial, and understanding key terms in this process will help our group to efficiently organize, and structure our ideas and film information in a clear, cohesive way that would organically flow when we are ready to record our film footage. We referenced a video linked in the bibliography of this post, and we use it as it was presented to us by our instructor in class to take note of when doing this task. Ultimately, completing this task was simple, straight-forward, and helped us in the long run as it helped for our ideas to remain in a comprehensive, structures order that we easily could follow. Below, our group used the "White Noise" film opening and analyzed its structure, in order to use as reference to remember how to structure our film. 

Define each beat by describing the plot points of the film opening.

Beat 1: The Opening Image  The film’s opening of white noise began with Jack Gladney’s Suburban, an upper middle-class family staring blankly at a grocery store in front of them, before entering. Upon going inside, they were met with random dances amongst shoppers around them, which caused them to dance, too.

Beat 2: Theme-stated  A reoccurring theme that “White Noise,” makes is stressing the overstimulating, repetitive, yet unpredictable state of the world, and this film captures the feeling of uncertainty through the spontaneous motions of the film’s characters.

Beat 3: Set-Up  The main character, Jack Gladney is shown in full focus after nearly a full minute into the opening, as the Gladney family walked towards the checkout line, after dancing simultaneously. At (0:46-0:52), Jack Gladney is shown wrapping his arms around his wife’s shoulders and smiling and shows his comfort and unawareness/ disassociation to the world around him, or that he masks his internal emotions, as he frequently switches from blank expressions to giddy grins instantly throughout the film opening.

The Hook  The exaggerated spontaneous dance moves, the catchy melody of “New Body Rhumba” (the song playing in the beginning sequence), the dramatic shopping experience all juxtapose the film’s message about the overwhelming, uncertain reality of daily life, which is one that resonates universally across most audiences, regardless of their backgrounds.

Sources:

-www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Story Structure Explained — Avengers Infinity War vs Save the Cat’s Beat Sheet (Is Thanos the Hero?). [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/BDIayz-hyKk?feature=shared [Accessed 7 Apr. 2024].

‌-www.youtube.com. (n.d.). White Noise | Official Clip | Netflix. [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/nJblPY5hVHI?feature=shared [Accessed 7 Apr. 2024].