The Syd Field Paradigm is one of the most used templates of narrative structure to write stories for cinema. Indeed, it was created by the American screenwriter Syd Field, author of some plays for the television and the big screen such as, Hollywood and the Stars, National Geographic and Jacques Cousteau Specials.
However, he is remembered above all for his activity as teacher and writer.
His book Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting was and still is considered the main guide for writing screenplays. It includes the explanation of his template of narrative structure based on the Aristotle’s theories about storytelling.
POETICS AND PERFECT STORYTELLING
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist who lived in the IV century B.C. He was Plato’s student. Among his numerous works that discuss various topics from Gnoseology to Dialectics, from Physics to Metaphysics, there’s one focused on storytelling.
It is the Poetics, a treatise written around the 330 B.C where the philosopher, through the analysis of tragedy and epic, discuss about the art of storytelling, focalizing on 3 topics.
MIMESIS AND CATHARSIS
“A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself… with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions”
Aristotle claimed that the unique principle common to every art was the imitation, a concept he took from his master Plato and he modified. According to him, every art imitates the reality differently and on 3 different levels: imitating things as they are, imitating things as they seem, imitating things as they should be.
Art, that includes the storytelling, imitates the reality considered as “action” and contributes to redefine its ethics. So, art has a cognitive and cathartic value. Indeed, tragedy and epic help the audience to get to know the reality and to free his soul from irrational passions.
Aristotle’s concept of imitation is innovative compared to his master’s one who condemned it. Plato claimed that the true reality was that of ideas, so when art imitates the reality, actually it imitates a copy of it. So, art is just a copy of a copy.
Aristotle defines the imitation as a technique to reproduce the reality and get to know it.
It’s interesting because the imitation is what subjects like Neuroscience has identified as a natural human tendency but, above all, as a learning mechanism that starts since the earlier years. Researches about this tendency have demonstrated as imitation is linked to the so-called Mirror Neurons and to the Empathy.
Empathy is what allow us to connect with others, to understand their emotions and it is an important capacity to be considered when we do Storytelling. The capacity of the story to involve the audience and the capacity of this one to empathise influence the storytelling efficacy.
NARRATIVE UNITS
In Poetics, Aristotle claimed that “a story must be perfect and whole”. To be that, it must have 3 unities called Aristotelian unities, that are:
- Unity of time that means that the story should take place in a unique period of time, in particular from the sunrise to the sunset,
- Unity of place that means the story should take place in a limited place;
- Unity of action that means that the story should contain only a single plot, it shouldn’t have any subplots or digressions.
In particular, for what regards the unity of time, tragedy and epic differers. According to the philosopher, “the tragedy does everything possible to take place in just 24 hours or so, while the epic is unlimited in time”.
SYD FIELD PARADIGM
“Structure is a context; it ‘holds’ the bits and pieces and fragments of images that tell your story”
(Syd Field, The Screenwriter’s Workbook Chapter 2, ‘About Structure’)
Based on the concept of Aristotelian unities, Syd Field developed his template of narrative structure called three acts structure. According to this template, every story is divided in 3 acts.
FIRST ACT: BEGINNING
The first act is the first unit that sets up the story, introduces the main characters, establishes the premises and the initial situation. It corresponds to the first quarter of the screenplays, that is the first 20-30 minutes of the movie.
Considering the Hero’s Journey by Campbell-Vogler (explained here), this first act corresponds to the first phases of that narrative structure template, from the Call to Adventure to the Meeting with the Mentor.
SECOND ACT: CONFRONTATION
This second narrative unit includes the Confrontation, it defines the main purpose of the protagonist who has to face some challenges and obstacles in order to reach it.
It corresponds to 2/4 of the screenplay, that is half of the movie where the protagonist has to fight to reach his/her goal.
In the Hero’s Journey this act corresponds to the central phases of the template, from the Crossing of the first threshold to The ordeal.
THIRD ACT: RESOLUTION
This is the conclusive act where the story is resolved, all the questions are answered and the audience get to know if the protagonist has reached or not his/her goal. It corresponds to the last 20-30 minutes of the movie.
In the Campbell-Vogler’s template, it corresponds to the last phases from Reward to Return with the Elixir.
PLOT POINTS AND PINCHES
“A screenplay is a specific form; approximately one hundred twenty pages in lenght and knowing the end is always the first step in writing”
(The Screenwriter’s Workbook, page 12)
According to Field, every screenplay needs to be written following this three-act structure and it has to count 120 pages.
The passage from one act to the other is indicated by a plot point that can be defined as an event or an incident that hooks the story and takes it to another direction, it basically makes it going on.
The first plot point between the first and the second act is at circa page 30 of the screenplay and it is the moment when the hero or protagonist accepts his/her mission and leaves to accomplish it.
Instead, the second plot point between the second and the third act is at circa page 90 of the screenplay. At the half of the second act, at page 60 circa, there is the so-called point of no return that corresponds to the moment of the story when the events take an irreversible turn. It is succeeded and preceded by a pinch, that is an element that seems irrelevant but then it become essential to the story
CONCLUSION
The Syd Field Paradigm is an ideal template of narrative structure. It was born for screenplays but it can be used and adapted even for other forms of narration such as a book or a short story.
The purpose of this template, as well as of the Campbell-Vogler Hero’s Journey and any other template, is to structure the story in order to be clear and comprehensible to the audience. The purpose is also to engage the audience through a narration that affects its emotions and perceptions.
A well-structured story allows those who read/see/hear it to even live it, to enter it (activating the so-called Storytelling Trance Experience), to empathise with its characters and above all to leave a mark, a message, a memory.
“My task… is to make you hear, to make you feel and, above all, to make you see. That is all, and it is everything”
(Syd Field, Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting)
If you want a practical example of the Syd Field Paradigm, here is the analysis of a movie and here is the analysis of a commercial.
The Syd Field Paradigm is one of the many template of narrative structure that can be used to write a story. Other templates are:
- The Hero’s Journey by Campbell-Vogler;
- Dan Harmon Story Circle;
- Fichtean Curve;
- Save the Cat; Freytag’s Pyramid;
- The 7 point Story Structure.