What Makes a Film
Work Well
Essential Conditions to Any Drama
•	An unresolved issue with the outcome in doubt. 
•	A deep commitment to action by a character with whom we can identify. 
•	The character must be involved in a conflict which has, at its heart, high personal stakes. 
•	Urgency, or a sense of deadline.
Types of Central Conflict
•	Man vs. Man: Conflict between two characters (protagonist vs. antagonist). 
•	Man vs. Self: Within a single character. These usually involve "either/or" situations. Sometimes this is referred to as a double blind situation (the cruelty of the absolute). 
•	Man vs. Nature or Man vs. Society: Character or characters confronting a difficult situation. 

Organization of The Cause to Effect Film
•	The actions often set into motion by  inciting incident. 
•	This event  lets the audience know what form the conflict will take.
•	There follows a period of rising tension.
•	This is a series of episodes, individual scenes in which conflict begins to heighten and complications develop. 
•	When the conflict is approaching its height, a crisis occurs - this is a turning point, an event that makes the resolution of the films conflict inevitable.
•	This is followed by the film's climax which occurs when the basic conflict is actually resolved.
•	This is generally followed by the denouement, a short wrap up scene in which any loose ends of plot and character are tied up or resolved, (Aristotle called this "the unravelling". 

Theory of Plot Development
•	Film opens up with an incident that captures the audience’s attention and then slowly increases the tension (via a series of episodes or incidents) until the film reaches its conclusion.
•	Action does not increase in a straight arc.
•	Increases in stages.
•	Each of these stages is followed by some sort of comic relief (a tension breaker - or pause), before the next episode and increase in tension occurs.

Willing Suspension of Belief
•	The ability to make an audience forget that it is only a movie. 
•	People become so engaged in it that they forget everything around them and are effectively caught up in the action. 
•	One sure sign appears when people start talking back to the screen. 
•	Conversely, if you find yourself checking your watch repeatedly, wondering how it was you were convinced to shuck out the bucks to watch this turkey, or simply contemplating any of a zillion other examples of life's little mysteries, you know the film has not pulled off willing suspension of disbelief .
•	Ultimately, if a film does not manage to attain willing suspension of disbelief it does not work.