Inciting Incident

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Inciting Incident

• MIT3545/41913F Lecture 7

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Story Design

• A story is a design in five parts
• Inciting Incident
• Progressive Complication
• Crisis
• Climax
• Resolution

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Inciting Incident

• The first major event of the story
• Primary cause for all the story follows
• Depends on Story Setting
• Period
• Duration
• Location
• Level of Conflict
• Story Details

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The World of the Story

• How do my characters make a living?
• Not shown in the movie, but as a background
• What are the politics of the world?
• Power! uneven distribution
• Love relationship are also political
• What are the rituals (????) of the world?
• What are the values in my world?
• What are right/wrong in my characters view?
• What is the genre?
• What is the back story?
• Significant events in the characters past
• What is my cast design?

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Inciting Incident

• An inciting incident must be a dynamic, fully
  developed event that radically upsets the balance
  of forces in the protagonists life
• In most cases, the inciting incident is a single
  event happens to / is caused by the protagonist
• Occasionally, it may be two events a setup and a
  payoff
• The protagonist must react to the inciting
  incident

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Through Line

• The energy of a protagonists desire forms the
  Spine (Through-Line) of the story
• The desire of the protagonist to restore the
  balance of life

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Conscious vs Unconscious Desire

• Conscious Desire is known by the protagonist
  himself
• Unconscious Desire is more powerful and durable
  reaching to protagonists innermost self
• Leads to complex characters, that may repeatedly
  change his conscious desire

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The Quest

• All stories take the form of a Quest
• A Quest is a campaign for a protagonists desire
  against forces of conflicts
• The protagonist may or may not achieve it

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Design of Inciting Incidents

• An inciting incident may happen randomly or
  causally, either by coincidence or by decision
• The inciting incident must happen onscreen not
  in the back story
• The inciting incident is the big hook. It is
  the vent that incites and captures the audiences
  curiosity
• The inciting incident also projects the crisis in
  the story into audiences imagination

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Locating the Inciting Incident

• As a rule of thumb, the first major event of the
  Central Plot should occur within the first 25 of
  the story
• It could be the very first thing that happens in
  a film
• Or much later
• e.g., Taxi Driver Iris (teenage prostititute)
  jumps into Travis taxi (27 mins)
• It will be risky to make the incident after 15
  min into a film, but you need to wait until the
  moment is ripe
• Too soon, the audience may be confused
• Too late, the audience may be bored

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Creating the Inciting Incident

• An inciting incident is the second most difficult
  scene to write apart from the climax
• What is the worst possible thing that could
  happen to the protagonist?
• How could that turn to be the best possible thing
  that could happen to him?
• A story may turn more than one cycle of this
  pattern.
• The impact of the inciting incident is to create
  chaos to invade the characters universe and give
  opportunities for us to rearrange the things at
  Climax

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References

• Robert McKee, Story Substance, Structure, Style
  and the Principles of Screenwriting, Harper
  Collins, 1997.