Sunday, October 31, 2010

Blog Post #9: The three act structure of The Lost Boys

     Professor Ramirez-Berg explained the template for nearly every Hollywood produced movie: the three act structure. Act one sets up the action, act two introduces the conflict, and act three has the conflict and resolution. Of course there are always deviations from this norm, such as the repeat action structure, or the five act structure commonly used for tragedies, but as stated, most films follow the linear three act structure.
     An example of the three-act structure is the film The Lost Boys. The first act, the set-up, quickly explains how Michal, his brother Sam, and his mother have come to live in Santa Clara--the "murder capital of the world," with their grandfather. The first act also introduces Micheal to the vampire gang, and Sam to the vampire hunting Frog Brothers. The first plot point comes when Michael is tricked into drinking blood by David (the perceived leader of the vampires). This action is the first step in turning him into  vampire, and leads into the second act. The conflict arises out of Michael's increasing vampireish tendencies (such as sleeping all day, having no reflection, and his thirst for blood), and Sam's resolution to help change Michael (and eventually other "half-vampires") back to normal. The second plot point comes when Michael leads them to the gang's cave, where the Frog Brothers intend to kill all the vampires, but instead only kill the smallest after his death awakens the others. The third act involves Michael, Sam, and the Frog Brothers preparing for the impending battle with David and the remaining vampires at nightfall. The climax, logically, is said battle in their Santa Clara home. As you can see, Joel Shumacher's The Lost Boys clearly follows the Hollywood three act structure as described in Professor Ramirez-Berg's lecture.

The scene where Sam discovers Michael is a vampire:

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