How I developed 40 Beats for my feature film Buried Awake

I’ve successfully completed my 40 beats for Buried Awake, which is super exciting.

The 40 beats are essentially like 40 scenes for a feature film. I’ve used this process with the previous feature films I’ve written because it works in a really structured way to make sure I have my three acts, all the key parts of the story and a clear path through the film.

It’s a process that comes from a combination of different screenwriting approaches I’ve picked up over the years.

David Lynch talks about writing out your scenes on index cards. Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder uses a structured approach to the beats of a story, and Robert McKee also talks about having the beats of your story worked out before you get too deep into the script.

For me, the important thing is getting everything out where I can see it.

I’m a filmmaker.

I like things visually.

I see things visually.

My brain thinks in visuals as well.

So having all the beats written down and eventually spread across a beat board makes a lot of sense to me. I can physically look at the story, see where the scenes are sitting, see how the story is moving and start to understand whether the structure is working.

Getting from my original 15 beats, which I talked about previously, out to 40 beats has been a little bit tedious and, at times, pretty bloody hard.

But I’m really grateful I’ve gone through the process.

Because now I have something I can actually work with.

The great thing about developing the story this way is that I can take those 40 beats and lay them out in the script. I’ve already got a pretty good chunk of the screenplay mapped out, and most importantly, the structure is there.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be changes.

There absolutely will be.

This is still the drafting phase of making a feature film, and I know the story will evolve as I start writing the actual scenes. Things will move, scenes will change, characters might surprise me and ideas will inevitably turn up that I hadn’t considered when I was working through the beats.

But that’s part of the process.

At least now I can see the story.

And for me, that makes a massive difference.

So the next step is to chuck all 40 beats up on the beat board.

Once they’re all sitting there in front of me, I can start seeing the whole feature at once and then get into the really fun part.

Playing with the scenes.

Finding the moments.

Working out how the characters move through the story.

And actually writing Buried Awake.

That’s where I’m heading now, and I’m bloody excited to get stuck into it.

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