The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: Erin Brockovich
written by Susannah Grant
Erin Brockovich is a tightly structured and
focused story about an amateur lawyer who fights on principle to win a huge
settlement from PEG for her victim-clients. Based on a true story.
Structural Analysis
- Hook (0 min.)
- Erin, a single mom, desperately needs a job.
- Complication (3 min.)
- She gets injured in an auto accident and goes to a lawyer.
- Call to Action (12 min.)
- She browbeats her way into a job at the lawyer's office.
- Act One Plot Point (26 min.)
- She takes on a real estate case, which will lead to taking on PGE.
Why are medical records part of a real estate file?
- Midpoint Plot Point (64-7 min.)
- She goes after evidence to sue PGE and her life gets threatened.
- Act Two Plot Point (100 min.)
- They still haven't found the smoking gun and can't win without it.
The clients are rebelling, feeling lied to.
Earlier her boyfriend leaves her (83 min.) and new lawyers replace her at the
office (90 min.)
- Climax and Resolution (112-8 min.)
- She finds a man who can provide the smoking gun that links corporate
PGE to the local PGE causing the contamination. They get a $333M settlement,
and Erin gets a $2M bonus check.
MODULE 4:
SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting
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3/02