Three-act Structure, Vladimir Propp and Genre

Three-act Structure: Divides a story into three parts; the setup, the confrontation and the resolution.

The first act is used for exposition, to establish the main characters, their relationships and the world they live in. An incident occurs in the fast act which leads to a turning point which raises questions for the viewer.

The second act includes the protagonist trying to solve the problem created in the turning point in the first act, but find themselves in worse situations. They must learn new skills in order to get rid of the problem. This is known as character development or a character arc.

The third act features the resolution of the story. The climax is the most dramatic moment and where the big questions are answered.


Vladimir Propp:  Vladimir Propp was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative. Propp identified a sequence of narrative elements  that typically occurred within Russian fairytale. He identified 31 functions in Russian folklore and fairy tales. These functions occurred in a typical order within each story, with some variation. He also found characters could be put into 7 character functions.


Genre  - A film genre is a motion picture category based on similarities in either the narrative elements or the emotional response to the film. The basic genres include fiction and documentary, from which subgenres have emerged such as romantic comedy. Films can also be classified by the setting, theme, topic, mood, format, target audience or budget.