Edinburgh Napier University

  In Story (1997), Robert McKee stated confidently that three-acts were the minimum for a feature-length film, declaring that the one-act form was suitable only for the short story or the short film of five to twenty minutes. He later updated his view in an article on his personal website in which he noted what seemed to him a new movement for one-act features, defined by inner conflict and ‘minimalism’ (n.d.: 1st para). He stated that whilst three-, four- and five- act films ‘dynamically progress their conflict around major turning points to an all-or- nothing climax’ a one-act feature ‘accumulates pressure gradually, often exclusively within the protagonist’s psychological and emotional life, and usually ends on a quiet release’ (para. 2). The lack of ‘major turnings’ is the key defining element.

In fact, theorists such as Dancyger & Rush (2002) had already identified one-act features, and today, the one-act form is flourishing in independent cinemas, garnering significant critical acclaim and even mainstream success: notable examples include Chloe Zhao’s Best Picture-winning Nomadland (2020), Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird (2017) and Sean Baker’s The Florida Project (2017), in additional to masterpieces of world cinema by canonical writer-directors such as Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Uzak (2002), Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielmann, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) and Apitchatpong Weerasethakul’s Palme d’Or-winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010).

This presentation examines a number of these texts at the level of narrative structure, exploring the techniques which the screenwriter can employ (and which they can avoid) to create successful screen dramas in the one-act form. In doing so, it aims to help illuminate the role which the one-act feature film has played and continues to play in cinematic culture, and to combat the misinformation propagated by screenwriting handbooks like Story.