Just when we think the situation can’t get worse, it does. When we’re convinced there’s no possible way our hero can get out of a jam, he gets out, only to end up in a worse jam. Obstacles! These major hurdles are the glue to Act Two. Your character has recovered from the first obstacle, only now to face a higher one. This new obstacle leads to rising action: every move the character makes traps him even more. Be merciless! Really squeeze your character. Make him work hard to reach the first culmination. This is the midpoint of the screenplay and a pivotal plot point,…

“Rosebud!” The famous, first murmured word from Orson Welles’ 1941 cinematic masterpiece Citizen Kane, is a plant, only to be paid off at the end of the film when it is revealed to the audience that the enigmatic “Rosebud” was the name of Mr. Kane’s childhood sled. Or take Chinatown, in the climatic reversal scene in the third act where Gittes has come to Mrs. Mulwray’s home with evidence – her late husband Hollis Mulwray’s glasses and an earlier plant – that Gittes believes proves Evelyn’s guilt in the murder. But after discovering Katherine is both Evelyn’s sister…