INT./EXT. [OPENING - SLUG THE MOMENT, NOT THE SETUP] - DAY
[OPENING BEAT: Start after the trouble began. No ordinary world, no establishing, no backstory. What does the reader walk into mid-motion? Emotional change: already charged, never neutral. Conflict: who wants what, and what's already in the way, nameable inside a page.]
INT./EXT. [DIP 1 - SLUG THE FIRST BREATH] - DAY
[DIP 1 BEAT: The longest dip. This is where the exposition you skipped in the opening gets paid off, now that the reader wants it, not before. Who she was, why this hits her here. Emotional change: a real lift, not alone or not helpless. Conflict: internal, or with an ally. The threat is offstage and still running.]
INT./EXT. [DIP 2 - SLUG THE DECISION] - DAY
[DIP 2 BEAT: Shorter than dip 1, noticeably. She stops reacting and chooses, knowing the cost. The choice is what makes the last crisis survivable. Emotional change: a smaller lift than dip 1, resolve not relief. Conflict: internal. What she's willing to lose.]
INT./EXT. [CRISIS 1 - SLUG THE MOMENT IT STOPS BEING DENIABLE] - DAY
[CRISIS 1 BEAT: The problem is real, and it's specifically hers. Establishes what kind of obstacle this is, its nature, not yet its full size. Emotional change: down, suspicion becomes certainty. Conflict: character vs. the thing she can no longer explain away.]
INT./EXT. [CRISIS 2 - SLUG THE MOMENT COMPETENCE STOPS WORKING] - DAY
[CRISIS 2 BEAT: She does the correct, reasonable, trained thing, and it makes things worse. This is where the system, the institution, or the rules turn against her. Emotional change: down harder than crisis 1, no longer a witness to the problem, inside it. Conflict: character vs. the structure she assumed would protect her.]
INT./EXT. [CRISIS 3 - SLUG THE MOMENT THE FLOOR GOES] - DAY
[CRISIS 3 BEAT: The ally, the resource, or the fallback is gone, and it lands hardest when it's revealed to have been part of the problem. Emotional change: lowest point in the story. Conflict: character alone, or against the person she counted on.]
INT./EXT. [CLIMAX - SLUG THE HIGHEST POINT] - DAY
[CLIMAX BEAT: The biggest crisis, late. Nothing new enters, every element was placed by an earlier beat. Emotional change: the largest swing in the story. Conflict: the good guy and the obstacle, with nothing left between them.]
INT./EXT. [RESOLUTION - SLUG THE LANDING] - DAY
[RESOLUTION BEAT: One or two scenes. Show the changed state, don't explain it. Emotional change: read it against the opening, those two marks are the arc. Conflict: residue only. A conflict first appearing here belonged in crisis 3.]
