Set Up

• The set up usually takes place within the first 10 percent of the screenplay. It's a crucial element since it must draw the audience's interest in and compel them to watch the rest. Its most important task is to establish the personality of the main characters and let it be known why the audience is to root for/against them.
  
  

First Turning Point

• This first plot twist should comes when the main protagonist and the supporting characters are confronted with a challenge or opportunity. This is basically the beginning of the "rising action," or the conflicts and action that will make up the story. The first turning point leads into the "new situation," which usually takes up the next 15 percent of the screenplay. This is where the characters take that first objective and begin planning how to do it. This can also be called the "bonding event" as it is where the main characters who previously had little in common begin to bond with one another.
  
  

Second Turning Point

• The progress point of the story takes it to the halfway mark, as the characters are putting the plan in action to achieve the original goal established from the first point. While small conflicts can arise at this point, generally the characters believe their goal will be achieved with no complications.
  
  

Complications

• The midway point of the screenplay is when the characters must make the decision to commit full force toward the goal. It can also be called the "locking event," as the characters realize they are locked or linked together in achieving this goal. This leads to the third quarter of the story, where major complications arise in achieving that goal and the characters realize that it will be much more difficult from this point forward.
  
  

Major Setback

• Characters should run into a huge obstacle or setback around the three-quarter mark of the screenplay. Their original plan has failed, and this makes them and the audience think they are doomed to fail. This leads into the final push, where the heroes must change the original course of action and make one last ditch effort to achieve their goal. They usually discover the one fatal flaw the opposition has and use this to develop a plan that works.
  
  

Climax and Falling Action

• The climax can take place at any point within the last 10 percent of the screenplay, and is where the goal is ultimately resolved. This is where the final battle takes place in an action/adventure film, or when the guy professes his love in a romantic comedy. The rest of the screenplay is the falling action, or the aftermath, where all loose ends are tied up and the audience sees the results of the main characters' decisions.