This is the first hint that something’s off with the system we’ve just been taken through for the past 28 minutes. 28, John is shown the images of a drowning woman by Agatha, the female precog. 15 that he is so sick of sleepless nights that he goes to therapy. 12, Conrad actually calls Berger to set up an appointment, but he chickens out at the last moment and it’s not until min. Only three minutes off from Snyder’s beat sheet - not bad. This is going to set in motion the series of delicate events that will change Conrad’s family life forever and is the Catalyst. He’s had enough of the sleepless nights and aimless days at school and he goes to see Dr. 15, Conrad wakes from yet another nightmare about the drowning death of his brother. In the set-up you, the screenwriter, have told us what the world is like and now in the catalyst moment you knock it all down.

“Telegrams, getting fired, catching the wife in bed with another man, news that you have three days to live, the knock at the door, the messenger. It’s similar to what Syd Field referred to as an “inciting incident” - it’s the engine that drives the conflict of the script’s first act. Not to be confused with its more extreme cousin, “Break into Two”, the Catalyst is the first problem our protagonist encounters that makes them realize a big life change is going to be coming soon. Today we’re moving on to the next three: “The Catalyst”, “The Debate” and “Break into Two”.īlake Snyder’s fourth beat is called the CATALYST and it comes on page 12. In my last blog, I talked about the first three beats of Blake Snyder’s screenplay road map and applied them to the films Ordinary People and Minority Report.

Syd field save the cat