Endings.

I have gotten to the start of Act 3 in my outline and I have had writers block for a few days now so I went onto youtube and researched how to create a good powerful ending. I looked at the two videos:

Killer Endings –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd01YOPovV8

Great Endings –

Killer Endings told me that I need to know the end of my film before I write the story otherwise I won’t know how to start writing the beginning and each change the characters have to make. The on Great Endings Macnab-Stark explains the three different most common elements that good powerful films have, these are:

Up Ending – good ending. End of Act 2 is the most negative to allow a successful ending.

Down Ending – Negative ending. Opposite to up ending..

Ambivalent Ending – The low point at the end of Act 2. Hero doesn’t get what they want but not what they need. For example Rocky. Rocky wants to win the fight but needs respect. At the end of the film he doesn’t win however he gains respect.

When looking at my own idea I know that I can either go for an Up Ending or an Ambivalent ending as I have already written the end of Act 2 as the lowest point in my film. The options for my climactic ending will be:

Up Ending – Rick defeats the Alien and manages to find happiness. (Wants to find tranquility, needs to have courage.)

Ambivalent Ending – Rick defeats the Alien, however he also dies as a result of this.

Whichever one I chose will be what I feel at the time. However at the moment I am leaning more towards the up ending as I normally end my films on a low or ambivalent ending so it would be nice to try something different.