I usually see setups in the first Act, but you can put a setup in Act Two and pay it off later. You could also put a setup in Act Three, Four, etc.
What’s your favorite setup and payoff/one of your favorite setups and payoffs you’ve used? If you have any questions about using setups and payoffs, post them in the comments.
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I think one of my favorite set ups was in FIGHT CLUB. The whole movie is a set up for that big reveal at the end. And it was well done - for the time and what it was. The whiplash back and forth enhanced the ending. It came together. I am Jack's buttery nipple... Or whatever he said.
In my own work, I think INSPIRATION INC. has this great set up and payoff involving a synesthetic evolution of emotion. And just after emotional sentience becomes reality in shifting color... I kickstart that emotional rollercoaster straight off a cliff edge and into the depths of grief. Then vengeance. It came out quite pretty.
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I don’t fully understand all the technical screenwriting terms yet, but here is one clear example from my story The De-Evolution Game:
Setup: Daro’s ability to simulate universes.
Payoff: The entire multiverse is revealed to be his hallucinations, showing the catastrophic cost of absolute computation.
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I need to see Fight Club, Elle Bolan. I already know about the big reveal though. I like your set up and payoff in Inspiration Inc. and the emotional rollercoaster of them! And incredible title!
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That's a really unique setup and payoff, Meriem Bouziani! And being able to simulate universes is incredible, even though it's his hallucinations! I would be shocked if I saw that reveal.
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Not fully hallucinations — by the end, Daro discovers he has been predicting endless universes and possibilities from the start of the experiment, all the way through his attempts to solve his own loss Maurice Vaughan
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Thank you! I'm honestly very, very excited about how it came out. I finished the first draft yesterday. I'm just... Not sure, exactly, what kind of movie it is. I'm having a genre crisis right now. To be continued.
I still have some revisions to do on the front end. Mostly deepening some characters. But draft complete woohoo.
On fight club? It's a great movie. It's pacing is a masterpiece in my opinion. Razor sharp and a bit relentless but so enthralling. Maurice Vaughan
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You're welcome, Elle Bolan. I'm rooting for you to finish your script and sell it! I'll pay attention to the pacing in Fight Club. Thanks.
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One of my favourite ones that I've used has got to be the in TER when Erik Rhodes bests Phosphoros in a fiddle contest and takes Rhode's Golden Violin as his prize. Phosphoros was going to trap him by invoking Heads I Win, Tales You Lose, but my boy foiled him by knowing how the song goes XD
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I like that setup and payoff, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh! I like when it looks like something is going bad for a character and they switch it up! That's a great writing tool!
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Thanks Maurice Vaughan, I agree :D discovering "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" gave me the inspiration for the scene and the lore of Rhode's Golden Violin, and of course there's plenty of subtext and callback to RoP in Phosphoros's attempted Heads I Win, Tails You Lose twist of the song, so it was incredibly satisfying to write, if I do say so myself.
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You're welcome, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh. Inspiration can come from anywhere.