Premise! Beat!

Premise, Premise, Premise! Beat, Beat, Beat! The two words ring around in my mind as I watch television shows and analyze them. I struggle to recognize the premise and beat of the stories; it seems that there are so many beats fit into a single act in a single moment. I watched ‘Lone Star’ mainly because it had just premiered for the first time. I thought it would be helpful to watch the pilot of a series to see if I could pick up the premise. I was right. It is definitely much easier to pick up on the premise of the series from the pilot. However, according to most screenwriters, viewers should be able to figure out the premise at any point especially since the premise is the purpose, theme, idea of the entire series. As I attempted to analyze the premise of ‘Lone Star,’ I began to think about applying the concept of premise to everyday life and realized that my own life has a premise. We all have premises, as Egri explains, “everything has a purpose, or premise. Every second of our lives has its own premise, whether or not we are conscious of it at the time.” Thinking about premises has forced me to look closely at the things we do, why we do them, and what they lead us to.

Once I made that realization – we all have premises in our lives – I began to recognize beats. According to McKee, “a beat is the smallest structural unit within a scene. It is a single piece of behavior.” In ‘Lone Star,’ the main character, Bob, leads a double life in order to make money. In order to get people’s money, he lies about his life, dresses up as a business man, talks about money making opportunities. He behaves a certain way in order to get that money. Then, when he is with his wife, his behavior is different. He acts as the loving, doting husband in order to have sex with her. Interestingly, he is married to her because she happens to be the daughter of a multi-millionaire, who happens to be Bob’s target. All of Bob’s behavior is traced back to the premise – to make money through ripping people off.

To apply these concepts to a more personal level, I thought about why I play soccer, why I do the things I do. The premise of my soccer playing is the fact that I love it, I’m good at it and I know what to do. Therefore, subtly said, my premise is to do what I love and keep at it. The beats are my sacrificing time and energy for soccer, working out, making myself sweat, lifting heavy things, running suicides all because I know it will lead to me becoming a better athlete. The purposes of my playing soccer are probably: it’s good for you, it keeps you healthy and in shape, it gives you opportunities…the list could go on.