There are handy screens in the SaveTheCat@
software to keep track of your set-ups and pay-offs — and
even move them around from scene card to scene
card.
Set-ups and pay-offs show "growth" and "change"
as a hero progresses through the story. There are lots of little
tricks to show "growth" and "change" as a hero progresses through
the story that is your screenplay.
In Up in the Air, starring George Clooney as Ryan
Bingham, we see the character "set-up" as we follow him on a
typical business trip. Ryan dispassionately fires strangers from
their jobs, revels in his well-deserved (but trivial) job-related
perks, and prides himself in not being tied down by family or
friends — so much so that he gives motivational speeches
encouraging others to live the same way. Later, when a young new
employee begins to make suggestions for changing the
company’s operations, we begin to see the "pay off" of that
set-up. Ryan finds his travel-centric lifestyle threatened, and as
he is tasked with mentoring the new hire on her first business
trip, is forced into a meaningful human interaction of the type
he’s been avoiding.
Another trick is to "set-up" the deficits in a
character's life, those Cinderella types like Tom Hanks’
little boy, Josh Baskin, in the beginning of Big. In that case, you
not only have to be "this high" to get on the carnival ride, but
the kid's life offers no privacy at home and a tween girlfriend who
overlooks him. All that is paid off when Josh turns Big, goes to
the city, gets a job at a toy company, and all the perks to go with
it. He's not only "this high" now, but he can stay up late, eat
anything he wants, and is being zoomed by adult girl Susan, played
by Elizabeth Perkins.
But the real pay off in both these stories is
when Ryan and Josh learn the valuable lessons these experiences are
really all about — and transform. And we know.... all great
stories are about transformation!
