Beat sheet

Mapping 'A Knight's Tale' to 15 beats

1) Opening image

- Slow motion jousting with titles and voice over explaining the medieval sport. The voice over ends with 'but for his peasant squire William, it was merely the beginning.

2) Theme stated

- About to Joust in Sir Ector's place. William says 'I've waited my whole life for this moment'. He wants to be a knight and joust.

3) Set-up

- Win the tournament pretending to be another knight and sell the prize and finally have money to eat. William now wants to continue because jousting is his dream.

4) Catalyst

- Persuades the others to help him pretend to be a knight so he can joust and uses the recurring line - a man can change his stars.

5) Debate

- Training for jousting, isn't going well but he improves during sequence. Then on their way to tournament and meet new character, they need a patience of nobility to compete, he agrees to supply a fake one if he can accompany them.

6) Break into two

- Enter the tournament, succeed with their fake patience and prepare for 2 events; sword and joust.

7) B-story

- We meet Jocelyn. William wishes to learn her name. Start b-story love interest.

8) Fun and games

- William wins lots of matches, gains an enemy, tilts against the Prince, falls in love, gains a blacksmith companion and new armour.

9) Midpoint

- Count Adhemar is called away for battle; William cannot beat him in the tournament and Jocelyn leaves annoyed at William.

10) Bad guys close in

- William wins Jocelyn back by proving his love by first losing every match on purpose and then winning. Very happy, he tracks down his father in London at the championships. He is followed by a spy hired by Adhemar (now back from battle) because he hears that William may be a fraud.

11) All is lost

- William is about to face Adhemar in the championship and is arrested when his patience is proved fake.

12) Dark night of the soul

- He is put in a cell and abused by Adhemar and then put in the stocks for London to abuse him with shouting and throwing old food. But his friends stand by him.

13) Break into three

- The Black Prince knights William because of an earlier meeting in the joust.

14) Finale

- William can now compete but is quite weak from the stocks. He does is first round and is struck hard causing a piece of the lance to be lodged in his shoulder. He does the next round but because of his shoulder he drops the lance and is struck again. His armour is now causing discomfort so he removes it and straps the lance to his arm so he can't drop it. He is told that his father is there for the championship with Jocelyn and he wants to make his father proud, but could die. He tilts against Adhemar and knocks him off his horse and wins the tournament. He celebrates and runs to see Jocelyn.

15) Final image

- William and Jocelyn are kissing and smiling to each other and the background disappears and becomes a starry night. This relates to the often used phase throughout the film 'a man can change his stars'.


15 beats for FMP


1) Opening image

- Close ups of teddy bear being given to a girl

2) Theme stated

- Photo frame showing the girls favourite memory. This is important to her.

3) Set-up

- Girl is given a teddy bear, she loves it and keeps it close to her.

4) Catalyst

- Drops her bear in her sleep, can't find it.

5) Debate

- Shadows on the wall start to scare her. and she's scared until she finds her bear again.

6) Break into two

- Next day, all is fine.

7) B-story

- Introduce parent and first drawing is seen by audience

8) Fun and games

- Drops her bear in sleep again, wakes up and sees creature. Follows creature to find drawing on wall that looks like her. Bear is watching and she gets told off by parent.

9) Midpoint

- After being told off she finds another drawing. This one is of the photo that is in her frame; the favourite memory.

10) Bad guys close in

- She goes to where the photo was taken and searches around for the cause of strange goings on. Bear disappears and starts creating shadows.

11) All is lost

- Shadow puppets on a small stage tell the story of 'the girl and the bear' and reveal that the bear is evil.

12) Dark night of the soul

- She's scared and trying to find the bear to end it all.

13) Break into three

- Finds the bear and tries to find a way to destroy it.

14) Finale

- Girl drowns teddy bear and believes it is all over.

15) Final image

- Girl sitting in her room destroying toys. She has bear ears, one twitches. Black.