How A Backstory Can Solve The Problem of Pacing

A screenwriter can plot progressive complications without being constrained by journalistic ethics, but what can a documentary filmmaker do if the actual chronology of conflict ebbs and flows rather than steadily escalates?   Many editors’ biggest challenge in Act Two is sustaining momentum.

Since Act Two is the longest act (a little more than half the film), it is imperative that the editor ratchets up conflict. How can the editor ramp up the protagonist’s opposition while staying true to the facts?

One solution is to change the order of events, recognizing that a chronicle does not have to unfold chronologically.  You can begin Act Two chronologically and then reveal a crisis that happened years earlier.  Place the backstory where it provides maximum impact, raising the stakes for the protagonist and contributing to an escalating sense of crisis.

For example, late in the second act of Metallica, footage from MTV introduces an important backstory:  the so-called Napster controversy. This stormy backstory achieves two important structural goals.  First, it steps up momentum at the required time–as the story approaches the climax of the second act.  In addition, the Napster backstory raises the stakes for the very next scene, in which band members discuss going on tour and whether or not their album will be a hit.