The moment story momentum kicks in — not the beginning, but the inciting incident. Where exposition ends and tension starts.
You're sitting in the editing room and you realize immediately: the first ten minutes are a total drag. The camera shows us the protagonist's everyday life, we get to know his world – but nobody in the audience cares. This is the most common problem for novice directors: they confuse exposition with tension. The Point of Attack is precisely the moment when that ends.
On set, this means specifically: you need a marker in your screenplay where the first serious disruption occurs. Not just any plot element, but something that calls the protagonist's situation into question and raises a question the viewer urgently wants answered. In Jaws, this isn't the initial exposition about Amity Island – it's the moment the shark leaves the first corpse and the mayor tries to cover it up. Suddenly, the viewer is sitting up straight.
In practice, you notice the Point of Attack because the emotional temperature rises. The actors' movements become more precise, the dialogue carries weight, the camera positions are more intense. As a DoP, I often choose a cut – from a wide establishing shot to a sharper, more intimate shot – to visually mark this transition. The viewer feels: it's starting now.
Point of Attack is often confused with Inciting Incident – but they are not identical. The Inciting Incident is the external event; the Point of Attack is the narrative signal to the viewer that things are getting serious from now on. You can place the Incident earlier, but set the Attack later when the emotional weight is significant enough. Or you can combine both – depending on the pace and genre of your film. In thriller screenplays, the Point of Attack is often set much earlier than in character studies, where you need more time for buildup.
In editing, the most important thing is: avoid slow openings as a standard. If your screenplay calls for it, every second of the preceding time must function – visually or narratively. Otherwise, it devolves into exposition. The Point of Attack is your promise to the audience: this is going to be relevant. Deliver it.