Do you find that your stories break into 4 through lines of 25% each? I mean, if your story is 100%, each through line gets equal attention? Or, do you find that it breaks up some other way? I was thinking that four of 25% each was expected, but then I realize that the OS has a lot more characters in it and, therefore, the OS through line will probably be much larger than the other three.
I’m curious what you’ve discovered in your own experience.
Since one throughline may be more emphasized than another, the amount of attention payed to each one may vary, given that all of them are explored enough for the argument to hold. For example, Moonlight is about 75% MC Throughline, 15% Relationship Throughline, 7% IC Throughline, and 3% Overall Story Throughline. How much emphasis you place on each throughline is ultimately up to you as a writer, and your message should still carry regardless of whether the attention is evenly split or not, as long as all of the throughlines are sufficiently illustrated.
Building off @RailwayAdventurer here. Not only are the breakdowns frequently very skewed, they don’t really add up to 100% either.
Scenes can carry multiple throughlines, moments can mean different things from the different perspectives.
But I’m glad you are asking this early, so you can avoid the math trap.
The 6th Sense I think is an exceptional movie in that it is pretty well balanced.