Doctor's appointment tomorrow, but I'm sick of talking about that. Instead, I want to get back into the creative mode.
I've been soaking in the hot bath for hours at a time (the only thing that makes my stomach feel good) and thinking about story. How do you convey a plot, beyond conflict? That's not an easy one because I've seen lots of great animation with a weak storyline and it was still very enjoyable. I've also seen weak animation with great story and that was just as much if not more so enjoyable.
Where is that happy balance between sculpting quality and story that makes a film work?
I'm not sure, but one obvious approach to storytelling is through narration. It seems to work better if you put everything in the past-tense. This comes from novels...The ones that take place in the present sound awkward. "Not sure what you're talking about", I say. Doesn't work for me. I said. Better. Putting it in the past establishes a distance between the reader and the characters. I think you really need that distance. It's like the difference between watching a movie and watching a soap opera. With the soap opera, there is no distance from the viewer. It looks like melodramatic reality TV or Saturday Night Live (neither of which I find funny). It's too NOW-ish to be convincingly unreal- or realistically unconvincing.
So, there's the first requirement for good story...Distance.
The second part, is what I would equate to how you write a joke: you start with the establishment of the situation and introduce the characters; the Setup. Given that I have more experience with songwriting than joke writing or storytelling, I might have gotten further confused by the fact that while a song has a beginning, middle, and end as the joke and film formats do, the song's chorus generally sums up the verses, and it's the bridge of the song that often explains both. It is possible, then, that while writing the story for Blue Alien Summer, I could have focused more on the "verses" of the film than the "chorus" and left the "bridge" out completely in the process.
So, how do you set up a storyline for a film or book? In the film, it's done in the Establishing Shot. A novel's equivalent of this is the Prologue, Preface, or Foreword.
The way cinematic storytelling differs from joke writing is that the middle part of a joke would be the ending of a film- the conclusion, in the latter's case, the punch-line in the former's. I think that messed me up a little because in trying to write a funny script, I got hung up on the visual and verbal gags. The story was only skeletal and got glossed over. I was essentially punching the storyline...out cold.
With non-humorous storytelling, the story is written with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Or, if you prefer, the introduction, the conflict, and the resolution (sometimes with a moralality lesson learned or taught by the central and/or supporting characters).
Telling a non-humorous story, I think, would be easier than writing a comedy, because the point of the conflict is clearer when it's not funny. The resolution of the conflict is usually its opposite, which makes it easier to put a satisfying end to the story. Of course, there are so many different ways to tell a story, with different styles of writing it and nuances unique to a particular author, not to mention many genres of story writing and cinematic direction and execution. I think the main thing is to quickly establish what's there, then explain why it's there and what its defects are- then ultimately fix what's wrong with it- or don't, and leave room for a sequel. I think some good rules to follow are the ones of journalism: "who, what, when, where, why (and how)". That way, you know who the story is about, what context it's in, when it happened, where it happened, what caused it to happen, and how it happened. That's the formula for a good story right there, isn't it? Now all you need is a second "how"- the "how to fix it".
In support of that, I think I want to try making a dramatic film with no attempt at humor in it... Get the story right... Then reintroduce the humor on a later film. Before I start on that, I want to get a better grasp of the basic principles of storytelling. If anyone knows of a good book or two they can recommend, I'll check it out. I've been slowly warming to the idea that good animation and funny happenings do not neccessarily add up to a satisfying film. Like cooking, you need a knowledge of all the ingredients and you have to know how to cook with them, what you shouldn't mix together, and how long to let it sizzle before you can make the dish palatable to the consume-r.
I thought your story was going to be about glass like pools of water and yellow rubber duckies there for a minute, D! HA! We make art from what is most around us!
ReplyDeleteGreat story analysis post. Here's what I think, unbidden but in-brief to make up for it: I think that you are a naturally funny guy and therefore your nature will naturally come through all your stories, at least a little bit.
I also think that knowing the basic rules is really key but treacherous. We've all seen people get lost in the rules. I think making your stories as they occur to you would be the best education along the way. Just like when you cook yourself a great meal (and if you don't--get to that!) you put what you like into it and do what you feel to it and you love the results.
That's a good point, Shelley. I think it's not the writing I have trouble with- I can write for days without leaving anything out. It's trimming it down without cutting important stuff- in other words- SCRIPT EDITING- that I have trouble with.
ReplyDeleteIt's not only the rules you can get lost in... I got lost in the details of smoothing and re-shaping clay every frame for thousands of pictures. Also got lost in the organization of all that data- the high res "raw" (not really RAW but JPEG), the uncompressed sound files, the edited composites and folders of fixed (painted) frames, etc. All that stuff I had no experience with. The size of the project was also pretty overwhelming with its own challenges. The thing could have turned out much worse than it did. I guess I'm grateful I had something to show at the end- if only the obvious mistakes that won't be repeated.
Hi Don the story thing, have you ever thought of working with a writer? Take the music analogy, the Beatles where the first band that actually wrote their own material, before that bands just used song writers, if you look at the charts in the 50's you'd maybe get 3 version of the same song in the top 20 at any one point. But if you think about it, the chances of being a talented musician are slim and the chances of being a talented composer or just as slim but the chances of being both are a million in 1, so when you get bands like the Beatles, who were basically all sound musicians but also had 3 great composers in their ranks (and 1 ropey composer, god bless ald ringo), all born contemporary to each other and within a few miles, the odds of that must be billions. What I am saying is that, you are a talented animator and artist; perhaps you need some help with the story. Have you ever had taken writing classes, I know they can be a bit cheesy, but there are a lot of tricks that can be taught a lot of stuff that isn't immediately obvious no matter how much you read or watch filums. Or the other idea is maybe to animate an established story, there must be some out of copyright short story that would appeal to you. The other thing is being able to convey the story, again like the writing have you ever had any cinematography classes, you can learn animation by doing small tests, but telling a whole story you need to actually make the filum, so trial and error can be time consuming, classes might be a short cut for some of the trial and error. Like the creative writing they can teach you lots of tricks. What I am trying to say is that no one is born a great filum maker it needs to be learnt one way or another. The thing about telling a story via the medium of filum is it can be a bit clumsy, with text you can just write down what you want to say, but as you say unless you narrate it or break the fourth wall and do a piece direct to camera, some things are hard to convey. I mean how do you convey what someone is thinking, or those, little thumb nail sketches you get at the beginning of books, like 'Andy was a tall slim athletic man in his early middle ages, with a full head of jet black hair with the faintest hint of grey at the edges. His teeth where strong straight and white, especially so for an English man who had spent his life eating tea and crumpets, he was expensively dressed...', how do you say that in filum in just a few lines? My daughter is learning to read at school at the moment, and is finding it a bit heavy going (as I did), I was explaining to her the other day, about why reading is so good, and I put it this way, all the millions and millions they spend on the special effects making the Harry Potter filums, it's all to try and capture what a child sees in their mind when they read the books, and it doesn't matter how much they spend they can never re-create what you can see when you read the book. Good luck I am sure it'll all slot into place, at least you have the patients to do stop motion, I can't even bring myself to get my clay out of storage the thought of it just bores me. I pretend that I don' have the time but over the last 2 weeks I have finished battlefield 3, and COD modern warfare 3. I have been using my wacom tablet quite a bit and doing a bit of character animation but it's all pretty shitty stuff that I wouldn't show to anyone.
ReplyDeleteHope you are better soon Don mate, and have you tried a hot water bottle on your stomach? Hot water bottles are probably called something stupid over there in the colonies :-), no I have just checked they are called the same $5.99 in Wal-Mart, get one of em on your belly, quicker and more convenient then a bath, and portable too, you could wear it to work, just tuck it into the top of your pants, and cover it over with a tshirt.
Peace be upon you
Andy X...