Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
When the cheesecake arrives, it is a very small piece slightly tilting on a white plate. The
waiter leaves his fi ngerprints on the side of the plate. The plate is greasy. You notice a tiny
piece of cardboard stuck to the graham cracker crust. The restaurant buys their cheesecake.
It's packaged.
What did this just do to your evening?
Now imagine the cheesecake arriving . . . it is an ample creamy slice resting on a beautiful
hand-blown cobalt blue plate. At its edge are three perfectly sliced pieces of green kiwi.
Raspberry sauce is drizzled back and forth across the cake in gently curving ripples. You
take a bite. It is so light it barely glazes your tongue and you nearly fl oat to the ceiling.
How is your evening now? Are you going back to the restaurant?
Endings and Beginnings
James Mercurio, screenwriter, teacher and lecturer, believes you must know your ending
fi rst to really understand and write your beginning and determine the proper progression of
confl ict. In order to know your ending you must understand what your piece means—the
theme, concept, or idea communicated by the animation. [5]
This is because the theme or meaning of the piece directs the resolution. The theme is
revealed in story structure in the climax of the story. Whatever your character learns usually
communicates the theme of the piece. The decision he makes, how he chooses to act against
his opposition, determines the ending.
When Shrek sits broken hearted in the swamp, Donkey convinces him to tell Fiona he loves
her. Shrek realizes that he both wants and deserves love (realization of the theme). He goes
to try to defeat Farquaad and win his girl (the act that determines the ending).
In
Early Bloomer,
when the tadpole is confronted by her friends, she learns that eventually
everyone develops. Then she chooses to forgive her friends.
When the ChubbChubbs scramble back to Meeper after defeating the alien army, Meeper
learns that he has the power to get some respect. Meeper chooses to use this power to
achieve his dream.
In the resolution or ending, the character succeeds or fails and must do so in a way that he or the
audience arcs emotionally. Hopefully the ending does this in a way that is unpredictable.
In Shrek, when Fiona fi nds true love she is suppose to take true love's “form.” Both Fiona
and the audience expect that she will assume the beautiful form of a princess. Instead, she
turns into an ogre. And she is fi ne with it because this is the form of her true love, Shrek.
We expect Shrek and Fiona to end up together, but this ending does it in a way that is
both perfectly aligned with the story and is also unpredictable.
