Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Summary
Why do we tell stories?
To entertain
To teach
To compare our existence to others'
To communicate with others
To see the world through the eyes of others
To learn how to be human
Many stories seem to be the same as other stories because:
There is an archetypal story structure
There are a limited number of archetypal characters
There are limited number of confl icts
There are a limited number of themes
Original stories are created through the audience's engagement in unique characters and
the way that they react to and solve the confl icts they encounter.
As fi lmmakers, we deliver emotion. It is through emotional engagement that we move an
audience.
When making the animated short, the story needs to have limited characters, limited loca-
tions, one confl ict, and one theme.
Recommended Readings
Joseph Campbell,
Hero
with
a
Thousand
Faces
Chris Vogel,
A
Writer's
Journey
Notes
1
Karl Iglesias,
Writing
for
Emotional
Impact
, WingSpan Press, Livermore, CA.
2
Christopher Booker,
The
Seven
Basic
Plots
, Continuum, New York, NY, 2004, pp. 8-10.
3
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.1.1.html. In addition to 1) Plot, Aristotle defi ned four other
elements of story. These are 2) Thought, which is dialogue; 3) Diction, which is the way the dialogue
is said; 4) Sound, which is the soundtrack; and 5) Spectacle, which is the equivalent to special effects.
Of these elements Spectacle was the least important. It seems that even Aristotle realized that effects
are only good if the audience is not distracted by them.
