Storytelling

WHAT IS A STORY?

I was thinking through why some of the previous films have worked and why others, through no lack of effort, have not worked as well.  The difference comes down to one thing: the team's ability to tell a story.

Writing a story sounds simple because we consume so many of them every day.  Think about it; video games, books, television, online role playing, conversations with friends, newspapers, blogs like this, the list is virtually endless.  Another way to think about it is imagine a day where you had no stories in your life.

So there's more to stories than just entertainment. It seems we need stories. What do we need them for?

Well, at its most basic level, stories used to - and still do to a certain extent - convey important information, sometimes so important that if we didn't hear it, we'd die!


FIRST STORYTELLERS

The first storytellers, our ancestors, used stories as a way to explain where the good hunting grounds could be found.  Or dangerous areas to avoid.  If we were to stick a story under the microscope and look at its DNA, this original purpose of storytelling remains one of its fundemental purposes. Understanding and accepting this might be a leap, but once you get it, the reason for wanting to tell your story will become much clearer.

If you're not interested in myth and history then there is also a scientific underpinning as to why telling stories, good ones, is so important to us.  In his book, The Blank Slate, Stephen Pinker explains that brain matter, from where we derive our consciousness, our mind, is organised on one level according to stories.

"Many nueroscientists argue that we are composed of stories, that stories themselves are the basis of our consciousness. The building blocks of stories are nothing more than the logical sequence of events in our memory. The way in which this logical sequencing affects us emotively becomes the narrative arch for the stories we share."

http://www.callofstory.org/en/storytelling/need.asp

The stories of our lives are memories. Now, we've all heard someone tell us a story, a memory of theirs maybe and after a minute we know we are very bored, or close to possibly throwing ourselves out a window.

Why?

Could the scientists and mythologists be right? Do we have some kind of story telling machine inside us?  One that goes nuts when we hear someone telling a story that sounds all wrong?  By making it boring? Or riduclous? Or not emotional enough?

If that's true, if we do have something ancient inside us, inside the grey matter of our brains, that knows what a story is, then the big question is, what is a good story and how do we tell it?


BASIC STRUCTURE OF ALL STORIES

We need a STRUCTURE. And, the most basic structure of all is CONFLICT and RESOLUTION. Of course you need a CHARACTER to have story actions happen to. And you've got to do your best to avoid CLICHE or STEALING others ideas. Think of any film you've watched and you can apply this simple framework to lesser or greater degree.

What's a conflict? Remember some of the exercises we did in class?



VERY SIMPLE STORYTELLING: NEARLY NOTHING THERE

Using a conflict and resolution model starts to make stories, on one level, like parables. I'm not saying this is a bad or good thing, nor something you should follow, however there is always a bit of 'learning' for the audience in any story. (just don't make it obvious or you'll bore people!)

Linking from this, if you're having problems thinking up stories you could start from somewhere different and Zen poems, which are kindof like little parables aren't a bad place to begin.

I found this site, Zen stories to Tell your Friends. If you can stand the dodgy design, the stories serve as very good examples of very simple stories. I thought more and more about them and realised they make a perfect starting point for short animations.

Your reaction to them will probably be - but sure there's hardly nothing there. There's virtually no story. And you'd be right. In a short animation, or any short film, you'll have to learn the difference between reading and telling the short prose story, and reading and telling the short film story.  They are two completely different things.

http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/zenstory.html

I reckon we could probably turn any of these tales, or adapt them, into lovely little animations.


PARABLES

Parables are christian incarnations of Zen Buddist stories. They are similar in that they involve a teaching element. They are also similar in the simplicity and ease of understanding (because they were developed from an oral tradition and had to be simple to be understood). This simplicity makes them perfect for short film making. Here's a site below, check out the story about the frog and the milk.

The Trouble Tree is also a good one. Very visual.

http://www.parablesite.com/




TRADITIONAL IRISH STORIES

Irish history and mythology is full of stories, many of which serve to function as warnings, or parables of human behaviour.

This fellow was doing Irish studies and put up loads of short Irish stories. Check out Set 1, the story about the Black and White Pig.

http://web.ncf.ca/er719/set1.html#5%20Minute

More from the different cycles of mythological Ireland.

http://www.mythicalireland.com/mythology/

Hmm.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/index.htm


STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Here is a fantastic resources with stories from around the world.

http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html





BUILDING YOUR FIRST STORY

I suppose I could stick up a thousand posts about things to read about the history of telling stories, how its hard wired into our brain, how the good story is a method of survival and a method of entertainment at the same time. But really, the only way to learn all this, and possibly believe, and then maybe love it, is just to get on with it and write a story.

You can go about this in a variety of ways. And they all depend on how confident you feel about writing screenplay. You could write a short prose story, and then with some help you could adapt it. Or you could draw a story (I mean it, not kidding, I drew my first short film. I had no script. I thought - its a visual medium, why am I writing anything at all. A number of Directors still think this way!)

Or you could just write your screenplay. So, pen is in hand, or computer is on lap. What do you need in your story? At the very least, you need the following:

a character
a setting
a problem
a resolution.

The suggested wisdom from everyone from Pixar to Aardman is that when you're writing short films have only ONE central idea. Have only ONE, or TWO central characters. Have a set up and a resolution.

Why do you need a character, a setting, a problem and a resolution? Well, you need a character because without a character you're making a mood piece, something poetic, possibly experimental, and not telling a story that concerns people.

You need a setting, because there has to be a world, an environment for this character to be in, interact with, fight with, maybe die in, find love in, whatever. Again, we all live on earth. In N. Ireland. This is our setting. And apart from the occassional spat of violence, the poor weather, the distance from main cultural hubs and lack of jazz clubs, its not a bad place.

You need a problem because you need CONFLICT. Conflict, overcoming problems, (like those old cave men telling the story about what watering hole to avoid) is the basis of all storytelling. Conflict is where EMOTION comes from.  Its also where HEROS are made. Or ANTI-HEROS.

Think about the stories you used to tell with your toys. Or in your head as a child. They were all hero stories. (I'd be interested to know what kinds of stories girls had in their heads when us wee boys were making and winning wars.) And finally, a resolution.  A resolution means an ending.  It doesn't have to be a happy ending.

Check out REACH. It was made from Candian Film Board money. I mention them because they have a long filmmaking pedigree and usually make good stuff. Reach embodies character, setting, problem and resolution beautifully.  Its wise, funny and very simple.


FOR MR HAMMOND.

In regards to an idea made in class around the conflict resolution story structure, check out this very sick little video...