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Pixar's Rules of Storytelling (2013)

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Re: Pixar's Rules of Storytelling (2013)

#71

Post by ascagnel_ »

amptorn wrote: post #56
runevault wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. For example: I need a chase scene in my story here. If you're telling a modern story, your first inclination is either a car chase or a foot chase. You certainly CAN just spice these up (put them in a surprising location being the easiest) but there is value in trying to find a different way (chase on Segways, or maybe on animals stolen from the zoo, etc).

> For example: I need a chase scene in my story here. This is not the greatest example because it's very rare that a story needs a chase scene to drive it forward. The end result will boil down to "they get away" or "they get caught" and both of these can be accomplished instantly, no full chase sequence required. Chase scenes are things you add to visual media because they're exciting. You never get them in books! A…

> This is not the greatest example because it's very rare that a story needs a chase scene to drive it forward. The end result will boil down to "they get away" or "they get caught" and both of these can be accomplished instantly, no full chase sequence required. Chase scenes are things you add to visual media because they're exciting. You never get them in books!

I disagree. A chase scene is a great way to build tension or provide a test of character, and maybe even a way to provide exposition. Using "The Hunt for Red October" (since I just watched that over the weekend), the first half of the film is essentially the main character chasing after a sub. It's not a fast-paced foot chase, but it provides a character test (how far he's willing to go to catch the sub), obstacles that are interesting when overcome, and provides an urgency to some of the exposition that's delivered at the film's start.

Re: Pixar's Rules of Storytelling (2013)

#72

Post by snowwrestler »

aequitas wrote: post #32
dahart wrote: post #6

> 4. Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___. This one reminds me of writing advice from South Park's Trey Parker: write better stories by figuring out how to replace all your "ands" and "buts" with "therefore". http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2015/05/the-k... > 20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you disli…

A good example of the rearranging is from Nerdwriters YouTube https://youtu.be/Gksxu-yeWcU Just a minor change in order of the same scenes completely changed a movie.

I attended a screening of Passengers that was followed by a QA with the writer afterward, and it was pretty uncomfortable at times.

He said he wrote the movie because he really wanted to explore the idea that sometimes people choose love even when it has hurt them--he used the example of people who get cheated on, yet stay with their partner and work it out.

But it became clear that he was so interested in this aspect of the movie that he just could not get perspective on the central violation of Jennifer Lawrence's character, which is truly horrific. Being awoken early, to spend your entire life on a spaceship you can't escape, by someone who wants to have sex with you... that's some pretty clear callouts to core human fears like slavery, claustrophobia, rape, etc.

A plot device that was just supposed to be an obstacle to love, is totally overpowering. Based on the questions, a lot of the audience couldn't get over it, me included, so the happy ending just felt forced, hollow, and unbelievable.

I take Passengers as a great example of why it might be good sometimes for studios to bring in someone new to rewrite a script. I think any good writer, coming to that script cold, would recognize the power of the core horror and start from there.

Passengers spent a while high on "The Black List," which is a consensus list of the best unproduced scripts in Hollywood. I wonder if that put the writer in a position to maintain more than the usual amount of control for a spec script.

Re: Pixar's Rules of Storytelling (2013)

#73

Post by ktbjn »

> 22. What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

I find it interesting that "your story" can be interpreted ambiguously in the last rule. But I guess it's a coincidence.

Re: Pixar's Rules of Storytelling (2013)

#74

Post by HedgeSparrow »

luord wrote: post #55

Someone already critiqued 19 so I'll speak against 16: Sure, stack the odds against the characters' success... But don't go overboard unless you're writing a tragedy. If the odds are too against the characters, the resolution is going to feel contrived, even if it makes sense and it's not really a Deus ex Machina.

I think you can just escape contrivance if you make the success come at great personal cost. Of course, if the cost is too great it becomes a tragedy.

Re: Pixar's Rules of Storytelling (2013)

#75

Post by philwelch »

luord wrote: post #55

Someone already critiqued 19 so I'll speak against 16: Sure, stack the odds against the characters' success... But don't go overboard unless you're writing a tragedy. If the odds are too against the characters, the resolution is going to feel contrived, even if it makes sense and it's not really a Deus ex Machina.

Stacking the odds against a character can also tie into justifying the character and the story to begin with. Jackie Chan always has the odds stacked against him because if he just used his immense skills to beat people up for two hours, he wouldn’t be sympathetic or likeable and the movies wouldn’t be very much fun at all. You have to justify your hero or else your hero is just a bully.

Re: Pixar's Rules of Storytelling (2013)

#76

Post by tonyedgecombe »

mrspeaker wrote: post #14

"Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way." I make this my personal rule when replying to something on the internet: if it's the first thing you thought of, there are already 20 other replies saying exactly the same thing!

Yeah, that was the first thing that came to my mind :)

Re: Pixar's Rules of Storytelling (2013)

#77

Post by AnimalMuppet »

TipVFL wrote: post #64
paulcole wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If coincidences are just coincidences why do they feel so contrived?

A good rule of thumb in storytelling is that coincidences that help your protagonists will feel like the writer just cheated to get out of a corner they wrote themselves into, whereas coincidences that hurt your protagonist are more easily accepted. If you feel you really need this lucky coincidence to save your character, you can fix that by going back earlier in the story and earning it. Your hero getting shot, and…

Exactly. You can have pretty much anything happen, if you put in the antecedents so that it is reasonable for it to happen.
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