Film Studies and Cinematography/Project 1 – Story Development

 24/09/2024 - /2024 (Week 02 – Week 06)

You Siyuan / 0366978

Film Studies and Cinematography / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylors University

Project 1 – Story Development

INTRODUCTION

LECTURES

Week 1

In this week's course, Mr. Kamal showed us the MIB content of this subject and explained it, telling us the main content of the course and the general tasks of each stage.

Fig1.1 Week 1(24/9/2024)Class Notes

Week 2

Introduce

The power of storytelling lies in its ability to connect with people on an emotional level.

Incorporating personal experiences into a story makes it more vivid and relatable.

The story had to be retold many times before it was perfect.

Pixar's goal is to inspire others to tell their own stories through the storytelling process.

Your unique perspective

Pixar storytellers discuss how they came to tell stories and express themselves creatively.

They talked about drawing, comic books, and finding inspiration in their own lives.

Each emphasized the importance of personal experiences and unique insights in storytelling.

The audience is encouraged to think about a vivid memory and express it in different ways.

Highlight the power of storytelling and the unique perspective each person brings to their story.

What story first pulled you in?

Advice from storytellers

How is the imagination stimulated by asking "what if" questions

"What if" questions inspire imagination and storytelling.

It opens the door to imagination by shutting down the logical part of the brain.

The directors of Sanjay's super team used a "what if" question to guide the creative process.

At Pixar, it's an easy way to communicate story ideas.

Note:

Worlds and characters are fundamental elements of storytelling.

This world can be a metaphor for deeper themes, like growing up in Toy Story.

Characters should be charming and compelling, even if the world is secondary.

Some artists prioritize the characters, others prioritize the world as the story develops.

The best stories are created when worlds and characters meet.

Week 3

Character development is a course that explores how to make the audience care about characters by putting them in difficult situations.

Highlight

The "elevator test" is a useful tool for understanding characters and how they react in a crisis.

Characters should be deeply flawed, yet entertaining, because flaws may be the key to the audience caring about them.

The characters will guide the audience through the story, sharing their lessons, challenges and emotions.

The course encourages experimenting with different exercises to create compelling characters.

Helpful female robots are always available to provide guidance and support.

Role development process

The goal of character development is to create fully developed characters that the audience can care about.

Characters can be explored by considering their outer characteristics (design, clothing, appearance) and inner characteristics (insecurity, bravery, jealousy).

Authentic human emotions and experiences are very important to creating believable characters.

Drawing inspiration from real-life characters and situations can help shape specific and unique characters.

Understanding a character's desires is crucial to driving their journey.

When developing a character, it is crucial to understand the difference between what the protagonist wants and what they need. Desires drive a character's behavior, while needs are what they have to do, or learn to grow and succeed in life.

Obstacles

Obstacles are the elements that prevent a character from getting what they want or need.

Barriers can be external or internal, such as people, distance, or fear.

Pixar's story artists create obstacles that allow their characters to face challenges and grow.

Obstacles force characters to confront their fears and lead to fight or flight scenarios.

The best obstacles reflect the character's flaws and shortcomings and make them think about their own needs.

CHARACTERS

Character arcs refer to the choices a character makes in the face of obstacles and how the character changes.

Obstacles build a person's character and lead to their transformation.

Without obstacles, the arc of the character does not exist.

In movies like "The Incredibles" and "Inside Out," the obstacles the characters face lead to their personal growth and transformation.

Characters need to work for their accomplishments in order to truly cherish them.

Fig1.2 Week 3(24/9/2024)Class Notes

These are some of the definitions introduced in this lesson.

External features: The clothing, design, or appearance of a character.

Intrinsic traits: A character's personality, beliefs, or drive.

Desire: What drives a character to act.

Needs: Things a character must do or learn in order to succeed or grow.

Obstacle: Something that prevents a character from getting what they want.

Character Arc: The choices a character makes to overcome obstacles, and how those choices change.

Risk: If the characters fail to achieve their goals (or, what are the consequences of their choices?)

External: The physical changes that will occur to the character or world

Inside: What happens to the character emotionally

Philosophy: What will happen to the world's values or belief systems

Week 4

Story structure

Spine of a story

theme

Apply story spine to your story according to structure:

Method 1

1. Once upon a time...

2. Every day...

3. Until one day...

Method 2

4. That's why...

5. That's why...

6. That's why...

Act 3

7. Until the end...

8. Since then...

The moral of the story is that...

Week 5

Six elements of script format

Scene title

The first formatting element is the scene title - also known as the segment line.

act

It's important for the story but sound effects heard off-screen need to be in all caps.

character

This has its own line in all caps. Characters speaking off-screen or in voiceover should be specified by os or vo

It's in parentheses

Parenthetical phrases provide context or guidance for the transmission of dialogue. These should be used with caution so as not to reduce the readability of the script.

Dialogue

Next, the dialogue block is offset from everything else and centered on the page. Parallel dialogues (overlapping dialogues) are written side by side.

transition

Readability is key!

In addition, there must be 1.5 inches of left margin, 1 inch for both top and bottom, and 3.7 inches for the dialog box to the left of the page. The easiest way to conform to industry standard formats is to use screenwriting software

Week 6

Content

Introduce

Major and minor beats

Basic lens type

Extreme values and angles

Still vs. moving photos

storyboard

Introduce

Elements of film grammar:

Frame

Temporary storage

Movement

Editing

Fig1.3 Week 6(24/9/2024)Class Notes

EXERCISES

REFLECTION

Experiences

In my first project in Film Studies and Cinematography, I completed the whole process from story conception to plot development by myself. The experience gave me a new appreciation for the structure and integrity of the story, and I learned a lot. By watching the relevant video introductions and the teacher's notes, I gradually improved my grasp of the story's level and emotional expression, especially in terms of balancing plot logic and characterization.

Observations

It is observed that lens language plays an important role in story telling. From the close-up shots that show the emotions of the characters to the long shots that show the atmosphere of the environment, I understand that the choice of shots can directly affect the audience's feelings and understanding. Therefore, in terms of picture composition, I need to try various ways to emphasize the key plot of the story, and synchronize the emotional experience of the audience with the inner changes of the characters through the arrangement of lens transition and rhythm, so that I have a new understanding of the fine design of audiovisual language.

Findings

I found that to write a complete story independently requires not only creativity and knowledge, but also self-motivation and perseverance. In the process of independent creation, I learned how to examine my own works and how to modify them to find the narrative way that can most move the audience. This experience not only improved my creative ability, but also made me deeply understand the uniqueness of stories and the complementarity of lens language in film creation, which laid a solid foundation for my future film and television creation.