Directing the Story by Francis Glebas

The Goal: Why Do We Watch?

Why do we watch movies?

• live vicariously through characters
• learn things
• see spectacles
• see other worlds
• hear a good story
• escapism (from boredom)
• to be entertained

none of these necessarily tell us HOW to entertain.

1001 Nights of Entertainment

A fantasy setting is nice, but not a story.

Action, a power dynamic adds interest, but is not a story

Tension and conflict creates energy, but is not quite a story

The secret of storytelling is postponing the resolution of the tension - is delaying the story!

1001 Arabian Nights - a character delaying her own execution and helping the mad sultan by writing morals that couldn't be presented outright into stories- always

cliffhangers that kept her from being killed.

You have to watch a movie or magic trick twice to see how it works - you're immersed in the story the first time.

Come up with ideas using an unconscious search - ask questions, and see what your brain fills in - relax, no forcing, interfering, judging - sense of play.

Pledge that the audience will be rewarded for following along. Identifiable characters. Keep people guessing what will happen. Allow the audience more knowledge than the characters of what will happen.

What's at stake is nothing less than life and death

The story must be about something big, important, significant - even if the scope is small and local.

Show your audience what's at stake, don't tell - show WHY not just what your characters do what they do.

Prove that investing in the journey is worth it to your audience - by making it seemingly impossible for your characters (and yet they go anyway) - obstacle after obstacle.

Dramatization through Questions

Exaggerate the significance of events - they feel like life and death to the characters.

Simple dramas are made story worthy by interconnection through a sequence of cause and effect actions.

The characters have to get themselves into trouble then find ways to get out of it - presented to the audience in the form of questions and imaginative answers.

my note: wonder if that means we should present why getting them into trouble is the best solution they think they have at the time?

Critique: Is it too late to turn back?

Don't make the audience wait to see if something is going to happen - present backstory dramatically.

Entertainment Explained

Everything we do is to avoid pain and gain pleasure - biologically driven.

Watching a character learn to avoid pain through tension and conflict is learning - which is pleasurable.

Delayed gratification increases gratification.

Watch to feel good - to have an emotionally satisfying and meaningful experience.

Give the audience what they want - but not the way they expect it, so they are pleased by novelty and not bored.

Raw emotions on screen provoke reactions to those emotions, not the emotions themselves.

Bringing an audience on a journey to the place where they see why emotions are happening and empathize with them is story.

Aim for the heart by working at a structural level - all you have is pictures, words, sounds, music

What is the audience doing?

Think about the film from the audience's point of view - are they bored, confused, or engaged?

Second most important question besides "Why Do We Watch"

Reverse-engineering approach

Reverse engineer the audience - they aren't just watching! They're thinking through the movie in the mechanics of understanding not wordy thinking, starting even before they arrive to watch, based on their expectations for the show.

1. Bring their expectations and pay attention 

Have to present the story in a way that exceeds expectations

2. See the images clearly 

Design, composition, perspective, lighting

3. Reads the images, see characters things signs movement action symbols 

choose what to show and show how it's significant

4. builds a concept of the story and meaning in their head 

help them follow the story with sequencing and storytelling structure

5. Emotions arise out of meaning automatically 

identifying characters, story viewpoint, genres, narrative questions

6. Feel relief when the narrative questions close 

resolution, chekov's guns. Even a "we'll do it in the next movie" IS a resolution as they know we didn't forget it.

Promise to the reader: intuition illuminated!

Experience is a good teacher, but tactics and techniques are a good help rather than starting from scratch.

The goal of storyboarding skills is for them to disappear into the art of storytelling.

The secret of storytelling is story-delaying

And there are a lot of ways to do it.

Have to put your heart into the work - you want to move the audience.

Escaping boredom is universally funny because it's an unspoken truth - we want our lives to be exciting (we keep them boring to be safe)

Shows are a safe way to experience an exciting life for a bit!

Characters and people are made out of stories.

Points to remember: Why Do We Watch

• We watch movies to feel good - meet that need in your audience
• Make sure your story is about something that matters
• Aim at providing an emotionally satisfying experience for your audience, but work at the the structural level
• The secret of storytelling is story-delaying. Learn the different tactics to tease your audience by making them wait
• The next time you're at a movie pay attention to what experiences you are going through as you watch. Notice what triggers your emotions.

Common Beginner Problems

Where do you begin?

It's easy to fix drawing problems. It's harder to learn to fix story problems.

We learn to tell stories of what happened to us everyday - but not how to tell them visually.

The skills involved in visual storytelling also have to be learned.

A well-executed movie is seamless - it's easier to learn problems by watching a bad one!

The catch-22 of the character-driven intuitive approach

Most stories are a mix of action and character - but you have to make sure that the character side is there!

Identifying with a character = identifying with their desires

Characters act to get their desires, and make mistakes based on their personalities and experience - this creates plot.

Different media does different things well:

Novels 

what people think

Plays 

dialogue

Movies/TV 

action!

Character-driven stories are about characters taking action to get what they want.

Character motivations don't help you structure visual storytelling.

What Can Possibly Go Wrong?

Even pros have issues sometimes.

Speaking Problems

Need to be able to control our pictures to say what we want.

Filmic equivalent to speaking problems:

Say one thing at once 

Often beginner boarders have too many things going on at once.

Run-on sentences 

when you get to the end, stop. Animation doesn't need coverage!

lack of punctuation 

let your jokes hit before moving on to the next gag.

Shaggy dog story 

tangents that don't drive the story or are irrelevant

Bad grammar 

poor sequencing of visual images

Nothing to say 

knockoff films, "kids stuff"

Catch-22 Revisited

You're not actually starting out from nothing - you have life experience, communication, TV and movie watching.

And now digital stuff is inexpensive and widely available.

What Do Directors Direct?

Directors direct the elements of the film, in order to direct the emotions - by means of directing the attention of the audience

Enemies of Good Design

• boredom
• confusion

A Fine Mess

Storyboard is creating a thread of images (not just drawings) and deciding when to show them to the audience

Clear and Dramatic Fights Confusion and Boredom

KISS - clarity fights confusion.

Boredom > lack of dramatic questions - what's going to happen next!

The Speaking Metaphor

We tell a story with pictures as if we were speaking it with words.

Noun and verbs into series of pictures.

Each new idea an image, one at a time.

Show and Tell

A series of images are needed to show condition, action, result - also context

Every Shot Is A Close-Up

Shot size usually refers to the human subject of a frame.

In story context of a shot, EVERY shot is a closeup - focusing on only one thing, but that can be from a massive spacious environment to a tiny detail.

What Is a Story?

A story is the telling of a series of events about a character who wants something, and has to overcome obstacles to get it.

A story has opposition for contrast and meaning.

Something (maybe an idea) has to die in the conflict.

A play hypothesis, a quest in the form of a question, seduction in the shape of a war.

Internal character conflicts played out as an external war.

Seduction that begins with "What If" that gives the audience the experience life's struggles are wroth it

1. vizualize a story
2. tell/show the story engagingly

clear pictures to grab attention, dramatizations to keep attention.

Events of the Story

Aim at the heart by working at the structural level.

Plot/events/content vs fable/story/discourse/form.

The events are what is on the screen, the story is what, written into those events, reforms in the minds of the audience.

Events of the story

Structure of the telling of the story

An Experiment

The story is what we remmber, the structure is how it's told.

Done right, the structure, while totally visible, becomes totally hidden by our involvement in experiencing the story.

Suspension of disbelief is automatic in the willingness to entertain a story being told.

Structuring Stories

Structure - the relationship between the parts of a story: The narrative questions and the delays (gaps) and answers to those questions - how they're presented.

The story is misdirection to prevent us from noticing how it's being prevented.

Chart of Story Events and Structure
The events of the story are what happens
Thershold of awareness: dividing what's noticed vs not
Structure - how the story is told.

What is Character?

character - a person represented on screen

Characters aren't real people - they're caricatures or crystalization of the essences of aspects of people

Look at what rules govern a character's behavior

Visually show characters, their goals and limitations, decisions, changes, etc.

Keith Johnstone describes wonderful ways to develop characters in Impro and Impro for Storytellers.

Johnstone says stories should contain moral choice - especially if it's the wrong choice at first!

Nervous actors block because "Making a moral choice alters you, makes your character experience relief, or sadness, or despair, or whatever, so moral choices are avoided"

Points to Remember: Common Beginner Problems

• Make sure your story is character-driven by their desires
• Be aware of potential speaking problems that may bump your audience out of being "lost" in the story
• Remember the speaking metaphor: Clearly show one thing at a time
• Fight boredom by weaving interesting narrative questions that create dramatic characters in escalating conflict
• Fight confusion by focusing the audience's attention to one thing at a time as you tell the story
• Treat every shot as a close-up of what you wish to show the audience
• Make sure your images clearly show the story ideas that you intend to convey
• Aim at the heart by working at a structural level.

The Beginning Basics

Planning story:

script

verbal plan

storyboard

visualization plan

comic strips are teeny storyboards - study how they make people feel good

History and Function of Storyboards

Disney storyboards started as showing the composer the flow of the story for music, and migrated onto boards.

Winsor McCay may have created the storyboard to plan live-action interaction films like Gertie.

Hitchcock - "If it won't work [on the board], it won't work on film."

Expedient, and saves money.

Various Types of Storyboards

• Animation boards create the acting/staging.
• Live action boards are a scene setup guide for the actors/cameras, don't have to represent final picture cases.
• Live shows are edited live from multiple cameras, don't use storyboard.
• Television boards must be on model and detailed - used for the animation order, with full continuity hookups
• Animatics for construction of animated film - emotional road map
• VFX storyboards - to help the effects artists and actors anticipate what the final shot/timing should look like

Production Process

1. Need a story - from scripts or loose treatments (plan for script)
2. Collect reference/inspiration images
   • from library/internet
   • from magazines or take photos
   • from personal collection of reference you build
   • from movies and tv
3. Viz dev - the realm of art director & prod designer, but storyboard often hapens first

The Beat Board

Single drawing per scene to tell the story, for pitching to execs, investors, crew review

Storyboarding Overview

Read the script, analyze key storytelling beats - identifying starts, twists & turns, payoffs, interests for audience

Develop appealing characters w/unique personalities - whose point of view to express the material

Worry more about story than continuity in initial thumbnail/rough pass. Experiment and replace drawings as needed.

Ref number on drawings

Story Reels

Animatic. Full continuity, including entrances/exits of characters and shot hookups.

The Refinement Process

Edit and update the board in the storyreel to make the ideas work and the gags/tensions of the film to hit properly.

Pitching

Show someone your boards realtime, narrating the audio (why not just show them the story reel?)

Rehearse beforehand.

Pitch with passion but not out of control. Don't stand in front of the boards. Don't narrate what the camera does.

Bold drawings that read across a room

The Gong Show

storyboards are used to pitch new films/shows to execs

How to Tell a Story with Pictures

Most important thing to remember is to make sure your sequence of images is telling the same story that you think you are telling.

Many ways to tell any story and so equally many ways to storyboard.

Breaking Down the Script: What Are Story Beats?

Script page 

written description of action and dialog

scene 

small unit of conflict in the story, a larger cumulative change that steps the story along and changes the location or time or POV.

story beat 

idea or little action. The tiny changes that makes up the scene

How to Storyboard a Scene

Break script into main story beats

Look for main narrative questions, underlying theme

Create a shot/beat list

Storyboarding - almost a rewrite, using images to show rather than tell.

The first pass at directing the film.

Staging the Action

Staging: overall layout of the characters and background/foreground on the scene.

Planning diagram first! Block out where everyone moves when.

First pass in thumbnails.

May not be able to change the script, but subtext is free reign

Ignoring the 4th Wall

A trick in storytelling is to tell someone else the story, or present the story without appearing to consider the audience- therefore the audience doesn't feel noticed- and instinctively watches more.

Points to Remember: Beginning Basics

• Draw BOLD! Make your images easy to see as a billboard.
• Number your drawings
• Pitch clearly and passionately
• Storyboards are always a work in process. Start out rough and don't be afraid to throw away drawings. Keep at it until you find the image that best tells the story.
• Avoid relying on "talking head" shots. Tell the story visually. Invent visual devices.
• Watch the Wallace and Gromit shorts: A Close Shave and The Wrong Trousers as an example of great visual storytelling.
• Watch old silent movies to see how they tell stories without words.

Structural Approach: Tactics to Reach the Goal

Points to Remember: Drawing for Storyboarding

• Carry a sketchbook and sketch, sketch, sketch!
• Sketch some more.
• Draw the story
• Use gestures to help tell the story
• Learn to draw the essentials fast
• Try scenes a dozen different ways to compose them
• Film always says one thing at a time, and everything must relate to that one thing
• Draw the pose, not the parts. Don't blow it with too many details
• Draw verbs (actions) not nouns (names of things)
• Don't stiffen up your poses. Think diagonals.
• Watch the Disney aniamted classics for examples of great drawings.
• Watch Hayao Miyazaki's films such as Kiki's Delivery Service or My Neighbor Totoro for great visual storytelling and drawing.
• Study comic books for great drawing and visual storytelling.

What do Directors Direct?

Events of the story
Threshold of Awareness
Structural Level (work here)	Directors Direct Attention

Points to Remember: What Directors Direct

• A director must wear many hats:
  • magician
  • hypnotist
  • ventriloquist
  • cheerleader
  • psychologist
  • mediator
  • shepherd
• First and foremost a director directs the audience's attention and keeps directing it
• Change the pace so your audience doesn't grow fatigued. Give them a chance to catch their breath and give them some new scenery
• Misdirect the audience in order to entertain them. But make sure you are clearly directing their attention.
• Learn the gestalt principles and make them work for you
• Analyze the hierarchy of narrative questions, delays, and answers in your film.
  • Are the questions dramatically interesting?
  • Do they maintain dramatic tension throughout the story?
  • Would it be stronger if you moved some around?

How to Direct the Eyes

Events of the story
Threshold of Awareness
Structural Level (work here)	Directors Direct Attention	Directing the Eyes and Ears

Points to Remember: Directing the Eyes

• analyze your compositions, exploring each design element at a time, as well as overall
• Design and composition principles apply to every level of film construction from single shot composition to the overall structure of the whole film
• As director you you are the conductor of the moving visuals.
  • You need to control graphic noise in order to make music.
  • Tone down graphic noise by lowering the contrast.
  • Punch up the contrast on where you want the audience to look
• Use composition to create visual drama
• Composition is subtext. It tells the audience how to feel. Make sure you know what you are saying
• Strive for visual clarity, simple but dynamic
• Experiment with moving the camera around to stage the best composition.
• Make sure each shot has a focus or center of dattention. Make sure this has the greatest contrast of value.
• Be aware of where your characters are in the frame and what their placement says about them.
• Use elements of your composition as arrows and pathways to direct the viewer's eyes
• Group and mass similar things to simplify your composition. Mass your darks together to avoid making the picture look spotty
• Weave your compositions with dark over light and light over dark
• Watch 300 to study its dynamic composition.

Directing the Eyes Deeper In Space and Time

Points to Remember: Time And Relative Dimension In Space

• Make sure to give your characters breathing room
• stage from a simple plan and use arrows like a football play
• Use camera movement and framing to help tell the story one idea at a time
• for beauty shots use telephoto lenses
• for dynamic excitement use wide-angle lenses to keep maximum movement through the frame. Shoot on teh camera's axis
• Use proximity to determine the level of engagement with your characters appropriate for the stage of your film
• Watch Lawrence of Arabia for a great exploration of screen space

How to Make Images Speak: The Hidden Power of Images

Events of the story
Threshold of Awareness
Structural Level (work here)	Directors Direct Attention	Directing the Eyes and Ears	Reading Significance

Points to Remember: Making Images Speak

• Explore all the ways images ask questions to get powerful narrative questions
• use semiotics to find ways to speak indirectly, thus engaging more participation from your audience
• Stack your connotations so that if you present one aspect, it will trigger the whole thing in the minds of your audience
• Everything speaks, it is impossible not to communicate. Remember, you have to teach your audience what the signs mean.
• Be sure to check out Daniel Chandler's book, Semiotics: THe Basics and his online seminar, Semiotics for Beginners
• Film is created like a dream. Slowly let it evolve layering significances and associations until you have a rich tapestry of signs

How to Convey and Suggest Meaning

Points to Remember: Conveying Meaning

• Restructure to cut out boring passages and expand scenes to draw out dramatic moments
• Tell the story through the juxtaposition
• Follow classical continuity editing-- keep the structure invisible
• Always cut for a reason
• Utilize different types of causality and create story delays with Murphy's Law
• Connect your shots logically as a sequence of causes and effects
• Use storyboards to plan good continuity in space and time
• Keep the pendulum swinging between hope and fear
• Watch Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life to study uplifting supernatural causality. Watch I Know What You Did Last Summer to see the darker side of supernatural causality
• Watch Back to the Future for its manipulation of time
• Use Murphy's Law to create great obstacles

Dramatic Irony

Points to Remember: Dramatic Irony

• Work out a chart of the key information. Map when different characters get to know this info and when the audience gets to know it
• Use the chart for ironic commenting on the story
• You, as director, control the flow of information about who gets to know what, when, where, how, and why. This applies to the characters and the audience.

Give your characters impossible choices.

• Evoke desires and fears in order for your audience to fully invest themselves in the story
• Watch Stranger than Fiction and Aladdin, and pay attention to how much more you know than the characters
• Shakespeare also used dramatic irony in structuring his plays. Study them.

The BIG Picture: Story Structures

Points to Remember: Story Structure

• Study your story in the script and storyboard stages, before you shoot.
• Chart out your stories as a mapmaker would. A director has to see the forest and the trees. Study your story with every kind of analysis:
  • the hero's journey and the plot curve for the big picture
  • character emotions and plot functions for the mid-level
  • narration and narrative questions for the micro level
• Watch:
  • The Fisher King
  • Starting OUt in the Evening
  • Groundhog Day
  • Star Wars
  • The Karate Kid

Aiming for the Heart

Points to Remember: Aiming for the Heart

• Find your theam and use it as your compass
• Discover what fantasy you are trying to fill for your audience
• We watch movies for many reasons but mostly to have emotionally satisfying experiences. This is your target as a filmmaker
• Work at structure and keep it invisible by giving the audience reasons to love and root for heroes and reasons to hate villains
• Engage your audience with close-ups; put them in the heart of the action
• Make your audience wish for things to happen and let them imagine how events might have occurred. This makes them guilty participants of their own pleasures.
• Present your audience with moral choices
• Watch The Man in the Chair for how it develops its theme
• Pay attention to how the music and color in films affect you