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The Goal: Why Do We Watch?
Why do we watch movies?
1001 Nights of Entertainment
What's at stake is nothing less than life and death
Dramatization through Questions
1001 Nights Entertainment Revisited
Critique: Is it too late to turn back?
Entertainment Explained
Opportunity from criticism
What is the audience doing?
Reverse-engineering approach
Why do we watch and more
Promise to the reader: intuition illuminated!
The secret of storytelling is story-delaying
Points to remember
- 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?
The catch-22 of the character-driven intuitive approach
What can possibly go wrong?
What do directors direct?
The speaking metaphor
Show and Tell
Every Shot Is A Close-Up
What Is a Story?
What is Character?
Critique: Introducing Scheherazade
Points to Remember
- 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
History and Function of Storyboards
Various Types of Storyboards
Production Process
The Beat Board
Storyboarding Overview
Story Reels
The Refinement Process
Pitching
The Gong Show
How to Tell a Story with Pictures
Breaking Down the Script: What Are Story Beats?
How to Storyboard a Scene
Staging the Action
Critique: Scheherazade's Storytelling
Points to Remember
How to Draw for Storyboarding: Motion and Emotion
Only 99,999 to Go
From Stick Figures to Balloon People
Walt Stanchfield's Gesture Drawing Class
Caricature
Designing Interesting Characters
The Story Drive of Emotions
Drawing the Four Main Emotion Groups
Miscellaneous Drawing Tips
Drawing for Clarity and the Use of Clear Silhouettes
Mort Walker's The Lexicon of Comicana
Technical Aspects of Storyboards
Critique: 1001 Drawings
Points to Remember
Structural Approach: Tactics to Reach the Goal
Once upon a time
Critique: Developing Character Relationships
Points to Remember
What do Directors Direct?
How to Get Attention
The Map is Not the Territory
Selective Attention
Keeping Attention
Keeping Structure Invisible: Tricks of Attention
The Power of Suggestion
How the Brain Organizes Information: Gestalt
Director as Magician
Hierarchy of Narrative Questions
Critique: Scheherazade Directs Attention
Points to Remember
How to Direct the Eyes
Visual Clarity
What I Learned from Watercolor Artists: The Missing Piece of Design
Where Do I Look?
The Design Equation
Directing the Eye with Composition
A Magical Effect: How a Picture Makes You Feel
Light and Shadows
Points to Remember
Directing the Eyes Deeper In Space and Time
What is Wrong With This Picture?
What to Use: Telephoto or Wide-Angle Lenses?
How to use Framing to tell a Story
Camera Mobility
Alternative Approaches
A Trick for Planning Scenes
Proximity
Point of View: Subjective Camera
The Town of Dumb Love and SketchUp
Beware of Depth Killers
Points to Remember
How to Make Images Speak: The Hidden Power of Images
A Fancy Word for Clues
Why Should You Care about Clues?
How Movies Speak to Us
The Mind Makes Associations
Crime Story Clues and Signs
Significant Objects
How Images Ask Questions
Speaking Indirectly
Everything Speaks, If You Know The Code
Semiotic Square
Semiotic Analysis of the Scheherazade and "Dumb Love" Stories
Points to Remember
How to Convey and Suggest Meaning
Continuity and Causality: How we put Juxtaposed Images Together
Multiple Types of Causality
Screen Geography: Letting the Audience Know Where They Are
Eyeline Matches
Time Continuity
History of Film Editing
Why Do We Have to Tell Stories?
The Film as Time Machine
Why Cuts Work
Why We Speak the Narration to Ourselves
Points to Remember
Dramatic Irony
Who Gets to Know What, When, Where, How, and Why (Including the Audience)
Can You Keep a Secret?
Pendulum of Suspense
Places for Dramatic Irony
Critique: What Does the Sultan Know?
Points to Remember
The BIG Picture: Story Structures
Primitive Filmic Structures and Propp's Story Functions
The Hero's Journey or the Neurotic's Road Trip
Three Levels of Story Analysis
Mentors
Paradigms of Changing the Impossible to the Possible
Ending, Beginning, and Turning Points
Types of Scenes
What Happens if you Move the Structure Around?
Points to Remember
Aiming for the Heart
Do We Really Identify with the Hero?
Fears, Flaws, Wants, and Needs
Love Stories: What Keeps Lovers Apart?
What is So Scary about Horror?
The Rubberband Theory of Comedy: Aiming for the Backside of the Heart
So Many Crime Shows
Emotional Truth
Music and Color: Not Meaning, but Meaningful
What Is It All About?
Happy Ever After
Piglet's Big Compilation
Why We Watch Movies, Revisited
The Story Knot and the Formula for Fantasy
Emotional Engagement of a Story
Points to Remember
Summary: Recapitulation of All Concepts
Asking Questions and Getting Answers
Reference
Analysis and Evolution of the Scheherazade Project
Story Evolution: Making it Clearer and More Dramatic
Thematic Analysis and Dramatic Structures
Story Parallels and Repetitions
Hierarchy of Narrative Questions of the Scheherazade Story
Cuts for Length or to Make the Story Move Quicker
Changes Made to Make the Story More Dramatic or Resonant
Conclusion: Now We Must Say Good-bye
What They Don't Tell You
Tips for Keeping Your Dream Alive
Things Are Not Always What They Seem
