Week 1

Storytelling. It is something we do almost every day, whether it be something funny we saw on the weekend, or something completely made up. Every story is open, and what I learnt in class this week, the first week of the semester, is that stories don’t have to follow a particular path or structure, typically, the three act structure with a beginning, middle and end. When I think of the word “story” I think of fact or fiction, a plot, a narrative, and some sort of resolution to conflict that arises throughout the story. I think what fascinated me about class this week was looking at the unconventional structure of stories, that audiences are taken on throughout the characters journey. The way audiences yield expectation that for every problem there will be a solution is something that drives me as a writer to push those boundaries and force audience members to be left wondering. As much as it left me begging for a sequel or explanation, this “unfinished” feeling left me full of wonder when watching what I would now regard as my favourite film – The Shining. The ending of the film depicts something that is still to this day something I can’t understand despite how many internet articles I have read on it. I even went as far as to watch a documentary called Room 237, elaborating on the thought processes behind the directorial genius Stanley Kubrick. Even then, there is little explanation. I guess I will forever be on the pursuit for an explanation.

Before class this week we were asked to watch a TED talk video, hosted by Filmmaker Andrew Stanton, one of the creative geniuses behind “Toy Story” and “WALL-E”, and he shards what he knows about storytelling. The entire talk by Stanton introduced many concepts, one of which was “wonder”, the concept I touched on above about “making you think about what was seen”. Stanton also raised the idea that “Stories are inevitable, if they’re good, but they’re not predictable”. I think this is an important point for any good storywriter attempting to construct a conclusion to their narrative – they must work with some sort of climax, but yet still seek that same “wonder” aspect that makes stories so enjoyable.

One thing that I didn’t agree with in Stanton’s speech was making the main character likeable. I can understand from his perspective that as an employee of Pixar, he wants to create “kind, generous, funny and considerate” characters to create a heart-warming story full of morals and lessons for younger children, but in more adult fiction, it is simply unnecessary. To draw from another in-class reference this week, the characters in Frankenstein, particularly the “monster” himself, is depicted as a bad figure, similarly his creator is not a “good” person but the novel/movie revolves around the idea of “what really makes someone/something a monster?”. Finding the deeper reason as to why the characters aren’t inherently “good natured” allows the audience to expand their knowledge of the role of a villain protagonist.