The Principles Of Storytelling

This last week has been all about the principles of storytelling. Almost all stories fall under the seven following categories.

Overcoming the monster (War of the Worlds, King Kong, Godzilla)

Rags to riches (Slumdog Millionaire, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Social Network)

The Quest (Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, Labyrinth)

Voyage and return (Interstellar, Inception, Cast Away)

Comedy (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Superbad, Shaun of the Dead)

Tragedy (The Lion King, Fight Club, No Country for Old Men)

Rebirth (A Christmas Carrol, Star Wars, Harry Potter)

The storytelling mechanism that attracts me the most are tragedy, rags to riches and comedy. The reason for tragedy and rags to riches is attractive to me is because it is easier to relate to someone who has a hard time or someone who went from nothing to everything. People in general like to root for the underdog. Comedy in my opinion is one of the hardest storytelling mechanisms to pull off. Everyone has a different taste in comedy. For me a good comedy has to have good characters which drive the comedy not just slapstick humor but I think it is also important that a comedy does not take itself too serious. A comedy I enjoy a lot that does not take itself serious is ‘Hot Rod’ see included clip.

(Hot Rod, 2007)

The film is not afraid to go from something serious to something utterly ridiculous. It is the only instance in the film they use this style of editing and it comes completely out of left field.

For my own projects I have always gone in the direction of tragedy films. Personally I want to leave a film with a story that impacted me, a story which could have happened to anyone. For one of my projects I had to make a short film in 38 hours. Me and my team decided to make a short film about suicide, I took my inspiration from the Coen brothers and Edgar Wright. I think it is important to show people the hard side of life. Most entertainment shies away from heavy handed topics and always tries to show how good life is.

(The film is in Dutch)

(Dunes, 2017)

For my current project I am looking to do a tragedy film once again. This time the focus will be on domestic abuse. I think this is a topic that people are afraid to face and that needs more direct attention. The main focus will be the psychiatric effects that are the result.

The main storytelling skill that I want to improve is how to impact a viewer in a way that they feel uncomfortable. I want my stories to have an impact on someone even if it is not the happiest subject to be confronted with. I think this skill will mostly develop in character design and dialog. The latter being one of my main focus for professional development.

References.

Hot Rod. 2007. [DVD] Directed by A. Schaffer. Vancouver: Paramount Pictures.

Dunes. 2017. Directed by J. Giezen. Haarlem: Independent.