The rules of cinematic story telling

Culture

The good and the taboo

Bromances are chaste

Triads

The only thing better than a duality

Protagonist
Antagonist

(Christian Bale's) Batman

1. Protagonist
2. Antagonist
3. Antagonist (with a Hero's Journey)

Children's stories

Comedy

Light
Dark

Seeing clearly

Misunderstandings are clarified

Identities are revealed

Lovers are united

Anima

Animus

Shrek

The Pixar sandwich

Finding Nemo

• A boy is lost in the ocean
  and returns to his loving father
• A grieving widower learns to live again

Hero's Journey

• The hero in their world and what ails it
• The hero attempts to heal the world and fails
• The hero attempts to heal the world and succeeds

Compression
Decompression

Rising peril

Anatomy of a scene

Empire Strikes Back, 1980

Compression, rising tension

Scenes are divided into three acts

Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.

• Thesis
• Argument
• Statement

He told me enough! He told me you killed him!

• Counter-thesis
• Counter-argument
• Retort

No. I am your father.

• Synthesis
• Resolution
• Escalation

The enjoyable film

• Brings the protagonist and antagonist into conflict
• Moves from misunderstanding to understanding
• Is structured into three acts
• Steadily increases tension throughout the story
  • Via alternating scenes of pressure and relief
• Unites the anima and animus
  • Ideally in a wedding

Rules

The rules of storytelling reflect our internal demands and reinforce them

Into the woods by John Yorke

Seven basic plots by Christopher Booker