thoughts on storytelling

The storyboard is a universally accepted step in the process of making an animated film. But how often do we question why we actually make the storyboard? Generally the answer is that the storyboard is a tool to make the plot of the screenplay visual. In my opinion this is not a good reason. Everything in a film, from the screenplay down to each individual shot or sound, should be there to help convey a message or theme. If we, while storyboarding, focus on the plot, which itself also is a tool to convey the message, we're only focused on illustrating a tool that tries to convey the message and not on illustrating the message itself. This may seem like nit-picking, but in my opinion, if we want to make a film that really moves our audience, we need to use every possible chance to improve on the how the message is conveyed. If we only storyboard the plot of the screenplay, we don't take the storyboard as a chance to improve.

We value knowledge. As group living animals we feel that knowledge moves us up the hierarchy. But what we fail to see that our knowledge often makes us narrow-minded. We may say that we seek to learn more, but we mainly seek to strengthen our opinion and seldom to disprove it, fearing that disproving it may make us seem stupid. We act as solid rock instead as moldable clay and by doing this we stop to develop, stop moving forward. To develop as people we should learn from those around us that are wiser. Those who accept that they don't know everything and those who aren't afraid asking questions will make them look stupid. Those who allow themselves to develop. We should learn from children.

Here in Sweden there is an over reliance on voice over in animated films, and its done to the degree that, if you would turn of the sound when watching them, you'd have no idea of what was going on. All of the story is told in the voice over, the animation and visuals are only in the films to give some visual stimulation to the audience while they listen to the voice over telling them the story. You could say that most Swedish animation is illustrated radio rather than film.

This is a continuation of the article Subtext Through Metaphors and Metonymies. If you haven't read the previous article, please read it first . I learned a new and shiny word the other day "Lacuna", the word meaning a missing segment in a text or a silent part in music. Lacuna is a word that I think nicely describes what this article will get in to, how 1 + 1 can equal 3. The answer lies in the missing part...

We have all heard that great stories are told through their subtext. But what is subtext? Generally it's said that the subtext is what is not being said, but if this is the case, why doesn't a TV, that's been turned of, communicate a lot of wonderful subtext? Saying that subtext is what's not being said is just explanation using empty words and has no practical value. Subtext is the part of the story told in the audiences imagination . To use subtext optimally we need to influence and control our audiences imagination and do it with out them noticing it. If they start noticing the tools we use to try to influence them they will be paying attention to the tools and not the characters and the story - with other words: We've lost them.

On Concrete Babylon as on other films, after I've found what I feel is a story idea/concept that is good enough that it may be developed in to a film, the first step, or milestone, for me is to make the one-sheet. A one-sheet is a short description of the film containing a key image, story pitch and project description. The reason behind creating the one-sheet is that it sums up the project in a short and easily digestible way that can be used both for external parties, to help get funding, and, more importantly, for the creators to create a stable base to build the rest of the film on top of. The one-sheet also helps in defining the goals of the project and making them more concrete which allows the creators to work more focused and make faster decisions by being able to see if the different choices actually works towards the goals.

When starting of as filmmakers, a lot of people confuse being unclear with being deep and sophisticated. I used to think the same, now I know nothing is further from the truth. By trying to be different and deep by making a story hard to understand, not wanting to follow "traditional story structure", using over the top metaphors, telling the story non-linear and telling the story in a way that is often considered more "advanced" storytelling you are actually telling the story exactly as what you'd get when asking a five-year old to tell you a story. Behaving like a five-year old isn't as sophisticated as people like to make it. People tend to be afraid to give out too much information, especially at the beginning of the story, thinking that it will ruin the tension of the story, but the opposite is true. Not giving out enough information is what will ruin the tension.