Embedded Files
Four "Must-Haves" of your Film's Storyline
In order for your story idea to be potentially approved, it must start out by meeting the four requirements:
1) Original. If someone starts reading or watching your film and it sounds familiar to a movie they have seen, choose a new idea or give it a make-over
2) Can't be predictable. If someone starts reading or watching the first half of your film and can easily predict the second half...then it won't work.
3) Viewer must be able to relate to it and have an emotional response while watching it:
- laughing
- crying
- anger
- sympathy
- fear
4) At the end of the film, the viewer must have learned something new or the film made them a better person. We are not just making shallow entertainment films.
To help you achieve a good storyline, follow the standard narrative arc:
Take notes and learn about the three acts. Then watch one of the previous story projects, Chop Chop Mei-Xing, think of how the film met the following:
Intro (background info):
Conflict:
Rising Action:
Climax:
Falling Action:
Conclusion:
Three Acts
Most films have a three-act structure:
Act I: introduces the characters, situated in environment
Act II: rises the action and conflict
Act II: payoff, has gone as far as it go, climax
Film Diagram
Choose a popular animated movie (e.g. Disney) that most have seen and draw a diagram that goes along with the story in your CA book (on the opposite book side of these notes) and label & fill in the info of the story using the story elements.
When finished, use the Evernote App on your phone to create a photo note (choose document camera in Evernote) to take a photo of each of your notes. Then open the note on Evernote.com or the application on your computer and click share and it will give you a public link to the note which you will paste to the spreadsheet.
Do not spend a lot of time on this part, just want to see that you are thinking about it...all the details don't have
Do not do:e given at this time.
In the next checkpoint, you will probably be presenting this checkpoint/film idea to Mr. Heil and/or the class.
-Time: (past, present, future, combination/flashbacks)
-Main locations:
-Other condition info:
2) Character & 3) Conduct (after you name the three characters, give a short description of their conduct, personality, and/or appearance that will make them unique)
-Protagonist:
-Antagonist:
-Supporting Character:
Brief Summary:
What parts of the story & plot will you leave out or reveal later so the story is not spoon-fed?
What will the viewer learn from this film? (e.g. lesson learned)
If any, what object(s) will play a key role?
Configuration, instead of typing a couple phrases for Configuration, write a description of your film's diagram elements below:
Introduction:
Conflict:
Rising Action:
Twist (place it anywhere in the storyline and there can be more than one if needed)
Climax:
Falling Action:
Conclusion:
Watch the video first in order to see the importance of starting out with a strong idea at the beginning. After you have drawn your diagram,
Now take your group's superhero idea and complete the following to Posterous. Write the following Seven C words and write a couple very brief bullet-point phrases under each explaining how you will show these in your film. Each person in your group should be a little different compared to each other's interpretations of the seven Cs since nobody thinks exactly the same. You can also alter if you think you have better ideas. You
Post this post to Posterous but not to the spreadsheet. Tag projectFilm. If you have your Macbook, take a photo of your diagram of a famous movie.
Feedback
Now that you are finished (for now) with the structure and background of your film idea, email this checkpoint from your posterous to a friend you trust and who can tell you honestly...what they think of your film idea. Don't choose someone who you sit next to in class. Ask them to read your idea and to rate and give feedback on the Four "Must-Haves":
1) Originality:
2) Not Predictable:
3) Emotional Response:
4) Something Learned:
Have them make a posterous comment on this checkpoint and have them rate each from a scale of 1-5. 5 is great, 3 is average, 1 is needs a lot of work
Example:
1) Originality: 1, this storyline sounds similar to Inception
2) Not Predictable: 5, I didn't see the twist with the dog coming!
3) Emotional Response: 3, I could see myself laughing a couple times while watching it
4) Something Learned: 4, makes me want to treasure my friends more
If you scored low in a category, try to revise your idea.
In the next checkpoint, you will be presenting your idea to Mr. Heil and the class for approval.
And the next task (which is really soon), you will be making a short 60 seconds or less stop motion video so think of an idea that you want to do so you are prepared (directions).
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