This article is the continued from series of articles –Story Writing For Animation. You can read them all articles by clicking here
“LOOK WE GONNA HAVE TO BREAK SOME RULES
BUT IF IT WORKS IT WILL HELP EVERYBODY”.
In Toy Story 1 , Woodie is telling other Toys before rescuing Buzz . . .
Do you know that about which Rules he is talking ?
If you are smarter then you already know which rules .(Yes I missed it before learning about RULES , I’m not so smart like you . . hi hi ).
So in this article we will see about RULES of Story World. Also there are RULES for each character but we’ll learn in Character.
Last time we have seen that SET UP needs introduction of World, Rules, Characters, Character Relationships and Motivation.
Every story has its world , Toys world , Real world, Bug’s World, Animals World, Alien’s World . . . .
And every World has its MUST RULES that controls the every Story World . So there are arrows on Top and Bottom of world in Figure.
If you are creating the world , my questions will be that
what kind of world is it ?
Does it have gravity there? Are all physics laws exists there or its just has it different motion rules , then what are they ?
Which languages the characters speak ? if they are not human (machines or animals )then do they talk to humans ?
If they talk then how ? Magic ? secret? Or for machines something else or whatever but you must know .
See in Toy story Toys have their secret World and they pretend that they don’t belong to real world.
So the RULE is that Toys must not talk to humans though they can !
And this is THE RULE WOODIE is talking about . If you wanna assignment find that where else he breaks the RULE .and Why ?
See this RULES are there for “Believability”, if your character doesn’t follow rules , then you must must tell audience WHY ? and that WHY will decide the Believability of Story World else you will loose Audience. The reason must be so strong and convincing.
Rules are necessary for every World , but Sometimes Rules can drive whole story and you can make great story out of it !
First you will set up the biggest and toughest and BAD law on the world and Your Hero of story will struggle , fight , stretch himself and finally break the rule at the end and Make that world a good and Happy place.
I will finish with this . . .
In A Bug’s Life ( one of my favorites )
At start Angry Hopper ( THE Villain ) tells young queen
“The first rule of leadership is that everything is your fault and
Let me teach you the circle of life.
(it’s the rule of movie)
Sun grows the food – ants pick the food – the grass hoppers eat the food”
At climax Flick says to Hopper that “ you are wrong Hopper , ants are not meant to serve hoppers and its you who need us,
We are stronger than you and YOU KNOW IT”.
So finally all ants team up and at the END young queen says to HOPPER
“Ants pick the food
Ants keep the food
And grasshoppers LEAVE !”
Hurray , and the RULE is broken . . .
See are rules are all for good they always there in story for entertaining . So what your story’s Rules ?
So DON T FORGET TO INTRODUCE THE RULES IN SET UP OF STORY
We will learn about other elements that are necessary for SETUP in next article .
Our Master Tony White tell us that
“Don’t think of Animation as limitation ,
Just remember that the true magic of Animation lies in its innate capability to take us to previously Unseen often Unimaginable Worlds Where We can not normally go . . .”
Find new WORLD , Don’t forget THE RULES and tell us great story see you again . .
For All Animation Story Writing Lessons click here
