Progression of Conflict in Animation Story Writing in detail

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There are some guys  chasing a girl .. shooting bullets at her, she is running and hiding .. he is looking all the picture he thinks that “ its insane , poor girl ..”  , one of the guy is about to shoot her and immediately he pulls trigger , and shoots the guy , that guy is not dead .. He finally manage to save the girl and taking her to safe place, those guys are chasing them ,no wonder ..

He realizes that he shot a cop for a criminal girl ..  she claims that she is innocent .. he is detective but that causes problems because he have created a lot severe problems for all detectives ..  and because of girl the bad guys are after him .. (they want something from her ) , cops are after him , one cop goes mad and he starts killing the detectives because his friend is killed by a detective .. some detectives are after him(the hero) because if he don’t die he will create even more problems .. and whole city goes nuts because of  insane killing all over .. cops killing detectives .. some detectives killing cops ..

And another bloody story … here I come again..Its typical cliché story, I know nothing special in it… But I thought this would be good example to tell the

“Progression of conflict”

See, every story is cause set in motion..

Actually sometimes we live life like a cause set in motion..Continuously reacting to something, that’s horrible, no wonder we get frustrated by others sometimes.. Another thing I learned from coach.

So in every story, you will see , there is always a “cause- effect” relationship.

Let me explain ,  in every story something happens , that causes another thing and then another.

Depends on the story , but you will see a lot in any story ,

Something happens character makes decision – takes action – that causes something – …. And chain continues depending upon the story .

Conflict unfolds the same way , look at my story how many “because “ are there ?

Have you noticed the way conflict is developing step by step and its started when he pulls of the trigger to save the girl!!

So what kind of cause-effect relationships can be there?  lets find out .. I’m going to take small example and we will build up on that , okay ?

If you watch Tom and Jerry or Mickey’s Friends a lot , this will be fun

Let’s create some trouble(conflict) for Donald ..

Donald has to put book in shelf ,

1.

One way to create conflict is

when he puts book on shelf another book falls down or may be a globe falls down , when he put that one .. guess what another one falls down

Lets make it more difficult ..

2.

When he puts the book on shelf , another two fall down ..

When he put that two , four fall down , when he put that four  and it continues ,

Guess what finally whole shelf falls down…

Now make it even interesting ..

3.

When he puts the book on shelf , the globe falls down, now this time the globe bounces towards the TV and Donald immediately manipulates that it can hit the TV so he runs to stop the globe ,

His leg gets stuck in telephone wire he is still running , he runs grabs the Globe and the telephone gets dragged and hits the TV .. he screams throws the globe angrily and the globe creates …

4.

Now another way is if Globe smashes the TV , there is electric short circuit so oven explodes the electricity of town is gone Donald running  for water , telephone wire gets stuck in his legs , he rolls from Globe and fells out the window .. he falls on …

So u can continue from here

And the final and more interesting ..

Its not logical when Donald puts book

5.

Goofy is sleeping in his house , the book  from his shelf falls down ,so when Goofy puts book on his shelf the book from Donald’s shelf falls down … and both go nuts ..

You may thinking I’m making up anything and no connection whatsoever ..

So look at here ..

The first example of Donald signifies that  one type of problem cause that same or related kind of  problem in chain reaction (Domino Effect)

In second example ,

One type of problem cause same type of problems and multiplies like a snowball (all shelf falls down ) (Cascade Effect #1)

So same type of problem can create same problem or problems and they can multiply ..

Both Domino and Cascade come in the Category of  Compounded Conflicts(Similar Type of problems stack on each other)

Rests of the three are Accumulated Conflicts (Different Type of problems stack on each other)

Another is different type problem can create several different problems

(Cascade Effect #2)

and

They can multiply spread over (Ripple Effect)

And the fifth one is one thing creates another problem that has no logical connection to

each other .. (Butterfly effect ) as in book its given that as if Butterfly flaps her wings in part of world and it brings storm in another part of world

Look all the Donald examples again .. they all are ordered in sequence from one to five

I) Compound Conflicts

1  Domino effect

2 Cascade effect#1

II) . Accumulated Conflicts

3  Cascade effect#2

4.  Ripple effect

5 Butterfly effect

You can notice the use of all them  in small gags easily Tom and Jerry , Road Runner . .

And for movies you will have to take a closer look most of the times they are one or two level chains ..

Like one thing cause similar or several different problems ,

In Toy story 1 ..  Because of jealousy(see there always comes cause and effect  remember the Cause set in motion ) , Woody tries to push Buzz under the table ..

But  1. Buzz falls out of the window

2. All think that Woody tried to kill the Buzz

Because the Buzz falls , Woody and Buzz fight and both get lost the way of home ..

And because of that …  You can continue further ..

It depends on story , but mostly they are on or two level conflicts , one creating one or two (same or different ) and they goes one further one level of chain

So what is the outcome of these Conflicts

1. They build curiosity
2. They increase the intensity (but this does not mean that to increase Intensity of Conflict you will have to create more conflicts its just one way)

And there are few more outcomes but I can explain them well when we learn another tool called “Spine”

How can we use these?

You cant just go and say that I’m going to use this conflict , it totally depends on story ,

So here is the best way ,

Lets suppose that for any story to tell there is only one most effective way to tell the story such that you will successfully convey “THE EMOTIONS YOU WANT TO FEEL THE AUDIENCE FROM THE STORY”

That Emotions will decide which kind of Progression of Conflict is necessary.

This may sound some theoretical junk but in next some articles when I will write on “How to tell the story” I will be telling you how to implement practically

One of the important use of this Progression of Conflict is

“ YOU CAN CREATE A SMALL STORY LIKE I DID WITH DONALD ,  it may be cliché’ but you can play with these tools an you definitely can come up with awesome story, believe me, even you can play with your friends ,

combine all,

be logical ,

somewhat illogical and

you will have great Gag or any emotional story to tell .

Here is the last and most important point while creating Progression of Conflict always START from Small and build up on that like we did in Donald story ..

If you start with huge at the end it will be a giant thing and you will struggle in RESOLUTION

For more transparent use of this you can watch all Final Destination movie parts.

Once again , I’ve  learned these types from book “Finding And Building Stories- ideas for animated short by Karen Sullivan , Gary Schumer, Kate Alexander”

and This is must have book for any Animation Student

So here I’m signing off  .. see you next time and guys please leave your valuable feedback, its our energy drink

Mahesh