I’ve been pretty focussed on the production side of things for my master’s project, which I can’t really blame myself for, given that I’m a media design student. But regardless of how I will animate my project or what if it is going to be a music video, short film or something else, it will need a story.
Now obviously the ChatGPT generated movie trailers were quite cheesy and a bit unoriginal. But they did follow a story structure that we provided, for me that was Dan Harmon’s story circle. When the trailer came together, it was clear to me that this style of story wasn’t going to work, but I didn’t really know why, it just felt wrong.
This is why I want to do some more research in the field of storytelling, specifically highlighting differences between western and eastern storytelling and in doing so, understanding more about the easter practices, and applying those to my film.
Structure
The aforementioned story circle by Dan Harmon of course isn’t the only western structure for storytelling, there’s also Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheet, Freytag’s pyramid or even Shakespeare’s 5 act structure. Originating in China and eventually making its way over to Korea and Japan, eastern storytelling often follows the ‘Kishotenketsu’ structure:
- Ki (introduction)
- Characters are intruduced
- Establishing the setting
- Sho (development)
- Adding context
- Increasing complexity
- Ten (twist)
- Introducing a surprising turn or revelation
- Ketsu (conclusion)
- Resolving the story harmoneously
You’ll notice that none of the parts involve conflict, a quality most western stories rely on heavily. Kishotenketsu instead emphasises gradual unfolding and the beauty of unexpected connections, providing a unique narrative experience characterised by a balanced and contemplative progression. While conflict can definitely be a part of the stores told, they seldom serve as a structural component.
Characters
Characters in the west usually have a certain flaw that they have to overcome on their journey to beat some antagonist. That character then embarks on a journey that changes their beliefs. In eastern stories the journey tests the beliefs that the character already holds. This tends to lead to less or flatter character development, which can be uncanny for western audiences. In general, changes are less drastic and more nuanced in eastern storytelling.
Antagonists are also treated differently. They are rarely “defeated” in the way we understand it in the west, which seems like a byproduct of the decreased importance of conflict.
World building
Whatever story is going to be told, it will need a setting and a world. I want to briefly talk about the differences in hard versus soft storytelling, a distinction that isn’t specific to eastern storytelling, but I do have some important points to make about the latter.
Hard
Hard world building involves a highly detailed and structured storytelling approach, where the world follows precise logic, rulesets and sometimes even politics, geography and history. This approach aims to immerse the audience by creating a believable world, one in which all rules and consequences make sense and every last detail about it and the story can be explained in some way.
Soft
Soft world building on the other hand is much more nuanced and plays with the viewer’s own imagination. Little is told about the world and its rulesets, giving small hints along the way to pique the viewer’s interests, making them wonder about what else there is to know. This style works very well in fantastic settings, where whimsical and unfamiliar worlds are explored, and the viewer’s wonder and lack of understanding drives their immersion.
Soft world building emphasises nuances, feelings, and imaginative involvement and therefore leaves more room for the viewer’s imagination while providing the author with more creative freedom. Not everything needs an explanation, and some authors even choose to defy logic in their soft world building approach.
Another advantage of soft world building is that the introductory phases of a story can be much shorter and focus on what’s essential – the characters, the mood and the essential lore of the world. For these reasons I want to aim at a soft world building approach and try to create a character driven story in a world that plays with the viewers imagination, while providing enough information to understand any essential rules of the world if needed.
Thoughts
This impulse was a challenging, since I feel like storytelling is one of my weakest skills and certainly one which I have the least experience with. But it was still kind of fun because I was watching well-made videos. Unfortunately, I don’t think YouTube counts as reliable literature for a Master’s thesis so I’m dreading having to look up literature about all of this. But maybe this is just my modern way of researching – diving into a topic in a familiar way and then choosing what I find interesting and looking up more reliable literature for it. I think it could work.
Something I will need to look into more regarding the production of the film is the issue of character continuity using Midjourney. This was already an issue during the production of my anime movie trailer, but will now get even worse, given that I believe that character driven storytelling is the way to go for my project.
Links:
https://tenkensmile.blogspot.com/2017/04/spirited-away-lost-in-translation.html
https://medium.com/@IgnacioWrites/comparing-every-form-of-story-structure-f98e3d5f7e2c
