Day 3: The Golden Theme

First off, yes, I know I have been slacking. The last time I made a post was Friday and it has been several days since then. The truth is that I've been sick the last couple days and just wanted to sit on my bed and watch episodes of Avatar. (which I consider being productive because I'm doing something I enjoy.)

So anyway, today I went back to my story class and had a conversation with Brian McDonald and felt some motivation to learn things again. For those who don't know, Brian McDonald is a man who speaks of stories as if they're his first language. He understands stories at the most fundamental levels. He has a lot of wisdom to share, and I'm very lucky to be able to learn from him. So after class I decided to sit down and read the second of his books that I'd recently bought, called The Golden Theme. This is an informative book and not a screenplay, but it had enough effect on me that I want to include it in this blog.

The Golden Theme

Brian McDonald, 2010

This entire book is an argument for the basic underlying purpose of storytelling. I'm not going to explain everything here because it would take an entire book to do so, but essentially he gives a lot of examples and evidence to prove his hypothesis that every single story is trying to tell us the idea that "we are all the same."

Stop reading. Soak that in for a moment. We are all the same.

Why do we listen to stories? Why do we read them? Why do we watch them? To learn from them. We get important information from stories that we can apply in our own lives. We understand through stories that there are others like us, and others that we can learn from. We understand that we are not alone.

The job of a storyteller is not to be stylish or clever or draw attention to himself. The job of a storyteller is to relay the truth. And the truth is that, despite cosmetic or menial differences, human beings are all human beings. We all experience life. We all cry, we all worry, we all laugh and sing and love. We all die. The job of a storyteller is to tell how we are all the same.

When I finished this book, I cried.

Brian McDonald is not just talking about stories. That is the primary purpose of the book, yes--how to make stories appeal to people. But he's also talking about life and how to enjoy it. We all live, and we all die, and we are all the same. Respecting and loving other people--having empathy--is understanding the golden theme. Being ruled by selfishness and having prejudice is going against it. Those people who lack understanding of the golden theme are portrayed as villains in stories, and those who understand it are considered heroes. This is true of stories because it is true of life. Stories come from life.

I have been trying to understand these ideas of equality for many years now. I get a lot of value out of being part of the world. I've always felt most happy and at peace when I feel like I'm part of something greater than myself. For instance, being a student at a big university. I love it because I share something in common with a massive group of people. I love people. Really, I do. And I've been struggling with the ideas of being good to people and loving them even if they do not return it, because that is what gives life value.

This book has helped me understand that my philosophy of life is not unique. It's not something I've come up with on my own, and it isn't strange or unusual. And you know what? That comforts me. I like knowing that the way I look at the world is shared by other people. I like knowing that others are the same as me. And isn't that the whole idea of the golden theme? That we are all the same?

Perhaps I'm getting a little too philosophical here. What I'm trying to say is that this book validated my views of life and made me understand what it is to be a good person. Yes, it also taught me the universal truth behind storytelling. But to me that is secondary.

Everyone needs to read this book and learn what Brian McDonald has learned. What I have learned.

Day 2: Twelve Angry Men

I started reading this screenplay on Wednesday, but I couldn't finish it until Thursday because life happened. And then I couldn't write the blog post about it until today because MORE life happened. Darn you, life.

So because it's been three days since I started this script, I'm going to keep my post about it brief. I'm ready to move on to something else, to be honest.

Twelve Angry Men

Reginald Rose, 1996

I've heard that this is supposed to be one of the greatest movies ever made. I've never seen it before and I didn't know anything about it going in. But after reading, I must agree with the general opinion. First off, the premise is great. The minimalism is a great restriction that allows for a lot of freedom to focus on the armature. Oh yeah, on that note.

Armature: Every man's opinion is important, or having an opinion is the right of man.

I'm not going to list off the seven steps because I'm lazy and tired and want to do something else. Sorry, blog.

I will say that the characterization was fantastic. Though I have yet to see any actor interpretation of the characters, they all had very clear and distinct personalities that I was able to keep track of fairly easily. Sometimes I had to revert to the brief character descriptions at the top of the script several times, but I figure that's fair for not having any visuals. The group dynamics were very well balanced.

Actually, you know the most fascinating part of this screenplay? Every single character changed by the end of it. Juror 5 found his voice and stuck up for himself. Juror 7 felt shame and gave up his attack. Juror 11 gained confidence in his opinions. I thoroughly enjoyed watching everyone work through all their doubts and change their minds. It was brilliantly believable.

The last thing I want to say is that I also love the ending. It ends really quietly. There's the climax with Juror 10 (or maybe it was 7, one of the two), the final discussions, and then the end decision. And then everyone just gets up and leaves without a word. This script doesn't make itself a bigger deal than it is. The action finishes, and everyone leaves and moves on. I have a lot of respect for that.

There are probably many more things I could say here, but I'm not really up for it. Maybe I'll write more on my next one, which I'll hopefully have time for tomorrow or Sunday.

Day 1: Finding Nemo

As a kid, my favorite thing to do was to make up stories. I loved going outside and pretending I was someone completely different, off on an epic adventure across the yard. When I grew up and realized I had to get a career, after a lot of thinking and trying things I've decided I want to be a storyteller. Be that through making movies, writing books, being an artist, whatever. I'll figure that part out later. But first I want to build my storytelling skills. First I need to practice the basics.

I've made it my summer project to read a good screenplay every day from the internet movie script database. I'm also taking a couple classes this summer so I may not have time *every* day, but I'm certainly going to try. The best way to motivate myself is to take the full plunge! So I'm going to blog about each screenplay here, to sort out my thoughts about each one and to make sure I actually do it. If nobody reads this, I don't actually care. It's more for myself than for anyone else.

Here's how this is gonna go down: I'll post the armature (in the best way I can phrase it--often times, the armature is more of an idea than a specific sentence, so I may give several sentences), the seven steps, and my overall thoughts. I likely won't be able to do this every time, because it does actually take a little bit to type up, and life gets in the way sometimes.

So let's get started!

Finding Nemo

Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds, 2003

Brian McDonald has highly recommended this movie, and so has the TA of my Story for Animation class. So today I sat down and actually read it. And I gotta say, it really is brilliant. Every single thing that happens is incredibly focused on the armature. Every single scene shows something significant for Marlin, who slowly learns to trust others and let go of his fears, and Nemo, who learns to be brave and take control of his life. It's a beautiful transformation to read through scene-by-scene.

Armature: People cannot protect others forever. Or, parents cannot always be there for their children. Or, a healthy relationship comes from trust.

1) Once upon a time, Marlin the fish was highly protective of his son Nemo due to the rest of his family being killed long ago.

2) And every day, Marlin warned Nemo about the dangers of the ocean and watched over his every move.

3) Until one day, Nemo defies his father and races out to open sea to rebel against him. He gets caught by divers and is taken far away.

4) Because of this, Marlin races after Nemo, but loses him and meets Dory. The two try to search for Nemo but have no direction. Meanwhile, Nemo is placed in a fish tank in Sydney and treated as a brother by the other fish.

5) Because of this, Marlin and Dory eventually find an address and start heading to Sydney to find Nemo, now with a direction. Marlin slowly learns to trust Dory and receives advice from others about good parenting. Meanwhile, Nemo learns bravery by helping the other fish attempt to escape the tank,

6) Until finally, Marlin finds Nemo just after he escapes. The two get caught up in a net again, but this time Marlin trusts Nemo to be brave and tell the others how to escape the net (i.e. by swimming downwards).

7) And ever since that day, Marlin has let his fears go and Nemo has had the space to explore the world on his own.

This is quite the touching story. And one I really connect with, to tell the truth. I love the contrasts between Marlin's parenting style and the others who send their kids off to school on the first day, and then with the chill turtle Crush and his son. Crush's parenting style was the direct opposite of Marlin's, which made it really entertaining to read. 

I think my favorite parts of this screenplay, though, are Marlin's interactions with Dory. Dory is a pretty brilliant tool to completely transform Marlin into someone new: her short-term memory means she's patient, carefree, and flexible. She has nothing to lose, so she does things spontaneously and happily and lets go of worries and rules. She's the opposite of Marlin, but she doesn't get hung up on his attitude because she forgets about it every scene. Marlin finally learns to respect her after her just-go-for-it attitude gets them out of every single dangerous situation they get in, which is actually pretty amazing.

I'll end this post with my favorite bits of armature in the script:

NEMO
Wow. How many times have you tried to get out?

GILL
Aah, I've lost count. Fish aren't meant to be in a box, kid. It does things to 'ya.

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CRUSH
Curl away, my son. Aw, it's awesome, Jellyman. Little dudes are just eggs, leave 'em on the beach to hatch, then coo-coo-ca-choo, they find their way back to the big 'ol blue.

MARLIN
All by themselves?

CRUSH
Yeah.

MARLIN
But-but-but dude, how do you know when they're ready?

CRUSH
Well, you never really know. But when they'll know, you'll know, you know? Ha.

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MARLIN
No. I promised him I'd never let anything happen to him.

DORY
Huh. That's a funny thing to promise.

MARLIN
What?

DORY
Well, you can't never let anything happen to him. Then nothing would ever happen to him.