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Welcome to TFP, the Theatrefolk podcast. I am Lindsay Price, resident playwright for
Theatrefolk. Hello, I hope you're well. Thanks for listening.
Today we're going to talk about Pixar. But first, let's do Theatrefolk news. Free stuff!
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Episode Two: Pixar, Fail? See? There is a question mark at the end of
that so I had to like, how do we know this is what I'm trying to say orally? I mean we
have to go up at the end of my words. Okay, never mind. I follow on Twitter Emma Coates
who is a Pixar story artist. She talks about craft quite a lot on Twitter and gives many
tips, throws out a lot of ideas. She uses Twitter really well, I think. Twitter is something
I haven't been able to figure out how to use effectively. I feel more comfortable on Facebook.
Is that because I know my audience on Facebook? I know most of the people whereas majority
of those who follow me on Twitter are strangers. Is it better to reach out to the people I
already know or to strangers? Question, questions, questions.
So, recently on Twitter Ms. Coates posted a number of storytelling rules, rules that
should be generally followed when putting together a project, in her case, working on
a Pixar movie. I think on their own, it's a great list. Good advice for the writing
part, good advice for the writer, good advice that suits across the board regardless of
your genre, regardless if it's an animated feature or a kitchen sink drama or something
absurd. I think every writer should take these rules. Placard them and put them above their
monitor. They're really easy to find online. Just do Pixar story-telling rules and there's
about a gazillion sites that have posted the full list and we'll put it on the website
too.
So, I am a huge Pixar advocate. I stand by what they do and how they do it. I've seen
the documentaries about how they started and how they operate and seen their compound.
It looks so cool. You get that little voice in the back of your head. Okay, honestly I
get the little voice in the back of my head "Man, I would love to work there. But Lindsay,
you don't do computer animation. So, I would still love to work there. I would clean floors
at Pixar." There is a motivation to be in the middle of that environment, to believe
that you could be so creative, productive and prolific in that environment. And it's
nice to be able to see the way a company works and to also enjoy the product they put out.
That is not always the case. I recently heard an interview with Ben Folds and I really got
into hearing him talk about his process and how he makes music and went right out to look
for his work and boy, did it not speak to me. I didn't connect at all. So it's nice
to be able to say that there are Pixar movies that I adore. A lot of them; Wall E, Ratatouille,
Finding Nemo, Up, Toy Story, Monster's Inc. and of course, I was excited to see the new
movie, Brave. I was really excited. Saw it in the movie theatre � 3D.
One of the things that come up time and time again with Pixar is their commitment to story,
their desire to tell stories and not just tell stories but character driven stories.
If you spend five minutes on the internet, okay I spent fifteen but that's because I'm
easily distracted. Spend a few minutes on the internet, plunk in "Pixar storytelling"
and you will get a ton of bounce back. Here are just a few quote examples.
"We started with the core. It is always the character and the story driven by the character."
"The one thing I love about telling stories is we spend our whole lives going in and out
of being better or worse in our own character. But in a movie, the character transforms into
the best they're going to be."
"It's been said that the secret to Pixar Animation Studios' success is story. That's the mantra.
Story, story, story, and of course � story."
"Pixar looks not just for story artists but storytellers."
"'Developing the story is like an archeological dig. Pick a site where you think the story
is buried and keep digging to find it."
"One universal guideline that Pixar follows is to make the story organic."
"The team at Pixar is considered to be some of the greatest storytellers of this era."
Story. Story. Story. It is a big animated anvil. We do story. Story is important. Story
is king. And when I first read Ms. Coates' 22 storytelling rules, which was before I
saw Brave, I was totally and completely drinking the Pixar KoolAid. It was like being in the
compound. And then I saw Brave. And I put the dixie cup down. Okay so from here on in,
if you haven't seen the movie and you're planning on seeing the movie and you have nice fuzzy
feelings about the movie, I'm going to talk about the movie and say not nice things, fair
warning.
It's gorgeous. It's a gorgeous looking movie � gorgeous scenery. The people who worked
on the main characters, Merida's hair, they must have drunk a lot of celebratory champagne
after seeing that hair on screen. It is drool worthy. And don't get me wrong, the main character,
she is great. Merida is a spitfire. She comes across as a real girl which is not always
easy in animation. She's a wonderful addition to the Disney princesses, which I know that's
not Pixar was going for. But I have a niece, who, when she's old enough, I would and will
show her Brave because of the main character.
But so what? It's nice hair and one great character left in a wasteland of storytelling.
The story of Brave is that a young princess wants to do her own thing. She fights her
mother who wants her to be a lady and marry. This fight leads to Merida "finding" a witch
who gives her a spell that turns her mother into a bear. And the rest of the movie is
Merida trying to turn the bear back into her mother. And she does and the end. It is a
straight line from beginning to end, from the first word to the last. There is no roller
coaster. There is no sharp turn, nothing unexpected. No storytelling. This is a wonderful character
who never thinks for herself, never figures anything out, never changes. She finds some
love for her mother, hurray! But for the most part, she's lead by the nose through the whole
movie and I'm not sure how that is good storytelling.
So I have here Emma Coates' 22 rules of storytelling in front of me and we're going to go through
some of them to see how Brave does not follow many of these rules. Ms. Coates worked on
Brave and has thrown these set of rules into the universe. So I think it's safe to say
that they are Pixar approved and that Pixar put out a movie that seem to fly in the face
of exactly what they are trying to achieve as a company.
And again, they're great rules. I love them. They're awesome. They should be followed,
embroidered on tea towels, stamped on the walls of buildings. You should write them
down and follow them. Go and find them on the internet and laminate them and keep them
close to your heart. It's not the rules that falter. It's why doesn't Brave follow these
wonderful rules. It flummoxes me and sometimes, it really angers me. Okay. Rule number 1.
�#1 You admire a character for trying more than for their success.
So in Brave, Merida is a headstrong, she's smart, quick witted, agile. She's an excellent
archer. She's also stubborn and selfish. This comes in a head to head clash with her mother
who wants her to be a lady. And that is the heart of the movie � mother and daughter
clashes taken to a super height when mother is turned into a bear. But I never really
felt that in Merida's attempts to change her mother back, that she does much to change
herself particularly not in the climax where mom changes back. Merida is given a riddle
to solve, which she translates as, sew a tapestry back together and she does, and she throws
the tapestry over mom, says she loves her and that's it. And that is not enough. That
is not trying. That's succeeding, that's not... She hasn't really even tried. What did she
try to do? She didn't try to be different. There's one moment she stands in front of
some clans and it looks like she's going to be what her mother wants, but then her mother
tells her not to do that. So there's no really been trying there. When is she truly selfless?
And if we want to admire her for struggling, for trying, when she sets up the test of skills
we should see her try to do something she's not good at. She's good at archery. She says
let's have an archery competition and she wins. So what?
Rule number six. I'm not doing all of rules because some of them apply to being a writer
rather than writing. And as I said, they're very easy to find on the internet. Just do
Emma Coates' Pixar storytelling rules. Look it up, I believe in you. You can do it.
#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge
them. How do they deal? And this refers to exactly what I just said
about the test of wills. Merida is being set up, the clans have all sent their "best person",
their son to come and compete so that... And the person who wins gets Merida's hand and
Merida's as well. If I'm the first born in my family, I can compete. I'm not sure why
the movie wasn't more about dealing with Merida sneaking into the contest of wills for her
hand in marriage, than turning her mother into a bear. Why couldn't it have been three
days of contests and not just three seconds? She certainly wins archery but what if she
also had to compete in other skills that she's not good at, that she's not comfortable with?
Jousting or that thing with a log where they have to take it, and lift it and upend it;
that would have put her in a whole different world and perhaps shown her a different side
to herself and have her deal with that. Deal with her rather than how do I...chance to
have the bear thing. What if she really had to learn what it meant to be part of a clan
or to make peace with the clans? #7: Come up with your own ending before you
figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
The ending is so silly. So the ending for Brave is that everyone is happy and Merida
loves her mother without changing all that much as a human being. And it seems that everyone
changes very little and I wonder what would have happened if the mother had stayed a bear.
How would that have changed Merida? How would that have changed the father who was pretty
much a joke?
#8: Finish your story. Let go even if it's not perfect. In an ideal world, you would
have both. But move on. Do better next time. Even though this is a writer one and has nothing
to do with Brave per say. I left it in because it is such an important rule. See, I lied.
I said I wasn't going to do any of the writer ones and here we are. But it's such an important
rule for artists. You have to get your work out in the world and the only way to do that
is to finish projects. That is what makes you a writer or an artist or whatever � finished
product in the world. Not finished product in your drawer, not half-finished product
in your drawer, things out and being responded to. And try to make a project perfect before
you get it out into the world as an exercise in futility because nothing is perfect � never.
And revolving in hell while you try for perfection is only going to erode the work.
#9: When you're stuck, make a list of what WOULDN'T happen next. Lots of times the material
to get you unstuck will show up. Ok. I lied again. Yes this is a writing one
but it deals with the process rather with the product. So of course, I have no idea
if anyone did this in Brave. And I left it in because it's my favorite and I'm totally
going to use it the next time I'm working on something and get stuck. What a great way
to keep moving forward with a project even if you feel it's not going well. Sometimes
you have to work at something backwards or off to the side to really figure it out. I
love the idea of making a list of things that won't happen to figure out what's going to
happen. You know sometimes, just by taking away the "won't" you're left with the will.
#11: Putting them on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect
idea, you'll never share it with anyone. Ok. I'm totally on a tangent now. This one
I left in because I say it all the time to writers. Writing is the act of putting things
on paper. Keeping an idea in your head is not writing.
#13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write. But
it's poison to an audience. And yes, Merida is opinionated, which makes
me crazy because she's not allowed to think her way through the story on her own, which
makes me crazy that she has a one-sided conversation with a bear, which makes me crazy because
there's no anti to her protagonist. A witch comes, gives her a riddle, and then goes away.
The will of the wisps lead her everywhere that makes me crazy. Why doesn't Merida decide
at some point � I am done with these wisps leading me around by the nose. I'm not following
them. I'm going the exact opposite direction. Who cares what happens to me? I have to take
charge of my own life and Merida never does. Even though that seems to be a big part of
her character, Oh! I'm going to stand up and going to win an archery competition but I
want to take charge of my life so I don't have to marry some dumb guy." Why isn't there
more of this in other factions? #14: Why must you tell THIS story? What's
the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That's the heart of it.
I do not know why this story had to be told. What I see is let's make a movie with a spunky
female character and I don't think that's ever what Pixar sets out to do. I don't see
a story. I see cool computer animation, which again wager is exactly what Pixar doesn't
want me to think about their movies. I don't know why it's important that Merida's mother
gets turned into a bear. I don't know why any of it is important.
#15: If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility
to unbelievable situations. Excellent question! At some point for a character
who seems to want to buck tradition, she spends a lot of time doing the traditional things.
Solving a riddle, following the wisps and so on...
#16: What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they
don't succeed? Stack the odds against. What does it really mean for Merida to lose
her mother? I don't know. Why should I root for Merida? I don't know. If mom stays a bear
what will happen? This is not fully explored. I really think if mom's going to turn into
a bear, I think she should have stayed a bear. Who is Merida fighting against? I don't know.
If she really wants to fight tradition, why isn't there more danger at not following through
with that? Why is that? Just seems like a secondary, a fluffy story. "Oh I'm going to
win at archery." And boom, that's it. That's the last we hear of it, really. Why not raise
the stakes there? Why are the other clans so goofy? There's no danger at all.
#19: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great. Coincidences to get them out of
it are cheating. And to that I say, why then are the will of
the wisps always there to lead the way for Merida and why does she blindly follow?
#21: You got to identify with your characters and situations, can't just write 'cool'. What
would make YOU act that way? Merida is a great character and I do identify
with her. I just hate every single situation the writers put her in.
I had a conversation recently in which the guy said that given Pixar's history, they
are allowed a dog. And I disagree for million, billion percent. Pixar has set a standard.
They have trumpeted from the hills that they work in a specific way, they have specific
goals for their movies and they have specific expectations of those who work on their movies.
The point of having a manner of working is so that there never is a reason to waver.
You know what you have to do. It may be hard, but so what? It should be hard. Pixar has
its own great story. There's this wonderful story about how horrible the first version
of Toy Story 2 was and they threw it out. They started from scratch because it wasn't
good enough. Knowing what you want out of your product, regardless of hard, regardless
of "they're allowed a dog" means your work with worthwhile. And I just don't get it.
I don't understand at all why this beautiful movie and this wonderful lead character had
no support underneath it. Why didn't the movie makers follow their own rules?
QUESTION OF THE DAY: What is your favourite Pixar film and why? Is it the character or
the story that makes you connect to it? And if you don't like Pixar, well how come? What
is it about the movies that don't connect to you when you watch them?
And that's where we're going to end. That's it that's all, take care my friends, take
care.