The Market Research Event Blog: Here Be (Inner) Dragons: The Art Of Storytelling

The Market Research Event Blog: Here Be (Inner) Dragons: The Art Of Storytelling: Day 3 at TMRE ended with a charming and funny keynote on storytelling, by a man who’s lived and worked it for decades. Francis Glebas ...

What does character driven mean? Face off between School of Rock and Back to the Future

I've decided to jump around a little and interrupt the complete story weave map of Back to the Future. There are several reasons. First is that it was a much bigger project than I imagined- mapping almost 200 story beats and defining the story function for each. I learned a lot completing the parts that I did. I've had a lot going on in my life so it's been hard to find the time to tackle such a big task. 

The second is that I'm still trying to decide how to do it! I mean I could put all of the beats on one dragon and it would look like the cockpit of a 747. It would be hard to gather useful information at that level of detail. Yet, this is exactly what we must do when we make a movie- work with that level of detail. The trick is to show how it's useful. I think the partial maps that I've shown have done this. Like showing how setups and payoffs in the story must link together.

Third, is I want to keep sharing the fun information that I've been learning from my Dragon weaving theory, like what happens if you move the parts around?

 So here's the next post...

I'm sure many of you have heard the expression "character driven story." Has anyone ever explained what it means? No, it's not when the character drives in the story. Unless it's about a bus driver. No one has ever explained it to me. So with the help of the dragon, I'm going to show you two films to illuminate the difference between a story that is character driven and one that's not. 

First let's ask what the character wants. What does Marty want? Come on, isn't it obvious? He wants to go camping with Jennifer.

Now, what does Dewey want? He wants to be a rock god, so he can go camping with Jennifer. No, sorry. He wants to be a famous rock and roll star. But, he's miserable at it and he gets kicked out of the band. And on top of that he can't pay his rent so he's about to be kicked out. So, in other words, he's desperate. 

Marty wants to camp with Jennifer. Dewey wants to follow his dream to play music. How do these characters drive the story? What does Jennifer have to do with going back to the future? The only thing that I can see is a psychoanalytic interpretation which we won't get into here. It has nothing to do with the story. So does Marty drive the story? Or is he stuck in the middle of random events?

Now let's look at Dewey. Dewey's desperate, so what does he do? He answers Ned's phone, pretends to be Ned and steals his offer for a substitute teachers job. Does he drive the story.?"Stick it to the man", you bet he does. Every thing in that movie is a direct result of Dewey pretending to be a teacher so he can pay his rent and follow his dream of playing music. And he gets it. He becomes the teacher of School of Rock.

Marty does drive part of the story. When Marty saves his father's live, he interrupts the space time continuum and now according to the family history, instead of falling for his father, Marty's mother falls for Marty. I knew Freud had something to do with this. But now because of his impulsive action he begins to drive the story. Figurative and literally. He drives the DeLorean back to the future.

So there you have it. Which is a better film? I love both of these movies, however I think you could learn more about storytelling from School of Rock. It's a clearer example of character driven. 

Here are both films laid out so you can easily compare them using their dragon weaves.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Till next time, happy weaving...

What's at stake in Back to the Future, Storyteller's log

The Dragon shape of stories has been continually surprising me with the new insights that I've learned since started looking at stories in this new visual way. Comparing the two dragons of Back to the Future with School of Rock was very illuminating and I'll show that when I finish storyweaving Back to the Future.

It maps the ups and downs of the characters and the audience as they are spellbound in hoping and fear. This X axis also shows what's at stake, in other words the biggest hope (+) and the greatest fear (-). It's important for the audience to know what the stakes of a story are in order for them to engage with the character's journey.

So continuing with the Dragonweave of Back to the Future, I thought I'd map where these hopes and fear stakes are introduced in the story.

(For those who want to work on their own stories in this way, I'm using VUE, Visual Learning Environment, it's a mapping software put out by Tufts University. What I like about it is that allows you to sort your elements onto various layers with on/off visibility and it's free. The dragon is my dragon shape on the locked bottom layer.) Click to go to the  VUE WEBSITE

(Click to enlarge)

The hopes and fears are also implied narrative questions. Will the hope succeed or will the characters suffer our worst fears? Each of these are two sides of the same coin with the audience always rooting on the side of hope. The villain roots for fear.

You can see how the filmmaker continually reminds the audience of what's at stake so the audience will keep hoping and fearing totally engaged in the story. This is so true that during one shot, while the DeLorean is supposedly traveling close to 88 MPH, the car ISN'T MOVING!

Below is a blank template of the dragon that you can import into VUE to map your own story weave.

(Click to enlarge)

Back to the Future Part 7 The Parents Kiss plan

Well mapping a complete film is much more complicated than I had imagined. And fitting it onto the dragon shape is going to require a life size dragon. What is life size for a dragon anyway? 

I'm going to map a section at a time. So this section is the one of two plans that have to be accomplished in ACT 3. Marty has to get his parents to kiss at the dance and then he needs to connect the DeLorean with the lightning bolt to get back to the future. Here are the main beats for this section. The hopeful beats are green and the fear beats are green. Blue indicated neutral or a surprise in the plan.

When Lorraine comes on to Marty, I've indicated this beat as green because that's what's supposed to happen in the plan. In the image below, the beats are arranged along the dragon spine.

In this second Dragonweave diagram, I've stretched out the time line so we can see the spikes of the dragon as the beats go up and down as they slowly rise over the dragon spine.

In this next Dragonweave diagram, I've indicated where the different items have been setup earlier int the story. Stories are all about setups and payoffs. 

With our friend the dragon, we can see what's happening with the audience.

At this point we're happy for Marty, however we know and we're anticipating the seeing him solve the harder part of getting back to the future. By contrast, the dance was the calm before the storm. In this case it's literal. The lightning bolts coming soon...

Back to the future part 6, Act 3 storybeat functions

Once again, sorry for the delay but here is Back to the Future ACT 3 beats.

ACT THREE Back to the Future Storybeats and their functions.

91. ANTICIPATION OF ACTION:

At the night of the dance, George waits for Marty to arrive. 

92. WARNING;

Marty writes Doc a letter warning Doc about the Libyans in the future. He slips the note into the pocket of Doc's coat.

93: ACTION- PLAN TO GET PARENTS TO KISS STARTS;

Marty arrives at the dance in Doc's car with Lorraine and asks her if they can "park" for a while. 

94. IRONIC DIALOGUE AND CHARACTERIZATION, FUNCTION BUYING TIME FOR GEORGE TO ARRIVE ;

Lorraine brought liqour and begins to smoke. Marty chastises her and she dismisses him, saying he sounds like her mother. 

95. UNEXPECTED ACTION IN PLAN;

Marty’s plan takes a wrong turn when Lorraine comes on to him strongly.

96. EXPECT PLAN FOLLOWUP ACTION;

The door opens and Marty is pulled out.

97. SURPRISE TWIST;

However, it’s not George, it’s a drunk Biff who wants revenge. 

98. OBSTACLE TO PLAN;

When Biff sees Lorraine, he gets in the car with her and starts to molest her. 

99. OBSTACLE;

Biff’s gang tosses Marty into the open trunk of a car, slamming the lid. 

100. RESCUE;

The Marvin Berry’s band scares Biff's gang off. 

101. OBSTACLE;

But they realize that the keys are in the trunk with Marty.

102. GEORGE FOLLOWS PLAN BUT MEETS SURPRISE;

At Doc's car, George arrives and pulls Biff from the car. George tries to hit Biff, but fails. 

103. ACTION IN CHARACTER;

Biff roughly pushes Lorraine away.

104. PLAN STARTS TO WORK;

George stands up for Lorraine and punches Biff, knocking him out.

105. MARTY RESCUED;

Marvin frees Marty, who sees Biff knocked out. 

106. PLAN CONTINUES TO WORK;

George takes Lorraine's hand and they go to the dance.

107. OBSTACLE;

The dance stops when Marvin can’t play with his hurt hand. 

108. OBSTACLE;

Marty knows they still need to kiss during the dance. 

109. PLAN ACTION;

Marty plays guitar in Marvin's place playing a romantic song. 

110. OBSTACLE;

Marty begins to fade when a student cuts in between George and Lorraine on the dance floor.

111. PLAN WORKS;

George regains his courage, takes Lorraine back and kisses her passionately. 

112. SIGN OF ICON- PLAN ONE FINISHED;

Marty reappears in the photo and finishes the song.

113. SIGN OF PLAN ONE FINISHED;

His father and mother dance happily in each others arms.

114. COMIC RELIEF;

Berry asks Marty to play another song and Marty get carried away with music from the future.

115. GOODBYES;

Marty leaves and runs into George and Lorraine. Lorraine asks if it's OK for George to take her home and Marty agrees. 

116. ANTICIPATION OF ACTION;

At the town square, Doc impatiently waiting for Marty. 

117. WARNING IGNORED;

Doc discovers the note in his pocket. Fearing knowing the future, he tears up the note.

118. OBSTACLE:

A fallen tree limb disconnects the cabling he has installed. 

119. ACTION;

Doc climbs the clock tower to reconnect it. 

120. WARNING;

Marty tries to warn Doc about his future, but is drowned out by the storm and the clock bell.

121. ACTION;

Marty runs back to the DeLorean and races to the starting point.

122. REALIZATION:

While waiting for the timer Marty realizes that he has a time machine, he can go back early and warn the Doc. 

123. OBSTACLE & FORESHADOWING;

Just then, the car stalls and Marty frantically tries to start it again. 

124. ACTION;

It restarts, the timer goes off, and Marty begins speeding toward town square. 

125. ACTION;

Doc reconnects the cable just as the lighting bolt surges through the line.

126; PLAN TO GET MARTY BACK COMPLETED;

The DeLorean connects with the electricity and speeds off into the future. 

127; SIGN OF PLAN COMPLETED;

Doc celebrates in the street.

128. SIGN OF PLAN COMPLETED;

Marty arrives safely in 1985. 

129. FORESHADOWING OBSTACLE PAID OFF;

The Delorean stalls again and Marty has to run to the mall.

130. TRAGIC ACTION;

Marty’s too late and sees Doc killed again.

131; ACTION- TIME LOOP?;

He also sees himself race off and disappear in the DeLorean. 

132. REACTION;

Marty is devastated that he couldn't arrive in time to save Doc.

133. SURPRISE ACTION;

Doc, however, sits up.

134. REACTION AND REVALATION:

Marty is shocked until Doc reveals his bulletproof vest. 

135. AFTERMATH;

Doc drives Marty home and telling his plan to travel 30 years in the future.

136. CHANGED WORLD;

Marty wakes up the next morning to find his whole family has changed to become more successful and happier. 

137. SETUP;

Lorraine asks Marty about his camping trip with Jennifer, but he replies the car is wrecked.

138. REACTION;

Everyone reacts it until George shows them Biff is waxing the car in the driveway.

138. POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES OF MARTY’S ACTION;

Biff brings in a box of George's first published sci-fi book. 

139. MORE POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES;

Marty doesn’t understand when Biff hands him the keys until he learns it’s for his new truck.

140. REUNION;

Marty’s glad to see Jennifer.

141. NEWS;

Suddenly the DeLorean appears. Doc tells Marty he has to come with him, something’s wrong with his and Jennifer's kids in the future!

142. VISUAL PROOF OF HAVING BEEN IN FUTURE;

Doc, in wild clothes, gathers garbage as the new fuel for the new engine.

143. WARNING;

Marty tells the Doc he needs to back up further to get up to 88 mph.

144. WARNING UNNECESSARY, NEW ACTION- SETUP FOR SEQUEL;

Doc has converted the car to a hovercraft and flies them into the future. 

THE END

This was exhausting analyzing out all these storybeats and their functions also because there was a lot of other things going on in my life concurrently. So before I take on the next BIG task of mapping all these beats on the dragon spine I'd like to share some other insights about back to the future. When I was at Disney Feature, I was asked by Jack Bossom, the head of artist development, if I would talk to a group of trainees. He said it could be about anything I wanted. So I chose time and editing in film. And what better movie to analyze about time and editing than Back to the Future? This is one of the things that lead me to future teaching and lecturing at Disney. I also told you that I'd share some trivia about Back to the Future. So without further ado, here are the secrets of time travel...

How long does it take a Delorian to get from 0 to 88 miles per hour?

Let’s look at how the” race with lightning” is structured. Back to the Future is smartly structured in that it gives the audience the necessary information about how the race with lightning will work well before the climax of the movie. The Doc explains how it will work to Marty (and the audience) in his lab with a scale model of the scene. This is wonderfully demonstrates visually how the plan is supposed to work and additionally, because of the mishap during the simulation, we get to see what’s at stake- the whole thing could go up in flames!

By the time we arrive at the climax of the movie, we already know that Marty has to accelerate the DeLorean to 88 mph and arrive at the wire where the lightning will strike at 10:04 generating the necessary gigawatts to send Marty back to the future. With the audience having this information, the filmmakers could dive right into the action.

There are ticking clocks in the scene, one in the car and another on the clock tower. This made it interesting to analyze because I could compare how the chronological time was different from the emotional time.

The overarching question in the narrative question hierarchy is will the plan work and Marty get back to the future. Within the larger question are a series of smaller ones that delay the answering of the larger one.

The sequence opens with a night shot of the clock tower, Doc walks up the camera, looks at this watch and asks the first narrative question for us, “Where is that kid?” A police officer asks the Doc what’s he’s doing. Will the officer stop the plan? Marty shows up and tries to warn the Doc about the future. As they argue over the letter, time is ticking away. Marty has to leave or risk losing being stuck in the past.

Now to build maximum excitement, everything that can go wrong does go wrong. The DeLorean won’t start and the cable plug pulls out. Now as the clock ticks we want to know will Marty be able to start the DeLorean and will the Doc connect the cable? Marty starts the car and begins the race against time intercut with Doc struggling with the cable.

The story time, as related by the Doc, tells us that the lightning will strike in seven minutes and twenty-two seconds. From the start of the engine to the lightning bolt hit it takes eight minutes and nine seconds of chronological time measured with a stopwatch. This is a difference of 57 seconds longer than it should have taken! Does it feel like it? No, the story races along. If fact, it races along so fast that most people don’t notice that there’s one shot of the car supposedly going almost 88 miles per hour where it’s not moving! The narrated emotional time was longer than clock time, yet feel like it’s shorter.

In analyzing Back to the Future, I discovered that a takes over a DeLorean 90 seconds to accelerate to 88 miles per hour. What was really amazing was that it took almost 30 seconds to travel one block going 88 miles per hour. This was a great example of understanding the enemies of design. They cut out boring parts and slowed down time in the moment of greatest excitement so you could drink it all in and enjoy the moment- story-delaying at it’s finest.

The sequence concludes with a wonderful shot that acts as a bridge to the future. The Doc cheers and looks up at the clock tower. We hear a helicopter approach and suddenly we’re back in 1980. It’s as if Doc had looked up to see the future.

How is time manipulated?

The filmmakers have added extra little delays in the presenting of the narrative that suspend time. Remember the narrative has us speaking each of these ideas one at a time in an effort to find the answers to the expectations and questions that it sets up. This keeps us very busy. The secret to this magical transformation of time is that time changes occur in-between the cuts. That's why it’s not obvious that it’s happening. This is also why it can be so powerful. Cuts must match on actions so as to appear as one flowing action. 

This section is from my book, Directing the Story; Professional Storytelling and Storyboarding Techniques for Live Action and Animation published by Focal Press.

Directing the Story

Till next time...

Back to the Future part 5, ACT TWO storybeat functions

Well, I'm finally back to the present and here is the next installment of Back to the Future's complete story weave. When I took on this assignment for myself, I did realize how complex mapping all the beats of a story would be or how long it would take to just identify the function of each beat. There's that and the fact that ACT TWO is twice as long as ACTS ONE and THREE.

As you last remember, Marty hopped into the DeLorean time machine and tried to escape from the terrorists, whom Doc stole the plutonium from, and accidentally turned on the time machine set to 1955.

BACK TO THE FUTURE ACT TWO STORY BEATS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS:

41. ACTION- CRASH INTO A NEW WORLD:

A scarecrow suddenly appears startling Marty. He crashes into a barn. 

The noise wakes up the farmer and his family. Seeing the DeLorean, they think it’s an aliens spaceship. When Marty emerges wearing his radiation suit. 

Marty tries to explain but the farmer shoots at him. 

Marty escapes in the DeLorean.

42. REALIZATION- I’VE GONE BACK IN TIME!

Marty thinks he’s having a nightmare until he sees his future home site.  

The DeLorean runs out of gas so Marty hides it and walks to town.

His home town in 1955 is completely foreign to Marty. 

43. ACTION- GETTING ORIENTED:

Marty goes to a malt shop and finds Doc’s address in the phonebook.

44. DISCOVERY:

Marty sees his future father, George, next to him at the malt shop. 

Marty tries to understand what’s happening.

45. REALIZATION- RELATIONSHIP:

Biff comes in bullying George. Marty realizes Biff has bullied his father since they were teenagers. 

46. REALIZATION- RELATIONSHIP:

Marty follows George and discovers the reason that George was in the tree when his parents met, he was peeping on a girl in her bedroom.  

47. ACTION- REPLAY OF EXPOSITION OF WE’VE HEARD

George falls in the path of an oncoming car. 

48. ACTION- MARTY DOES IT WRONG- HE INTERFERES WITH HISTORY:

Marty pushes George out of the car's path gets hit himself.

49. CONSEQUENCE- MARTY CHANGES HISTORY

Marty is knocked out and taken to the driver’s house.

50. IRONY PAID OFF: MARTY’S MOTHER ACTS JUST LIKE SHE TOLD HER DAUGHTER NOT TO:

Marty wakes up hearing his mother's voice. He discovers she’s a teenager. And she begins to come on to Marty. Marty’s saved by a call to dinner.

51. ACTION- GATHERING INFORMATION:

At dinner, the family eats while watching "The Honeymooners" on their first television. Marty asks how to find Doc's address, which Lorraine's father says is over on the east end of town. 

52. DRAMATIC IRONY- WE KNOW MARTY WILL BE HIS KID:

Lorraine's father tells his daughter, if she ever has a kid like Marty, he'll disown her.

53. ACTION:

Marty finds Doc Brown's house. Doc answers and he hooks Marty up to an invention to read other's thoughts. But it doesn’t work.

54. INFORMATION GIVEN:

Marty tells Doc about his time machine works and he's from the future. 

55. CONSEQUENCE:

Doc doesn't believe him. Marty tries to prove it with photos but Doc thinks they’re forged.

56. DISCOVERY OF CONSEQUENCE OF MARTY’S ERROR:

Doc notices that Marty's brother's head is beginning to disappear.

57. EXPOSITION LEADS TO BELIEF:

Marty explains how Doc hurt his head and led to the vision of the flux capacitor- Doc finally believes him. Shows him a drawing.

58. ACTION:

Marty takes Doc to the DeLorean, Doc’s elated that his time machine works. 

59. COMMITMENT:

Doc vows to send Marty, “Back to the future”!

60. OBSTACLE:

Watching the video from 1985, Doc panics when he learns time travel requires 1.21 gigawatts of power. Doc explains plutonium is not easy to get in1955.

61. OBSTACLE COMPOUNDED:

The only power that can generate that power is a lightning bolt you can’t predict a lightning strike. Marty’s stuck in the past.

62. PAYOFF EXPOSITION:

Marty remembers the flier about the lightning strike at the Hill Valley clock tower in one week. 

63. ACTION PLAN:

Doc begins to plan to harness the power of the bolt and send Marty home.

64. WARNING:

Doc warns Marty about interfering with things that may change the future and jeopardize his existence. Marty mentions interfering with first meeting between his father and mother. 

65. DISCOVERY: 

Doc looks at the photo of Marty and his siblings. Marty’s brother is fading from the photo as a result of Marty's interfering with his future parents.

66. ACTION & INFORMATION:

Doc takes Marty to the high school. They spot George being picked on. 

67. PERSUASIVE ACTION:

Marty tries to get George to talk to Lorraine but Lorraine has eyes for Marty. 

68. STAKES:

Doc worries that Marty has changed the past irreparably, George doesn’t have the guts to ask Lorraine out. 

69. ACTION- LIE:

Marty lies telling George that Lorraine wants him to ask her to the dance. 

70. SETUP:

Marty asks George what he's writing. Sci-fi stories. 

71. CHARACTER REVEAL:

Marty asks to read one and George refuses, fearing rejection.

72. RELATIONSHIP MISUNDERSTANDING:

George sees Lorraine with Biff and thinks that Lorraine wants to go to the dance with Biff.

73. ACTION:

Biff is across the cafeteria and harassing Lorraine. 

74. MARTY’S WRONG ACTION:

Marty stands up for Lorraine pulling Biff off her. 

75. CONSEQUENCE ACTION:

Biff begins pushing Marty and he pushing back.

76. INTERRUPTED ACTION:

Strickland breaks up the fight.

77. ACTION

Marty follows George begging George to ask Lorraine to the dance.

78. OBSTACLE & SETUP:

George continues to refuse and no one will make him change his mind.

79. PAYOFF ACTION:

That night, Marty wears his radiation suit and sneaks into George’s room. He tells George he's from another planet and orders him to ask Lorraine out, threatening to melt his brain if he doesn’t. George believes him.

80. ACTION:

Marty takes George to the malt shop where Lorraine is and gives George love advice to use on Lorraine which seem to work.

81. OBSTACLE:

George's efforts are foiled with Biff shows up. 

82. MARTY’S WRONG ACTION:

Marty defends George and fools Biff. Marty grabs a scooter from a girl and escapes turning it into a skateboard. 

83. CONSEQUENCE:

Biff and his gang follow Marty in Biff's car. 

84. ACTION:

Marty tricks Biff into crashing into a manure truck.

85. CONSEQUENCE:

Lorraine becomes even more attracted to Marty.

86. ACTION PLAN DEMONSTRATES EXPOSITION:

Doc shows Marty his plan, using a model car and scale model town, to use the lighting bolt to power the DeLorean. When the lighting strikes, the energy will travel a cable from the clock tower, cross the street to a hook attached to the car providing the 1.2 gigawatts necessary for time travel. It works great.

87. CONSEQUENCE DEMONSTRATES STAKES:

Except that it starts a fire.

88. OBSTACLE:

Lorraine interrupts them and she asks him out to the dance. 

89. SILVER LINING OF OBSTACLE:

Marty see a way to get George and Lorraine together and accepts her offer.

90. ACTION PLAN INFORMATION:

Marty tells George his plan. George will find Marty taking advantage of her in her car. George will pull Marty out of the car, pretend to beat him up saving her.

NARRATIVE QUESTIONS REMAINING:

Will Marty's plan succeed in getting George to kiss Lorraine at the dance or will Lorraine stay hooked on Marty until he fades from existence?

Will Doc's plans clock tower lightning plan work to power the DeLorean back to the future or will Marty go up in flames?

We want to keep watching to learn the answers. It's great how the filmmakers gave you vivid pictures of the hopes and the fears of these narrative questions.

These narrative questions are different from the ones that ended ACT ONE. There we wanted to know will Marty escape the terrorists?

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Stay tuned for the story beats and their functions from Act 3.

Dragonweaving Back to the Future part 4 storyteller's log

Sorry for the delay's with Back to the Future. I ran out of Plutonium and got stuck. Anyway, I'm still analyzing the beats of acts 2 and 3.  In the meantime,  I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what and how we're going to be mapping Back to the Future. I'm calling it Dragonweaving.

As we saw earlier, the dragon gestalt is composed of 4 progressions and three turns or changes of direction. These correspond to the three acts, with the second act being twice as long. (Remember, a gestalt is an emergent property that's greater than the sum of the parts.)

We're mapping both the ups and downs of the character along with the hopes and fears of the audience over time.

Here are the four progressions of Back to the Future:

Progression 1:
Marty has been hanging out with the dangerous Doc. We know he's dangerous because Principle Strickland tells us so. But we see just how dangerous he is right in the opening scene- he's stolen plutonium.

Turn 1:
Doc's actions cause consequences. The terrorists don't like being tricked so they kill him. Marty narrowly escapes in the time machine back to his past in 1955.

Progression 2:
In the past Marty disrupts the flow of the space time continuum changing the future. He saves his father causing his mother to fall in love with him. And he beats the bully Bif.

Turn 2:
Marty tracks down Doc and learns he's stuck in the past because you can't buy plutonium at the local 5 and 10. (For those who don't know a 5 and 10 store referred to stores where you could buy things for 5 and 10 cents. I guess it's equivalent to our current dollar stores. But even they don't sell plutonium) The consequence of this is that his brother and sister are starting to disappear from existence, this is shown by the visual icon of them fading from Marty's family photo.

Progression 3:
As Marty is beginning to lose everything, in the manner of Alice who worried she's going out like a candle flame. Doc makes a plan, which is BRILLIANTLY demonstrated by the use of a scale model. It shows us exactly what's at stake. The model car drives through the town and connects with the lightning bolt at a scale speed of exactly 88 miles per hour. (Ever wonder why 88 miles per hour?) What's brilliant about this scene is, not only to we see what the plan is with no dialogue needed, but we get to see what could happen if things go wrong- the car bursts into flames. A second plan is made where Marty will get his father to take his mother to the dance and have their first kiss.

Turn 3:
Marty gets his parent to kiss.

Progression 4:
Marty prepares the time machine while Doc has to deal with obstacles of getting the wiring back to the clock tower. The plan works and Marty is sent back to the future. The doc is saved and his family has changed for the better.

Here is it mapped on the dragon. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Let's try one example of one thread of the dragonweave of Back to the Future:

Early in the film, Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer are about to kiss.

OBSTACLE & SETUP: The clock tower lady interrupts their kiss wanting a donation to save the clock tower.

ACTION: Jennifer needs to give him a phone number where he can reach her so she writes it on the flier and he puts it in his pocket. 

Now this information has been setup for later use. It also served as a story delay for their romance.

Later, in the past, Marty wants to go back to the future. (That was a very weird sentence- later, in the past...) 

OBSTACLE: They don't have enough power for the time machine to work. They would need a lightning bolt which you can't predict.

PAYOFF!: Marty remembers he can predict a lightning bolt strike- exactly where and when.

ACTION: Doc makes a plan to power the time machine with lightning.

OBSTACLE & STAKE: The model car goes up in flames.

Now we cut away to the dance action. Once Marty is successful in getting his parents to kiss he goes to meet the Doc.

Doc has the time machine all set and the clock tower wired. 

OBSTACLE 1. The wiring to the clock tower comes out.

OBSTACLE 2. The DeLoean time machine won't start.

The clock tower is a great prop to use because it also literally functions as the "ticking clock" countdown. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

You'll notice I've color coded some of the parts. The red boxes indicate obstacles and they are connected with an incoming red arrow. This means that things are going back for the character and the audience will start to grow tense and fear for the characters. The green arrows indicate a rise up towards good things and the audience's hope. The yellow dotted arrow shows where the setup has been paid off. 

As you can see dragonweaving becomes a very eleglant way to map the progress of not only your story and plot but also how it's affecting your audience.

This is the first time I'm doing a dragonweave so according to my theory I'll probably do some things wrong and then suffer the consequences and... 

One thing I already discovered is that this one thread contains 11 threads. I've got over 80 storybeats to map. I'm going to need a really big dragon.

See you next time and extra credit for anyone who can figure out why 88 miles per hour.