Back to the Future- Complete story weave part1

I'd now like to show you several analyses of movies to show how the dragon theory applies. From there, we can see how there are interesting structural variations to fit different types of movies. And it also gives us a new taxonomy of movies in addition to genres. A taxonomy is a type of science concerned with classification. This was an unexpected insight after looking at many films through the dragon lens.

Today we're going to start with, one of my favorite films, Back to the Future. I already analyzed this film, in terms of how it was edited, for my book, Directing the Story. Here I want to attempt a full analysis of the story weave of the the film's dragon. This is the first time I've tried analyzing a complete story-weave. Previously, I've only looked at the broad strokes of films, for example the School of Rock example.

Back to the Future

Why do a complete story weave? I hope to show that by analyzing the complete story-weave it will reveal how the film is literally woven together. In this way, you can, by virtue of the visual dragon structure see how all the pieces literally fit together to make a tapestry. If this works the implications are very powerful as an analysis tool to help you make sure you film is completely woven together in a way that can satisfy your audience.

But first a digression. All story theory's are by nature an abstraction of the essence of a story. I believe that the trick is to find the right degree of abstraction that fulfills two criteria. First, it must be abstract enough to allow for it to encompass many types of films. In other words, there must be some degree of open ended-ness. Secondly, it must be specific enough to guide you through the maze of screenwriting or novel writing. In my experience most film theories err on the side of being too abstract. In other words, they leave me lost in the maze. It is my hope that the dragon approach will allow you to follow the path of the dragon through the maze without being lost. When you see the tapestry, it's like a revelation.

Now many writers have written stories that fit the dragon gestalt without knowing anything about the dragon. They've used their own methods or compilations of other theories. However, I think that any theory that says it fits "every story ever told", as does the hero's journey, must by nature be too abstract to be useful or just not true. As Kurt Vonnegut showed in his mapping the ups and downs of the character's fortune. Kafka's story the Metamorphosis does not follow the hero's journey. However, Kafka shows a way to map it, nonetheless. So, according to Vonnegut, it appears Campbell was wrong.

What I propose with the dragon approach is that the dragon is an emergent shape that emerged when I analyzed movies based upon mapping the audience's hopes and fears in a way that provides an emotionally satisfying experience and a learning experience. This just also happens to be the shape of many successful stories and movies. I don't care if it fits "every story ever told". Those aren't stories I wish to tell. I believe and hope to show that the dragon gestalt has just the right degree of abstraction to be useful as a guide, and yet still opened ended enough to allow for a wide range of stories to be told that all feel unique.

So let's go back to the future. What do I mean by story-weave? I literally mean how the story is woven together. We're going to track the theme and sub-themes, actions, discoveries, setups, payoffs, conflicts, dramatic ironies, expectancies, twists, surprises, hierarchy of narrative questions, lessons, problems, wrong solutions, consequences, right solutions, choices, plans, ticking clocks (Yes, multiple clocks), symbolic deaths, rebirths and opposites traveled to reach new worlds never imagined. And we're going to do it visually.

We'll start with the basic four components.
1. Introduce a world of problems.
2. Attempt wrong solutions.
3. Suffer the consequences.
4. Do the right thing.

Here is the 4 part chart again for reference. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

One reviewer of Iggy's Incredibly Easy Way to Write a Story described this very eloquently in his review.

"Glebas' method reminds me of a fine gesture drawing. Like a gesture it articulates the feeling, structure and story of the pose in a quick, clear way without the artifice of a bunch of extra squiggly lines. In fact, the "Visual" portion of the book that depicts the structure is conveyed literally like a gesture drawing."

I wish to express my appreciation for everyone who has written reviews of my books. Thank you.

WARNING SPOILER ALERT! IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN BACK TO THE FUTURE, STOP READING AND GO WATCH IT NOW! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. 

Back to the Future

1. The problem is introduced in the opening Rube Goldberg-type montage opening of the film. A TV radio announcer reports news of the theft of Plutonium. We meet Marty, Doc's friend. We also learn that Doc has created a time machine.

2. Already actions have consequences, Doc's theft of Plutonium in exchange for giving a bomb to terrorists has backfired when they realize he gave them a fake bomb. This triggers the story into motion. During the demonstration of the time machine, Delorean car, the terrorists return attempting to kill Doc. Doc is shot and Marty escapes in the Delorean and into the past! He "crosses the threshold" to the past. (Who was guarding the threshold?)

Marty now does things the wrong way. He immediately gets involved with his future mother and in-laws potentially changing the course of history.

3. Marty must now suffer the consequences. He's already facing symbolic death as his siblings start disappearing from existence. This is signified in a beautifully visual way by them literally dissolving out of the photo of Marty and his siblings. He's next if he doesn't make things right.

4. Marty must now make everything right. He has to get his future father on track with his future mother so they'll kiss and history will be righted, and he must face further obstacles to warn Doc and return to the future.

Back to the Future fits the dragon shape. But it's interesting, first, because the problem of the story is also because of a character taking a wrong path. The Doc steals Plutonium. This has dangerous consequences. It also sets the story in motion once all the introductions are made. Secondly, Marty's taking the wrong path seems to happen accidentally. He just happens to be there with the Doc when the terrorists come. He just happens to try to escape by driving away in a Delorean, which also happens to be a time machine. He just happens to time travel to 1955. It's not until Marty follows his future father, George, and tries to save his life does he do the wrong thing and change the fabric of time. It is now Marty rather than George who gets hit by the father of  Marty's future mother, Lorraine. She now falls for him instead of George. But we all know what Freud say about accidents.

Another thing I don't care for in certain film theories is when they say something must happen on page x. Once again, if the theory is abstract enough, then yes, something exciting can happen on page x. Once these four parts are mapped unto the dragon we can see that the dragon guide has some flexibility in it's elastic use of time. When I demonstrate the dragon for 127 hours you'll see something very interesting about the elasticity of time. Here is the chart again showing the elasticity of time and the parts.

P.S. While researching the map, I came across some interesting charts mapping the time jumping from Back to the Futures 1, 2, and 3.

To see original page: Back to the Future charts.

Next time we'll start weaving. Till then, tell each other good stories...

The 5 last puzzle pieces that allowed me to see what writers haven't. Storyteller's Log 1-7-2013

It's now time to present the map of story structure that fit all of my criteria about what a good story theory should have. But first, I 'd like to acknowledge some people who helped me see it. To do this I'd like to enlist the aid of a quote by someone you may know.

"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other people, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving." Albert Einstein

The thing I love the most about Einstein was his playfulness

I don't believe that we stand on the shoulders of giants. I believe that we stand on the shoulder of all the ordinary people who tried to make life a little better for themselves and others and in the process created this thing we call human culture. Take a moment to look around and see how many comforts you have that our ancestors have created. They literally created a magic lamp for us that has granted so many wishes.

So on top of all of the screenwriting and drama writing books that I have read which taught me a wealth of valuable information about writing, there were four more puzzle pieces that lead my long search to a emergent surprise that allowed me to see how to write.

1. The first was Aristotle's original idea to map a story. Only I think he mapped the wrong thing. His mapping is important but secondary.

2. Second, Nancy Duarte and her book, Resonate, showed me that what's at stake could be mapped over time.

3. Third, it was Toy Story producer,  Ralph Guggenheim, that taught me C programming when we were both at NYIT's Computer Graphics Lab, as part of the emerging of the field of computer graphics. I had taken math in high school and college but never understood the concept of mathematical functions. Ralph showed us how a circle could be mapped over time onto a sine wave by graphing it. Finally, I got it because I could literally see it. Little did I know, (Dramatic Irony, check out "Stranger than Fiction" for the full reference.) that this would be a crucial piece of the puzzle.
The hero's journey is a circle. But what does it map? It maps a journey over time and as Chris Vogler pointed out in his book, The Writer's Journey, that journey is a psychological one. It's just not in a form that I can use to help me write. But sine waves are the key, that and another math concept Ralph taught us- fractals.

BLOGGER NOTE: Do not be afraid, there is no math involved in this theory.

4. The discovery that stories are woven sequences of cause and effect. And it was my Vocabulary of the Media Critic class, in which Dr. Alwyn Scott told us if we wanted to be filmmakers, we better learn about semiotics. This was back in 1980 and he was right. Though semiotics I discovered there are many types of causality beyond the pure physical causality of a Rule Goldberg machine.

5. The fifth and final piece of the puzzle came from Peter Dunne's book, Emotion Structure: Creating the story beneath the plot. From his excellent book I learned that character's use psychological defenses to try to achieve what they want. I won't go to much into this here. Don't want to give away too much now, but this book was very helpful in allowing me to see story causality.

Emotional Structure

Finally, in answer to the rhetorical question that I heard in my mind,  "Why could I see it when no other writer could for over 2000 years?" Read that sentence again for the answer.

So the first mapping of a story is to map that there is a problem. I'll leave you to think about that question.

We've begun.

A look back at story structure and a step into the new year, Storyteller's log 1-1-2013

Let's look at where we've been with the help of Scared Bunny's look back mirror.

Our story thus far, I promised to share the development of my new story theory as I write it into a complete new text. I self published my first book as an introductory book- Iggy's Incredibly Easy Way to Write a Story. Which is my primer on the subject.

Speaking of suspense, so far I've been telling you what limitations I personally find with most story theories. Let's look at the structure of what I've done so far. To do this I'd like to introduce you to another approach offered by Nancy Duarte from her book, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences.

Resonate on Amazon

Nancy deals mainly with presentations and has taken things from storytelling such as archetypes and the hero's journey to develop her own version of mapping presentations. I'm now going to take what she evolved for presentations back to storytelling for narratives. This is exactly why it is so important not to just read what everybody else is reading on your subject but outside the subject. It get's you out of a rut.

Nancy introduces her mapping tool she calls the Sparkline of a presentation. In her book she analyzes a number of presentations using this tool.

                             

I think this is a brilliant, particularly in the way in the way she shows what's at stake during the story or presentation. She compares the bottom line of "what is" and then contrasts that with "what could be". Very clear and elegant.

Let's look at a Sparkline of what I've presented so far on the storyteller's log 11-26-2012. First, I talked about the two senses of being lost in the story. The first sense was good, that you want your audience lost in your story so the world fades away and they live the dream. The second sense was that in trying to create a story often writers get lost not knowing what to do or where to go next, I know this happens to me. Then I told you what will come- a new way for you not to get lost. Only I didn't say when. 

Already we have the beginnings of a story. A problem is presented. A solution is promised. I announced my intention to show you a better way to create stories. Then there were obstacles. I showed attempts at solutions and why they don't work for me. First with Aristotle, then Plot Points, the Hero's Journey, and the structuralists- Propp and Eco.

Here's what we get using the various mappings.

Here's Aristotle's mapping of the problem, promise and possible solutions and their limitations. This really doesn't really show us much does it?

Here's the Plot point mapping of the same data. This shows even less information. 

Here's the Hero's journey mapping. I'm starting to get lost again.

Here's Propp's functions. But it doesn't fit into his functions. I'm definitely lost again. Maybe I should have bought a GPS.

Now here's Duarte's Sparkline mapping. This gives us some useful information. It shows how I offered solutions that I've learned about but ultimately found limiting.

But look closely, we're interested in story structure. I've basically repeated myself four times. This makes it repetitive, potentially boring and probably frustrating. If you've come back to this blog wanting to learn about a new story structure you've been let down. So far.

This was done for a point. I could have continued with several other approaches that I find helpful but limiting but that would have strained credibility. I wanted to introduce you to a useful structure and see how it could be applied to analyze a story structure.

Remember this when you're structuring your movie. You need to walk a fine line with suspense. The right amount will keep the audience on the edge of their seat. If you repeat too much, you'll lose the suspense.

But too much suspense will put them to sleep. Storytelling is story delaying, but just the right amount.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you exactly what I'm looking for in a story structure theory. Till then...

Why didn't you ask for directions? The hero's journey Storyteller's Log 12-6-2012

DISCLAIMER: I am presenting parody of Joseph Campbell's Hero's journey to make a point. While it's meant in good fun, I don't want to diminish his valuable work. It has informed my owning thinking on the subject.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces written by Joseph Campbell describes an archetypal pattern that he discovered which underlies all stories across all cultures and time periods. The most famous application of this theory is, of course, Star Wars.

Hollywood has been in a continual quest to find ways to make creating good stories easier. At one time there were two story paradigms in Hollywood. One was a fish out of water and the other was an unholy alliance. Beverly Hills Cop would be an example of a fish out of water and 48 Hours would be an example of an unholy alliance. From what I heard, if your script didn't fit either of these moulds then it would be deep-sixed.

It was Chris Volger who brought the hero's journey to the attention of Hollywood with a memo he wrote. I was fortunate to take a class at UCLA with Chris right before he published the Writer's Journey. I think that his key insight was that the writer, him or herself actually goes on the hero's journey when they write a story. I experientially believe this to be true.

I recommend his book. The Writers Journey

Now, I believe that any story structure theory should be easy to apply and easy to remember. So I am going to go off my memory of the hero's journey trusting that I remembered the important points. The hero's journey is setup like a counter clockwise journey. It maps time around a circle. Why it's counter clockwise I have no idea.
The hero starts in their ordinary world and is awakened to a call to adventure. They refuse the call only to go on the journey after all. If they didn't go there wouldn't be any story, would there? Next they meet a mentor.

The next step is they have to cross a threshold into an underworld. So they have to deal with the threshold guardians. From the beginning until they cross the threshold is ACT 1. The underworld is ACT 2. The return is ACT 3.

So far, so good. This is helpful. Let's look at the rest of the journey with the help of some visual aids.

Here is our here awakened by a call to adventure, or maybe the neighbor's dog was barking all night.

The first thing they do is to refuse the call.

Next they meet the mentor, who archetypically looks kind of like Mr. Natural. 

Next up, they cross the threshold into the hellish underworld and the tests begin. It's not multiple choice.

Anybody got a flashlight. This is where I get lost. Are we in the belly of the whale? Maybe it's the belly of a dragon? Oh, we're in the trash compactor.

In the underworld, the hero meets the goddess. If it's the heroine's journey, do they meet God???

Then they have a supreme ordeal, which is really scary as the name implies.

Finally, they cross the threshold, only after seizing the sword and return to the ordinary world.

They return with the elixir and the world is transformed.

The end.

The setup and end parts are helpful but what goes on in the middle? This was about as much as I can remember about the hero's journey and I've actively tried to use it on many stories. Obviously a lot of it didn't take in my memory. 

I think there is a difference between post analysis and prescription. The hero's journey is a great tool to analyze movies. For Chris's class, I analyzed the hero's journey for the Fisher King. It yielded interesting insights. For example, the underworld for that film was metaphorically represented by a video store- a world of celluoid dreams. All four main characters went on their own heroes' journeys.

Could I have written the Fisher King using the hero's journey as my guide? Did the writer's of the Fisher King actively write their script using the hero's journey? I don't think the hero's journey is as useful for prescription in the sense of guiding you as to what to write. This is what I want help with and many struggling writers that I know want help with. How do I not get lost in the underworld?

When I get lost, I'm not afraid to buy a map, get a GPS or ask for directions. Or explore and map my own territory. Now, I'm ready to explore, can someone point me towards north?