Story Structures

Having a story structure in any form of fictional story is definitely something that can detrimentally change how interesting a movie or animation can be. They are the building blocks that can make your work professional if used correctly, and once you've learned them they can be recycled throughout multiple projects. Here are a couple that I've found to be very helpful:

The most popular story structure I do want to mention is the 'Beginning, Middle and End' structure which is numbed down to be the most simplistic way of creating a story. The beginning introduces us to the story, the middle is something that something that happens during the story and the end is the result that comes from the story. However, not all stories like to follow this structure, for example: this beautiful animation by Svilen Dimitrov tells us what happens to the character in the beginning of the animation, then plays out the entire story in reverse to go back to the beginning. This use of foreshadowing can actually be quite humorous as we know as an audience what happens to the character in the future whilst he doesn't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoemcTwDSv0

Another story structure I was interested looking into is Dan Harmon's Story Circle: This has a similar structure to the 'Beginning, Middle, End' however it goes into more depth with eight different steps:

During our lesson we were told to apply this story structure into another animation and to see if it follows a similar structure. The animation we watched as a group was called "The Cat Came Back" where the protagonist gets introduced to a cat on his doorstep but when he wants it out of his house it keeps coming back. Below I have applied the Dan Harmon structure on this animation in it's eight different steps:

1. Comfort zone – Man playing with tuba

2. They want something – The cat

3. Unfamiliar situation – The cat starts ruining his possessions

4. Adapt to it – Throw the cat house

5. Get what they wanted – No cat

6. Pay a heavy price – The cat comes back

7. Return to a familiar situation – Cat ruins house again

8. Having changed - Dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJl_4IsQJ2g