Pixar's 22 Tips on Storytelling

Here are 22 tips on storytelling that were tweeted by Emma Coats, director and Pixar storyboard artist. These were put into a list and posted by Ryan Koo on the excellent web site, No Film School.

1. You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
2. You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.
3. Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
4. Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
5. Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
6. What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
7. Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
8. Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
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.
10. Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.
11. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
12. Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
13. Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
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.
15. If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
16. What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
17. No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
18. You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
19. Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?
21. You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?
22. What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

You might also want to check out No Film School's article on Pixar's story development process.

Ken Burns On Story

"The story is king." A film well shot and expertly edited that fails to tell a good story will not be watched. In this short documentary Ken Burns shares his thoughts on the craft of storytelling in film.

Ken Burns: On Story from Redglass Pictures on Vimeo.

Video Apps for Smartphones

UPDATED August 13, 2016.

Ideally, we would all have access to a "pro-sumer" video camera to make our digital masterpieces, but... well, they're expensive. This class is mainly about learning how movies are made and how to develop skills to tell stories well on film. If you have a nice camcorder, pro-sumer video camera, or DSLR, then please use it. Otherwise your smartphone, iPad, or point-and-shoot camera should work fine.

Smartphone cameras have come such a long way in the last few years. A friend who is a professional videographer told me about a European colleague who finished a broadcast-quality commercial using only an iPhone 4S to capture video. He said it was beautiful. (See this commercial for Bentley automobiles shot on iPhone 5s and edited on iPads.) If you have a smartphone with a good video camera and you can upload shots to your computer for editing, then use it for this class. Recent model iPod Touches do a fine job of capturing video.

I highly recommend that you buy an app called "Filmic Pro" which is now available on Android as well as iPhone. It is an amazing video app that lets you manually set and fix the camera's focus, exposure, and white balance—three critical things for good video. It has many other features also. Here is a good article about setting up Filmic Pro on your iOS device: How to make HD movies on your iPhone 4 or 4S. There are many short films shot on smartphones on YouTube.

Filmic still offers their older app free on iTunes. It is called "Filmic Classic." It is best if you have an older iPhone or iPod Touch with video. It is still quite a capable app.

There are other film shooting apps and editing apps out there for your smartphones. If you want to explore the many options out there, make sure to read reviews and watch videos made on each.