In part 1 of our 2-part conversation, Fable and the Verbivore discuss some of the unique facets that help make Pixar’s movies some of the most effective and emotionally connected narratives seen in movies over the last 25 years. We feel that tips and tricks gleaned from their fundamental story elements have the potential to make any story, regardless of their medium, resonate more closely with their audience.

Our conversation touches on the emotional impact of the first 3 minutes of Finding Nemo which invests the audience in Marlin’s perspective, how changes the storytellers made to Toy Story 2 allowed the audience to experience clearly the emotional stakes of the story, and how the story makers setup Woody in Toy Story as a likeable character who has just had a condition for his life crossed which throws him into crisis.

We unpack several of the 22 Pixar storytelling rules while discussing how Pixar emotionally connects the audience to their characters, creates drama by figuring out in what situations their character thrive and throwing the opposite at them, uses their own experience and feelings to lend emotional authenticity to the story, and sets up safe spaces where it is alright to experiment with your stories and share your ideas without fear of failure.

Towards the end of our conversation, we discuss Pixar’s team approach to writing and testing out story elements along the way as a story is coming together rather than just at the end. This gives way to a conversation about giving feedback on a creative project in such a way that identifies an issue without being overly prescriptive as to how that issue should be resolved.

We also bring up some of the ideas that are behind our #100dayproject. We are now almost at the end of this project and would love to share the things we created on instagram. Feel free to check out our work under the hashtag #imitatelikeawriter.

We hope that you enjoy this episode and that you are staying safe! Keep creating and putting your unique voice out there!

Into the woods,
Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

The Verbivore discusses the changes that were made to Finding Nemo to make Marlin more empathetic as a character, by moving his backstory to the beggining of the narrative rather than have flashbacks throughout the movie. Those details came from the “Pixar in a Box: The Art of Storytelling” free class available on Khanacademy.org. Here is the link:

• Introduction to Structure - https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/hass-storytelling/storytelling-pixar-in-a-box/ah-piab-story-structure/v/piab-storystructure

Both Fable and the Verbivore talk throughout the episode about Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling. This list is located in many places online, but here us one link to one copy of the list. Here are the rules they mentioned:

6. What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

12. Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

15. If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

18. You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

The Verbivore references the Ted Talk “Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story”. The sequence about Woody and the conditions that he has for himself start at timestamp 12:23.

The Verbivore references a book that she read as part of her work about how to give critical feedback. That book is called Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process - A Method for Getting Useful Feedback on Anything You Make, from Dance to Dessert.

Fable mentions the Pixar concept of Good Notes. Here is a synopsis of the good note process as defined in the book Creativity Inc.:

• Good notes say what is wrong, what is missing, what isn’t clear and what makes sense. They do not make demands or necessarily propose a fix. Most of all, they are specific.

• Focus on the problem, not the person: When criticizing an idea, shift the emphasis away from the source and onto the idea itself.

• Set up a healthy feedback system by removing power dynamics from the equation. Any successful feedback system is built on empathy.

• Success = put smart, passionate people in a room, charge them with identifying and solving problems, and encourage them to be candid.

Fable mentions a quote about writing emotion from a place of authenticity. Here is the full quote:

• “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” – Robert Frost

Books Mentioned:

• Pixar Storytelling: Rules for Effective Storytelling Based on Pixar's Greatest Films 1st Edition by Dean Movshovitz

• Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace, et al.

• Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process - A Method for Getting Useful Feedback on Anything You Make, from Dance to Dessert by Liz Lerman

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)