Tag Archives: story

Beginning, End, Middle

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Jonathan Lyons

It is an often repeated mantra in ani­ma­tion that story is king.  I have read the book Story by Robert McKee, and if I were to write a fea­ture screen­play I would prob­a­bly refer to it often.   But it’s … Con­tinue read­ing →

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The Seven Laws of Comedy Writing

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Jonathan Lyons

The Seven Laws of Com­edy Writing

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Playful characters

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Jonathan Lyons

Recently I’ve been think­ing about con­ven­tional wis­dom in cre­at­ing sto­ries. What I mean by con­ven­tional wis­dom, is the stuff I’ve seen in blog posts, giv­ing direc­tion to ani­ma­tors in cre­at­ing sto­ries.  Some of it comes from Kurt Vonnegut’s advice to writ­ers. … Con­tinue read­ing →

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The Eight Comic Plots

Posted on June 5, 2011 by Jonathan Lyons

Here is a lit­tle more from The Comic Mind by Ger­ald Mast. He describes 8 basic struc­tures of comic sto­ries for movies.  Here are brief quotes from the book with some ani­mated exam­ples I could think of. 1.” The first is … Con­tinue read­ing →

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Starting from the end? Safety Last

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Jonathan Lyons

Ahh, early Hol­ly­wood, where film­mak­ers were just fig­ur­ing out how to do things.  Where mas­ter­pieces could  be spun out in any way the direc­tor saw fit.  Pre­vi­ously I posted about how Buster Keaton would often build his sto­ries beginning-end-middle.  Now … Con­tinue read­ing →

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