Every story, independently from their plot or style, has a compact structure for its narrative. With this parameters we are able to deconstruct films, tv shows and even documentaries.

This is why humans love story, because stories give us a sense of purpose, meaning, and shape, and they do that through story arcs.

There can be identified two ways of creating a pattern in narrative: story as a curve and stories as a circle.

Narrative arc, also called a “story arc,” a “dramatic arc,” or just an “arc,” is a literary term for the path a story follows. It provides a backbone by providing a clear beginning, middle, and end of the story: our brain needs to understand why things are going badly for us so we can avoid it or why things are so well so we can do more of whatever’s working.

The story arc can be exemplified in these few steps:

Every story has a beginning, middle, and end, with the middle typically taking up a longer period of time than the beginning or the end. Every narrative arc has key points, traditional stories have key plot sections and points that map nicely onto this arc:

1. Exposition: which introduces the setting, the character and the problems they face.
2. Rising action: Moves the plot forward by showing characters fighting against their problems.
3. Climax: tensest moment of the crisis; it describes the moment when the characters face a crisis that controls the rest of the plot.
4. Falling action: which moves the plot from the climax towards an ending.
5. Resolution: brings the story to stability by showing the final results of the climax.

Stories as a circle have also an equilibrium where the ending and the beginning are attached creating a round journey. Many have tried to create the perfect formula but the Hero’s journey formula, the monomyth, by the philosopher and theologist Joseph Campbell described in his book “a hero with a thousand faces” is the most explicative one. He concluded that there are characteristics of an effective story and those characteristics are consistent regardlessn of religion, race, time or ancestry.

Dan Harmon simplified the monomyth formula into an even more basic structure: the story circle: a distillation of the hero’s journey into eight steps. He believes that his circle is universal for any story in any medium. These 8 steps follow a character’s pursuit of a goal outside of their normal world. Their inevitable return finds them changed, whether or not they achieved their goal.

The theory behind the circle:

The circle is split in to main sections through an horizontal line: the top part of the circle represents where the characters journey starts and finishes, the bottom represents the world that needs to be traversed in order to grow and change. This duality helps to keep the balance and rhythm of a story and it could refer to life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness or even order and chaos. The hero dives and emerges as he saves all lives. If we add a vertical line we find ourselves with 4 main intersections and four spaces: the four points where the lines cross the circle are numbered 1,3,5,7 and the quarter sections 2,4,6 and 8.

Here follows what each number represents:

1. You: a character is in a zone of comfort. In this section, we firmly establish their starting point, their situation, so we can assess and compare the change at the end. This is also the time to understand the context around the character — their world, its rules, and how they fit inside it.
2. Need: they want something. The story starts to take shape, something happens to our “You” who is the “who” of the story that presents a problem or a question, the “Need” of the story, the “what“.
3. Go: they enter an unfamiliar situation. Crossing this step means that the protagonist enters the bottom half of the Story Circle. Leaving their normal world behind and officially entering the unknown, the Special World by taking action responding to the “Need”.
4. Search: adapt to it. It’s a series of obstacles the hero must overcome: story and process get more complicated.
5. Find: get what they wanted. The hero has found the “Need” that sent them on this journey: plot and character development collide since now need something bigger.
6. Take: pay a heavy price for it. Even after their initial success, the hero suffers heavily losses since everything comes to a price: it could be anything from a temporary setback to the death of a major character.
7. Return: then return to their familiar situation.
8. Change: having changed. This change could be a personal one or can alternate world our him or her or both and it can have opposite effects too.

Each of the semicircles has an an important meaning crossing from one half to the other – which are major sources of drama in the story – from top to bottom you delineate the moment that the hero enters a new situation and is forced to adapt often struggling to do so this usually means that the protagonist fights some external force. The second line is defining the inner struggle of the hero once the hero crosses this diving line he or she finally faces and tries to overcome his or her inner flaws or problems.

Characters type

Characters in a story are defined and described as the following types:

Protagonist: who is the main character, the hero or story driver, who may be good or bad.

Antagonist: who stands against or challenges the protagonist but who can also have something to learn or redeem.

A character can also be Dynamic if it experiences inner growth or changes throughout the narrative and even learns something. Or it can be Static so it experiences no growth or chance and repeats its actions and does not learn any lesson.

A Round character is a developed, life like character who has a deep relatability. On the other hand a Flat character is an underdeveloped, one dimensional character of whom we have minimum insights.

All the character which is not human in a story has anthropomorphic features which help the audience to emotionally relate to them.

Along with the story structure and parameters John Campbell came up with the Hero’s Journey Archetypes. In order to make run a story, to make it special, you need them all, and if the characters employed are less that the archetypes themselves it means that some of them have to serve double purpose, however sometimes it can be an element to fulfil that role.

We can identify 8 main archetypes, roles that character play:

Hero: the protagonist or the central character who separates from the ordinary world and sacrifice himself or herself for the service of the journey at hand. Is the one who is called to answer the challenge, the one that completes the quest and restores the ordinary world’s balance. Us audience we experience the journey through the eyes of the Hero.

Mentor: Provides motivation and insights and training to help the hero. Often, the mentor will perform another important task – getting the plot moving. Heros can be reluctant to leave the world they know for one they don’t.

Threshold Guardian: is the Guard of the Special World and its secrets from the hero so he prompts the hero to give up. It provides essential tests to prove a hero’s commitment and worth. They can appear at any stage of the story, but they always block an entrance or border of some kind.

Herald: has the role to announce changes, issue and challenges. they can make their appearance anytime during the hero’s journey but they often appear at the beginning of the journey to announce the call to adventure. Often, the herald isn’t a character at all it can be an event or a force.

Shapeshifter: is the character that keeps the audience on edge, blurs the line between ally and enemy. Often they begin as an ally, then betray the hero at a critical moment. Other times, their loyalty is in question as they waver back and forth: they mislead the Hero by hiding their intentions and loyalties.

Shadow: villains in the story. They exist to create threat and conflict, and to give the hero something to struggle against. is the opposite of the Hero: it represents the darkest desires and rejected qualities. He or she sees himself or herself as a hero, and the story hero as his or her villain. This physical force is determined to destroy the hero and his cause.

Trickster: adds humour and fun to the story to show the absurdity of the situation by its laughter in order to force a change. It also challenges the status quo, turning the ordinary world into chaos with their quick turn of phrase and physical antics (even the world and its inhabitants are transformed by their antics.

Allies (sidekicks): they fills the gaps of the hero by representing its virtues and create interactions as well. They can be represented by single individuals or a team and support the hero to complete its journey.

We can identify 10 different types of villains:

The bully: who is cruel and gets back at the world and is quite true to life.

The dragon: it constitutes an immediate threat for the hero, is tough and last task fornthe hero to overcome.

The vengeful: Who wants to make the hero pay and suffer, he has a personal problem with the hero.

The fallen hero: who used to be good but a tragedy of event set them on the wrong path and the audience feels for them.

The terrorist: they fight fo an ideal or a belief.

The beast: its hard to survive to then, they usually are represented by monsters or animals.

The unhinged: they commit bad things just because they can and are unpredictable and have a devastated psyche.

The machine: is the void of human emotions and is determined to kill the hero.

The equal: it mirrors the protagonist since it shares the same motive, morals and skills but with a slight distortion.

The mastermind: is the most sinister and brilliant and ultimate villain. he is genius that appears at the end of the story since is may steps ahead of the hero and does not get personally involved but lets other people do his work for him.

Where is the story leading?

The ending of a story is a crucial part of the story development: is the last part that the audience sees and has a huge impact on the whole narrative comprehension and overall feeling. The most simple narrative form is the linear narrative: there is an initial equilibrium and a trigger that changes the equilibrium in disequilibrium which then reaches a climax resolution to finally find a new equilibrium. This type of narrative runs chronologically with events happening in order in which the character experience them: there can be a timeline of a story which coincides with the one of the character.

A character performance has a huge role in the narrative development, it can also drive it. Designing a good story includes designing a good character, so adding a sort of dimension to character is essential. Animation in these terms promotes a broader definition of a caharcetr than other media formats through the re-interpreting human form, applying anthropomorphism, bringing inanimate objects to life with the plausibility for all to interact with each other. S, in other words, a narrative can be advanced through a character: a character movement should be able to convey the necessary action pertinent the narrative but the attitude emotion or mood in which the action is performed will contextualise and emphasise the narrative objective and most importantly connect the characters predicament to the audience. For sure, there are other elements that drive the developing of the narrative when the character is not performing: in films nothing happens unless they are fulfilling the dictates of the story’s pertinent actions.

Some key elements to take in consideration in order to develop a narrative:

• Establish the personality or demeanour of your character for the film or scene by developing an appropriate biography or personality trait for the scene or story.

• Determine anatomical details and physical fluidity and extremity of action required with appropriate design.

• Identify all the actions your character performs in your piece by determining character movement camera action and dialogue and audio.

• Design the actions and emotions that drive the narrative.

• Clearly frame or stage your character for performance in a scene through a storyboard and animatic production stages..

• Design audio to support the performance and actions of the characters. Audio drives and narrative determines timing and enriches character action and performance.

Not all films rely on quest the same way, but are equally represented by the archetypes of characters and sometimes the story elements becomes the elements of the archetypes when the characters don’t: in order to communicate in a new and challenging form the rule of the monomyth are manipulated but still used as a starting point since that not all productions are “extravagant” and may have a different way to embrace narrative structure and the mise-en-scène. You can tell a story in less direct ways using a different angle of the story narrative.

8 narrative stages of Dan Harmon story circle of “The Graduate”  a 1967 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols.

1. You: Benjamin has just graduated from a prestigious school with good grades and comes back home to his parents.
2. Need: Benjamin has to find his purpose in life, he wants to figure out what to do next, he needs to take action.
3. Benjamin takes Mrs Robinson, his father partner’s wife, home and she makes herself available to him.
4. Search: Benjamin after a while calls her and they start a secret relationship and a new world opens to him.
5. Find: Benjamin takes out Elaine, Mrs Robinson Daughter, on his parents request even though Mrs. Robinson did not want to. Benjamin actually enjoyed Elaine company, they empathise with each other over how confused they feel about the future.
6. Take: Benjamin comes clean about the affair too late and Elaine goes back to school. Benjamin starts to make decisions, so he goes after her but she tells him that she is getting married.
7. Return: Benjamin runs out of his apartment to stop Elaine’s wedding. For a man who could not take action regarding his future, he starts screaming at it. And, in away, also Elaine character circle is complete: she runs away from the family and situation who always telling her what to do and goes with Benjamin.
8. Change: Benjamin manages to get to the wedding in time to stop it, they run away together and take a bus to escape: Benjamin finally sits next to his future. In one of the last scenes they have a “what now” look on their face: even if it may look like as if nothing changed for him, that he still has to figure out his life, it is also clear that he did take action and that he will have to many more time in the next steps of his life.

The Graduate character archetypes:

Hero: Benjamin is the main character and the hero of the story. At the beginning he returns from a prestigious college he attended. His parents’ friends at a graduation party, are all asking him what he’s going to do next—scholarship winner and track star that he is trigging an introspective mood: he is not happy and lost and he wants his future to be “different.” 

Herald: The call to adventure comes when Mrs. Robinson asks Benjamin to give her a ride home. After arriving at the Robinson residence, it quickly becomes pretty clear that she’s trying to seduce him, even though she denies it at first. She puts on music, offers him a drink, and starts talking about her personal life. Things get more obvious when she wants his help taking off her dress and when she gets naked and in front of Benjamin in the room with her, making herself available if he wants, either now or later on.

Mentor: After escaping from Mrs. Robinson proposal, Ben runs downstairs when he hears that Mr. Robinson is back home and ends up talking with him. Mr. Robinson gives him some friendly advice, telling him that he won’t be this young again and that he should take it easy and have fun with the girls, have a few flings. You definitely couldn’t say that Mr. Robinson is actually Ben’s mentor, but he serves up a comically unwitting parody of the role in this scene.

Thresholds guardian: Mrs Robinson, once they get to the hotel room after Benjamin decides to call he, questions whether he’s sexually experienced enough, he gets annoyed and actually does sleep with her, setting the main action of the movie into motion. When Elaine goes back to Berkeley to study, but Ben follows her, trying to convince her to marry him and confessing his love for her. While there, he is renting this place where there is a difficult and suspicious landlord who makes it clear that does not like him and that he wants him gone from the apartment (especially after Elaine visits Benjamin and starts screaming).

Allies (sidekicks): Benjamin’s parents are worried about him, and feel like he’s wasting time and not fulfilling his academic and social promise and force him into a date with Elaine. But his attempt to torpedo his date with Elaine leads to an unexpected connection.

When Elaine become engaged to Carl the details about the wedding are kept secret from Ben to prevent him from interrupting it. However, he’s able to get the info from one of Carl’s friends, and rushes into the place where the wedding is taking place: he is with his car and runs out of gas a mile away so he continues on foot and runs as fast as he can.

Elaine fills the gaps of Benjamin by representing somebody who he can relate to and create interactions as well. She supports the him to complete his journey.

Shapeshifter: Mr. Robinson appears as a kind and encouraging man in the beginning of the film, but when he learns about Benjamin’s affair with his wife, his short temper and vengeful character is revealed.

Shadow: Mrs. Robinson is disappointed with the way her life turned out, which makes her ruthless, bitter, and vengeful. Mrs. Robinson does not approve of the relationship between Benjamin and Elaine, given the fact that she’s been having an affair with Benjamin. She threatens to tell Elaine the truth, but Benjamin wants to be the one to tell her and rushes into it. Elaine is upset and yells at Ben to get out.

Trickster: After some awkward interactions with the room clerk in the hotel where Benjamin is meeting up with Mrs. Robinson he acts embarrassedly the whole time because he has never found him self in that situation: adds humour and fun to the story to show the absurdity of the situation by its laughter in order to force a change in his situation.

Alienation moment, symbolised by scuba-diving suit he has to wear in his family’s pool.

Timeline for the main character including the character situation before the film starts.

References:

StudioBinder. 2021. How Dan Harmon’s Story Circle Can Make Your Story Better. [online] Available at: <https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/dan-harmon-story-circle/> [Accessed 6 November 2021].