Character and performance

In most stories the design, the movement, the staging and performance of a character will drive the narrative: character and performance they work together and can’t be separated and in most cases they will create the narrative.

Animation, in this sense, adds a different characters dimensions than other formats since it reinterpret human form and experiences by anthropomorphism of it’s characters that could also be inanimate objects, offering a broader definition of a character

This is an example of how performance can be created with a minimum amount of elements and that it could be action based.

The characters come across as very little dialogue, since is the action to create the narrative and the key scenes are built up through the character’s performance.

This animated short film deals with the principle of appeal in a sense that the characters are engaging, they make you care for them. They show their appeal through the design and how they perform, act, speak. In this animated short film what drives the narrative are also facial expressions and reactions, the staging the composition of the scene and the relations and interaction between the characters.

This is a very involving story, there is no dialogue and a backstory too: this is an example of taking a traditional start on narrative and putting it in a short film rather than a longer piece.

Also this short film obeys the rules of narrative but in a short amount of time: the staging, the interactions between characters, the key events are all achieved by a character performance driven story. There is even a moral to the story: not to mock other people or be mean to them because it has consequences. Another key elements to analyse is the eyes of the characters which are the feature which performs the most and communicates too.

This short movie has some really interesting elements concerning the way the narrative is driven: the staging regarding the two different worlds (the human and the alien one), the performance of the characters which is action driven and concentrated on the face expressions. Here there is also an example of how animation applies anthropomorphism to it’s characters: the audience can easily identify with the situation, since we, as humans are assessed continually in our life, we can fail or succeed, whichever is the case we can learn from it and do better next time.

Character development

From the examples above we can notice that characters can become the story itself driving the narrative and leading to the key points: all well-drawn characters have a an inner motor, a dominant unconscious goal that they are striving for, that drives all his or her choices. We as the audience are interested in witnessing a change, a growth in the character by the end of the story. Every main character has a weakness at the beginning of a story identifying him or her and creating the narrative too, of which they are not completely aware, it becomes almost a need. We can identify two type of weaknesses that main characters (heroes) can have:

• Psychological: which is a weakness that only affects a hero and no one else.
• Moral: a weakness that it morally hurts the characters surrounding the hero.

Any psychological weakness can be developed to become a moral need as well.

The weaknesses in group two are more often represented in stories: they are turned outwards, they require other characters to exists they can harm other characters but can be reflected negatively to hurt the hero as well, they can help create a moral and psychological need fo the character. On the other hand the weaknesses from group 1 are turned inwards harming the hero himself. For instance, goofball comedies rarely get the character weaknesses development right, since they are not pressured to have profound character development and they risk getting too heavy and to bring the mood of the story down, therefore they tend to be psychological weaknesses: when developing a weakness for a character it should be taken in consideration if the weakness is going to be intentional or if it will inherently cause immoral actions to the surrounding characters: think about the actions the character will take driven by the weakness what decisions do they make because of this weakness, do these decisions or actions hurt other characters if not think of ways to flush out the weakness outwards the character to show the immoral consequences of having such a weakness; in this regards also the opponents of the main character and how they attack the weakness of the main character. This conflict with the opponent are the key for the hero to overcome his or her weakness and what actions does the character take to redeem his or hers previous choices. Usually the main character does not know what does he or she needs to change about him or her right from the beginning but it should be a self-discovery, moreover it should not feel like a lecture to the audience otherwise it could become childish: the weakness or the learned lesson should not be stated out.

Story development

The character development and the story development usually go hand in hand: the story evolves also thanks to a good narrative structure, a task to achieve and to the ability that the screenwriter has, for example, to create an emotional connection through the stories he or she has created, which becomes the clue to a great story since it can cross barriers of time. For example, storytelling without dialogue, such as the short films listed above, is the purest form of cinematic storytelling, since it has the most inclusive approach that a narrative can take: the key to a good story is hiding the facts to make the audience look for them: we are compelled to deduce and deduct because we do it in our daily life, is the absence of information that draws us into the story and putting things together as the audience proceeds into the narrative is very important. Another important element in stories is invoking wonder and capture real experiences, not artificial one, and express values through them.

Writing a story

Helping to develop the sense of wonder is writing about something unknown and trust imagination through the process: by feeling it and experience it in first person helps evoking and sharing it to the audience too. However, fiction has to make sense, since is less stranger than life: it has to follow a structure and the essential character should strive to accomplish something meaningful. Hence, plot stories should have a central character who wants something intensely and goes after it despite opposition and, as a result of a struggle, comes to a win, or to a lose, and this definition naturally drives you to the consideration of the theme and the story point of view.

The hidden story dynamic

From the previous weeks we have identified that being every well developed story there is a defined structure sustaining it: having a story formula can help create a story that engages the audience by taking them on a compelling journey from a starting point to an end point in a way that they end satisfied by it too, and having a goal, identifying the result first and then design everything to achieve that out come can help develop clearer ideas.

A conventional story structure is, as we have seen, the 3 acts structure which is described in the following way:

• Beginning (setup), also defined as Act 1 comprehends the first quarter of the story and is where the audience is introduced to the main characters in their normal life; something happens to them which is forcing them to respond and setting them on a new path. At the end of this section (plot point 1) something happens that spins the story in a whole new direction giving the character a goal which they will pursue throughout the second act.
• Middle (conflict), also defined as Act 2 comprehends the second and third quarter of the story, were the character purses that goal the obstacles in between get in their way and they get challenging and harder and harder to overcome demanding more from the main character; after at plot point 2 something happens at the end of this act that shows the character what he or she must do to resolve the story.
• End (resolution), also defined as Act 3 comprehends the last quarter of the story, is where the final story climax is built and where the battle ensues and they could end up winners or defeated. The consequences of the events of the story are shown too.

However, the human mind is designed to recognise patterns such as this formula, although this structure remains important in order to deconstruct already existing stories.

Alternatively, there is a mechanism underlying the structure, a hidden story dynamic applicable to everything and scalable: the setup and payoff mechanism, where the setup establishes the context or the situation and the payoff spins it. Every element in a story is either one of those of both of them. Actually even the elements of the 3 acts formula can be identified as setups or payoffs; It can help spotting cliches and predictable choices when the payoffs are too obvious, it helps strengthen the details of the story by creating setups choices that connect with the rest of the story; when either the setups or the payoffs are not played off well ones can actually discover the holes in the story. This mechanism more specifically helps realising that everything is interconnected into a narrative, that nothing happens without having consequences but significant ones.

The character and story development in Animation are two very closely associated aspects. For instance, a story artist and director takes care of the composition of the scene the staging of the elements and the camera position; the animator director, however develops the best performance for the characters making look spontaneous by collecting references. They both connect their abilities to converge into the ultimate goal that is how to create an engaging, satisfying narrative which compiles the audience.

A potential area to research into could be the one of the Mise-en-scène. I particularly found it very fascinating in all its aspects and possible research application, from the specific use that one director could make of the different elements and what could help them convey. That is why I have decided I could focus on Alfred Hitchcock pieces, by analysing the suspense techniques he employed in his works, which could be seen as an application of the different elements of the Mise-en-scène collaborating together to lead to the desired effect the director wants the audience to see. My choice was partially influenced also by the high amount of academic and scholarly recognised sources on the subject so that I can consult them to support my overall proposition and topic. So, I will analyse different films where he employed his most acclaimed suspense technique.

Actually, after I decided to concentrate on the audience and the characters suspense rather than on the mise-en-scène components, since I thought that relying only on the mise-en-scène elements would have ended up to be too much descriptive and would not have helped me in the analysis process.

While searching and reading the sources for the topic of suspense in Hitchcock films and in general I tried to narrow down the topic; during this process, I found out how the suspense in Hitchcock’s films is not just one but multiple: therefore, the question I will try to analyse and answer in this critical report and its purpose will be “Is the suspense felt by the audience the same felt by the character in Hitchcock’s films?”

The topic of suspense motivated me to research and discover about its inner mechanism and the various techniques to obtain it.

How might the research impact present or future theoretical and practical study. Are there potentials to apply new learning?

I found the information I have collected while reading about the different kinds of suspense and the techniques used by Hitchcock to evoke them in his audience very interesting; that is why they have made me to ask myself how one day I could try to apply such techniques and mechanism in my own work. Animation films are often considered to aim at a young audience but since it is not always true I think it can be very interesting to apply “suspense evocation techniques” also in these productions. Anyway, I have clear in my mind some examples of animation addressed to children where suspense is a fundamental element: one of these examples is “Sleeping beauty” when Malefica makes Aurora to sting herself with a spinning wheel. I remember well the sensation of suspense these scenes had on me when I was a child, and I must say that I still consider it a quite thrilling situation.

Audience: who and what is the report for?

I will address my critical report to my professor and my fellow classmates. With it I intended to suggest a reflection about the techniques that are behind the feelings we have while watching a film are not as abstract as we may think but are the result of thorough studies on the human mind, so that such feelings are shared by different audiences in different times.

Take 2 films you enjoy and break down the character development and story development throughout the film:

•Analyse how the main characters evolve (flat round character)

•Analyse how the characters drive the story

•If there are similarities between your films point this out and why you think they are following a similar structure if so.

Film 1:

Hercules

Hercules is the classic hero story who has to overcome many obstacles to find his true self. At first he mistakes it by the goal of becoming a true hero by achieving outstanding quests which will lead him to reunite him with his family where he can finally find his place by not feeling an outcast anymore. However, he achieves something even better which is that true love is willing to sacrifice anything. Hercules is willing to sacrifice his life to save the life of his true love. Just as the Fates are about to cut his life thread, he reaches Meg, proves he is a true hero because of the self-sacrifice, and turns finally into a God. So, we can state that he is a round character a developed, life like character who has a deep relatability who witness a growth and a positive change by the end of the story (dynamic character).

I will now analyse the character and the way he evolves by the end of the story and how his journey is the key to drive the narrative.

Hercules is a young boy who has a family that loves him, however the more he grows the more he realises that there is something about him that makes him different from the other people surrounding him since appears to have an abnormal strength that he can’t control completely making him committing actions that transform his as a “freak” through the village people’s eyes.

His “call to adventure” is set when his parents, after several attempts by Hercules to adapt but failing, confess him that he was actually adopted by them and giving him clues of who he was since that when they found him he had a medallion with him with an incision indicating when he could get to get some answers: the temple of Zeus. He is now hopeful and starts his journey to find his true self. He then reaches the temple and Zeus finds a way to communicate with him by a statue present in the temple and reveals him that he is his father and that he was kidnapped from him and his mother after he was born. Hercules now as goal: reuniting with his parents on the Olympus where he thinks he belongs to, but in order to do so he has to become and prove himself as true hero and to do so he goes to Philoctetes a saytr renewed to train heroes.

Hercules meets his mentor Philoctetes who at first is reluctant to help him since he has so many defeats that he does not believe he can train a true hero anymore, however he sees something in Hercules, who tries to convince him, and takes on the task.

They then train and Hercules becomes aware of his strength and he has now gained (or think he did) the skills to overcome the challenges in the special world (Thebes).

But is not until Hercules battles the river guardian that he enters into the field of adventures and moves to Thebes a troubled city in need of a true hero. He is the middle of the quest and tests to achieve the qualities of a true heroes defeating enemies (the first one being the Hydra) and finding allies in the process. All these tests are actually set by his uncle Hades who was the one that wanted him to become immortal in the first place and who separated him from his parents: he sees Hercules as an obstacle to his quest for power and win the Olympus. Hercules by this time as proven partially to be a true hero since he has just collected a series of victories and gained fame: he feels that there is something missing.

Hades takes advantage of the fact that Megara, a girl who he first “saves” from the river guardian and Hercules has fallen in love with, has become his weakness and takes Hercules strength in exchange of meagre safety so that Hades could take over the Olympus without him interfering.

Hercules eventually finds out that Megara was working for Hades, even though she has changed now because of him, he powerless battles with the cyclops and during it Megara gets fatally injured and Hercules gains back his powers since the circumstances of Hades pact gets broken and tries to save the Olympus from Hades threat, which he manages to rescue, but there is one last quest: to save Megara’s soul from the underworld.

Hercules exchanges with Hades his soul for Megara’s: he reaches her in the river of dead souls, which almost kills him, proving he is a true hero because of the self-sacrifice, and turns finally into a God defeating Hades.

Hercules is immortal now and a true hero and can finally rejoin his parents but his love for Megara makes him realise that his place is with her on Earth: his image is in the stars and Philoctetes is proud of him.

In conclusion, Hercules, as we can see, is The story, is the key for the development of the narrative which goes along with his inner growth and journey to his positive change.

Film 2:

• 

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Ratatouille

Remy Is an even more anthropological character compared to his fellow rats (he walks on two paws and adores humans for their ability to manipulate food in an exquisite way, Auguste Gusteau is his idol) in the colony were he has always lived distinguishing himself fro his highly developed senses which are probably a consequence of his innate love for cuisine. His overall dream is to become a chef and throughout his journey as a hero he learns to put his passion for cooking at the service of the people he loves and not only to nourish his passion but also to give joy to others, he also becomes a chef at the La Ratatouille bistro in Paris with his friends. Just like Hercules he is a dynamic character witnessing an inner grows and positive change towards the end of his story and we can identify ourself in him experiencing what he is going through in the narrative making him a round character too.

Remy drives the narrative and we can witness that by following his journey to accomplish his dream:

At first he lives in the country, the ordinary world, in a colony of rats, he is actually the son of the chief, Django, who does not understand his and they are always in conflict with each other. He stands out from the rest of the rat because he is not satisfied with his life and he is always in search of culinary influences, he also usually visits secretly an old woman’s house to gain some knowledge on food and where he found out about August Gusteau a stellar chef in Paris who makes him realise that cooking is his true passion (the call for the Adventure).

Once Remy and his brother Émile are in the old woman kitchen, after Remy shares with him his secrets. They are actually discovered by the old woman who tries to kill them and by doing so the colony main home is revealed since they were living on the roof of the house.

During the escape of the colony, the first cross of the threshold, Remy stays behind loosing them. He ends up alone with no place to go and his Mentor (Auguste Gusteau spirit) reveals himself to him guiding Remy in his choices. That is when Remy finds out that has always lived near Paris and when he looks for his idol restaurant. the second cross of the threshold happens when he falls into the kitchen window of Gusteau’s restaurant: in order to survive he now has to pass several tests such manage to survive in the kitchen without being discovered, and when he is about to finally escaping he tries to “save” a soup prepared by Linguini (an inexpert newcomer in the kitchen) by adding some ingredients. This helps Linguini reputation in the kitchen since everyone thinks that he made the soup, he also saves Remy from being killed when he is found in the kitchen in exchange Remy will help him to cook while he works in the restaurant as a cook in secret.

Chef Skinner, he head chef substituting Gusteau after his death and the enemy, always tries to obstacle Linguini ascent to fame since he realises that there is something suspicious in Linguini and he also thinks that he did not kill the rat instead he kept him.

Linguini becomes an ally to Remy and they help each other: Linguini helps Remy archiving his dream to become a chef and Remy helps him to cook and maintaining the job in the restaurant.

However Linguini leaves Remy behind when he becomes famous thanks to Remy help and the fact that he finds out to be Gusteau’s son so Remy, who has finally reunited with his family, in anger gives access to his friend to the restaurant food reserve; Linguini finds out and they separate.

Remy is not there to help Linguini anymore and he struggles to cook for a food critic, who was the reason for Gusteau’s death since he gave a bad review to the restaurant, and he goes back to make the restaurant definitely close and if they can’t work together it probably will: the Abyss has been reached.

Remy and Linguini manage to cooperate together and Remy cooks a mesmerising recopy for the critic who seems like he is reborn and gives a positive review to the restaurant.

However the restaurant has to close since Skinner, who was fired from his position as head chef, proves that the restaurant has a rat infestation.

The return, the final moment of restoration of the story is where the heroes’ (both Remy and Linguini) lives are changed when Remy and Linguini learn from their adventure and open up a restaurant of their own both achieving their dreams.

Also here we witness how Remy journey is essential to the story development driving the narrative while completing his inner growth.

Comparisons between the two movies:

Both films are seen, mainly through the protagonist point of view, driving the development of the story since it matches with their journey.

Another similarity relies in the main character weaknesses types that are an essential clue to getting to the key point of the story: they have the “greed” which lead them to chance their starting situation and get to a point where they will be satisfied with their life. these moral weaknesses require other character to exist. These weaknesses harm the other characters and they reflect negatively to hurt the hero as well: for example Hercules is not recognised by his father as a true hero after he gains fame which makes him lost and Remy’s pride makes him betray Linguini who trusted him by making his fellow rats access to the canteen and he feels guilty afterwards. It creates a Moral and Psychological need for the main character: Psychological and Moral weaknesses help developing a good character.

Moreover the structure of both stories is quite similar since it can be deconstructed by using any story formula such as the Hero’s Journey, where we can also identify the characters archetypes belonging to this structure.

They are both animated films however they blogs to different Animation eras, meaning that Hercules is a 2D animation piece characterised by hand drawn frames (however
the hydra is rendered in CGI), and Ratatuille broke new ground with their elaborate CG renderings, however Pixar team decided to give Ratatouille an old-school finish: for the end titles they enlisted hand-drawn animation.

Every student should be aiming to a deep learning, characterised by understanding the ideas that has been assimilated, consider the implications and application of the sources searched and apply a critical review to them, have a highly sense of curiosity which could be leading to a greater personal interest in the topic. In other words critical thinking is an essential ingredient for deep learning.

Critical thinking can be also considered a creative process since it concerns how to present, also using different formats, an effective argument, and even if the argument is presented in different ways it should always lead to a logical conclusion. It should also invoke presenting the reasoning and evidence in a clear, well structured manner. In fact the word “‘criticism” itself means to judge, a critic is someone who has investigated the evidence and tested them also considering alternative arguments and explanations and reaches an informed opinion in the light of these evidences and reaches a conclusion out of those.

Some key words regarding the critical thinking process are: persistency, while reviewing the evidences, skepticism, asking why, who, what, where, how (the w questions) during the process and have the skill of looking ahead guessing the implications of choices.

Throughout the critical thinking there should be an objective attitude examine the data from different angles checking the accuracy of them and the logic keeping them together and identifying possible flaws and backing up those data with empirical and statistics facts and reaching informed conclusions. The key is always looking beneath surface challenging your own thinking searching for the main point to prove back up the arguments with true facts and information in order to produce an analytical report transforming the information not just reporting them but pushing the ideas forward using a line of thread of ideas from start to finish.

The structure to follow in a critical thinking is:

• Investigate the problem
• prosecute and defend the ideas
• cross examine the witnesses which is literature and add descriptions outlining ideas, theories and so on
• sum up and consider theory
• reach an informed verdict through a logical and reasoned argument

to add a personal reflection a third person modality should be employed by placing yourself in the background expressing your opinion without being opinionated and have a healthy skepticism.

Some element to check while finding material is:

• the materials gathered should be scholarly reliable

• consider the author of the material, the way they explained their ideas, their point of view, if it is biased.

A way to practice critical thinking could be to get acquainted with the researched material by getting an overview of the topic and understand it, compare it with different views of different academics, and gradually move from description to analysis.

Rhetoric is an important aspect of critical thinking which involves constructing a convincing argument and is a technique and the art of being able to talk and write about something in an efficient and persuasive way. There could be found three different formals, judicial, language of law courts, deliberative, language of politics, and epideictic, condemnation of a person.

We can Identify three different stages in Academic writing:

• Description, answering to what, who where, when questions; it is always necessary to have some description in writing, it helps to introduce a topic and helps, leads to analysis.
• Analysis, answering to how and why questions, is the main part of any study and tries to link everything together.
• Evaluation answering what if…, what next, so what questions and judges the success, value or implication of a certain aspect.

Every paragraph itself has its own defined structure and it usually mirrors the one of the overall writing. So the first part is the topic, the second is the support and third part is the critical one, commenting on the evidence.

The introduction is an essential part of an essay, defining the key concepts and arguments and aim that will be discussed in the essay and the writer’s position on that specific topic. It should be written after the body paragraph.

Mise-en-scène : Film Style and Interpretation

by John Gibbs

The first section of the book concerns some examples regarding the elements of the rise-en-scène which I found particularly interesting.

The book carries an interesting analysis on the long take which begins the second sequence of Notorious by Alfred Hitchcock, focusing on the use of lighting as a powerful and expressive tool: every character at the party is illuminated evenly, such as the main character Alicia Huberman, but there is a quiet guest in the foreground of the frame that sits with his back to the camera where he is not illuminated but has a distinguished silhouette. Even thought he says nothing at first it is easy to identify him with Cary Grant, the man lead of the film: Cary Grant’s not illuminated silhouette make him become part of the audience itself, sharing perspective and observations too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqx0mrkHEno

In the book there is an interesting reference to an article (V.F. Perkins, Moment of Choice) about a scene from Jean Renoir’s La Règle du Jeu. The article analyses a range of examples of the ways different elements of the mise-en-scène can be employed expressively: The example used for the décor is from this film at the start of a country-house party where the hostess, Christine tries to deny the gossip about her relationship with André Jurieu, a young aviator. The décor in this scene permits a parallel with the black and white marble tiled floor which can be interpreted as a chess-board where the two characters move carefully since that a wrong move could lead to disaster.

In the second section it highlights the fact that all the elements of the mice-en-scène, even if they are individually expressive, depends on their effect on a combination of elements: again in the film “La regale du Jeu” the performance of Christine, the décor, the camera position and camera movement are all involved. Although, in order to make them collaborate better in the scene, it is important to be able to describe the potential of each singular element.

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].