Tuesday 17th November -
(Scroll through images)
This week we were tasked to analyse a feature film, preschool episode and our own idea by running it through the grid system Gerald provided us on Monday by Monday 23rd.
Details - Take a film (favourite or new) and see if you can break it down into the key points (the set up, Focus points, points of interest and turning points etc.) using the grid system introduced this morning.
Watch a pre-school animated show. Count the number of scenes, count the dialogue lines (not individual words) in each scene. Also roughly time the scenes and a the final duration of the piece. Pay special attention to how close scenes are cut to the dialogue. Do the scenes match a simplified grid system?
Using what you have learned run your idea through the grid system. Does it match up?
Feature Film - Initially, for this task I started watching 'Rise of the Guardians' as I know this film well and really enjoy it, so I thought it would be fun and a good starting point for my first time running through the grid.
How wrong I was.
The story didn't break down so easily in to the grid system as lots of plot advancing areas could fit in to the 10 main grid points. Because of this I decided to change to 'Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron'.
I found this film a bunch easier then the previous, although there were sections That could fit in as the turning points and focus points so I chose the one that advanced the story the most and this seemed to do the trick.
I also noticed that the layout of each turning point landed around the 25% 50% and 75% way though the story. Which fits with Gerald's system. and The Turning points matched with a major change in location which was interesting.
Pre-School - The pre-school task was a little time consuming as i had to watch it a few times to first count the scene changes/ time how long each scene was, then count the dialogue, and work out whether or not the episode falls within the 25% 50% and 75% system.
I watched the new series of 'Fire Man Sam' and the episode ended up matching the %'s however didn't necessarily match Gerald's ideas of how a pre-school series work as he suggests that they are made up of short 30 second scenes at around 7-9 minutes long per story. The episode had a few 30 second sections but it also had 1-2 larger sections which you would think wouldn't fit the %'s but it still did.
My Idea - After analysing the previous stories I found analysing mine much easier, mostly because of a combination of practice and that my story is currently just a base idea so is made up on the key focus/turning points anyway.
I found breaking the story down this way made it easier to see the holes in my story and allowed me to then come up with events to fill the gaps which I wouldn't have necessarily have seen if I hadn't done this task.
Over all I think the grid system is a great tool to analyse your own work and make sure the structure of the whole story works well and if not, its easier to add to once you have established the problems.
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