A story needs to be interesting and
engaging- a story, in any form cannot leave the audience bored at any point if
it wants to be successful. Therefore, there are a lot of theories as to how to
make a good narrative.
One
of the main theories is the three act structure-the idea that every story is
divided into three, distinct parts. The first part is the Set-up, where most of
the exposition about the world of the story is given and where we establish the
main characters and their motives. The second part is the Confrontation, in
which something disrupts the established world of the story or a series of obstacles
appear for the protagonists-this is often the bulk of the story. Lastly, there
is the Resolution, which resolves the conflicts of the plot, and establishes a
new equilibrium in the world. A very simple version of this would be in Disney’s
Snow White- in the first act, Snow White is established as a sweet innocent girl,
hated by her step-mother. By the second act, she’s been attacked and runs away
and begins her life with the Dwarves, while the queen plots away and puts her
plan to action, eventually killing Snow White. The resolution is when the
prince from the first act returns and breaks the spell, and Snow White and the
Prince ride off together. However, more often now in feature length films,
there is often a chain of events that happen in the second act, which all
eventually lead to the resolutions in the storyline. When the Three act
structure is done well, it keeps the audience entertained as well as keeping
the narrative to an easily understood and followed structure, making the film
easier to watch.
The
story always needs to have a good set up, as a strong back story makes the narrative
more believable to the audience. The resolution also has to be fulfilling, as
otherwise the audience will find the film pointless. However, arguably the most
important part of the story is the second act, the confrontation. A good second
act keeps the audience engaged throughout, doesn’t drag on and instead only
keeps building in entertainment and thrills. The actions and conflicts need to
be logical- they can’t come out of nowhere- but still be surprising and
exciting enough to keep the audience enthralled. A good example of a plot that
keeps getting better as it goes along would be J.R.R.Tolkein’s The Hobbit. The “second
arc” of The Hobbit- which technically takes up the majority of the book- is
literally a series of disasters, one after another. The protagonists are
constantly faced with monsters of every shape and size, incomprehensible enchantments
and near death experiences. By the resolution of the book, they’ve been
captured, starved, captured again and hunted after escaping, nearly burnt
alive, starved to near madness, poisoned, imprisoned, trapped and outcast. Only
to have to face a dragon and then a war. This keeps the reader constantly entertained
and on edge as every chapter we’re faced with another obstacle for the party to
overcome. Furthermore, all these obstacles are interconnected. The party angers
one group, and then another and another, and eventually this comes to bite them
in the behind as they face these adversaries again and again.
This
leads to another key element in a good film, which is a good character. People
need to be able to care about characters- they need to be cheering on for the
lead, and actually feeling contempt or pure hatred for the villain. A good
character makes a person feel something. Thus can be done witch a good actor,
but also with creating a good backstory and sensible motivation for the character.
The character needs to be like a real person- this way, real people can relate
to them. A good example of this is most incarnation of Spiderman(in the comics,
animated series and films), but mostly in the most recent film, The Amazing
Spiderman. In this film, Peter Parker is consumed with revenge, and always has
guilt of people passing away or leaving him hanging over him throughout the
story. However, by the and of the film he learns to let go and instead use his
powers for other people, and not selfishly. Throughout the film, we actually
care aboyt Peter and also the people he loses, because we are able to see the
relationships between the characters for long enough for us to be abke to
relate to these relationships. Then we are also selfishly rooting for him to
get revenge throughout the narrative but we also experience his learning curve
and understand what he feels to make him change his mind about his motives.
This is what makes the film good(among other things) and thus it’s a great
example of character and character development.
Altogether,
these things create a narrative that people want to pay attention to, and makes
a successful story.
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