storytelling Archives - SALT Community

Pixar’s 22 Rules of Story

kamil_hopeware — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 07:00:54 +0000

I love Pixar. I’ve seen every single feature length movie they’ve released, most of the time I watched them in the theatre. And there’s no one else better at consistently telling great stories like the team at Pixar. I’ve read both the Pixar Story and Creativity INC, books based on the principles of success that Pixar has embodied over it’s short tenure in existence. So I thought it would be beneficial to help you see a few of the rules of story that Pixar uses whenever it’s writing a story or making a movie. Here’s Emma Coats‘, one of the Storyboard Artists at Pixar, 22 Rules of Story for their team:

Rule #1:

You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

Rule #2:

You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.

Rule #3:

Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.

Rule #4:

Once upon a time there was _. Every day, _. One day _. Because of that, _. Because of that, _. Until finally _.

Rule #5:

**Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free**.

Rule #6:

What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

Rule #7:

Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

Rule #8:

Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

Rule #9:

When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

Rule #10:

Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.

Rule #11:

Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.

Rule #12:

Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

Rule #13:

Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.

Rule #14:

Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.

Rule #15:

If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

Rule #16:

What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.

Rule #17:

No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.

Rule #18:

You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

Rule #19:

Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

Rule #20:

Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?

Rule #21:

You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?

Rule #22:

What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

That’s it! The 22 rules of story from creative giant, Pixar. As you begin to use story in powerful ways to impact your community, we hope you are constantly refining your craft of telling great story. These rules may just help you go from good to great, or they may just be a great way to get started in your own form of story. And that story hopefully will help people see Jesus more clearly in your community.

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The Power of Story

kamil_hopeware — Fri, 23 May 2014 03:47:02 +0000

SALT believes in empowering creatives to use various elements to tell great stories. These don’t have to be stories with a written narrative or a script per say, but something that invites people into something powerful. One example is letting your set design tell a story. That’s exactly what we did last year at #SALT13.

Over the course of the event, we let our set design tell the story.
You can see pictures here.

The first night we had a celebration around creation. God is the ultimate creator and therefore since we were made in His image, we therefore create out of that “imago dei.” Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t some hippie-like celebration of nature and beauty, this was an all out party knowing we are created by Him and for Him, and as creators we are called to use technology to help people see clearer.

The next morning, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until the end of the message. Pastor Cole NeSmith poured out his heart on the challenges of being an artist and/or creative and how the tension to want to control everything and being fully surrendered to God’s will for our lives and ministry is an interesting balance. At the very end of his keynote, he made this statement:

There will be this moment where we are really willing to let go of everything, and see God do something powerful as we align ourselves with His spirit and what God is doing. And all of our plans crash to the ground and He lifts us back up to a place of Power and Glory as we bring the kingdom like never before

He was exploring the idea of the FALL of man and how God allows things to come crashing down in our lives to happen so He can swoop in and pick us up in the mess we’ve created. As Cole made that statement, he literally tore the entire set to pieces in front of us all. We left this moment with tension. Conflict.

The day went on and everyone poured back into the auditorium that night to a room that was entirely dark, not a single thing on the walls aside from black fabric. Everything was focused on the middle of the room where there stood an 18′ tall cross. No lights, just candles around the stage. No projection. No Lighting. No stage design. Just the cross.

This picture played a small role in helping us understand that God took all the mess of the fall and placed them together in a beautiful cross.
Broken. Bruised. Beaten.
To remind us that he loves us, more than anything in the entire world. Our friend Nathan LaGrange laid it all on the table as he asked us to contemplate a question that wrecked his entire world a few years ago:

“Am I more interested in planning the ONE hour of the week every week or spending time with The ONE who called me to this life of grace in the first place?”

We sat in silence. Visually and literally, to realize that God was asking us to come back to the cross. Redeemed.

The last morning you walked in to find the cross had been taken down, and the room had a giant white canvas covering the entire back of the stage. The room seemed completely opposite from the previous evening. There was lots of light, blank white walls and a sense of “new beginnings.” However this was the ending session.

Gary Molander and Jeremy Cowart helped us understand the simple idea that we were born to create. Not create because we want to create, but that we were born to create out of the story that God has taken us on.

WE have a blank canvas, if you will, in front of our lives and in our local churches that are begging us to create something beautiful out of the encounter we have week in and week out with the cross. As Gary Molander put it:

Friends, We don’t create for God, He does not need it. We create in response to God, because the world needs it.

So we allowed the set of SALT Nashville to tell a story. What does this look like for you?

This is one of the reasons we so badly want you to come experience SALT with us this year. It’s a completely different story, and we may not use the set to tell the story this time, but we will tell a story. There will be an opportunity for you to experience something that may use creativity, visuals, media and art in a way to contagiously and simply impact the lives of those in your local community.

SALT is a conference where you can gain new insights and ideas on how to do things in your local Churches, while at the same time being filled up spiritually and creativity as an artist, leader or technician individually.

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