Story Circle
Story circle can help anyone build a story structure well. Dam Harmon proposes to divide the story into 8 steps:
- A character is in a zone of comfort
- They want something
- They enter an unfamiliar situation
- Adapt to it
- Get what they want
- Pay a heavy price for it
- Returning to their familiar situation
- Having changed
We can divide Story circle into upper and lower parts, the middle line is the main source of drama. This dividing line is usually used to describe the way heroes are forced to adapt when entering a new environment.
In short, the division of upper and lower is the change of the external environment in the film. Another important division is the change of heroes themselves. It is usually divided into left and right parts. When crossing the middle line, heroes will face and try to overcome their inherent flaws or problems.
Analysis of WALL·E
- YOU
Hundreds of years have passed, and WALL·E is the only robot left on earth. WALL·E works hard on earth, occasionally collecting some items it likes. One day, it found green and collected it. The arrival of EVE broke everything.
- NEED
After EVE discovered green plants, he entered a state of shock. So WALL·E began to wait a long time. It needs company.
- GO
WALL·E got on EVE’s spacecraft and came to the truth spacecraft
- SEARCH
WALL·E is always looking for EVE on the spacecraft
- FIND
WALL·E discovered EVE, but was speculated and dismissed by EVE.
- TAKE
WALL·E helped the captain get green plants at his own expense.
- RETURN
EVE and humans successfully returned to Earth.
- CHANGE
EVE successfully repaired and awakened WALL·E. WALL·E got the life it wanted.
Story Arcs
- Exposition: introduction of setting, characters, problems
- Rising action: characters struggling with problems
- Climax: tense moment of crisis
- Failing action: movement toward an ending
- Resolutin: final outcome
Shapes of stories
Kurt Vonnegut summarized the story into a beautiful curve. In other words, everyone has their own story, and the story curve is unique, and not all stories can have the perfect curve in the picture above.
The graph is a complex curve. Through the curve, we can observe that there will be relatively more information in the story. Such a story will be more dramatic. Before reaching climax, we will always encounter a lot of crises.
Types of characters
- Protagonist: Protagonist is the protagonist in the story, but not necessarily all positive characters, such as the Joker in Joker in 2019
- Antagonist: Antagonist refers to one or more characters that oppose the protagonist. In the same way, Antagonist is not necessarily a negative character.
- Dynamic: Dynamic refers to the film, some characters have experienced some type of important internal changes.
- Static: Static means that some characters have little internal changes in the story. They often did not learn important lessons and did not make any important changes
- Round: Round means that some characters are rendered lifelike in the film. These characters have real emotions, conflicting emotions and multiple characteristics.
- Flat: Flat is the opposite of Round. These roles are usually one-dimensional. They lack some emotional expression. The audience’s knowledge of these characters may be only part of the character’s characteristics. For other information, the audience cannot know.
Characters Archetypes
- Hero: 1.Protagonist or central character
- Mentor
- Threshold Guardian
- Herald
- Shapeshifter
- Shadow
- Trickster
- Allies（sidekicks）
These 8 archetypes are like 8 different employees in a company. They are used to keep the company running. Similarly, in the movie, these 8 different types of characters together support a film and television work with a complete story.
Therefore, for the integrity of the story, in the character design, we let the character include these 8 archetypes. If the film has less than 8 characters, then at least one of the characters has more than 1 character archetypes.
Analysis of WALL·E
WALL·E-Hero is the last robot on the earth, used to collect and compress garbage on the earth. 700 years later, Wali encountered a small problem that could not be solved, that was, he became self-aware, became extremely curious and felt a little lonely, so he had to rely on his pet cockroach, Hal. Wali diligently disposes of garbage every day, and excavates and collects human belongings along the way. Once through music, he learned about the existence and expression of love and emotional communication. Therefore, he began to have his own dream, which is to find the object of this emotional interaction and hold her hand. Appearance design basis: binoculars + square trash can. When you are afraid, you can retract your limbs and turn into blocks. Features: dirty, mixed with mud; earthy, unseen; single function, backward and cumbersome, The appearance design is rough, representing the characteristics of the old-fashioned robot, with only a pair of big eyes, helping him to express his personality characteristics: innocence, kindness, persistence, and timidity. Language skills: very poor, only reading one’s own name and imitating.
EVE-Shapeshifter: A smooth and exquisite flying detection robot, her task is to survey the plants on the earth to determine whether it is suitable for human survival. She has a scanner and a retractable ionization gun on her right arm, the latter allows her to deal with some minor troubles. Eve has no time for him to concentrate on work, until one day, she meets Wali, and the two robots have emotions during the day and night.
Appearance design basis: eggs
Appearance characteristics: white, smooth, streamlined, integrated design, can fly, offensive and defensive, the most advanced detection robot. Eve expresses his feelings mainly through a pair of electronic eyes. When he laughs at Walli, his eyes become crescent-shaped downwards. When crying, the crescents turn upside down, and become straight when he is helpless. I like to cover my mouth and laugh, with a femininity that is strong on the outside and soft on the inside
Captain-Shapeshifter
The sole commander on the spacecraft is doing routine routine work every day, repeatedly checking the status of the spacecraft. Like Wali, he also hopes to get rid of this unchanging boring life. After learning of the new discovery of the probe robot, the courage in his heart as the captain was finally awakened, and he immediately led humans on a new journey.
MO-Flat character
Responsible for cleaning up foreign contaminants on board the Truth spacecraft. When Wali boarded the spacecraft, M-O was like a big enemy, because Wali was the dirtiest robot he had ever seen. In order to remove the rubbish residue on Wali’s body, M-O chased after him, and a cat and mouse game was also staged immediately.
Spacecraft-Herald
The spacecraft is a spacecraft for humans to live in space after escaping from the earth. It is a super modern living space controlled entirely by computers.
AUTO-Trickster& Shadow
The Truth is driven by artificial intelligence on board and is also the only villain in the animation.
Cockroach-Allies
Friends of WALL·E
Malfunctioning Robot-Allies
Supporters of WALL·E
Crew of the spaceship-Allies
Supporters of WALL·E
Timelines and backgrounds
Timeline：It can be more intuitive to show what happened at what time, using time as the axis to introduce the beginning, development and end of the story. At the same time, you can insert story fragments into the timeline by inserting and flashback.
Analysis of WALL·E
Background
The background of the story refers to the historical situation or real environment that affects the characters and events. The background, or the scene, can be extended to all works of art. It is often a contrasting relationship with the subject it represents, a master-slave relationship. It can promote the development of the storyline and characterize the character.
Analysis of WALL·E
In 2700 AD, the earth has long been harmed by humans and turned into a huge garbage dump. It has become uninhabitable. Humans can only migrate to other planets on a large scale, and then commission a robot garbage cleaning company to clean up the aftermath until the earth’s environmental system is restored. Achieve ecological balance.
After the humans left, the garbage cleaning company transported the robot Wall·E to the earth in batches, and installed the only instruction for them-garbage sorting. However, over time, the robots broke down one by one. In the end, there was only the only one left, continuing to work diligently in the garbage dump in this seemingly forgotten corner. Hundreds of years passed in a blink of an eye, and loneliness and loneliness became the eternal themes surrounding him.