‘Invisible Ink’ Author Brian McDonald Says We Need To Take The Future Of Storytelling “Away From Hollywood”
‘Invisible Ink’ author Brian McDonald shares his compelling perspectives on how Hollywood (for the most part) has forgotten how to tell stories.
This interview will help you draw personal connections between storytelling and race, gender, anthropology and, of course, video games. And those connections will inform your own process of storytelling in ways you never expected.
I HIGHLY recommend a listen. But make sure you have space on your desk cleared for taking notes and space in your office or home cleared for the primal tantrum of inspiration within which you will find yourself after listening.
Topics covered:
Do the problems with YOUR story begin with it’s conclusion? (…or lack thereof.)
You might change your mind or even the theme of your story throughout the writing, but that’s no excuse not to plan carefully.
What do modern storytelling and processed food have in common?
Your story is not self-therapy.
It is the job of the artist to welcome risk and being afraid of risk will kill your story.
Why is everybody in Hollywood afraid to really tell a story?
‘Invisible Ink’ Vs. ‘Save The Cat’ Vs. Robert McKee:
‘Invisible Ink’ by author Brian McDonald is the best book on storytelling I’ve ever read.
Most books on story craft are either about screenwriting or prose and most of the books on making comics neglect the “storytelling” part of “visual storytelling.”
There are a few great books about screenwriting that apply to writing comics but, in my opinion, the two “best” books on screenwriting, ‘Save The Cat: The Last Book On Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need‘ by Blake Snyder (which I love) and the epic tome Story Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee (which, as a whole, I’m not a huge fan of) represent two completely different paradigms.
The strength of the ‘Save The Cat’ series is practicality where the strength of McKee’s book is how well he represents the transcendental aspects of story.
Personally, I see the craft of storytelling as more of a balance between these two extremes. Also, I’ve always wanted a book that not only balanced the transcendental with the practical.
As if I wasn’t being fickle enough, I also wanted this dream-storytelling-book to be about storytelling in general, the capital ‘S’” version of Storytelling and not just screenwriting or comics.
AND THEN I FOUND INVISIBLE INK…
…where author Brian McDonald systematically blends the ancient, spiritual essence of stories while equipping and empowering the reader to hone the craft of storytelling within his or her chosen medium.
The Golden Theme:
I’m currently reading Brian McDonald’s second book ‘The Golden Theme’. It is just as inspiring and so far, even more transcendent.
I’ll keep you posted with my thoughts on the book via Twitter and The Paper Wings Facebook Fan Page.
Both Of Brian McDonald’s Books Are Available As Physical and Kindle eBooks:
Buy [Invisible Ink] by Brian McDonald
Buy [The Golden Theme] by Brian McDonald
* Paper Wings will receive a small commission if you buy through any of the links in this post.
Good Links:
You can read more of Brian’s work on his Invisible Ink Blog.
This awesome interview is from a show I’ve never heard of but am so glad I have. It’s called ‘The High Bar’ and you can find it at TheHighBar.tv
Listen to Chris and Lora review ‘Invisible Ink’ in greater depth on the most recent episode of Paper Wings ‘How To Write Comics That Engage Your Audience’.
What do YOU think? Do you agree with Brian?
Is it the responsibility of creators like us to
“Take the future of storytelling away from Hollywood?”
If not, what is our responsibility as comics creators?
{ 65 comments… read them below or add one }
Finally got around to reading/watching the latest posts here — I was a little behind! This was interesting to listen to. Some things I’d like to ponder about a bit more, but overall an interesting discussion, for sure.
One thing I really did not agree with is the video games part. I know others have already commented on that here. I’m not even an avid gamer or anything, but I don’t see how video games can’t be a successful medium for story-telling.
His argument, although sounding pretty valid, on second inspection doesn’t really hold up with me. The idea that a story is “history” and has past, makes sense, okay; and when playing a video game, you are living it now, in the present, okay. But reading a book is the same way, isn’t it? You’re experiencing what’s happening on that page, at that time. You can reflect on what’s happened in the pages you’ve already read, but all you know is up until the current page you’re on. That current page is the present to you, in the realm of this book. It’s the same with a video game with heavy story-telling. Of course, video games can differ greatly. Some are more open-ended, letting you do whatever you want in whatever order. But, of course, we’re talking about the ones that have a clear path of plot point after plot point…
It’s all an experience that someone’s crafted for you. Whether a book, movie, comic, or video game, the story experience has been crafted, and you live through it, one step at a time, just like the characters do. To say all stories have to be a “history”, a “past”, makes perfect sense to me. But that’s not how we experience them. We experience them in the present, and then it becomes a “past” to us individually.
That was the only strong reaction I had while watching the video. Though I thought there was a lot of food for thought in there! I definitely plan to pick up Invisible Ink once I’m done with some other readings…!
I really enjoyed watching this interview. I guess I’m a little late to the party. LOL. Thanks!
There’s been lots of comments about the “video game” part of this interview (I’m not sure where I stand on that), but I thought the most interesting part was when they were talking about 9 writers for Armageddon versus one writer John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men….
I think that for the most part, writers are very critical of themselves and generally put tremendous thought into making their stories engaging and powerful, before they get in front of anyone else’s eyes. They have a point of view which is unique and even though it may not fit every demographic, it is still far more interesting than a story that is trying to be all things to all people. I think you can only really get that from one person with a single vision.
Even this interview is a good example. Imagine if Warren would have been interviewing 12 or 15 people at once and getting all of their opinions shouted at him one after another. In the end, it would have been a confusing mess.
Instead Warren is interviewing one man, Brian McDonald… and whether you agree or disagree with what he’s said, you where at least fully engaged and interested in his viewpoint. In the same way that you would enjoy a graphic novel or movie that hasn’t been watered down by hundreds of different opinions and trying to please everyone.
To throw out a cliche’… Too many cooks spoil the soup.
I think it’s great that technology and the internet has allowed artists to have a more direct platform to present their works without going through the Hollywood filter.
Thanks for watching, Raymond, and thanks for your sharp insights. Certainly, we three agree. One writer beats a pack. And, the reason for my show being a long-form conversation with just one guest is because that is how we learn best. I am often hired to host panel discussions and I always forewarn organizers that the more panelists, the less audiences will actually take away. Holds true every time. Quality directly correlates to limited quantity.
Take luck,
Warren
I’ve been sick all week and today is the first day I’m upright at my desk.
I missed out on a lot of great dialogue here, but I tried to put my 2 cents in where I could.
As always, you Wingerz amaze me! Thanks for all the thoughtful insights and inspirational links!
Thanks so much for sharing this episode of The High Bar, Chris. I adore Brian, have known him for years and it was a treat having him on my show. Due to the episode’s popularity, I am likely to have him back this season.
Last year (Season 2), I interviewed some other filmmakers and writers — namely Duncan Jones and Howard Jacobson — that may be of interest to your readers. Both can be found at http://thehighbar.tv And way back in 2010, I hosted Winda Benedetti aka MSNBC’s Citizen Gamer to raise the bar for… video games. That, too, can be found on our website. More timely though, is the fact that next week we will premiere The High Bar with my special guest screenwriter/filmmaker Wesley Strick who will raise a toast to… the Hollywood thriller. (It will be available on line come Tuesday, February 21st.)
As always, I welcome any and all feedback and any special requests regarding guests or topics for the future.
Once again, my thanks to you, Chris, for sharing this video and for commenting so kindly and wisely.
Hope all is swell,
Warren E
Thanks, Warren, for making such a great show.
I’m going over right now to listen to those other episodes. It’s no wonder Brian’s episode is so popular.
And I can’t wait to hear this Wesley Strick interview.
(SIDE NOTE: Nice website!)
Phenomenal interview. Brian was a great guest, but the whole time I was also thinking that you are a fantastic interviewer. Great back and forth dialogue and intelligent conversation.
I can’t wait to check out the other episodes!
Thanks, Lora. I am flattered by your kind words. I hope you may find other episodes of The High Bar at http://thehighbar.tv that will peal to you. Perhaps my chats with Jodie Foster, Gary Oldman or Miranda July?
Take luck,
Warren
Thank you for posting this video. I’ll definitely be passing this along in my circles. On your recommendation I’ve read SAVE THE CAT and I’ll be picking up INVISIBLE INK as well. So far, all the books on story I’ve read have been complimentary. I’m curious to see what this one brings to the table.
I’m eager to hear more, Luis. Any chance you’ll be blogging about this?
Yes, if I really like it. Here’s what I wrote about SAVE THE CAT on my blog after I read it:
“…On top of that, the book I ordered SAVE THE CAT! by Blake Snyder, came in the mail. I flipped through it, read a little bit of it and then couldn’t stop. The info in it is fantastic. There are some things in the book that I’d rather use DRAMATICA for. There are also some things I really disagree with, but overall, there is a LOT of stuff in this book that isn’t in a lot of other books on writing. Very good info on how to SELL an idea and put it together. I highly recommend it. I’ll be using this book a lot, along with DRAMATICA.” — http://www.luisescobarblog.com/index.php?s=%22save+the+cat%22
Thanks for recommending it.
You’re welcome. I don’t know ‘DRAMATICA.’ I’ll have to look into that…
Decent interview. He had a couple of really great points about writing stories to invoke emotion and how Hollywood has become so risk averse their quality suffers for it.
I disagree with him that video games can’t also tell a story. The fact that he doesn’t play video games certainly doesn’t make him the authority on the matter. Bioshock had an amazing story. Knights of the Old Republic had an amazing story. Halo had a pretty solid story. I believe any media form of delivering words, imagery and plotlines can turn out stories.
Spring boarding off video games, what are everyone’s thoughts on motion comics? Not the creepy morph mouth ones the big guys put out , but I mean a well animated motion comic with limited motions and possibly sounds. Is that the future of comics or is that more of a novelty? It could be a way of expanding audiences, but I wonder by how much.
I hear you on the video games point! I LOVE zelda, myst, etc.and their richness of story and I think story has its place in the video game world. I kindof see his point that video games could be alot more rich in their own right. I think games could perhaps evolve more so story is less and less scripted, but emerges from your experience.
I also think motion comics could be GREAT! If done right, they could possible transcend novelties and become the future. They could be LOTS of work, though.
Oh man, MYST ROCKS! And I ‘Wind Waker’ is my favorite Zelda game – despite what the haters say…
Absolutely … the windwaker style is especially wonderful – skyward sword has me drooling as well. Funny tidbit – Myst III was so moving that I cried, heheh.
Wind Waker arguably has the best story in the Zelda line-up. However, it is not my favorite because it was the least challenging of the console games, and because so much of it was padding (ugh fish up 8 pieces of the triforce of courage ugh ugh ugh). But Zelda is a good example of why he’s way off the mark on the video games and stories. Platformers (and Jrpgs) have been around for about 30 years, and their form is quite set: the story is the _reward_ the player gets for completing the challenging task. And the act of working your way through the task, be it mowing down undead hordes or collecting clues to solve a mystery, the video game relies on player participation for interactive storytelling. Saying they shouldn’t have stories is daft. Who would play them, otherwise? And saying they are “trying to be movies because they haven’t figured out what they are” is equally daft. There is a recent movement of experimentation in an “interactive movie” direction as of late, with the ups and downs of successes and failures, but the creators know that they are blending cinema with the movies when they do so. And fairly often, the “blend” is simply giving the viewer a high-style cinematic as a reward for completing tasks, so it’s not very far from a platformer in the first place.
Great points, Jules.
I have been completely obsessed with this idea of “subtle motion” comics since Jason Brubaker told me about them a couple months ago.
I think the animator in me is going nuts.
We need to have a long conversation about that some time. Too much to write here…
Will motion become a common technique in comics (to the point where “comics” and “motion comics” merge together to become “comics”)? Why not? I just want to find an easy, intuitive way to do it on all platforms (main website, iPad etc…)
What do you think about them?
If you haven’t seen this, it will make you want to punch bears.
http://zacgorman.com/?p=202
Animated GIFs as motion comics? Oh, dude, that’s just…that’s just…no. Just no. You either apply Flash or After Effects to your motion comics like a big boy or you don’t at all!
I met a guy in San Francisco who ran a start up to help artists create their own motion comics, but that company is still in the investor stages. I wouldn’t bank too much on that one in particular, but there are companies that are emerging with the intent of helping artists create motion comics. It’s coming. Just a ways off.
I liked the GIF’s personally, but I think you’re imagining something dynamic … so that you can roll over one panel and it plays an animation (and stops once the animation is finished, unlike a gif ….) the you roll over another panel and it reacts to your mouse … something like that? It would be really awesome and would require some animation skills for sure.
Oooh, Chris, I *love* that guy’s work!
Have you seen this one?? http://hobolobo.net/
That comic uses a concept called “Parallax scrolling.” Essentially, you have the different depths layered on top of each other as transparent images, and they each scroll at separate speeds independently (think transparency sheets sliding over each other). It’s a super cool technique, and it’s awesome to see a webcomic embrace it. Then throw some Javascript on top to control the page/text changes, and you have a really interesting comic interface.
It would have been amazingly fun to work on the technology side of figuring Hobolobo out! I totally had an HTML/CSS geek out the first time I saw this.
I don’t know about motion in comics that you can’t turn off or have no control over. I’ve experimented with this type of comic myself on my blog. Among the many times I’d done it, once was when I was writing about reading my wife’s manuscript:
http://www.luisescobarblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/reading.gif
Once when writing about how exited I was to be playing games with my daughter:
http://www.luisescobarblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/a-blessing.gif
They were a lot of fun to do, but as a full on comic page, it kinda feels too busy.
Okay, those two are really cute. I especially like the one with the wife and the manuscript. Ideally, it’d be nice if a motion comic could be interactive (in case you miss something) but these work very nicely.
So awesome.
Those are GREAT luis! Love it! and identify totally!
Jules, what are you talking about?! Animated GIFs as motion comics are THE BEST if you’re as good as Zac Gorman.
Sure, there’s cool stuff you can do with Flash or AE, but I’ve always been a fan of low-tech and “make something awesome out of the stuff that’s collecting dust in your garage” or “Take the cheesy thing and make it awesome.”
Animated GIFs totally have that potential. No need to hate.
I thought they were great … no hate here.
I don’t think she mean it in a bad way at all. I totally see her point. I have the same critique. I wish there was start button or something on my cartoons so that you don’t have to wait for it to cycle back if you miss the start. But it’s the nature of Animated GIFs that you can’t, so you let it be what it is.
Yeah, I think if we are going to go the animated gif route we just have to embrace the limitations.
That’s why just having effects cycles and hari blowing, etc. is so nice. It doesn’t really distract.
I love the idea of having an iPad version that reacts when you touch the panel etc… That could be wicked cool.
Unless done very well, I’m allergic to animated gifs. All that spastic blinking gives me a headache.
But it’s cool, man. I’m not trying to hate. Luis Escobar shows it’s possible to do animated GIF comics well, so they can’t all be painted with the same broad stroke.
Ha, ha, painted. I made a funny…
Exactly my point. I think it’s all about the subtlety. The more dynamic or intense the “motion” we want the more we need to rely on “triggers” (ie: iPad touching) and non-cycling animations…
My hesitation with animating the word balloons is that it forces timing on a reader. “Forcing” timing in a storyboard, animation or film makes sense because we’re hearing the dialogue and a measurable amount of time is spent speaking something.
But in comics, reading has no set time. I’m a fast reader, so I wind up waiting for the next balloon. And in that second I’m outside of the story. It’s a broken up experience. In a traditional comic we can still control time without determining how fast or slow someone must read a balloon. Which keeps you from being taken out of the story. It’s a seamless experience.
You can impact pacing by the size relation of objects in a panel, the size of a panel in relation to a page or other panels, what types of panel boxes you use or how much space is put between word balloons– or between a character and his word balloon.
This has been my problem with motion comics in general. The Marvel motion comics I’ve seen have been painful to “read.” They watch like awkward, ill-timed animations. Where the same story and same art in its original format is beautiful and reads cleanly.
What did Chris say on the last episode? If it ain’t broke, don’t break it.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m excited to see people experiment with motion comics. I think it’s relatively new and we haven’t quite figured it out yet, which makes this an exciting time where we get to figure out what it is, and what it can be.
So I hope you guys keep posting more of your experiments here!
If you have not read this, you are missing out on life.
http://yuumei.deviantart.com/art/Knite-Chapter-1-151132545
Be sure to read the following two chapters, as she experiments with the subtle motion even more, to excellent effect.
Knites totally inspired me to start writing a flash-based comic of my own. It’s like a click-through animatic.
THAT WAS INCREDIBLE! Thank you Sly for the link! What a great example of what can be done with in the digital medium. Inspired & humbled at the same time.
I know…great content!
I agree, Sly! I’d seen that on DA a long time ago, but forgot to bookmark it so I never knew how to get it back.
I think this is a great blend of storyboard and comics and makes the right decisions to keep the reader/watcher engaged and inside the story.
Meant to comment on the video games, but forgot. I totally disagreed with his point about those. I love it when a game has a good story! Myst (especially Riven) is my absolute favourite game of all times, and Syberia and Beyond Good and Evil had really awesome stories too. Games without story get boring really fast for me.
I don`t think Brian has played many videogames.
I totally agree with you, Jules. I liked this interview, it was informative, but Brian seemed to have a bias against video games. I’m not a big gamer myself, I have only played a handful of games but I love a good story. The proof is in the pudding when games with story sell, usually a lot more than the big Hollywood blockbusters. Perhaps Hollywood execs are embittered by how much games are grossing compared to movies nowadays? If you like games with an indepth story, I recommend “Heavy Rain”. It looks and feels like a film noir that includes a detective and sci-fi element. It’s a pretty involved story that you get to experience through the eyes of several different characters. Not too mention the graphics look amazing! The loading screens are closeups of the characters’ faces and they look almost real.
I actually worked for a company this past summer that did motion comics for tablet platforms. It was a lot of work because we had to take already existing comic pages (flat .jpegs), break them apart and rebuild them to animate. If you set out on a page and knew where you wanted it to move, you could work on it more efficiently. The comics were for kids and younger tweens, involving basic movements in the characters, moving speech bubbles and sound effects and some voices. I did a full mouth chart for a couple characters in one book, I agree with what someone else’s point that lame mouth flaps are really irritating. Some of the effects were triggered when you opened the page and others had to be triggered by touching the screen. I think that kids would find that stuff really appealing, but I’m with Lora, I’m a fast reader and I read over all the dialogue on a page fairly quickly and then go back to admire the art. Having to wait for speech bubbles to fade in and whatnot would just ruin my reading experience. I probably wouldn’t like a comic if it had full sound effects and music. I would find that too pervading; one thing I love about reading is using my own imagination to manifest the atmosphere of the story. So if it’s all just handed to me, via music or voices, I might as well just watch a movie. However, I do like the .gif comics that were linked. They’re pretty basic and don’t take away from any of the actual reading or artwork.
I considered doing a Flash comic for my own project, but I’m a trained animator and I figured I wouldn’t be able to resist doing a completely animated film. And that would just take too long for my story and it’s not really an appropriate medium for it. It would be fun though, maybe I’ll do it for one chapter
I mean, the question is why are we doing it? Obviously it’s more time consuming than just drawing a comic page. So how does adding motion improve the reader’s experience? Are we concerned with doing something neat? Or are we trying to tell the best stories possible? If it is the latter, I think animation FX should only be used when enhancing the reader’s experience by bringing them deeper into your story- and not distracting them by showing off. This is delicate. But I think people have linked here to some examples that do it well.
I loved this interview, not only it was so fun to watch it actually left me with a lot of food for thought…
Yesterday I watched “L’illusioniste”, from french filmmaker Sylvain Chomet. It’s an animated film based on a script by Jacques Tati about the relationship between an old magician and a girl. However the movie is not the utopia of the talented magician that finds work everywhere but of the struggling artist that can no longer find an audience and has to move on. The movie is almost without dialogue. At first I didn’t like it, I was bored and couldn’t follow what was happening but then I realized that my prejudice, the habit of too much Hollywood fast-paced blockbusters, and the idea that “animation is for children” that is so embedded in our minds was blocking me from the enjoyment. When I realized it, I was able to enjoy the movie thoroughly and I highly recommend it. It’s poetry made film…
This is a movie that was not made in Hollywood and would have never been made there; it was too risky. The movie has heart, a melancholy, a nostalgia, a heart ache at the root of it, talking about human nature that I’ve rarely seen in animation.
Most Hollywood movies follow the same storylines, the some endings, you know how the movie will end before you start watching it. And yet, people go see them; they keep on making money. We have to wonder why… and here’s where I think: is it because of the same reasons why I wasn’t enjoying “L’illusioniste” at first? Is it because our sensibilies have been programmed to respond only to clichés and to shrink away from anything different? Or is it because the offer is so limited that we cannot choose anything else? The cinemas are filled with Hollywood because they have the money, the powerhouse distribution, the way to reach masses that the true creative talent has not. Let’s hope that internet plays a part in allowing us to enjoy true creativity free from producers with budgets and projection and big bosses with deep pockets but small vision.
YES! The Illusionist is uh-MAAAAA-zing!
And I totally agree, Maria. The movie is truly beautiful in an emotionally dynamic way – not just visually…
And EVERY character – even those with a few seconds on screen – they were all emotionally delightful!
The Illusionist was brilliant: visually and emotionally!
First post here for 2012, scandalously late!
I`m so excited for the PW posts so far, it`s just what I need. I`m struggling with my story a lot. So in response to your question about what the Wingers would want to know more about in relation to story: I`m having trouble with making it a ” whole.” I have some stuff that I feel I need to have in there to make sense or to get people from point A to point B story wise, but I keep wondering if I don`t have too many different things happening and if it won`t feel forced.
I like Brian’s` approach a lot, his book is so no nonsense. No big formula`s, just “Once upon a time…” etc. and tell a story that has meaning. I read ” Save the Cat” too and liked that one also, though Invisible Ink had a nicer tone to it. Blake Snyder of “Save the Cat” wrote his book as THE way to go and made it a bit more restricting. (though it all sounded logical)
As to what I think about Hollywood: it`s true that I sometimes have felt like I was being tricked by a trailer into seeing a movie that wasn`t all that great… But lots of times I just think that the writers and directors just focus on the wrong things: cool looking special effects, great dialogue, casting etc. which is important, but they focus on those things only instead of trying to figure out how to tell the best story. And sometimes I feel like they take the easy road and just put in stuff ” because it`ll be cool” (Brain McDonald wrote a great post on his blog about this, just read it today: http://www.invisibleinkblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/movies-i-like-wizard-of-oz-doing-what.html) so it doesn`t always feel like a money issue to me, which might just me being naive.
What I`m absolutely allergic too though, are bad sequels. In quite a few of those it`s very clearly feel that it`s about the money. Though I think there are a few good ones in which you can feel that the creators weren`t ready to say goodbye to the characters, or that they had more ideas for a story for them.
Do I feel a responsibility towards Hollywood as a comic creator? Not really, I feel a responsibility towards (future) readers to tell a good story. (and one that I want to tell, that I believe in) But I don`t see how my storytelling could affect Hollywood. They`ll do what they want and there`ll always be an audience. I think that there are still good movies coming from Hollywood too, but people who don`t want to take too many risks will not see how it`s done and just continue like they do now, until people stop coming to their movies. Because I think that their approach will eventually backfire on them. If a studio makes one boring movie after another, people will notice. And they will stay away from those movies.
As a comic creator I feel a responsibility towards comics though. I would love it if we could get rid of this image that comics are ” for kids” “for nerds” or “not real art” I think it`s becoming better in certain area`s, like art schools (we have an art school here that has a graduation programme called ” Comic Design” Boy, I wish that would have been around when I was choosing my career path…) but the most people here don`t read comics at all. Of all the people I know I know only a handful of people who read a comic once a year or something. I would love for more people to get to know comics. There are so many different ones out there, it`s not only Marvel, Donald Duck or newspaper strips anymore. (not that there`s anything wrong with those)
Good to see you again, Henrike!
I think the “Taking the future of storytelling away from Hollywood” doesn’t have to mean just making indie film. That’s the beauty of the internet – audiences have more access and more choice and as long as we make it easy for those audiences to find us, we CAN compete for their attention.
And we will hold their attention when ‘Hollywood’ can’t if we tell better stories.
I agree with Chris and would add that with all the comics-turned-movies out there we *can* hope, collectively, to impact Hollywood.
Brian talked in this interview about Hollywood’s fear of risk. I believe that’s a big part of why books-turned-movies and comics-turned-movies are so big today. The risk is taken out because the story is already proven to have an audience.
I think this trend isn’t going to stop any time soon. So if we can tell the best, most engaging stories we can through our comics, who is to say it won’t have an impact on the larger culture? The wonderful thing about the internet is that we’re no longer having record labels or TV networks or Hollywood Studios or book publishers tell us what is good enough to feed to the public. No, now we can go straight to the public ourselves and that in-between screening process is becoming less and less crucial to success.
What an exciting time for us, but you’ve heard me say that before!
I agree, and here’s a point where I feel that the movie industry *does* deserve some credit. It used to be that when you would hear about a property being made into a movie (be it book, comic, etc.), there would a cacophony of groans as inevitably this meant that said property would be completely decimated in the conversion, and thus would turn people off to the original as well. It feels like in the last several years, that has not been the case – when you look at the stuff being made into films, it seems like they’ve been getting the conversions more or less right, or at least entertaining and functional as films even if not entirely faithful to the original medium. And this drives the movie viewers back to the original source, too, which usually gets a movie-based rebranding and marketing initiative when the film comes out. Anything getting people to pick up more books and comic books is a win to me.
Great observation, Chad. You’re right. As Hollywood’s business shrinks, especially in relation to the bottom lines of video games, graphic novels, etc, you are seeing a greater fidelity to source material. In part, this is the studio head’s saving the skin, but I think the other component is that you are seeing a younger generation of filmmakers who have grown up with both movies and the books, comics and games that you have and they are eager to translate them in line with their creators’ spirits.
My favorite example of “Hollywood gets it right” is Scott Pilgrim. The first part of that movie is gag-for-gag straight out of the Volume 1 graphic novel. Literally like watching the comic.
what drives me to drink, is hearing how scripts that are “amazing!” and on black lists, are getting re-written before they go into production; usually by another screenwriter.
while i understand the production process and the need for rewrites as the production shoots, that’s a different thing. i understand clint eastwood did the opposite with gran torino. the script that went into production was the one shot.
i love clint eastwood. thanks for posting this!
YES! Clint Eastwood did that with (the OSCAR winning) Million Dollar Baby too. He just shot the script he was sent. And it’s good.
In the words of my colleague and friend, Mike Greenholt, “If it ain’t broke, don’t break it.”
i heard you say that on one of your podcasts yesterday…great turn of a phrase!
i had no idea that million dollar baby wasn’t re-written. that makes a lot of sense considering the final film. if someone other than eastwood made the film, i’m sure the ending would be changed for the worst.
you guys are doing a great thing here, keep up the good work.
expect to be linked to frequently!
Well this was timely for me, I just finished Save the Cat last night! I thought it was an excellent book. I really enjoyed this, and I’ve just ordered Brian’s book as well. Really looking forward to reading it. I’m trying to prepare myself to write my graphic novel (in fact I completely stopped to study story more) and this will really help. Great interview.
Tom, that’s awesome. I *LOVE* ‘Save The Cat.’
Please let me know how these books affect your process. I’m a sucker for that kind of content.
I think this kind of “binge study” on the front end of a project can have huge impact on what you produce. I devoured Scott McCloud’s and Will Eisner’s making comics books before I started The Dreamer and it not only instructed me on how to do things and why I was doing them, it was all really fresh on my mind, too!
I went from learning to immediately putting it into practice and I think that is the best way to retain information. Now it’s just a part of my creative DNA.
Another factor in Hollywood’s refusal to take risks is the money issue. There are producers who are not remotely interested in creating a good story that will affect generations to come. They just want to make a whole lot of money in a very short time. Who cares what the critics say when the box office receipts roll in? And the best way to do that is to appeal to the lowest common denominator – i.e., the twinkie factor.
Moviegoers may say they want a gourmet film as opposed to a twinkie flick, but the weekend numbers say different. That’s how fast food chains make their billions – by selling cheap food that’s garbage, but familiar. Film producers are more than happy to serve up the same story over and over again with different packaging, to an audience that doesn’t want to be challenged in any way.
Unfortunately, it’s going to be difficult for the audience to raise their standards as long as they’re constantly being fed easy to digest, mindless plots. And it’s going to be hard for Hollywood to change as long as there is a quick financial return on fast food movies.
Exceptionally well-put, Teresa.
Yes, Yes, Yes! I have been thinking about the same sorts of things and I found his perspectives very refreshing. I definitely think that even if we find ourselves working WITH Hollywood to build our skills and careers, we should be talking “it” AWAY from Hollywood with our personal projects. There is obviously a lot to learn from Hollywood of what to do and not to do. His thoughts on Risk Management are AWESOME! You’d think we would be better at “following your instincts” on personal projects, but we often think things like “Will anyone like this?” And we might find ourselves minimizing risk by imitating, or by ignoring structure – thinking it might be cliche. I’m totally in this boat of organically searching a story toward a conclusion – constantly asking how it makes us feel!
Please keep us posted on your projects, Scott. Love seeing this stuff really play out in the “real-world” ie: Wingerz Projects!
Thanks Chris! In my current animation shot, I’ve really been focusing on emotion/character/subtext Here’s the wip : http://characterdrivenstory.blogspot.com – I will also be quickly animating other shots to push the acting on my reel to the next level.
The only project I have relevant to PW’s new comic focus is a possible short comic/storybook I’m planning out in the back my mind. More details to come on that later.
That’s a wonderful little animation, Scott!
Even with PW’s new “comic focus” as you can see, there is still a lot of overlap with film and animation. We’re all still in the same branch of art which is “visual storytelling.”
So feel free to share whatever you’re working on! It’s all still relevant! The new focus is just to help Chris & I when creating content. We get so tempted to run down rabbit trails already… and too much of that isn’t helpful to anyone.
Thanks so much, Lora. I’ll definitely be sticking around and sharing!
Great show, thanks for posting!
Jeff Lafferty
Thanks for dropping by, Jeff!