The clues to a great story | Andrew Stanton | TED

Summary

Dieses Skript präsentiert die Kunst des Erzählens als eine universelle Sprache, die das menschliche Verständnis vertieft. Der Sprecher teilt seine Leidenschaft für Geschichten, die Bedeutung von Wunder und die Bedeutung der Charakterentwicklung. Er diskutiert die Prinzipien hinter gut erzählten Geschichten, wie das Versprechen, die Erwartung und Unsicherheit, und wie Charaktere eine 'Rückgrat' benötigen, um authentisch zu sein. Erzählt in umgekehrter Chronologie, endet die Präsentation mit dem Einfluss von 'John Carter' auf sein Schreibverständnis.

Takeaways

• 📚 Geschichten sind für uns alle wichtig, sie bestätigen, wer wir sind und geben unserem Leben Bedeutung.
• 😂 Ein guter Witz, wie die Geschichte des alten Mannes im Pub zeigt, kann uns überraschen und zum Lachen bringen.
• 🎯 Eine Geschichte soll einen einzigen Ziel verfolgen und dabei eine tiefere Wahrheit über die Menschheit offenbaren.
• 👶 Mr. Rogers' Zitat verdeutlicht, dass man durch das Hören der Geschichte eines Menschen eine Verbindung herstellen kann und ihn lieben kann.
• 🤔 Geschichten können Zeitschranken überwinden und uns in der Lage versetzen, Ähnlichkeiten zwischen uns und anderen, real oder erdacht, zu empfinden.
• 🎬 Der Film 'John Carter' zeigt, wie ein gut erzählter Anfang eine Versprechen an den Zuschauer abgibt, dass die Geschichte es wert ist, sich die Zeit damit zu nehmen.
• 🎨 Die Geschichte ohne Dialoge ist die reinste Form des filmischen Erzählens und bietet eine eingeschlossene und inklusive Erzählweise.
• 🧩 Das Publikum möchte an der Erzählung mitarbeiten, ohne es zu merken - das ist die Aufgabe des Erzählers, dies zu verbergen.
• 🔍 Die 'unifying theory of two plus two' bei 'Finding Nemo' zeigt, wie das Publikum dazu animiert wird, Verbindungen selbstständig herzustellen.
• 🌟 Ein starkes Thema ist immer in einer gut erzählten Geschichte vorhanden und gibt ihr eine Richtung.
• 👶🏻 Das Wunder ist ein wichtiger Bestandteil von Geschichten und kann das Gefühl des Erlebens und des Staunens in uns wecken.
• 💡 Verwende, was du weißt und nutze deine Erfahrungen, um Wahrheiten und Werte in deine Geschichte einzuweben.

Q & A

Was war das Hauptthema des Scherzes, der im Pub erzählt wurde?

Das Hauptthema des Scherzes war der seltsame Ruf, den ein Mann aufgrund eines einzigen Vorfalls erhalten hat, obwohl er viele großartige Dinge erreicht hat.

Was ist der zentrale Gedanke hinter der Bedeutung von Geschichten für den Menschen?

Geschichten bestätigen, wer wir sind, sie bieten Bestätigung, dass unser Leben einen Sinn hat und sie ermöglichen es uns, durch Verbindungen mit Geschichten zu anderen Menschen, real oder erdacht, ähnliche Erfahrungen zu teilen.

Wie wichtig ist es, dass eine Geschichte einen guten Abschluss hat?

Ein guter Abschluss ist entscheidend, da er die Geschichte auf ein hohes Niveau heben kann und das Publikum dazu bringt, sich emotional, intellektuell und ästhetisch einzubinden.

Was ist das 'größte Gesetz der Geschichtenerzählung', das der Sprecher erwähnt?

Das 'größte Gesetz der Geschichtenerzählung' lautet 'Mach mich interessiert', was bedeutet, dass die Geschichte die Aufmerksamkeit des Publikums auf eine Weise fesseln sollte, die sie emotional, intellektuell und ästhetisch anspricht.

Wie wichtig ist es, die Hauptfigur einer Geschichte sympathisch zu gestalten?

Es ist sehr wichtig, da die Sympathie der Hauptfigur dazu beiträgt, das Publikum in die Geschichte einzubinden und die Ereignisse und Konflikte, die sie erlebt, als bedeutend und relevant zu empfinden.

Was ist das Konzept der 'inneren Wirkung' oder 'Spinal' eines Charakters?

Die 'Spinal' eines Charakters ist das innere Triebwerk, das einen unbewussten, dominanten Ziel, das sie verfolgen, repräsentiert. Es ist das, was ihre Entscheidungen treibt und ihr Handeln bestimmt.

Welche Rolle spielt die Erwartung und Unsicherheit in der Dramatik einer Geschichte?

Erwartung und Unsicherheit sind entscheidend für die Dramatik, da sie die Neugier des Publikums wecken und es antreiben, die Geschichte zu verfolgen, um herauszufinden, was als Nächstes passiert und wie sie endet.

Was haben die frühen Filme von Pixar gelehrt, in Bezug auf die Erzählweise in Animationsfilmen?

Die frühen Filme von Pixar haben gelehrt, dass es möglich ist, Animationsfilme ohne Gesänge, ohne 'Ich-will'-Momente, ohne glückliche Dörfer oder Liebesgeschichten zu erzählen, und dass dies zu neuen und einzigartigen Erzählweisen führt.

Wie wichtig ist die Verwendung von 'Wunder' in der Geschichtenerzählung?

Das 'Wunder' ist ein sehr wichtiger Bestandteil der Geschichtenerzählung, da es die Fähigkeit hat, das Publikum zu faszinieren und eine tiefe emotionale Verbindung zu schaffen, die das Gefühl des Lebendigseins bestätigt.

Was bedeutet der Satz 'Nutze, was du weißt' in Bezug auf die Schreibprozesse von Geschichten?

Dieser Satz bedeutet, dass Autoren ihre persönlichen Erfahrungen und Wahrnehmungen nutzen sollten, um Wahrheiten und Werte in ihre Geschichten zu integrieren, die sie tief im Herzen fühlen.

Was war der Hauptunterschied in der Herangehensweise von Pixar gegenüber den traditionellen Animationsfilmen der 90er Jahre?

Der Hauptunterschied war, dass Pixar bewies, dass man Animationsfilme erzählen kann, die sich durch eine neue und einzigartige Erzählweise auszeichnen, anstatt sich an die damaligen Erfolgsformeln zu halten.

Outlines

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Keywords

💡Storytelling

Storytelling ist die Kunst, Geschichten zu erzählen, die die Zuhörer anziehen und binden. Im Video wird es als Mittel zur Bestätigung des menschlichen Bedürfnisses nach Bedeutung und Verbindung hervorgehoben. Der Sprecher betont, dass eine gut erzählte Geschichte vom Anfang bis zum Ende auf ein gemeinsames Ziel hinzielen sollte, um eine tiefere Verständnis dessen zu vertiefen, wer wir als Menschen sind. Ein Beispiel aus dem Skript ist die Anekdote des alten Mannes, der verschiedene Strukturen gebaut hat, aber für sein berühmtestes 'Bauwerk' berüchtigt ist.

💡Punchline

Die Pointe eines Witz ist der Wendepunkt, der zum Lachen anregt. Im Video wird sie als zentrales Element des Storytellings beschrieben, das den Zuhörer auf eine überraschende, aber dennoch erwartungsgemäße Weise zum Lachen bringt. Der alte Mann im Skript nutzt die Pointe, um eine unerwartete Wendung in seiner Anekdote zu erzählen, die zum Lachen der Zuhörer anregt.

💡Affirmation

Bestätigung bezieht sich auf die Anerkennung oder das Bestätigen von etwas, was für die Menschen wichtig ist, um ihre Lebensbedeutung zu stärken. Im Video wird die Bedeutung von Geschichten als Mittel zur Bestätigung der Lebensbedeutung betont. Die Geschichten verbinden Menschen über Zeit und Raum und ermöglichen es ihnen, ihre Gemeinsamkeiten zu erkennen.

💡Character

Charaktere sind die zentralen Figuren in einer Geschichte, die durch ihre Eigenschaften, Wünsche und Handlungen die Handlung vorantreiben. Im Video wird der Begriff 'Charakter' in Bezug auf die Lehren aus der Schauspiellehrerin Judith Weston erläutert, die glaubt, dass alle gut gezeichneten Charaktere einen 'Rücken' haben, also ein inneres, unbewusstes Ziel, nach dem sie streben.

💡Anticipation

Erwartung bezieht sich auf das Gefühl des Wartens auf etwas Interessantes, das in der Zukunft passieren wird. Im Video wird die Erwartung als ein Schlüsselelement von Geschichten beschrieben, das den Zuhörer in die Geschichte hineinzieht, indem es einen Drang vermittelt, das Ende oder die nächsten Ereignisse zu kennen.

💡Conflict

Konflikt ist eine unvermeidliche Komponente in einer Geschichte, die Spannung und Interesse weckt. Im Video wird betont, dass Konflikte ehrlich und mit Wahrheit erzeugt werden sollten, um Zweifel an dem möglichen Ausgang der Geschichte zu schaffen. Ein Beispiel ist die globale Spannung in 'Finding Nemo', ob Nemo jemals im riesigen Ozean gefunden wird.

💡Wonder

Wunder ist eine tiefe Bewunderung oder Verwunderung über etwas, das als außergewöhnlich oder bemerkenswert angesehen wird. Im Video wird Wunder als das magische Zutat in Geschichten beschrieben, die in der Lage ist, das Gefühl des Zuhörers auf einer zellulären Ebene zu erreichen und ihm das Gefühl des Lebens zu bestätigen.

💡Theme

Das Thema einer Geschichte ist die zentrale Idee oder der zentrale Gedanke, der die Handlung und die Charaktere durchläuft. Im Video wird das Thema als eine stets vorhandene Fäden in einer gut erzählten Geschichte beschrieben, die durch alle Ereignisse und Dialoge hindurchgeht, wie im Beispiel der Film 'Lawrence of Arabia', wo das Thema 'Wer bist du?' ist.

💡Narrator

Der Erzähler ist die Person, die eine Geschichte erzählt, entweder direkt oder indirekt. Im Video wird der Erzähler als ein Element der Geschichte herangezogen, das den Zuhörer in die Geschichte einlädt und ihm die Handlung näherbringt, wie im Beispiel der Film 'John Carter', wo Edgar Rice Burroughs als Erzähler auftritt.

💡Emotional Engagement

Emotionale Beteiligung bezieht sich auf die Fähigkeit, die Emotionen des Zuhörers oder Lesers zu wecken und zu involvieren. Im Video wird die emotionale Beteiligung als eine der Hauptaufgaben des Storytellings beschrieben, wobei der Sprecher auffordert, den Zuhörer auf emotionaler, intellektueller und ästhetischer Ebene zu erreichen.

Highlights

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Transcripts

A tourist is backpacking

through the highlands of Scotland,

and he stops at a pub to get a drink.

And the only people in there is a bartender

and an old man nursing a beer.

And he orders a pint, and they sit in silence for a while.

And suddenly the old man turns to him and goes,

"You see this bar?

I built this bar with my bare hands

from the finest wood in the county.

Gave it more love and care than my own child.

But do they call me MacGregor the bar builder? No."

Points out the window.

"You see that stone wall out there?

I built that stone wall with my bare hands.

Found every stone, placed them just so through the rain and the cold.

But do they call me MacGregor the stone wall builder? No."

Points out the window.

"You see that pier on the lake out there?

I built that pier with my bare hands.

Drove the pilings against the tide of the sand, plank by plank.

But do they call me MacGregor the pier builder? No.

But you fuck one goat ... "

(Laughter)

Storytelling --

(Laughter)

is joke telling.

It's knowing your punchline,

your ending,

knowing that everything you're saying, from the first sentence to the last,

is leading to a singular goal,

and ideally confirming some truth

that deepens our understandings

of who we are as human beings.

We all love stories.

We're born for them.

Stories affirm who we are.

We all want affirmations that our lives have meaning.

And nothing does a greater affirmation

than when we connect through stories.

It can cross the barriers of time,

past, present and future,

and allow us to experience

the similarities between ourselves

and through others, real and imagined.

The children's television host Mr. Rogers

always carried in his wallet

a quote from a social worker

that said, "Frankly, there isn't anyone you couldn't learn to love

once you've heard their story."

And the way I like to interpret that

is probably the greatest story commandment,

which is "Make me care" --

please, emotionally,

intellectually, aesthetically,

just make me care.

We all know what it's like to not care.

You've gone through hundreds of TV channels,

just switching channel after channel,

and then suddenly you actually stop on one.

It's already halfway over,

but something's caught you and you're drawn in and you care.

That's not by chance,

that's by design.

So it got me thinking, what if I told you my history was story,

how I was born for it,

how I learned along the way this subject matter?

And to make it more interesting,

we'll start from the ending

and we'll go to the beginning.

And so if I were going to give you the ending of this story,

it would go something like this:

And that's what ultimately led me

to speaking to you here at TED

about story.

And the most current story lesson that I've had

was completing the film I've just done

this year in 2012.

The film is "John Carter." It's based on a book called "The Princess of Mars,"

which was written by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

And Edgar Rice Burroughs actually put himself

as a character inside this movie, and as the narrator.

And he's summoned by his rich uncle, John Carter, to his mansion

with a telegram saying, "See me at once."

But once he gets there,

he's found out that his uncle has mysteriously passed away

and been entombed in a mausoleum on the property.

(Video) Butler: You won't find a keyhole.

Thing only opens from the inside.

He insisted,

no embalming, no open coffin,

no funeral.

You don't acquire the kind of wealth your uncle commanded

by being like the rest of us, huh?

Come, let's go inside.

AS: What this scene is doing, and it did in the book,

is it's fundamentally making a promise.

It's making a promise to you

that this story will lead somewhere that's worth your time.

And that's what all good stories should do at the beginning, is they should give you a promise.

You could do it an infinite amount of ways.

Sometimes it's as simple as "Once upon a time ... "

These Carter books always had Edgar Rice Burroughs as a narrator in it.

And I always thought it was such a fantastic device.

It's like a guy inviting you around the campfire,

or somebody in a bar saying, "Here, let me tell you a story.

It didn't happen to me, it happened to somebody else,

but it's going to be worth your time."

A well told promise

is like a pebble being pulled back in a slingshot

and propels you forward through the story

to the end.

In 2008,

I pushed all the theories that I had on story at the time

to the limits of my understanding on this project.

(Video) (Mechanical Sounds)

♫ And that is all ♫

♫ that love's about ♫

♫ And we'll recall ♫

♫ when time runs out ♫

♫ That it only ♫

(Laughter)

AS: Storytelling without dialogue.

It's the purest form of cinematic storytelling.

It's the most inclusive approach you can take.

It confirmed something I really had a hunch on,

is that the audience

actually wants to work for their meal.

They just don't want to know that they're doing that.

That's your job as a storyteller,

is to hide the fact

that you're making them work for their meal.

We're born problem solvers.

We're compelled to deduce

and to deduct,

because that's what we do in real life.

It's this well-organized absence of information

that draws us in.

There's a reason that we're all attracted to an infant or a puppy.

It's not just that they're damn cute;

it's because they can't completely express

what they're thinking and what their intentions are.

And it's like a magnet.

We can't stop ourselves

from wanting to complete the sentence and fill it in.

I first started

really understanding this storytelling device

when I was writing with Bob Peterson on "Finding Nemo."

And we would call this the unifying theory of two plus two.

Make the audience put things together.

Don't give them four,

give them two plus two.

The elements you provide and the order you place them in

is crucial to whether you succeed or fail at engaging the audience.

Editors and screenwriters have known this all along.

It's the invisible application

that holds our attention to story.

I don't mean to make it sound

like this is an actual exact science, it's not.

That's what's so special about stories,

they're not a widget, they aren't exact.

Stories are inevitable, if they're good,

but they're not predictable.

I took a seminar in this year

with an acting teacher named Judith Weston.

And I learned a key insight to character.

She believed that all well-drawn characters

have a spine.

And the idea is that the character has an inner motor,

a dominant, unconscious goal that they're striving for,

an itch that they can't scratch.

She gave a wonderful example of Michael Corleone,

Al Pacino's character in "The Godfather,"

and that probably his spine

was to please his father.

And it's something that always drove all his choices.

Even after his father died,

he was still trying to scratch that itch.

I took to this like a duck to water.

Wall-E's was to find the beauty.

Marlin's, the father in "Finding Nemo,"

was to prevent harm.

And Woody's was to do what was best for his child.

And these spines don't always drive you to make the best choices.

Sometimes you can make some horrible choices with them.

I'm really blessed to be a parent,

and watching my children grow, I really firmly believe

that you're born with a temperament and you're wired a certain way,

and you don't have any say about it,

and there's no changing it.

All you can do is learn to recognize it

and own it.

And some of us are born with temperaments that are positive,

some are negative.

But a major threshold is passed

when you mature enough

to acknowledge what drives you

and to take the wheel and steer it.

As parents, you're always learning who your children are.

They're learning who they are.

And you're still learning who you are.

So we're all learning all the time.

And that's why change is fundamental in story.

If things go static, stories die,

because life is never static.

In 1998,

I had finished writing "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life"

and I was completely hooked on screenwriting.

So I wanted to become much better at it and learn anything I could.

So I researched everything I possibly could.

And I finally came across this fantastic quote

by a British playwright, William Archer:

"Drama is anticipation

mingled with uncertainty."

It's an incredibly insightful definition.

When you're telling a story,

have you constructed anticipation?

In the short-term, have you made me want to know

what will happen next?

But more importantly,

have you made me want to know

how it will all conclude in the long-term?

Have you constructed honest conflicts

with truth that creates doubt

in what the outcome might be?

An example would be in "Finding Nemo,"

in the short tension, you were always worried,

would Dory's short-term memory

make her forget whatever she was being told by Marlin.

But under that was this global tension

of will we ever find Nemo

in this huge, vast ocean?

In our earliest days at Pixar,

before we truly understood the invisible workings of story,

we were simply a group of guys just going on our gut, going on our instincts.

And it's interesting to see

how that led us places

that were actually pretty good.

You've got to remember that in this time of year,

1993,

what was considered a successful animated picture

was "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast,"

"Aladdin," "Lion King."

So when we pitched "Toy Story" to Tom Hanks for the first time,

he walked in and he said,

"You don't want me to sing, do you?"

And I thought that epitomized perfectly

what everybody thought animation had to be at the time.

But we really wanted to prove

that you could tell stories completely different in animation.

We didn't have any influence then,

so we had a little secret list of rules

that we kept to ourselves.

And they were: No songs,

no "I want" moment,

no happy village,

no love story.

And the irony is that, in the first year,

our story was not working at all

and Disney was panicking.

So they privately got advice

from a famous lyricist, who I won't name,

and he faxed them some suggestions.

And we got a hold of that fax.

And the fax said,

there should be songs,

there should be an "I want" song,

there should be a happy village song,

there should be a love story

and there should be a villain.

And thank goodness

we were just too young, rebellious and contrarian at the time.

That just gave us more determination

to prove that you could build a better story.

And a year after that, we did conquer it.

And it just went to prove

that storytelling has guidelines,

not hard, fast rules.

Another fundamental thing we learned

was about liking your main character.

And we had naively thought,

well Woody in "Toy Story" has to become selfless at the end,

so you've got to start from someplace.

So let's make him selfish. And this is what you get.

(Voice Over) Woody: What do you think you're doing?

Off the bed.

Hey, off the bed!

Mr. Potato Head: You going to make us, Woody?

Woody: No, he is.

Slinky? Slink ... Slinky!

Get up here and do your job.

Are you deaf?

I said, take care of them.

Slinky: I'm sorry, Woody,

but I have to agree with them.

I don't think what you did was right.

Woody: What? Am I hearing correctly?

You don't think I was right?

Who said your job was to think, Spring Wiener?

AS: So how do you make a selfish character likable?

We realized, you can make him kind,

generous, funny, considerate,

as long as one condition is met for him,

is that he stays the top toy.

And that's what it really is,

is that we all live life conditionally.

We're all willing to play by the rules and follow things along,

as long as certain conditions are met.

After that, all bets are off.

And before I'd even decided to make storytelling my career,

I can now see key things that happened in my youth

that really sort of opened my eyes

to certain things about story.

In 1986, I truly understood the notion

of story having a theme.

And that was the year that they restored and re-released

"Lawrence of Arabia."

And I saw that thing seven times in one month.

I couldn't get enough of it.

I could just tell there was a grand design under it --

in every shot, every scene, every line.

Yet, on the surface it just seemed

to be depicting his historical lineage

of what went on.

Yet, there was something more being said. What exactly was it?

And it wasn't until, on one of my later viewings,

that the veil was lifted

and it was in a scene where he's walked across the Sinai Desert

and he's reached the Suez Canal,

and I suddenly got it.

(Video) Boy: Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

Cyclist: Who are you?

Who are you?

AS: That was the theme: Who are you?

Here were all these seemingly disparate

events and dialogues

that just were chronologically telling the history of him,

but underneath it was a constant,

a guideline, a road map.

Everything Lawrence did in that movie

was an attempt for him to figure out where his place was in the world.

A strong theme is always running through

a well-told story.

When I was five,

I was introduced to possibly the most major ingredient

that I feel a story should have,

but is rarely invoked.

And this is what my mother took me to when I was five.

(Video) Thumper: Come on. It's all right.

Look.

The water's stiff.

Bambi: Yippee!

Thumper: Some fun,

huh, Bambi?

Come on. Get up.

Like this.

Ha ha. No, no, no.

AS: I walked out of there

wide-eyed with wonder.

And that's what I think the magic ingredient is,

the secret sauce,

is can you invoke wonder.

Wonder is honest, it's completely innocent.

It can't be artificially evoked.

For me, there's no greater ability

than the gift of another human being giving you that feeling --

to hold them still just for a brief moment in their day

and have them surrender to wonder.

When it's tapped, the affirmation of being alive,

it reaches you almost to a cellular level.

And when an artist does that to another artist,

it's like you're compelled to pass it on.

It's like a dormant command

that suddenly is activated in you, like a call to Devil's Tower.

Do unto others what's been done to you.

The best stories infuse wonder.

When I was four years old,

I have a vivid memory

of finding two pinpoint scars on my ankle

and asking my dad what they were.

And he said I had a matching pair like that on my head,

but I couldn't see them because of my hair.

And he explained that when I was born,

I was born premature,

that I came out much too early,

and I wasn't fully baked;

I was very, very sick.

And when the doctor took a look at this yellow kid with black teeth,

he looked straight at my mom and said,

"He's not going to live."

And I was in the hospital for months.

And many blood transfusions later,

I lived,

and that made me special.

I don't know if I really believe that.

I don't know if my parents really believe that,

but I didn't want to prove them wrong.

Whatever I ended up being good at,

I would strive to be worthy of the second chance I was given.

(Video) (Crying)

Marlin: There, there, there.

It's okay, daddy's here.

Daddy's got you.

I promise,

I will never let anything happen to you, Nemo.

AS: And that's the first story lesson I ever learned.

Use what you know. Draw from it.

It doesn't always mean plot or fact.

It means capturing a truth from your experiencing it,

expressing values you personally feel

deep down in your core.

And that's what ultimately led me to speaking to you

here at TEDTalk today.

Thank you.

(Applause)