Make Me Care: Pixar Writer Andrew Stanton on Storytelling
In this TED Talk, Pixar director/screenwriter Andrew Stanton (“Toy Story,” “Finding Nemo,” “WALL-E”) shares a few of his ideas about what makes a great story. Here are a few takeaways from the presentation: Storytelling is “Joke Telling” You have to know what the ending is going to be before you start. Drama is anticipation without certainty. Every action […]
Ken Burns on Emotional Truth in Storytelling
In this short video featured in The Atlantic, legendary documentary filmmaker Ken Burns explains how the whole of the story transcends the sum of its parts: Jean Luc Goddard said cinema is truth 24 times a second. Maybe. It’s lying 24 times a second too, all the time, all story is manipulation. Is there acceptable […]
Caine’s Arcade: Documentary Story Elements
Even in documentary production, story elements are essential to keep the audience engaged. How can you “plan” a story when you are documenting real life? How do character, setting, plot, conflict and theme play out in a documentary? Caine’s arcade is a video about a young boy who built a mini-arcade out of cardboard boxes and supplies […]
The Storytelling Formula
At Cognitive Films, even though we primarily concentrate on documentary video production, we do our best to apply storytelling principals in both the planning phase and the editing room after the shoot. By building to a resoultion (AKA Theme) and layering the information in logically, a documentary can edited to follow basic story structure. Even when […]
Austin Event: Storytelling Through Film
Austin Event: Storytelling Through Film In October 2010, with the support of Humanities Texas, we were able to provide educators with the opportunity to participate in a day-long training during the Austin Film Festival & Conference facilitated by film industry experts. This session was focused on providing teachers with the knowledge base to implement a […]
