Course Content

Our concept of the story invention process is modeled after Edward Branigan’s book: Narrative Comprehension in Film in which he explores the basic concepts of narrative theory and its relation to film–and literary–analysis. Branigan brings together theories from linguistics and cognitive science, and applies them to the screen.

• Here is a pdf version of chapters 1&2 in which he outlines the four elements

It is from this book that I gathered some initial ideas about story creation. According to Branigan, the process boils down to four basic elements:

1. TIME and PLACE – all stories need to have a setting or background, which in a film or video is shown visually. Sometimes, like in the video, life is moving along, the characters are happy. THEN the disruption occurs. This aspect (sometimes referred to as Act 1) sets the scene. Sometimes the disruption occurs immediately, as in the Bourne movie (below). In these scenes viewers are also reminded of the what happened in previous episodes (the Bourne Supremacy was the third in the Bourne series) through a series of flashbacks. Time must pass. In short films/narratives, only those moments that create the crucial ‘test’ or pose the essential conflict to the main character are shown, lest it become overly complicated and confusing.
2. CAUSE & EFFECT – This is that all important moment in which the central character faces a decision… to succumb to the conflict or to fight. In other words a conflict is not a conflict unless the character notices it and make some type of judgment about it. Most often, this conflict/challenge cannot be overcome unless the character goes through some type of transformation or change and that requirement may also compel the character to go against his or her natural inclinations or morals –thus, the story conflict is born. In storytelling parlance this is often referred to as the  disruption . Recall that moment in the song by John Lennon (Beautiful Boy) that describes this phenomenon:

   This is an important teaching moment in the story invention process and represents the key difference between introducing the elements of story hypothetically and in the abstract and teaching students how to actually CONSTRUCT stories. We have found that, once students understand this concept, they begin to learn how to read critically and actually LOOK for things in the book they are reading… when that all important movie begins to play in their heads. We teach that a tragedy results when the conflict wins, a comedy is that story in which the character wins (i.e., overcomes the stumbling block, or moral dilemma). This is what separates a story from a heap (a list of unrelated facts) or a catalog (a list of related facts a simple chronology of events, etc.).

3. a CENTRAL CHARACTER who notices this potential and is required to make some judgment. Recall that there is a only finite number of character types. Victoria Schmidt in her book, identified only forty-five. Each ‘allowable actions’ (to borrow a term from the video game industry to describe how developers program their characters) are limited to their own personality strengths/flaws, which makes for the rising action and central conflict. A story is not a story without this confrontation between life and the main character’s limitations/strengths. Recall that famous line in Lennon’s song “life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans”). Again, this concept is central to understanding how stories are actually built.
4. because all stories need both a teller and a listener, a storyteller needs to decide on how they are going to COMMUNICATE THE STORY (conflict) . This is crucial. The story needs to be credible so that listeners/viewers/readers, etc. are willing to suspend their disbelief for an instance and buy into the storyline (By the way, isn’t that what teaching is all about? having student suspend their disbelief that what is being taught to them is important/noteworthy). This can be done visually, through a look, a series of metaphoric images, in a voice-over, or as a part of a dialog/monologue within a scene. Shakespeare often did this in the form of asides in which the main character actually spoke directly to the audience. Notice the conversation in the video clip between the two characters in the video below as they were speeding away from the scene. Not only did the director present us with the conflict through the look on Bourne’s face (and change in music) as he was taking that drink of water after his jog, but he also reinforced it (just in case the audience missed it somehow) through the dialog. It was this interruption that caused a change in the daily lives of the characters. Brilliant!

Here is a video that demonstrates the four elements in action:

Click on the video below. It is annotated and was taken from the opening moments of the movie ‘Bourne Supremacy’

So, we need to take one more step. There are certain criteria in character development that are needed to be present to create that sense of empathy. This same function is directly related to the author being able to make the constructs of cause and effect come alive and believable so the listener/viewer/reader is able to suspend his or her disbelief. These are what are known as the transformational aspects of the character's development within the story.

The video below is actually the remaining portion of that presentation that I started the semester with on Story: What We know So far... Now that we have introduced Branigan, let's take a further look at the implications the four elements have on the whole invention process and delve into the actual transformations that need to take place in a well developed story. We also take a short look at cause constructs to help you better understand that concept. It is very important that we fully understand proper story creation if it is to be the foundation for any instruction you design. Bad design is bad design, regardless of the tool(s) one utilizes, even if the tool unto itself is a valid one.

Reading in the Content Areas

To recap: We suggest that story has been, is, and will continue to serve multiple functions in the learning process. It is a way to organize knowledge in meaningful chunks to aid recall. In oral cultures, stories and fables were used for centuries to pass on knowledge from generation. The construct of the Bible is built around moralistic narratives to teach cause and effect and consequences for one's actions. Given that students of all ages are attracted to good stories and they provide such good teachable moments, then integrating them into multiple areas of curriculum certainly makes sense in certain circumstances.

Given that story demonstrates many epistemological qualities, it follows that the instructional power of digital story creation should carry over into other content areas. It appears that the concepts of cause and effect help to create educative value in story constructs that carry it throughout the curriculum. We will explore this notion in later lesson modules.

Do This!

By now you should have a little better sense for story invention. It is time for you to re-look at your original definition of what a story is in terms of these new concepts/constructs.

1. 1. Go back to the Assignments Checklist in Canvas and follow the instructions for posting to the Discussion Board your updated definition of story.

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