THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Interesting week this week. I was taken off of Storyboarding because there was nothing to revise.  I was on Show 17 last week but there doesn’t seem to be a Show 18 or 19. Show 20 has just been storyboarded and now it’s going into the story reel process. Since that was the job I had before I started on storyboards, I was put on the story reel crew until it’s done AND THEN I’ll be working on the revisions for the show after the rewrites are done. I have a feeling this is going to happen with both show 18 and 19 too, so I better get used to doing story reel work again.

Meanwhile, today (Thursday), I stayed home to take care of baby Ambrose who is sick.

FAMILY

Tio Carlos passed away in October of 2010. His death has me paralyzed.  I don’t know how to deal with it. I don’t know why. It’s like I don’t want to believe it and I’ve been hiding from the reality of it. This video made by his daughter Lily, forces me to confront it. It hurts so much:

Love you Tio Carlos. Please pray for him and his family, especially my Godmother (his widow).

ROLE PLAYING GAMES/BOARD GAMES

Alesha and I have gotten into a gaming group that occasionally gets together to play Dungeons and Dragons 4E. I’ve never been in a steady role playing gaming group before. My friends and I used to role play once in a while but there was nothing steady or consistent about our games. We’re having fun with this new group.

Well, it seems our kids have gotten curious about it all and wanted to do it too. Especially my daughter. Keep in mind she’s five years old.  My oldest son will be four this Month and he wants to play because his big sister is playing. I own a LOT of role playing games but what Elizabeth gravitated to was a the game DESCENT: JOURNEY IN THE DARK by Fantasy Flight games.  It’s a dungeon “hack and slash” board games that’s meant to put four player (who play heroes) AGAINST the “Overlord” (the person who runs the dungeon). It’s a very visual game and comes with a bunch of miniatures and tiles that allow you to create lots of different environments.

Well, the game, as written, is a bit over their heads BUT, I thought there would be no reason why I couldn’t use the simple battle rules as a basis for a fun and simple role playing/story game for them.  I would just take the traditional role of playing the “Storyteller”or “Game master” and take them on an adventure. This I did, and they LOVED it.

Their first adventure was a generic “find the treasure in the dungeon” game.  They fought some Beastmen and Giant Spiders, defeated them and where rewarded with a treasure chest full of…candy. Yes, candy. When I told them there was money and jewels in the chest I didn’t get a reaction but when I said candy and treats where in there too, suddenly their eyes lit up and they got excited.  From that point on, I knew what I was going to do when we played again.

Their next big adventure was to help an old lady get a cake back from an ogre. They got very serious about that. It was obvious that, to them, it was bad to steal someones yummy cake.   It was very funny to see how important it was to them.

I enjoyed running these games for them.  The mechanics that DESCENT uses for resolving conflict is very visual and simple.  The kids caught on to them real quick. They love the tension of the dice rolling.

Speaking of tension, they call the game “the scary game” because they have to fight monsters and because it gets very tense for them.  Also, when they first started playing, I would build up the atmosphere by describing the look, sounds, and smells of the place.  This got them a little scared. When they got up to a door for the first time and I told them they heard growling on the other side, my son’s reaction to this information was to run out of the dungeon. I convinced him to stay and open the door, but then they discovered Beastmen on the other side of the door and my son decided to run out of the dungeon again.  My daughter, on the other hand, stood her ground and fought them off because, according to her, she was “a Superhero”.

One of the more entertaining parts of the game was when confronting Giant Spiders, my son ran out of the dungeon AGAIN leaving Elizabeth to fight all the monsters alone. When he say she was fighting alone, he stopped his character of the exit to the dungeon and said,

“No, I won’t run away. I’m going to help,” turned his miniature around and went to help out his sister. I laughed on the inside because I had just seen my son accidentally take his character through a dramatic story arch.

Another time, in the cake adventure I mentioned above, when they finally found the room where the Ogre was, the Ogre told the kids he wouldn’t give them the cake he’d stolen. Elizabeth then went off on a huge heroic speech about how they would get it back because it wasn’t his cake. It was really funny how long and serious it was.

Now the kids are always asking me to play and I don’t always have the time nor the energy, but I’m glad they do.  I just have to make sure to play the game with them, more often than I don’t.  It’s just difficult because my daughter wants to do it all the time. I’ve created a geek.

WRITING

(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)

Below is an excerpt of what I wrote the last two weeks, as set up for what I’m writing about THIS week, in case you’re interested in following along with more depth:

Right now, the theory of story that I like to use to flesh out my plot is the DRAMATICA theory.  Unfortunately the DRAMATICA theory is so complicated and convoluted, that I can’t really sum it up in a nut shell. If you want to get an idea of what DRAMATICA is all about, click the link below:

What is DRAMATICA?

In order for you to be able to understand it fully, you would need to download and read the FREE book on pdf. Click the link below:

Free DRAMATICA pdf book

or listen to the FREE audio book podcasts by clicking the link below:

Free DRAMATICA audio book

or read the FREE text of the book directly from  their site by clicking the link below:

The DRAMATICA book readable on the net for free.

As I did the last two weeks, I’ll put up the DRAMATICA Table of Story Elements in order for you to understand what I’m talking about and so you can follow along.   For a clearer pdf version of the chart (download chart now):

Alright, so I’ve hit a very confusing section of the DRAMATICA system. I’m STILL not sure how to break up Act from Sequences in the chart. Here’s what DRAMATICA says about it on pages 137-139:

Scenes

By the time we get down to scene resolution, there are so many cross-purposes at work that we need to limit our appreciation of what is going on in order to see anything in the clutter. First, however, let’s touch on some of the forces that tend to obscure the real function of scenes, then strip them away to reveal the dynamic mechanism beneath.

Resolution and Sequence

Earlier we spoke of plot in terms of Types. We also speak of plot here in terms of four resolutions: Acts, Sequences, Scenes, and Events. Both of these perspectives are valid appreciations depending on the purpose at hand. Because all units in Dramatica are related holographically, no single point of view can completely describe the model. That is why we select the most appropriate view to the purpose at hand. Even though looking at plot in terms of Types is useful, it is true that “plot-like” twists and turns are going on at the scene resolution as well. However, these dynamics are not truly part of the scene, but merely in the scene. An Act, Sequence, Scene, or Event is really a temporal container — a box made out of time that holds dynamics within its bounds. Much like filters or gratings with different-sized holes, the resolutions “sift” the dynamics trapping large movements at the highest levels and allowing smaller nuances to fall all the way down to the Elements.

What’s in a Scene?

At the scene resolution, the effects of Types and Variations can be felt like the tidal pull of some distant moon. But scenes are not the resolution at which to control those forces. Scenes are containers that hold Elements — anything larger cannot get crammed in without breaking. So the richness we feel in scenes is not solely due to what the scene itself contains, but also to the overall impact of what is happening at several larger scales.

What then does a scene contain? Scenes describe the change in dynamics between Elements as the story progresses over time. And since Elements are the building blocks of characters, scenes describe the changing relationships between characters.

Characters and Scenes

Characters are made up of Motivations, Methodologies, Means of Evaluation, and Purposes. These terms also describe the four major sets of Elements from which the characters are built. The driving force of a character in a given scene can be determined, such as whether their argument is over someone’s motivations or just the method they are employing.

6 Goes Into 24 Like Theme Goes Into Scenes

We have spoken of the three and four act appreciations of story. It was illustrated how both divisions are valid to specific tasks. When dealing with scenes, we find that no scenes ever hang between two acts, half in one and half in the other, regardless of a three or four act appreciation. This is because there are exactly 24 scenes created at the Element level: six per act in a four act appreciation, eight per act in a three act appreciation. In both cases, the scenes divide evenly into the acts, contributing to the “feel” of each act break being a major turning point in the progress of the story.

Sequences, on the other hand, exist as a six part partition of the story. Therefore, they divide evenly into a three act appreciation but not into a four. Since the four act view is objective, sequences — as they define Thematic movements — are truly an experiential phenomenon in the subjective appreciation and lose much of their power objectively.

What has me stumped is that the whole:

6 Goes Into 24 Like Theme Goes Into Scenes

I just don’t know quite what it means when it comes to the chart. I mean, all the quads under Truth, Evidence, Suspicion, and Falsehood when compared to each other DO break down into 24 comparisons, like this:

Truth

• Knowledge/Thought
• Knowledge/Actuality
• Knowledge/Perception
• Thought/Actuality
• Thought/ Perception
• Actuality/Perception

Falsehood

• Equity/Inequity
• Equity/Projection
• Equity/ Speculation
• Inequity/Projection
• Inequity/Speculation
• Speculation/Projection

Evidence

• Ability/Desire
• Ability/Aware
• Ability/Self-aware
• Desire/Aware
• Desire/Self-aware
• Aware/Self-aware

Suspicion

• Order/Chaos
• Order/Inertia
• Order/Change
• Chaos/Inertia
• Chaos/Change
• Inertia/Change

Then DRAMATICA says:

This is because there are exactly 24 scenes created at the Element level: six per act in a four act appreciation, eight per act in a three act appreciation.

So am I suppose to assign 8 of these comparisons to an Act? If so, how? By using the Sequence breakdown as a guide? It’s not clear. Even if I DID do that though, I still don’t know exactly what the comparisons actually mean.

Here’s the closest answer to the question I’ve found, which is in pages 68 and 69:

What’s In a Pair?

Finally, we can use our Chess Set of Elements to learn something more about our character’s relationships. In each quad of Elements, we find not only Dynamic (diagonal) Pairs, but horizontal and vertical pairs as well. Horizontal Elements are called Companion Pairs, and vertical Elements are Dependent Pairs. Each kind of pair describes a different kind of relationship between the Elements, and therefore between the characters that represent them.In addition to the three types of pairs, we can look at each Element as a separate component and compare it to the overall nature of the quad itself. This Component approach describes the difference between any given Element and the family of Elements in which it resides (quad). Therefore, the degree of individuality the characters represent within the “group” can be explored.

Dynamic Pairs describe Elements with the greatest opposition to one another. Whenever two opposing forces come together they will create either a positive or negative relationship. They can form a synthesis and create something greater than the sum of the parts or they can simply tear away at each other until nothing is left (destructive). Within a quad, one of the Dynamic Pairs will indicate a positive relationship, the other a negative one. Which is which depends upon other story dynamics.Companion Pairs contain the Elements that are most compatible. However, just being compatible does not preclude a negative relationship. In a positive Companion Pair, characters will proceed along their own paths, side by side. What one does not need they will offer to the other (positive impact). In a negative Companion Pair, one character may use up what the other needs. They are not against each other as in a negative Dynamic Pair, but still manage to interfere with each other’s efforts (negative impact).Dependent Pairs are most complementary. In a positive sense, each character provides strengths to compensate for the other’s weaknesses (cooperation). Together they make a powerful team. In its negative incarnation, the Dependent Pair Relationship has each character requiring the other in order to proceed (codependency).Components describe the nature of the Elements in relationship to the overall quad. On the one hand, the individual characters in a quad can be a group that works together (interdependency). The group is seen to be greater than the individual characters that comprise it, at the risk of overwhelming the individuality of its members. This is contrasted by identifying the disparate nature of each character in the quad (independency). Seen this way, the characters are noted for their distinguishing characteristics at the risk of losing sight of shared interests.Dynamic Relationships are the most familiar to writers, simply because they generate the most obvious kind of conflict. Companion and Dependent Pairs are used all the time without fanfare, as there has previously been no terminology to describe them. Components are useful to writers because they allow characters in groups to be evaluated in and out of context.By constructing characters with thought and foresight, an author can use the position of Elements in the Chess Set to forge relationships that are Dynamic in one dimension while being Companion and Dependent in others. Characters created with Dramatica can represent both the structural Elements of the Story Mind’s problem solving techniques and the dynamic interchange between those techniques.

Summary

Altogether we have outlined four dimensions of characteristics, each fostering an aspect of the eight Archetypes. Each of the Archetypes can be sub-divided into internal and external Elements resulting in a total of sixteen Elements in each dimension — a total of sixty-four characteristics from all four dimensions with which to build characters. Complex character can be created by stepping out of the archetypal patterns and relationships.

The thing is, what’s written above is specifically talking about Character Elements, which are EXACTLY the same Elements that Scenes are created from, BUT in the Character Element level, your suppose to use ALL the Elements in a “Class”. This means you actually end up with 64 Elements, which, again, is very confusing.

 

I’m trying to put two and two together here. My clue is from the part  that reads:

Characters and Scenes

Characters are made up of Motivations, Methodologies, Means of Evaluation, and Purposes. These terms also describe the four major sets of Elements from which the characters are built. The driving force of a character in a given scene can be determined, such as whether their argument is over someone’s motivations or just the method they are employing.

Pages 64 – 67 explain about Motivations, Methodologies, Means of Evaluation, and Purposes but I won’t post those pages here. However, since I need to move forward and from what I have gathered from Robert Mckee’s book on writing, Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting, where he states:

 

In each scene a character pursues a desire related to his immediate time and place. But this Scene-Objective must be an aspect of his Super-Objective or Spine, the story-long quest that spans from Inciting Incident to Story Climax.

and:

A scene causes changes in a minor, albeit significant way. A Sequence Climax is a scene that causes a moderate reversal — change with more impact than a scene. An Act Climax is a scene that causes a major reversal — change with greater impact than Sequence Climax. Accordingly, we never write a scene that’s merely a flat, static display of exposition; rather we strive for this ideal: to create a story design in which every scene is a minor, moderate, or major Turning Point.

From these thoughts I have come to a decision as to what I’m going to do.  

 

I THINK that Scene, tend to be MOSTLY about character SO, I’ll use the Elements as a guide to describe the conflicts between characters in my story and how they play out.  Especially since the Elements, is what DRAMATICA characters are made up of.  ALSO,  DRAMATICA  uses the Elements quads to point out  the Problem, the Solution, the Focus (Symptom), and the Direction (Treatment) of the story. In MY story it breaks down like this:

 

The Problem in my story is:

• (Wrong) Perception

 

Solution to this problem is:

• Actuality

 

The Focus or rather the Symptom this problem causes is:

• (Erroneous) Thought

 

The Direction or rather the Treatment used to fix the problem is:

• Knowledge.

 

 DRAMATICA says (in page 192):

Change Characters and the Crucial Element

In the case of a Change Main Character, he will either contain the Problem or Solution Element. In the case of a Steadfast Main Character, he will either contain the Focus or the Direction Element.

So since my character is a Steadfast Main Character he will contain the Focus or Direction. I chose Direction. This says to me that however I breakdown the Scenes, the Element “Knowledge” must be in the Major Turning Point Scene. The Scene where the story climaxes.

Okay, so here’s what I’m thinking. Using the example about of the Major Turning Point scene above, I’m thinking that the where ever in my story it occurs, the Element comparison will be:

• Knowledge/Actuality

Those two Elements are found in the Truth Variation quad. Looking back to my Sequence break down from last week:

Act 1

• Falsehood/ Suspicion
• Truth/ Suspicion

Act 2

• Truth/Evidence
  
• Falsehood/Evidence

Act 3

• Truth/Falsehood
• Suspicion/Evidence
  

I see that a Truth Variation can be found in Act 3, so I will assign Knowledge/Actuality to Act 3, leaving me with seven more Element comparisons left to assign to that Act.  I will do that to every Variation until I have the 24 Scenes.  I’m thinking, without an actual description of what goes on in each Scene, this will be a difficult and abstract process SO, I think I’ll begin to actually write out a quick description of each scene and see what Element comparison best fit it, or vice versa.

What do you think of my solution? I don’t think I’m doing it right but it’s the best solution I could come up with. Do you have any suggestions? I’d be happy to hear it. Please leave a comment in the comments section if you do, that way you won’t be limited by any Social Network limitations, like the ones Twitter and Facebook have.

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