Week 5: Story arcs

story arc:

• exposition
• rising action
• climax
• falling action
• resolution

Stories as a circle

1. you A character is in a zone of comfort
2. need They want something
3. go They enter an unfamiliar situation
4. search Adapt to it
5. find Get what they wanted
6. take Pay a heavy price for it.
7. return Then return to their familiar situation
8. change Having changed

Character types

• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Dynamic
• Static
• Round
• Flat

Hero types

• Hero
• Mentor
• Threshold Guardian
• herald
• Shapeshifter
• Shadow
• Trickster
• Allies(sidekicks)

story leading、

• The ending can make or break a story.
• This is a crucial part of story development. You want your audience to want to see the story again or tell more people to see it and increase your audience size.
  Has anyone ever felt like they were mislead by a story or felt unsatisfied with an ending?

Pick a film you personally have watched and enjoyed. Forrest Gump
Breakdown the story arc (what are the 8 stages)

1. you In 1954, in Greenbow, Alabama, young Forrest is fitted with leg braces to correct a curved spine, and is unable to walk properly. He lives alone with his mother, who runs a boarding house out of their home that attracts many tenants, including a young Elvis Presley, who plays the guitar for Forrest and incorporates Forrest’s jerky dance movements into his performances. On his first day of school, Forrest meets a girl named Jenny Curran, and the two become best friends.
2. need Forrest is often bullied because of his physical disability and low intelligence. While fleeing from several bullies, his leg braces break off, revealing Forrest to be a very fast runner. This talent eventually allows him to receive a football scholarship at the University of Alabama in 1963, where he is coached by Bear Bryant, witnesses Governor George Wallace’s Stand in the Schoolhouse Door (during which he returns a dropped book to Vivian Malone Jones),[7] becomes a top kick returner, is named on the All-American team, and meets President John F. Kennedy at the White House.
3. go After graduating college in 1967, Forrest enlists into the U.S. Army. During basic training, he befriends a fellow soldier named Benjamin Buford Blue (nicknamed “Bubba”), who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him after their service. Later that year, they are sent to Vietnam, serving with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta region. After months of routine operations, their platoon is ambushed while on patrol, and Bubba is killed in action. Forrest saves several wounded platoonmates – including his lieutenant, Dan Taylor, who loses both his legs – and is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
4. search At the anti-war March on the Pentagon rally, Forrest meets Abbie Hoffman and briefly reunites with Jenny, who has been living a hippie lifestyle. He also develops a talent for ping-pong, and becomes a sports celebrity as he competes against Chinese teams in ping-pong diplomacy, earning him an interview alongside John Lennon on The Dick Cavett Show, influencing the song “Imagine”. He spends the 1972 New Year’s Eve in New York City with Lieutenant Dan, who has become an embittered cripple. Forrest soon meets President Richard Nixon and is put up in the Watergate complex, where he unwittingly exposes the Watergate scandal.
5. find Discharged from the army, Forrest returns to Greenbow and endorses a company that makes ping-pong paddles. He uses the earnings to buy a shrimping boat in Bayou La Batre, fulfilling his promise to Bubba. Lieutenant Dan joins Forrest in 1974, and they initially have little success. After their boat becomes the only one to survive Hurricane Carmen, they pull in huge amounts of shrimp and create the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, after which Lieutenant Dan finally thanks Forrest for saving his life. Lieutenant Dan invests into what Forrest thinks is “some kind of fruit company” and the two become millionaires, but Forrest also gives half of the earnings to Bubba’s family. Forrest then returns home to his mother as she dies of cancer.
6. take In 1976, Jenny – in the midst of recovering from years of drugs and abuse – returns to visit Forrest, and after a while he proposes to her. That night she tells Forrest she loves him and the two make love, but she leaves the next morning. Heartbroken, Forrest goes running, and spends the next three years in a relentless cross-country marathon, becoming famous again before returning to Greenbow.
7. return In 1981, Forrest reveals that he is waiting at the bus stop because he received a letter from Jenny, who asked him to visit her. Forrest is finally reunited with Jenny, who introduces him to their son, Forrest Gump Jr. Jenny tells Forrest she is sick with an “unknown virus” and the three move back to Greenbow.
8. change Jenny and Forrest finally marry, but she dies a year later. The film ends with Forrest seeing his son off on his first day of school.

Breakdown the characters into their archetypes

Forrest Gump：Protagonist，Dynamic，Round

Create a timeline for the main character starting before the film start

• exposition: Forrest lives alone with his mother, who runs a boarding house out of their home that attracts many tenants. On his first day of school, Forrest meets a girl named Jenny Curran, and the two become best friends.
• rising action: After graduating college in 1967, Forrest enlists into the U.S. Army. During basic training, he befriends a fellow soldier named Benjamin Buford Blue (nicknamed “Bubba”), who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him after their service.
• climax: After months of routine operations, their platoon is ambushed while on patrol, and Bubba is killed in action. Forrest saves several wounded platoonmates – including his lieutenant, Dan Taylor, who loses both his legs – and is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
• falling action: Forrest soon meets President Richard Nixon and is put up in the Watergate complex, where he unwittingly exposes the Watergate scandal.
• resolution: Forrest is finally reunited with Jenny, who introduces him to their son, Forrest Gump Jr. Jenny tells Forrest she is sick with an “unknown virus” and the three move back to Greenbow.