TED Talks! The clues to a great story

Throughout all sectors; from fashion, music, travel and lifestyle, storytelling is one of the most important ways to captivate people and make them realise why they should care. Today, I watched a TED talk by American film director, Andrew Stanton on the clues to a great story. I found this talk extremely fascinating on how he used his life experiences to show how great story's are made.

Andrew started his talk by opening with a story he heard from a Scotsman and soon to realise, the story became a joke. He said "story telling, is joke telling." I found this quote interesting as the stories we all like to listen to are unique, funny and something quite random or out of the blue. Stories are what makes us all individual from one another, and the importance of making an impact is what makes us feel valid or give meaning to our lives. Stories can also be what makes us similar to one another by living through equal experiences and sharing something unique.

"Make me care." - Andrew Stanton 

This quote to me really spoke out about what stories mean to each and every one of us. Why should we listen?  Why does this story matter? Being captivated in something where we feel its affected our lives personally or reminds us of something which means something to us is where a great story lies. I feel that something which reminds me of an experience is what could make me care. Maybe feelings and emotions are what everyone can understand and through this we all share a similar story. This to me, is what would make me care about in a story.

Throughout the talk, Andrew spoke about his working career with Pixar and what films he had worked on. He worked on one of the most successful children's films of all time, Toy Story. I found it compelling to see how different it was compared to typical kids films and without even realising. When speaking to Tom Hanks about doing Toy Story for the Woody voice-over role, he said "You don't want me to sing do you". From this, they realised they didn't want it to by typical and what we all expect from a kids film so they made a list:

- No songs
- No "I want" moments
- No love story
- No happy village
- No villain

Pixar wanted to build a better story than what we were used to. They got hold of a fax which was a list Disney stands for, and was the complete opposite of these guidelines. This made me think of Snow White, Cinderella etc. But as a kid, Toy Story was by far more captivating than these for me personally and now as an adult I can see why.

Andrew also said a quote by a famous British playwright -

William Archer - 'Drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty'

This to me sums up the TED talk as this truly represents what a great story is. Anticipation and uncertainty is what keeps us to the edge of our seats in desperation to see whats going to happen next and wanting to find out more and see more.

I was shocked to find out so much in this talk and it has really helped me insight how doing things different to the norm can create amazing outcomes that shift what we're used to, into a new direction. I would really recommend this to anybody. 

https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story/discussion?v2=0