Today we watched two animations that epitomized the character-driven plot.
First we watched "Guard Dog" by Bill Plympton. We saw in this animation a character whose defining quality was an overactive imagination. His goal was to protect his owner from the dangers he imagined might come from harmless animals.
Since protecting his owner was the dog's overriding goal, and since the plot was structured as a comedy, we knew that the dog had to be the one to kill the owner. Remember, in a comedy the character either doesn't get what he wants, or gets the thing he wants but is no better off for it, or gets what he wants in an unexpected way.
The second animation we watched was "Fallen Art" by Tomek Baginski. This animation also showed how an extreme character can propel a plot. The main character was a man who made a dance animation using fallen bodies. Without his particular psychosis, the plot would never have happened.
Creating extreme characters like these is an easy way to make a plot. Oddities are fun to play with and provide all kinds of possibilities.
In the 8th hour class we put together a story as a class. It only took a few elements to help us create a plot.
Our protagonist is a skater. The skater has a very long deathhawk. His goal is to impress a girl with his skating tricks, but the antagonist, another boy who also wants the girl's affections, mocks him the whole time.
The escalating events proceeded thus:
First, the protagonist's hair gets in his eyes and he rams into a tree.
Next, his hair gets caught in his wheels and his head is sucked to the pavement where his skateboard runs over it.
Finally his rival steps on his hair as he goes by, causing the biggest injury of all.
The antagonist thinks he's won, but it turns out that the girl doesn't like mean boys and she rushes to the injured skater's side.
It's a good story that uses the essentials of comedy. And it only took us ten minutes to make.
That's how easy it is to throw a story together. A character, a goal and an antagonist.
