Hey ThinkStory!!
I have a question about character development, I’m trying to come up with a new “guest-star” thing kind a character for a 20-min episode.
I want to make it a good memorable character that the audience would really like to return.
Not sure where to begin though, I keep gettin stuck on what kind of character this is, don’t want to make it too cookie-shape, you know so it gets boring?
Any suggestions on where I should start coming up with ideas?
That’s a funny quote! You know what? I read a book about comedy writing (‘comedy writing secrets’) and on one page it says: “humor is intelligence having fun” 
It’s a good book btw; you might like it too, because of your story telling profession
Hi CGRater,
hmm…it would depend on the kind of series and story this
episode will be about. But a good place to start is to look
at the series’ regular characters as a whole and see what
kinda character would add a good “dimension” to the story.
Good guest star characters are developed when the audience
wants them to return and to make that happen is to develop
a role that can change, add, or enhance the dynamics of your
regular characters and/or their relationships with the new one.
It should bring a freshness to the series, but not alter it.
In theory, every series, should have a particular “style” that
each of its characters embrace, a guest is no different.
Bad guest stars are usually those who “interferes” with the
tone of the series, when a series is running out of story plots,
sometimes the production team will bring in guest stars
thinking it will give the audience something “different”
but what a series like that needs is not a “different” feel but
a “fresh” feel, something that will put another spin on the
“original” concept. Not one that will be in conflict with it.
Um, not sure if that would apply to what you’re working on,
but just something to keep in mind.
ThinkStory
Hi Menesis!
Haha…interesting, is “comedy writing secrets,” the exact title?
I’ll certainly check it out! Thanks for the recomendation!
ThinkStory
Hello ThinkStory et al.
I am working on the storyboards for an animation and have run into a bit where everything I come up with seems cliche.
The shot has 2 young women looking under a cloth (we don’t see what they are looking at). Girl #1 is pleasantly amused by what she sees. Girl #2 is in a bit of shock and definitely in awe of what she sees and stares fixedly. Girl #1 needs to break #2’s concentration and bring her back to earth after which #2 shows embarrasment. One thought was to have Girl #1 wave her hand in front of Girl #2’s eyes, another was to have Girl #2’s jaw drop and have Girl #1 lift it back into place. Both seem very cliche to me.
Afterwards, Girl #1 drops her side of the cloth and gets ready to leave until she notices that Girl #2 has quickly moved in and picked up #1’s side of the cloth so she can get a peek again. This is necessary to set up the next shot.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to handle breaking #2’s fixed stare in a humorous way, I would very much appreciate it.
TIA
(sry if there are a lot of mistakes or bad english)
Hey there ThinkStory. First of all i whant to give u my sincere congratulations for this post becouse you are helping loads of people and doing this for the pleasure is a very positive thing. Ho, and that quote “Imagination is Intaligence having fun” is very very good.
Now…about my issue. I have been doing some little animations just to try the technical side of it without any story. And so i have decided to make a nice little short. Fisrt i was thinking of a story. However i am limited technecly becouse i just do 3d for fun and i dont have renderfarms to do very complex scenes. So…developing the story i whanted to develop something funny that i could enjoy doing and lough every time i see it. The first thing i thought of was:
-The resurection of Jesus Crist in our current days. He would resurect in the cave where he was “burried”. He would get out of it and suddendly he would be confronted with a high way and speeding cars etc etc and after a small walk around and seeing the bad things of todays world he would go back to the cave thinking that it is better to stay in the cave then going out there.
And that was it…and i thought ye nice stuf…i liked it. It has a masseg, it can be funny, etc etc. However i soon realised i didnt have the skills for it so i think i will leave it for a future project, and maybe latter and can do it much better thaen what i would do it now.4
Then i thought of another idea that was simple, funny during the animation, and with a funny “puchline”. It is:
but in this animation skeletons are more a figure of dead it self, this will be understanded in the end ). The camera moves up showing a passing veichle that has just killed the dead skeleton. Then apears another skeleton in the scene (a live skeleton :P) and he trys to “weak up” the dead skeleton ignoring the fact that he might be dead. The humor would be used here makeing him playing with the bones, throwing him water, giving him an electrical charge and finaly letting a dog free to scare the dead skeleton ( but eventualy the dog turns to the live one). Finaly the skeleton stands in front of the dead body decided to give up when sudendly he hears a sound of a big veichle and he gets killed too (this is why skeletons represent dead). In the end the dog comes and and eats the bones as the fadeout is runing.This is quite a simple thing to do becouse it has few carachterse and the set is allways the same and i will concentrating myself in the character animationg wich is what i intended. However, im afraid the story may not be as good it could be. I quite like it and i think i can make some nice jokes with the actions but today i saw this post of yours and i thought “wow, maybe he can give some sugestios to boost this up” so… i would realy apretiate some coments. Do you think the story works? Do you think theres something wrong with it? can you imagine any subtile ways to make it better?
Sorry for the big text. Thank you and again congratulations.
KUTUK PS: 5 stars thread
yeah it’s ‘comedy writing secrets’ written by Mel Helitzer (with Mark Shatz). It’s about different techniques to create funny stories/performances etc. It comes pretty cheap and counts 342 pages. It might be cool for you, since you’re a story writer 
Hi red3dcom,
an idea for the scene break depends on what
kind of effect you’d want for the switch.
Actually cliché is OK if its not a significant part
of the story’s progression. Coming up with
something very different might take attention
away from what’s happening or about to happen.
But to make it humorous, it’s really HOW the action
is taking place as opposed to WHAT the action is.
Something like a stare from Girl1 to Girl2 and a
nudge with her elbow would be sufficient if you’re
looking for a smooth transition from one focus to
another. It’s really the “look” of the character’s
expression and the way they move that’ll make
these simple gestures draw a chuckle from the
audience.
ThinkStory
Hi kutuk,
actually, if you’re looking for something to practice with
and something short like a single scene for personal use,
the story itself is less important. You can stick with
what you have if you feel comfortable with it. As you
develop more experience with more shorts, you’ll start
to develop more complete concepts to work with.
At that point it, the story idea becomes more important
because then the short might be longer, involving multiple
scenes where you will have to worry about stuff like
character development, plotting, and audience appeal.
ThinkStory
Hi thinkstory
I would like to thank you for your efforts, as you have been outstanding in helping people about there stories stuck ups.
[color=teal]I am currently working on an idea for a short animaiton for my thesis. [/color]
//Topic title
[font=Arial] Across the road[/font]
//One Liner
We should be always ambitious about exploring new things and do something which no one has done before
//Topic objectives
The main objective of the project is to motive younger children to be ambitious. They should not get disappointed by what is happening around. They should be positive in taking a step ahead from others. It should be them taking the step to do a task which no one has done or achieved before. If we arise this point in our youth we will be a successful nation. Life is not about just living it, does something new or at least try it. If you do not get success in it, some one else will try it, and may success. So, do not get afraid of setting high aims in life. The process should not end as it is an on going effort, achieve the aims and set some thing new, goals by this I mean.
Its about moving ahead. Its about feeling, the pride of doing something unique, which no one has done it before. Its about achieving the set goals with hard work.
//Resolve of the story
Be ambitious, set goals, and achieve them with hard work, dont stop keep looping in the process.
For this I have chosen the following presentation style. [font=Arial][color=darkorange]Time for short 4:00min app.[/color][/font]
Story Line
Cats cant cross the roads, an ambitious cat does so. As it is not common in cats or almost no cat have crossed the main road.
Please help me out with some of the story divisions. I mean, how I should divide the short. How much focus should be given to which story part?
I have short divisions as
Location establishing
Character establishing
Cause
Motivation
Struggle
Success
Thanks in advance
Regards
WOW!
Thanks, ThinkStory for you reply about my question on the guest star!!! The issue you mentioned was RIGHT ON. I brought your insight back to the team and it really made a difference. We changed some things around and I definately feel we have a completely different and better idea than the original character proposed before.
Such a turn around! Ha, I guess it’s no surprise why you’re paid so much to do what you do. The results really speaks for itself. The episode is currently starting production and I’m really excited! This will definately give a new spin to the series.
Thanks so much again for your help and terrific advice!
I know what you say sounds simple but it really gives insight when you think more about it and APPLY it to the work.
ThinkStory,
Thanks very much for your input. A subtle shift of focus should work fine in this case. I was definitely overthinking things. Thanks again for your help.
Hi,
I’ve been working on this project for a while now but need some help with a slogan.
I’m doing a schoolproject that’s about a series of commercial for Ben & Jerry’s.
The main idea is that the ice cream is sooo delicious that everybody wants to eat it even animals. Basically every commercial begins with a man who finds/eats a large pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. An animal sees the delicious ice cream and gets it but in the end the pint always gets back into the hands of the man.
My initial idea was that the ice cream gets you out of trouble and the slogan was: " Ben & Jerry’s: Ice cream that comes to the rescue!" but the stories changed and now the main character actually gets into trouble by eating the ice cream.
Here’s an idea for one of the commercials:
[b]Ben & Jerrys Phish Food V1[/b]
EXT. OCEAN
A fisherman is sitting in his boat with a fishing rod in his hands. The rod begins to move and the man gets excited, he thinks hes got a big fish on the hook. After some struggling he finally manages to swing his rod up and a big fridge lands in his small boat. He opens the fridge and finds a large pint of Ben and Jerrys ice cream. It looks delicious and he takes a bite out of the ice cream.
Suddenly big tentacles rise out of the water. A big octopus appears and hes looking at the large pint of ice cream. The octopus grabs the man, he pulls the pint out of the mans hands and tosses him into the ocean.
The fisherman drops to the bottom and trips on an iron chain. Then he sees that its attached to something (a tub stopper), he pulls and the stopper comes off. All the water of the ocean is being sucked into the hole and the octopus is going down too. Hes sucked/squeezed into the hole and only the tentacle with pint is sticking out of the hole. The fisherman picks up the pint and eats the ice cream.
CUT TO
Pint Ben & Jerrys Phish Food
Slogan:???
[font=Verdana][size=2]If anyone has suggestions for a slogan or ideas for the story I’d appreciate that.
Thanks!
[/size][/font]
I don’t know how to end my story. I would like to tell you the story but I don’t feel comfortable telling my story in this forum do you think it is possible i can e-mail you the plot of my story. i will apreciated it.
Thank you
Hi Totoro,
is there a particular ice cream flavor associated with
the project? If so, you may want to incorporate it into
the slogan, depending on whether or not it’s appropriate
for the commercial. If I remember correctly, you were
working on Fossil Fuel I think, is this a different one?
Well, either way, the thing to get ideas for slogans going
are just a few “catchy” key words to start with.
For your concept think of phrases like:
big catch
lure in
wheel in
hook
bait
Matching the allure of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and fishing.
Does this help? Let me know.
ThinkStory
Hi Canche,
sure, just send it over, but be aware that I have a few e-mail
request on queue that I haven’t gotten a chance to look at yet
so it may take a week or two before a reply, sorry about that.
ThinkStory
Hi yahyaehsan,
whao, I almost missed your post there.
Some story developers like to emphasize on the timing of
a story’s structure with sets, themes, and things.
But um, I’m not one of them. Having structure is definitely
important and a great tool but that should come after contents.
I guess, I believe that each story has their own structural fit
depending on its characters, events, and themes to make it
“good”. Like one message can be delivered in many different
ways and still work. The arrangement on how to deliver that
message depends (at least in my opinion) more on the
ideas than the framing.
So it’s kind of hard for me to specify how much time or focus
should be allocated to each of the divisions listed without
knowing more about the story itself.
Like “Character establishing” will depend on how complex
these characters are. If they’re simple or the typical cowardly
or heroic type, then not much is necessary, focus more on their
surroundings and the buildup (motivators/influencers) of their
actions.
So can you provide some more details? Like examples of conflicts
that these cats encounter, their actions, and resolutions?
ThinkStory
I went over some of the advices and lessons which flow through this thread-
quite the story building workshop!
ThinkStory I wanted to ask you for a short assistance on a story we guys
have started collaborating, just in terms of the concept creation, but I don’t
want to cause a heavy weight on your shoulders, in a way I’m asking
for permission to ask you some questions…
(mostly because I went over some of the replies here and to me it looks like
you done some great work here, you might have also other engagements in your life…)
is it fine?
Hi Think Story,
I’d really like to thank you for all you help… it’s very useful!
I’m working with friends on some short (2-3 min) animation. We are still in school, so we want to practice everything we learned ( all process of making short). We have caracters and basic idea, which is: a girl is walking on the street, and two boys are making gags, trying to annoy her (like Tom and Jerry style). Kids are 7-9 yeras old, and boys are kind of bad, lazy boys, and girl is a cute, good kid. However, they are very annoying, and at the end girl is getting staff ( stick, bat…) from her bag and teach them a lesson : )
I don’t want a story to be violent :), more to be fun and show that people are not always as they looks like, and that we shoul be careful and think what we are doing before we act (on funny cartoony way).
That’s the basic idea, but when I’m thinking about gags, how to put them in a story and about script as a unit, a get lost:(
I hope that you can give me a little help and show me a good direction…
thanks