Saturday, August 13, 2016

Same Story Form, different Story Telling

It's great when the monthly user group meeting comes up with a unique story form that you can't find in the analysis pages of dramatica.com or narrativefirst.com. But I'm always interested in seeing a story forms that has occured before and comparing the stories that use it.

As of right now, the following stories share the same storyforms respectively, according to dramatica.com and narrativefirst.com (the number is what you get in "Spin-the-Model" of Dramatica Pro 4.0):

  • 16454: smoke signals, the thirteenth floor. Native American Comedy-Drama versus Science-Fiction Crime Thriller.
  • 16456: singin in the rain, the station agent
  • 16471: birdman, star wars. Theatre acting versus Civil War IN SPACE.
  • 16485: looper, wrath of khan. A rather common storyform.
  • 17067: pride and prejudice, bridget jones' diary. Not that interesting; the latter is a retelling of the former.
  • 17132: dogma, matrix. The Matrix can easily be read as a religious allegory, so this isn't too surprising.
  • 17762: bringing up baby, whats up doc, zombieland. "[What's Up Doc] was intended to pay homage to comedy films of the 1930s, especially Bringing Up Baby" (ref: Wikipedia)
  • 17768: collateral, finding nemo. Just imagine Tom Cruise playing Dory and/or Nemo. Shows that a children/family film can have the same story form as a thriller.
  • 17976: marty, the queen
  • 18278: casablanca, sicko. Opression by the Nazi regime vs Health Care.
  • 19813: terminator, unforgiven. Revenge and Chase movies?
  • 20499: beast of no nation, the constant gardener. Both are set in Africa... anything else?
  • 20581: el mariachi, the limey
  • 20762: dead poets society, midnight cowboy. "Teacher inspires students to love poetry" versus "Male prostitute and friend try to survive the streets"
  • 21274: annie hall, harold and maude. Strange Comedies.
  • 24596: almost famous, life is beautiful, creed. Music Journalism, Holocaust and Boxing.
  • 24603: eastern promises, eddie the eagle. Inspirational Sports Biopic versus Demotivational Thriller.
  • 24622: erin brockovich, kung fu panda. A rather common storyform. Legal Arts versus Martial Arts
  • 24623: back to the future, shrek. A rather common storyform; interesting in that Marty is supposed to be likable from the beginning, while Shrek has a more obvious 'growth' that could easily be construed as a change.
  • 25650: in the heat of the night, nightcrawler. Mystery Drama in a racist small town versus Media Satire/Thriller.

I think it's pretty clear that one story form still leaves a lot of room for different storytelling. The authors bring in their own beliefs and experiences, so even if they're making the same argument, they will make it differently.

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