Andrew Stanton TED Talk: “Clues to a Great Story”

A 10-part series analyzing the Pixar writer-director’s TED Talk.

Andrew Stanton is one of the key members of Pixar’s ‘braintrust’ whose screenwriting credits include Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, Wall-E and Finding Dory which he also directed [along with A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo and Wall-E].

Back in March 2012, Stanton delivered a TED Talk: “The Clues to a Great Story.” Given his Pixar connection and the deep insights Stanton provided in his talk, I produced a transcription of the entire 19-minute presentation along with analysis of his comments.

Today: Part 3.

In 2008, I pushed all the theories of story I had at the time to the limits on this project.

Storytelling without dialogue. It’s the purest form of cinematic storytelling. It’s the most inclusive approach you can take. It confirms something I had a hunch on, that the audience actually wants to work for their meal. They just don’t want to know that they’re doing that.

That’s your job as a storyteller to hide the fact that you’re making them work for their meal.

We’re born problem-solvers. We’re compelled to deduce and deduct because that’s what we do in real life. It’s this well-organized absence of information that draws us in.

There’s a reason we’re all attracted to an infant or a puppy. It’s not just because they’re damn cute. It’s because they can’t completely express what they’re thinking or what their intentions are. It’s like a magnet, we can’t stop ourselves from wanting to complete the sentence and fill it in.

I first started understanding this storytelling device when I was writing with Bob Peterson on Finding Nemo, and he would call this “The Unifying Theory of 2 + 2.” Make the audience put things together. Don’t give them 4. Give them 2 + 2.

The elements you provide and the order you place them in is crucial to whether you succeed or fail at engaging the audience. Editors and screenwriters have known this all along. It’s the invisible application that holds our attention to story.

• “The audience actually wants to work for their meal”: Perhaps the single best piece of advice in handling exposition: Don’t use it. Let the reader figure it out.
• “Don’t give them 4. Give them 2 + 2”: See above.
• “The elements you provide and the order you place them in is crucial to whether you succeed or fail at engaging the audience”: One key is whenever you answer a question you have set up in the story, raise another question. Questions create curiosity. Curiosity keeps a reader turning pages.

For Part 1 of Stanton’s TED Talk, go here.

For Part 2, go here.

Tomorrow: Part 4.