Andrew Stanton & Storytelling—Part 2

Continuing from Part I, here are some more golden nuggets of storytelling insight from Andrew Stanton's TED talk:

5. Storytelling without dialogue is the purest form of cinematic storytelling.

6. "WALL-E" confirmed for him that the audience wants to work for their meal without knowing that they're working for it. It's the storytellers job to hide the fact that you're making the audience work for their meal.

7. It's the well-organized ABSENCE of information that draws us in.

8. The Unifying Theory of 2+2: Don't give the audience 4, make them put it together. The elements you provide and the order in which they're placed is crucial to engaging the audience.

9. This isn't an exact science. Stories are inevitable if they're good but they're not predictable.

10. All well-drawn characters have a dominant, unconscious goal for which they're striving, an itch they can't scratch, a spine. Michael Corleone trying to please his father. WALL-E's was to find the beauty. Marlon's was to prevent harm. Woody's was to do what was best for his child.

11. Believes that we're born with a certain temperament, that we're wired a certain way and we have no say in it and there's no changing it. All you can do is learn to recognize it and own it.