Avatar and the Art of Storytelling

Matthew Ebel — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:27:51 +0000

So I finally got out to see ~~The Blue Clan Group~~ Avatar last night. It was everything I expected it to be: A remake of Pocahontas and Ferngully with enough Aliens fan-service to draw in that extra billion (Sigourney Weaver FTW). Throw in 3D glasses, the gimmick du-jour, and the movie squeezes a few extra dollars out of moviegoers too young to remember Jaws 3. And it’s a phenomenal piece of cinema.

Yes, I know, I’m usually the first to bitch about the fact that Hollywood couldn’t find an original script if you stapled one to the forehead of every director in California. There is nothing new about the story or the characters in Avatar. Most of the plot points are so obviously foreshadowed that at times I wondered if James Cameron forgot his audience had to be teenage or older. In some cases the reveals were as obvious as Chekhov’s gun. For those that don’t know the reference:

If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off.
From S. Shchukin, Memoirs

And yet, it was a perfect film.

The Art of Storytelling is not the Art of Writing. Storytellers, like great opera singers, find greatness in the delivery, not necessarily the creation. After all, when we were kids we wanted mom or dad to read the same story to us again and again. It’s not like we forgot the ending after 24 hours; we fall in love with the way the story is told. It’s also why the jokes you heard last night are never as funny when you tell them to someone else.

Script by Matt Bateman

In my line of work there are few original chord progressions. Most songs in the Blues category have had the same 12-bar progression since before the 1940′s. Cover songs are often more popular than their original recordings (FYI, Jimi Hendrix did not write All Along the Watchtower). Don’t even get me started on Christmas albums; new lyrics and melodies usually detract from their appeal rather than adding to them. A lot of you, like me, have played the same video game (Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando) dozens of times even though you’ve already bested every aspect of the game. Why do we tolerate such repetition in our lives?

The delivery of a familiar story- be it a fairy tale, a movie, or a song -can often mean more than the content of the story itself. Parents had been reading the story of Snow White to their children for years, but Walt Disney told an old story in such a fantastic way that it founded their entire empire. I know a lot of my music touches on all-too-familiar themes: Love, insecurity, politics, Ninjas… but if I can tell my stories with half the skill and passion as Cameron’s Avatar, I might just make it in this business yet.

Now go hug a tree and start working on your storytelling.

Matthew Ebel » video games

Avatar and the Art of Storytelling