I have been in a few discussions recently and I've been doing a lot of research on the following subject. Premise vs Plot vs Story vs Character. During my research I came across a bunch of different sites, forums and articles talking about this subject. I found a lot of debates, arguments, articles, and people trying to prove their points based on the following:
What is the difference between story vs plot?
Characters are more important than story.
Some movies have no plot.
All you need is a premise, throw in some jokes and you got a story.
Character Development is the most important part of the film.
All you need is the basics and everything else comes naturally.
Plot is least important part of the film.
Etc.....
There were so many forums, websites and articles of contradicting information about the construction of stories. I found all this to be not only confusing but completely unnecessary. This left me thinking... Why are people so worried about the separate elements of what really makes a story? Why worry about what is more important? What really makes up a story? The answer is actually quite simple -
Do not separate the elements of a story. One is not more important than another. And all elements work together to make a whole story.
Let's first go back and understand what a story is. And to make things simple and easy, I'll use the films Star Wars and The Bellhop as examples. So what are the basic elements of telling a story. They are - Premise, Characters, Story and Plot. To simply define them it would be like this:
1. Premise - The basic idea of the story
2. Characters - The players in the story
3. Story - What is it all about
4. Plot - What happens in the story
How does this apply to Star Wars? Like this:
1. Premise - A young man uses his skills as a warrior to save a Princess and defeat the evil forces of a galactic empire - This is the basic idea of the movie. It doesn't describe really anything in detail. Nor does it tell us what happens. There are no names, locations, time period, history, conflicts. This is could be further simplified by describing it as A hero defeats a tyrant evil. It's just a simple one sentence idea with a goal. Whether or not the premise's goal is something the characters try to accomplish or the story itself tries to accomplish is the goal of the premise. Meaning, there are films with an obvious goal in mind like Star Wars. There are other films that the goal is to make you feel something through the events and sequences of the film. Whether or not that feeling is to cry, laugh, get mad, up lift, frustrate, etc... An example of that is the film The Bellhop, starring Jerry Lewis. The premise could be - Everyday life of a klutz. This too, has no specific explanations of the what happens in the film. It basically says that we are going to see a story about some clumsy fellow.
The premise is the foundation of the film. It helps the creators to stay on a specific course. If you find yourself having a hard time to describe the idea of your film in one to two sentences, a dangers may arise. The first would be that you begin to over explain your story. The story becomes very long and complicated. Something questions will not be answered. You will deviate from the original goal. Other dangers will arise but most importantly... you'll lose your audience. So best thing to do, go back rework your premise. Like I said before, keep the premise as simple as possible and in one or two sentences.
2. Characters - Who are the players in the film? Who are the people that, we the audience, should care enough about that makes stay in my seat for whatever determined amount of time. Character development is probably the most fun in creating the story. You have to develop the character in way that they become real people and we are just peaking into the events of their lives for this one story. The creator has to know the characters inside and out. He should know everything from the character's personality, mannerisms, and reactions. Not all of the characters development will be seen on film or cartoon, but it should be understood by how the character behaves. We never see Han Solo's life before the bar scene in Star Wars. Nothing is mentioned about him. But by the interaction with Luke and Obi - Won and later on with Greedo, the dialogue, and his mannerisms we get an idea of his personality and past history. We come to understand that he is a self - centered, egotistical, money hungry loner. As the film progresses this description of his character changes into a dependable hero who cares about his friends. The characters are what keeps the audience in the story.
3. Story - This is what the book, film, cartoon, etc... is all about. It's what will drive the emotional attachments of the events in the film. Another way of putting this... What the film, book, cartoon, comic book is about. Expand on the idea of the premise and involve the characters to briefly describe the story. The story of Star Wars is - Luke Skywalker leaves his home planet, teams up with other rebels, and tries to save Princess Leia from the evil clutches of Darth Vader. The story of The Bellboy is - In Miami Beach, the mute bellboy Stanley works at the luxurious Fontainebleau Hotel. In spite of being a serviceable and friendly employee, the clumsy Stanley gets successively into trouble with his mistakes. When describing the story, you may tend to explain what happens in it, but that is what the plot is for, which I will explain next.
4. Plot - What happens in the story. The cause and effect of the story. This describes what is going on in the film and how the movie progresses from beginning to end. The plot of Star Wars is a little too long for this post but CLICK HERE TO READ THE PLOT. The plot of the Bellboy however is a difficult one. Because at the beginning of the film a movie executive tells the audience that the film has no plot, that the film merely exists simply for the enjoyment of the audience. To make them laugh. But that is not entirely true. The plot of the film is the explanation of each segment that Jerry Lewis performs in. If there was no plot, then how would Jerry Lewis perform those segments? There exists an explanation for what he is doing. Things just don't happen in a story.
People tend to confuse plot with story. They also tend to believe that one is more important than the other. This shouldn't be an issue to bring up. Every story has a plot and needs one. You cannot tell a story without a plot. It's the part of the story that make things interesting. A plot is how we know Luke begins his training as a Jedi, how princess Leia gets captured, how Luke saves the universe. Without a plot it is impossible to know what is happening in the film. The confusion also lies in whether a film or cartoon has a plot or not. That is not the question to be asking, because as I mentioned before, every story has a plot. The question is rather - Does the plot make sense? People refer to films such as Lost in Translation and The Thin Red Line as movies with no plot. If that was so how can one tell someone else what happened? And how is it that the plots for Lost in Translation is HERE, and The Thin Red Line is HERE . All cartoons have plots, if not how would an animator know where to begin animating and what to do next. A plot is simply the explanation of the story, what is happening. So if the film, book, cartoon, whatever seems like it's going nowhere doesn't mean that there is no plot... just that the plot makes no sense or it's a bad plot, a bad explanation of what is happening.
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