Chapter 7: Story - What's it All About?
第七章：故事 – 究竟是怎么回事？
No story - no movie. Here’s how to tell if you actually have a story, and if not, how to make one.
Flash is fun, but I can never forget what John Hubley taught me, all those years ago at UPA in Hollywood: "First and foremost, your movie should be about something!"
Even an animated film cannot escape the laws of dramatic structure. Hub recommended a book by the Hungarian* author, Lajos Egri, titled "The Art of Dramatic Writing." It was published in 1946 by Simon & Schuster, just as I was starting out in the animation profession. Fortunately, the book is still available on the internet as I write this, and very cheaply, so no excuses for not buying and learning from it. I'll attempt to distill its main point for you:
没有故事，电影无从说起。如果你确实有个故事，这里教你如何叙述，如果你没有故事，也教你如何创造一个。
用Flash制作动画很有趣，不过我永忘不了许多年前John Hubley在好莱坞美国联合制片公司给予我的教诲：“首先，也是最重要的，你的电影应该言之有物！”
甚至动画片也无法摆脱戏剧结构的规律。Hub推荐了一本书，书名是戏剧写作的艺术，著作者是匈牙利人Lajos Egri，由Simon & Schuster于1946年出版，那时正是我开始涉足动画事业。庆幸的是，我在写本稿时，这本书还能从网上买到，而且非常便宜，因此，你没有借口不购买来进行学习。我会试图为你从书中总结出要领：
More clearly than any other book I've read about dramatic writing or screenplay writing, it explains premise - which is the core of "about something." Premise is largely misunderstood and misused. It is the supposition and line of action upon which every successful dramatic story must be based. It can be stated in just a few words, and found in every play by Shakespeare or any other great writer, and even in every Roadrunner cartoon.
这本书对“言之有物”的核心焦点-大前提，所做的诠释比任何我阅读过的有关戏剧或编剧写作的书籍来的更明确。这个前提大多数时候都被曲解和误用；然而它是每个成功的戏剧故事必备的假定与行动路线的基础。它可以通过几句话来表述，在每部莎士比亚或其他伟大作家的戏剧里都能找到，甚至出现在每部必必鸟卡通片里。
When I had the task of adapting children's picture books for Weston Woods - the task of translating a book into an animation film, I first had to find the premise, what I called, "the core of meaning." Once I had this, I knew exactly what could and what could not be in the film adaptation. Whether he or she knew it or not, the author's original story, if truly strong, will have this premise. The premise tells us what the story, at base, is about, and where it's heading. According to Egri it must consist of three parts: character/conflict/conclusion. If you distill your story idea to this essential premise, you will know exactly how it will end, and how you will get to that ending. Note that the premise need not be always true. It may be questionable, but it is what you the author want to dramatically state. A good story must prove its premise.
当接到韦斯顿伍兹影片制作公司要我改编儿童图画书的任务 – 将书转化为动画片，我首先要找到我所谓的“意蕴核心”的前提。一旦我有了这，我就确切地知道在改编的电影里哪些是可能，哪些是不可能的。如果是真正有实力的原著，无论其男、女作者是否意识到，都会有这种前提。前提告诉我们故事的出发点是什么，以及朝哪方向发展。根据Egri的见解，它必须含有三个部分：角色/冲突/结局。如果你按这个基本前提来总结你的故事构思，你将会确切地知晓它是怎样结束的，以及你是如何来到这个结局。要注意的是，前提不一定需要是真实的。它可以是有商榷性的，但这是作者你所要引人注目地表述。一部好的故事必须要对它的前提有所效验。
Here are some sample premises that Egri presents:
"Blind trust/leads to/destruction." (King Lear)
"Jealousy/destroys/the object of its love" (Othello)
"Poverty/encourages/crime." (Dead End)
"Great Love/defies/even death" (Romeo and Juliet)
"Ruthless ambition/leads to/it's own destruction." (MacBeth)
OK, that's all heavy stuff, but the same principles apply to our little cartoons:
"Craftiness/digs/its own grave." (every ROAD RUNNER cartoon)
"Bravado/leads to/humiliation" (Bluto in every POPEYE cartoon)
这是Egri提供的一些典型前提：
“盲目信任/导致/毁灭”（李尔王）
“妒忌/摧毁/爱的对象”（奥赛罗）
“贫穷/激发/犯罪”（穷途末路）
“伟大爱情/蔑视/甚至死亡”（罗密欧与朱丽叶）
“冷酷野心/导致/自我灭亡”（马克白）
好了，那些都是严肃的课题，不过，我们的小动画也适用这些原则：
“狡猾/挖掘/自己的坟墓”（每部必必鸟动画片）
“逞能/导致/屈辱”（每部大力水手动画片里的布鲁托）
英语牛人团