Video: Michael Arndt on “Beginnings: Setting a Story Into Motion”

I’m currently teaching a one-week session of my Pixar and the Craft of Storytelling class and one of the writers in the class — Kenny — surfaced this video from Michael Arndt, screenwriter of Toy Story 3 about story beginnings. It is quite instructive:

Takeaway:

* Arndt subscribes to Three Act Structure.

* A story’s ending is directly tied to its beginning.

* The story is grounded in a Protagonist’s “deepest desires and darkest fears.”

All three of those points are valid in my view and yet more evidence to support character based screenwriting.