In the category of "writing advice", I was reading this review of Pixar's movie "Up", when I ran into the following lines, which contain a great lesson on writing:
But before the fantasy kicks in, the film spends time building a "reality" for Carl. A silent, emotionally charged, four-minute montage at the beginning of the film sketches out Carl and Ellie's life together, including a miscarriage. A pesky 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell was added to the scenario to trade wisecracks (and dreams) with Carl.
The need to build an emotional reality is something Docter says he learned from the late Joe Grant -- the longtime Disney artist and writer whose work dates back to 1937's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
"One thing Joe was always saying: "'What are you giving the audience to take home?'", Docter recalls. "He was talking about the emotional connection. You have some great chances for comedy and playing with animation and showing off great design, but you have to make the audience feel they're watching themselves in some weird way -- even if, as in our films, the characters are bugs and monsters and toys.
"If you don't have that kind of grounding in reality, what you risk is having audiences not care so much and not investing as much in Carl."
This may not relate to the technical writing on this website, but I think it's a great reminder for some of the other writing I do.
books by alvin
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