Devlopment of ideas and structure in moving image

Story Devlopment (The Hero's Story)

Almost every plot of every film will follow a three-act structure; the departure (call to adventure, refusal of call, supernatural aid.etc), the initiation (road of trials, temptation away from true path.etc.) and the return (refusal of return, rescue, freedom to live.etc).

The films "Donnie Darko" is about a teenager who has to see a phychiatrist and take medication due to his troubled past. In the beginning, a large, grotesque rabbit, named Frank, lures Donnie from his room to tell him that the world will end and exactly how much time is left. Whilst he is outside, a jet engine crashed through his room, unable to be explained. This is the initial event that leads onto the main section of the plot, where a series of events will take place due to this first event.

Donnie afterwards meets a love interest (which is also used extremely frequently in films) who remains in the plot throughtout the film; her name was Gretchen. He also meets an old, and seemingly senile, old woman named "Roberta Sparrows" who introduces him to time travel. Frank also often appeared to him and munipulated him to commit crimes. He also told him about time travel. "Vortexes" also appear frequently, some sort of wormhole through time. Later on in the film, at a party, Donnie's love interest (and now girlfriend) had been accidently killed. This is the main part of the film that explains the subject of the plot; time travel.

At the end, Donnie carries her lifeless body to his car and drives home, smiling. The scene cuts to a large vortex flowing through the sky. He eventually ended up back in his room (which was now back to normal, as it had been fixed), lay in his bed and laughed. The jet engine smashed through his room, killing him, When his body was being removed the next morning, Gretchen rides past, not knowing of his identity at all. This is the fair end, the way fate was supposed to happen. Through Donnie's adventure and experience, he understood what needed to happen in order to save Gretchen. He became the hero in the end.

Pre-production - Character Design

There are four points if a character: protagonist - main character (experiences conflict of the story), antagonist - cause of conflict, dialougue - words in conversation (gives insight of character) and steriotype.

In "Donnie Darko", Donnie is obviously the protagonist, being in the heart of the subject of time travel and experiencing the conflict of the journey. Frank is the antagonist; he caused the conflict itself by changing the fate of Donnie, creating the plot. His diologue also describes his character, with the way he munipulated Donnie to commit crimes and alter his fate. Roberta Sparrow, the one who introduced Donnie to time travel would be the steriotype in the story. A senile, old woman who everyone thinks is crazy and has lost her mind, only to be the one who helps Donnie to understand.