[Narrator] "On Story" is brought to you in part by the Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, a Texas family providing innovative funding since 1979.

Funding also provided by John Paul and Eloise DeJoria.

[waves] [kids screaming] [wind] [witch cackling] [sirens wail] [gunshots] [dripping] [suspenseful music] [telegraph beeping, typing] "On Story" presented by Austin Film Festival.

A look inside the creative process from today's leading writers and directors.

[paper crumpling] - Story's important, but it's the emotion of the characters that makes people see a movie again or remember a movie or care about the movie.

And that often you get so caught up in, and then the villain does this, so the good guy does this, and that stuff kind of falls away at the end of the day, and you're left remembering, well, how did the character feel?

[typing] [typing] You can take a script, and let's say the first act has six scenes.

Those six scenes will then, the pages will get sent to six different storyboard artists, who will look at the pages and say, all right, I see, what they're going for and I'm gonna do this.

And they will draw a version, which sometimes follows the pages, sometimes they have an idea, and they're allowed to follow it.

You'll string these things together and it's usually a mess.

So starting with that premise, what happens is a writer comes in and says, "What happened to my pages?

This is a total mess."

And the storyboard artist comes in and says, "Why are they telling me what I have to draw?"

So it takes a while to get past that and realize that, oh, okay, their job as a storyboard artist is to take our idea and explore it.

- So like season one, we wrote something, where it's like the stage direction said, "Hank's face falls."

And Bobby said something, Bobby said something vaguely homoerotic, and Hank's face falls.

And it literally came back from Korea.

His jaw fell off his... [people laughing] And we realized that there's a certain language barrier and you try to...

It was actually good screenwriting training, because you tried to express it as clearly, but as simply with no extraneous words as possible.

[typing] [Tim] It's based on a book by Ted Hughes called "The Iron Man."

It's a very big book in England, but it's not about the fifties and Cold War, any of that.

It's just about a friendship between a boy and a giant.

In Brad's pitch, it was the Cold War just gone crazy.

It was literally the Russians and the Uves lobbing nukes at each other across the horizon, and when I came in and looked at that, I said, well, there's two big problems.

You know, if it's the '50s, let's make paranoia the enemy.

Let's make fear and of the other, the enemy.

The other idea I had, there was one scene in the book that we kept, where the giant, where Hogarth tricks the giant to trap him and he falls down into this big hole and the giant sort of comes to him apart and puts himself back together.

I said, okay, that's my key to basically keep bringing the giant back at the end.

You think he's dead, you get all the, all the emotionality of his sacrifice, but then you can still, you know, have your cake and eat it too by bringing it back at the end.

[orchestral music] [whirring and thuds] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [beeping] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - Hmm?

- One of Brad Bird's mantras, and she just keeps saying all the time, was animation's not a genre, just a way to tell a story.

- We came in to "Kung Fu Panda" and they had the idea, it's a panda, he is gonna do kung fu, he can't, and then he does, and that's pretty what they had, and they didn't have the arc.

And one of the big things we brought to it early on was, okay, he's fat, he falls down a lot, he's clumsy, he loves food.

That's what we know about him and that's all the things that he hates about himself, that's why he wishes he can do kung fu.

What if act, 'cause act two was a big model, it was clear how the movie opens.

He's clumsy, set him up, it's clear how it ends, he wins.

The middle was is the problem, and so we said, what if we establish all the things that make him a laughingstock and clearly the least suited kung fu fighter ever.

Somehow along the way, that becomes the way that he can defeat Tai Lung.

Wouldn't that be interesting?

And then, you know, we dug ourselves a big hole, 'cause they thought that would be very interesting, how do we do that?

'Cause we had said something like, it'd be really cool if the only way that Shifu gets through to Po is via food.

He can't train him the traditional way.

What if you get through food?

And we pitched, you know, we wrote a scene.

I said one of my favorite scenes is the one where Po's the pantry and he's eating the cookie.

And the way he got up the, for the first time ever, he exhibits physical powers.

That's based on my sister climbing up where my mom hid the cookies when I was a kid, and crashing down just like Po does.

So based on that scene, we'd said, we need some way that Shifu then, based on that insight, can train him using food as a motivating factor.

- I just thought you might be monkey, he hides his almond cookies on the top shelf.

[Po gasps] [feet tapping] [dishes clanging] [Po munching] [Po munching] - Don't tell monkey.

- Look at you.

- Yeah, I know.

I disgust you.

- No, no.

I mean, how did you get up there?

- I don't know.

I guess...

I don't know, I was getting a cookie.

- And yet you are 10 feet off the ground and have done a perfect split.

- No, this?

This is just a accident.

[shelf crashes down] [Po grunts] - There are no accidents.

- The origin of "The Iron Giant" was something we wondered should we explained?

Should we not explain?

You know, does it take something away?

And I'd written a scene, where, there were a couple scenes actually, where like there'd be a TV in the junkyard, when the giants asleep and it would kind of come on, and kind of show his, you know, memories and such.

Then the idea came up in storyboards to give him the little bump on the head, which seemed to explain a lot, interestingly, although it sort of doesn't make any sense to...

Does his brain even there?

But that was always the idea that we had, was he has no memory.

And then we had a lot of discussions about how should he talk and if he should, if he talks, how much should he talk?

And it seems like for him to be a sentient human being, which he wanted him to be, wanted him to make a moral decision, he had to have some vocabulary.

And so, but we thought like E.T., it should just be a few words that we use very well, you know, words that then come back, you know, that, you know, that a expression used early on that then comes back later on, you know, which the movie does.

And so we came up with the idea of a very limited vocabulary, and Vin Diesel did the voice of the Iron Giant, oddly.

And he had to do all these really, 'cause he had this great deep voice, and he had to do all these ex-- you know, 'cause our thinking was that the Iron Giant didn't have, he really wasn't equipped to have voice, a voice.

There was no reason to equip a monster iron, you know, weapon, but he was able to kind of manipulate his chest cavity and stuff to sort of mimic a voice, and so that's why it's all very kind of hollow and inside.

- You know, words, blah, blah, blah, like that, can you do that?

Blah, blah blah.

[Giant roaring] Well, you get the idea anyway.

Let's see.

See this?

This is called a rock.

Rock.

- Rock.

- Good.

- Rock.

- Yes.

- Rock.

- No, no.

That is a tree.

Rock, tree.

Get it?

- Rock.

Tree.

- That's right.

- I think what really helped us is that the first, whatever, seven years of our career, we worked on "King of The Hill," and it was a, would it take 30 to 50 weeks to go from script to screen on a TV animated episode?

We couldn't do any pop, we couldn't do any references, any, you know, news reference jokes or they'd already be dated.

And then also by the time we were doing Kung Fu Panda, we could see all episodes of "King of The Hill" and if there were any references at all, you just, you'd cringe because well that's already, that doesn't feel fresh or timeless.

And then I think particularly on "Kung Fu Panda," it helped that it was set in a China that never really existed.

It's a timeless, mythical space and place, where pandas have never done kung fu before, but there's, you know, we had the benefit of real Chinese mythology and the five animal styles of Kung fu.

So we really just had to be true to that mythology, and none of that allowed for references to pop culture.

Except for in the ending credits where I think CeeLo does "Kung Fu Fighting," which is not our fault.

- Except like the Chipmunk movies exist differently because the chipmunks are singing songs that are fairly up to the, it takes a few months.

So it may be, you might like, oh, that was on the radio six months ago, what's that song?

So that's a little more, they live in a world of pop culture, so there's an, I think a different standard, but in general, the type of writing we like to do, I don't like when the only joke is that it's, you're mentioning someone who...

There's a great writer, George Meyer, who, the Lord of "The Simpsons."

And he once said to us early on, he was telling us the kind of jokes he hates, where the only joke is the reference.

And his example was, you make Sally Jesse seem like Oprah, where there's no joke there, except the mention of celebrities.

And if you put that in a movie with the right rhythm, it would probably get a laugh.

But when you think about it's, there's no joke, we don't like the kind where the only joke is you're mentioning, oh, it's funny because it's an animated character who's talking about something that's on... - To be fair to George Meyer, people knew who Sally Jesse Raphael was when he made that comment.

- But see when I tell it here.

- He's very, very precious.

- If you tell it here and you say, "Why was that funny 10 years ago?"

It depends, if you're trying to make a... Look, you don't make "Kung Fu Panda" and say, "This movie is gonna last for 50 years."

But you hope that you're making a movie that... You have humility, but you're also saying, "Let's shoot to make something that's timeless," because that's a great thing to aim for.

And sometimes maybe you hit it, more times than not, you don't, but I think that's a...

It's certainly a worthy goal.

As screenwriters, you know, you sort of know the, I don't wanna say formulas 'cause that sounds like it's has to be done a certain way, but you know, in a sports story, in a "Rocky" thing, Rocky's either gonna win or he is gonna lose, so I finally, I watched the "Bad News Bears," the original with my son, and at the end, of course you think the Bears are going to win, and I knew what was that?

I couldn't wait for him to play, and they lose and he, what?

How's he out?

Because there's a first he'd seen one of those movies.

And so you look at this and you say, okay, if you take away your cynicism and... try to go through it the first time, you realize that some of these can be very powerful moments, and if you can treat them sincerely, instead of as the cynical person who says, oh, we can't do that, the audience is expecting that.

Well, sometimes you wanna give expected, but in an unexpected way.

And Jeffrey Katzenberg was very good about saying that in the first movie, we'd have discussions about, we can't do that.

People would say it's a Cinderella story.

We don't want Po to treat poetic Cinderella, where he has this dream and then he gets it, and Jeffrey would say, Cinderella is one of the greatest stories ever.

And everyone, it's mythical great movie.

Why wouldn't you wanna do the Cinderella story?

- You know, the theme of our movie is you can be who you wanna be, you can choose who you wanna be, and it seemed like a big theme.

I mean, Brad, it sort of boiled it down to, you know, you being a gun or not that sort of thing, but I always felt it was you choose your own destiny.

So this was, and again, this is what Brad originally pitched to these guys.

This thing was made for war, and it learns better.

This kid teaches it better, so that's a big theme.

And so we had certain... Brad and I basically had a week to work out this, guts of the of the story, once we were put together, and we had, so we put cards up on the board and that's still pretty much the movie.

And one of the big ones was always, the, you know, what is life?

What is a soul?

You know, are you a living creature or not?

I mean, these are big important things, but we always run in to really tackle those in the movie.

You know, so that's still one of my favorite scenes in the movies, when he talks after he's seen death, he has to explain what death is and explain, you know, you know, it's big stuff.

But it seemed like the giant chooses who he wants to be at the end, and so he had to be sort of educated up to that point, you know?

- Oh no, [somber orchestral music] It's dead.

- Dead.

Mm.

- Don't do that.

- Why?

- It's dead, understand?

They shot it with that gun.

[tense orchestral music] Hey, what's wrong?

- Uh.

Gun?

- Yes, guns kill.

- Guns kill.

♪ ♪ - I think even in the first "Kung Fu Panda," Oogway doesn't die, he becomes petals and floats away.

And Tai Lung doesn't die, he becomes gold and disappears.

And I think some of that is that now with your main characters, you don't wanna see Po actually kill someone with his bare hands.

Oh, bear hands.

- Nice.

- You want the villain- - Suddenly, there's a new pun.

- It's amazing.

There was a lot of discussion about how do you dispose of a villain in a way that-- - Right.

- We call the scarring of the villain, that you duck and he jumps over you and kills himself by his own hand.

How do you give the audience something, where they feel like the villain has been vanquished in a fair way?

But also you don't look at your villain and say, he just killed a guy.

I thought he was so lovable.

It's a tricky thing that...

So I guess you let the death happen on the periphery, if you will, and also we always make sure there's, for kids watching, that there's sort of an alternate explanation for them, if they turn to us and said, so did the bad guys there?

Did they die?

No, they fell into the water and floated off camera.

You wanna be able to have a way to explain it that isn't as violent.

And I think if you watch the movie, a lot of it is hinted at and we let the audience infer what has happened rather than showing anything particularly brutal.

[suspenseful orchestral music] [gasps] The Wuxi Finger Hold.

- Oh, you know, this hold?

- You're bluffing, you're bluffing.

Shifu didn't teach you that.

- Nope, I figured it out.

Skadoosh.

[whooshing] [wind blowing] - I don't think we ever think in the way of, there's the adult storyline, then the kids storyline.

There's sometimes an A story and a B story, - But it's something in the Chipmunks movie, I guess.

For us, it's a father/son story.

"King of the Hill" was about, at it's heart, as a family to father/son, and if you're a kid, maybe you're relating more to the son part of it.

And if you're a parent, you relate more to the father.

But for us, the best movies are the ones where whatever the emotional journey is, it's the family.

All the units of the family can be invested in that and moved by it so that it won't be moments where the kids have nothing of interest.

And then moments where the parents... You wanna keep everyone involved all the time.

- It's funny, the big thing we're working on right now is "Candy Land."

And I realize now we're, we basically have told the same story or the same central emotional story of family members learning things about each other just in different worlds.

We're either doing it in China or a world made entirely of candy, or in a world where Chipmunks sing and all that stuff, it's just the window dressing for us, and it's almost irrelevant to the real hard work, which is the emotional story.

How do you make someone care about a chipmunk or a panda or fudge?

[people laughing] Spoiler alert.

- Spoiler, spoiler.

[typing] - My name's Tyler Carter.

I'm the director, producer, and writer of "Dream Giver."

So I've always been really interested in dreams and where dreams would come from, who's giving them to us.

And there's a lot of legends and stories out there of that, but I'd never seen something actually created that explained that, and if there was actually this mystical, or mythical creature that delivered these dreams, and so that's kind of what we did, we explored in "Dream Giver."

This creature that came around that delivered these things.

And what would happen if he accidentally gave you a dream that became a nightmare.

You know, the dream comes from the book that's on the floor of this bedroom, and so we wanted to do something that might have some recent historical significance at that time.

And the story was based in the 1930s, and so just around that time, there was some discoveries made in Central America about the civilizations that were once there.

So we chose to do that and add a dragon in there 'cause dragons are cool.

We knew that we didn't want dialogue in the film, and so from the beginning, we were looking to tell the story just through images.

And one of the hardest, the biggest challenges was these dreams, when the children actually had the dream.

How do we show a child having a dream?

What does it look like?

How do you make it look good?

And how do you make a nightmare look bad?

And it was a really difficult combination of things to create that effect.

And I think in the end, it came out really nicely.

Up next is my film, "Dream Giver."

Thanks for watching.

[soft orchestral music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [crickets chirp] [wings flutter by] ♪ ♪ [door creaking] ♪ ♪ [door creaking] ♪ ♪ [wings fluttering] ♪ ♪ [boy groaning] ♪ ♪ [egg cracks] [suspenseful orchestral music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [upbeat jazzy music] [wings fluttering] [suspenseful orchestral music] ♪ ♪ [chilling orchestral music] ♪ ♪ [boy gasps] [boy groaning] [space suit hissing] - Ah.

[ethereal orchestral music] ♪ ♪ [ominous music] [rock crackles] [boy gasps] [dragon snarling] [dragon roars] [fast-paced orchestral music] ♪ ♪ [boy yelps] [suspenseful orchestral music] [dragon snarling] [dragon roaring] [dragon roars] [dragon snarling] [dragon roars] [ground rumbling] [dragon roaring] [vines snapping] [wings fluttering] [dragon roaring] [soft orchestral music] [boy coughing] ♪ ♪ [boy gasps] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [boy gasps] [soft orchestral music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪