In researching other School of Life videos I found that the most effective films were split into distinct sections. When the film makers were able to identify changes in subject or tone, and use these changes to create chapters in the animation, the information was far easier to digest. And when that information is a solid 5 minutes of Alain De Botton informing you that you only love your husband because he hurts your feelings in the same way your father did, then it’s import the information is made a little easier to swallow.
I found that the script could be split up into 5 sections, and I used these sections to create chapters in the animation. This also made it easier to plan my workload.
The first section establishes that ‘from close up, none of us are particularly impressive’. We are all as embarrassing and as foolish as each other.
The second section explains how we all struggle to hide this fact, and ‘try to appear a great deal more normal’ than we are.
The third reveals how sharing our vulnerabilities helps us to form closer relationships and can be ‘an exchange of sympathy, for the troublesome business of being alive’.
The fourth section warns of the ways we should avoid being vulnerable to others, and teaches us the ways in which we should.
Whilst the final section argues that being vulnerable in these ways can in fact be a sign of strength, and reiterates that we are all as worried and foolish as each other, before reflecting on the fact that the sharing of vulnerability is not as commonplace as it could be.
I used these sections to structure my animation and by splitting the script up in this way, I found the project to be more manageable. I would have liked to have made the “chapters” of the film a little more obvious, and in retrospect this could have been done with some innovative transitions, or changes in tone.
Splitting the script up like this meant that I approached each part of the script separately. Generating ideas for each section in isolation meant that at points I lost sight of how the project might fit together. For example characters are depicted in a portrait shot, head on several times in the film, and I think this makes it harder to associate a visual queue with a piece of Alain’s advice as several parts of the film look similar.
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