Network Map of All Storyforms

analysis
#1

dramatica.png1024×1024 184 KB

Here is something I just wanted to share with everyone but didn’t deserve its own thread or anything. This is a network map of all the storyforms collected on dramatica.com and narrativefirst.com. Two stories on one node means that those stories have the same story form. Connected nodes mean that two storyforms share at least 50% non-progress story points; the thicker the edge, the more similarities. The colors just imply a cluster of similarities. The grey nodes in the middle don’t have any connections.
This thing serves no practical purpose. I just thought it was kinda neat to look at and search through. Some of the smaller clusters are kinda interesting.

The Google Viewer is terrible, so I recommend downloading the pdf or using your preferred PDF-viewer some other way.

6 Likes
Table of Scenes & every possible story point on a single page
#2

How the heck does this not deserve its own thread?! This is FANTASTIC! So awesome, thank you!!

#3

The PDF has reeaaallly tiny letters I have to zoom in 2000%… is that normal?

#4

The software I used to generate this map (gephi) didn’t have any good default size, at least as far as I know; I haven’t used it that much yet. I scaled up the size now.

Just for clarification:

  • The PDF is different from the above picture, because I added a few story forms and redid the whole thing.
  • The network shows you similarities of non-progress story points. No signposts. No Reach, Nature, Essence, Tendency or Crucial Elements either. Just Resolve, Growth, Approach, Problem-Solving Style, Driver, Limit, Outcome, Judgment; Goal, Consequence, Dividend, Cost, Forewarning, Requirements, Prerequisites, Preconditions; and for each throughline: domain, concern, issue, problem, solution, focus, direction, benchmark, catalyst / unique ability, inhibitor / critical flaw. 8 + 8 + 4x10 = 56 story points. Two story forms need to have at least 28 overlaps to have a connection on this map.
    Examples: Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story only differ in their Limit. Into the Blue and Election only differ in their Judgment. Brokeback Mountain and Moulin Rouge! only differ in their MC Problem-Solving Style. On the other hand, Inside Out and There’s something about Mary only have 28 overlaps: resolve, growth, approach, limit, outcome, judgment, domains, concerns, benchmarks, additional story points, MC Issue and IC Issue.
#5

In case you ever plan on having a story night and want a bit more balance in your story consumption, I compiled a list of story form pairs which have no story point in common (except Limits; bolded pairs have different Limits). Maybe follow up a tragedy with a triumph? A dilemma story with a work story?
Fun writing prompt: Imagine the story telling of one story with the story form of the other.

  • 12 Angry Men & A Face in the Crowd
  • 12 Angry Men & La Dolce Vita
  • A Place in the Sun & Peyton Place
  • A Place in the Sun & Searching for Bobby Fischer
  • A Separation & Fault in Our Stars
  • A Separation & Rear Window
  • A Separation & Short Term 12
  • A Streetcar named Desire & Akeelah and the Bee
  • A Streetcar named Desire & Sound of Music
  • Amadeus & Fault in Our Stars
  • Amadeus & Short Term 12
  • Apt Pupil & Moulin Rouge!
  • City of God (2002) & Chinatown
  • City of God (2002) & ally mcbeal (S1E15 Once in a Lifetime)
  • Days of Wine and Roses & Mrs. Miniver
  • Double Indemnity & Rebecca
  • Double Indemnity & the exorcist (MC Damian)
  • Eve’s Bayou & Charlotte’s Web
  • Eve’s Bayou & Good Will Hunting
  • Eve’s Bayou & Kolya
  • Eve’s Bayou & Taxi Driver
  • Eve’s Bayou & Tender Mercies
  • Ex Machina & Peyton Place
  • Ex Machina & Searching for Bobby Fischer
  • Field of Dreams & Grave of the Fireflies
  • Field of Dreams & King Kong
  • Field of Dreams & the treasure of the sierra madre
  • Hamlet & Like Water for Chocolate
  • Hamlet & Working Girl
  • Hamlet & my fair lady
  • Platoon & Bourne Identity
  • Platoon & The Bucket List
  • Platoon & true grit
  • Rebecca & Double Indemnity
  • Rebecca & Reservoir Dogs
  • Rocky & y tu mama tambien
  • Silence of the Lambs & A Doll’s House
  • Silence of the Lambs & American President
  • Snowpiercer & A Star is born
  • Sweet Hereafter & Rosemary’s baby
  • Sweet Hereafter & Sixth Sense (new)
  • The Glass Menagerie & Aliens
  • The Glass Menagerie & Harry Potter
  • The Glass Menagerie & Singin in the Rain
  • The Glass Menagerie & The Station Agent
  • The Glass Menagerie & Smoke Signals
  • The Glass Menagerie & The Thirteenth Floor
  • The Glass Menagerie & Toy Story 2
  • The House of Yes & Heavenly Creatures
  • The Piano Lesson & Romeo and Juliet
  • The Piano Lesson & West Side Story
  • The Wild Bunch & As good as it gets
  • The Wild Bunch & Buffy (Zeppo)
  • The Wild Bunch & Everything is Illuminated
  • The Wild Bunch & Frequency
  • The Wild Bunch & Hotel Rwanda
  • Washington Square & A History of Violence
  • Washington Square & the French Connection
  • When Marnie Was There & Sweet Smell of Success
  • the Sun Also Rises & witness
  • the manchurian candidate & Barefoot in the park
  • the manchurian candidate & the importance of being earnest

And just for fun:

  • ESPN & Ida
  • ESPN & Sophie’s Choice
  • ESPN & Sula

Of Note: Since Approach and Growth change, the objective story of both sides will be external or internal, but static/process switches. Example: Hamlet’s OS is internal static (Mind, MC is Psychology) and My Fair Lady’s OS is internal process (Psychology, MC is Universe).

2 Likes
#6

For reasons, here are the stories with exactly the same storyform (lines with ! are my favorite coincidences) (most of them are from dramatica.com, but others from discuss.dramatica.com and narrativefirst.com, just so you know):

Twos:
Smoke Signals = The Thirteenth Floor
Singin in the Rain = The Station Agent
Star Wars = Birdman !
Looper = Wrath of Khan
Pride and Prejudice = Bridget Jones’s Diary
Dogma = Matrix
What lies beneath = Arrival
Marty = The Queen
Casablanca = Sicko
Terminator = Unforgiven
The Constant Gardener = Beasts of no nation
Dead Poets Society = Midnight Cowboy
Annie Hall = Harold and Maude
Eastern Promises = Eddie the Eagle !
Star Trek (2009) = Moana
Back to the Future = Shrek
Nightcrawler = In the Heat of the Night

Threes:
Erin Brockovich = Kung Fu Panda = Hacksaw Ridge !
Almost Famous = Life is Beautiful = Creed !
Bringing Up Baby = zombieland = whats up doc
Finding Nemo = Collateral = Pitch Perfect !
The Limey = El Mariachi = Roman Holiday

???
Romeo and Juliet (Optionlock) ~ West Side Story (Timelock)

3 Likes
#7

What a great list! Thank you so much…

#8

Updated the Network Map.
Some new stuff:

  • Wonder Woman has only one comparable storyform: Disney’s Tarzan. Obviously.
  • Captain Fantastic makes family with My Big Fat Greek Wedding
  • American Sniper goes to the shooting range with The Producers
  • Princess Bride conceives of Amelie
  • E.T. has lots of company
  • Ex Machina shares some artificial intelligence with Her
  • The Americans (Pilot) hides behind Breaking Away
  • Yellow Birds is similar to Ida, Sophie’s Choice, Everything is Illuminated, and The Optimist’s Daughter. It’s at the connects SophiesChoice-Ida and Illuminated-Frequency to the cluster containing Optimist’s Daughter, Snowpiercer and others.
  • A Man for All Seasons, Spotlight and Doubt aren’t similar to any other storyform (i.e. at least 50% overlap).
4 Likes
#9

Very cool. I had noticed the similarities to Princess Bride and Amelie earlier, but I don’t think I mentioned anything.

That is very insightful information … A Man For All Seasons just feels very different from other films, at least to me, so that makes sense!!

#10

Are colors randomly assigned? Are there any special meanings? Maybe it can be classified according to the Film Genre（such as Drama, Comedy, Action, Adventure and so on）.It’s easier to find the reference we want.

#11

The colors only relate to the cluster/group of the storyforms. If you are similar to another story, you likely have the same color.

Classifying these by genre is an interesting idea though. I will think about that.

1 Like
#12

Can’t wait to see what it looks like when there are thousands and thousands of storyforms to sample!

1 Like
#13

So, I’ve been employed for two months now (finally), but apparently I still have too much time on my hands.
For every movie and tv episode in my storyform database, I looked up its IMDB entry and noted its genres, release year, rating, and how many users voted for that rating. I used that and the storyforms to do some analysis. Obviously, we only have a very (very) small sample, so it does not actually say that much, but still, it is sort of interesting.

  • How do certain storyform elements develop over time? (e.g. concern positions)
  • What storyform elements tend to get a higher/lower rating?
  • What storyform elements are associated with which genres?

I plan to set up a PDF with my findings and will share it here, if that’s okay.

3 Likes
#14

To give you an idea what this is about, here is a sample for ‘Nature’. (Ignore the code, just look at the pretty pictures :slight_smile: )

And by the by, here are the most ‘unique’ stories (i.e. they don’t have similar storyforms): 12 Angry Men; A Doll’s House; A Man for all Seasons; A Separation; Ally mcbeal (Once in a Lifetime S1E15); Amadeus; American History X; American President; Apt Pupil; Auntie Mame; Barefoot in the park; Bourne Identity; Desk Set; Donnie Darko; Double Indemnity; Doubt; ESPN; Eve’s Bayou; Hamlet; His Girl Friday; Inside out; Lord of the Flies; Mrs. Miniver; My so called life; Nebraska; Othello; Peyton Place; Platoon; Reservoir Dogs; Searching for Bobby Fischer; Some like it hot; Splendor in the Grass; Spotlight; Terms of Endearment; The Contender; The Crucible; The French Connection; The Glass Menagerie; The Great Gatsby; The Philadelphia Experiment; The Philadelphia Story; The Wizard of Oz; There’s something about Mary; To Kill a Mockingbird; When harry met sally; Y tu mama tambien; Zootopia

2 Likes
#15

This sounds great, but there is a weird warning message with that link…

#17

I made a page with all the charts I have right now. I hope this doesn’t show any warning messages. I don’t know what the problem was before. It doesn’t use any real javascript… Maybe the images are too large?

What I wrote underneath is not that important. They are conclusions you could arrive at from the data. But again, the sample is small.
In addition, just because a certain combination of genre and story points has a lower average rating than others, doesn’t mean you should not try it out. It could actually be taken as a challenge.

3 Likes
#18

First off, thanks for giving me something new to do over the next couple of weeks! Those charts look great…

Secondly - I only get the warning on Safari iOS - it says:

This Connection is Not Private This website may be impersonating “raskoph.lima-city.de” to steal your personal or financial information. You should go back to the previous page.

Details say the certificate is not valid.

1 Like
#19

I’ve been working on a sports comedy, and have had a few readers note that it feels a little ‘different’ to most sports movies. Just took a little look at your data and found that most sports movies are in the ‘Actual Work’ category and mine is in the ‘Actual Dilemma’ category; also with a holistic MC. There are a couple other areas where I ‘took your challenge’, so to speak, and suddenly the ‘different’ feeling makes a lot of sense.

Fantastic job, @bobRaskoph. Very interesting stuff.

2 Likes
#20

This was a great work. :+1:

1 Like
#21

I looked into it, and unfortunately I can’t do anything about it as long as I’m on that host.

If you guys don’t trust this, I will try to create a PDF out of it and place it on Google Drive. It’s just that the large images (particularly the rating boxplots) make it annoying.
I’m thinking about making pages for genres individiually… that would make the images smaller.

Would you people be interested in looking at the distribution of Concerns, Issues, Problems, Focuses, etc?

Either way, I’m glad that you like that charts. Makes me feel like I didn’t waste my time that much.