GRE AT M INDs SHARE
How a good game of poker can help your story’s structure! Writer/director Danny Stack (Thunderbirds Are Go, Octonauts, Who Killed Nelson Nutmeg?) put on his best poker face to highlight a fun structural technique that helps strengthen and clarify stories, not just for children but for all ages! Danny’s session gave the classic three-act structure a modern twist, breaking its five main beats into the key stages of a poker game: • The inciting incident is when you (the hero) are dealt a hand • The end of act one is when you decide to bet • The midpoint of act two is when you go all in (all or nothing/point of no return/ stakes & jeopardy to the max) • End of act two is when you seemingly lose • But in act three & the final twist/denoue ment you get the result you want and/ or need. Danny claims to have got this poker analogy from a Pixar executive who made a brief tweet about the subject. Unfortunately,
The Ultimate Audience – Discussed by the Ultimate Panel that Dubit research had determined that up to 60% of kids between the ages of 2 and 15, at times found it difficult to find appealing content. The key issue was discoverability. Given the diverse markets covered, each had very localized issues. Mitsuaki from NHK Japan, indicated that scheduled content still resonated with Japanese children. This was at odds with other Asian markets.
Adam Schoff from Dubit Limited, a kids strategy and research company, joined Mitsuaki Furuya, NHK, Sean Chu of WeKids Asia and Charlie Han from BiG Taiwan on stage. Discussion centered on the notion that kids had never had it so
13
good in relation to the amount of content available to them. Although it was agreed that there was an enormous amount of content available to kids, Adam Schoff pointed out
The panel was keen to point out that there was no such thing as a typical Asian kid. Each Asian market needed to be treated differently and take in to account local issues around culture and market structure. It was also noted that Asian markets differed greatly from markets such as the UK and US. This was not just cultural difference, but driven by technological differences such as Android and iOS ownership. It was ultimately agreed that kids had never had it so good, but work was needed to allow kids to really benefit from the amount of engaging content now available to them.