As many of you know, I’ve been going through a film course along with thirty other filmmakers from all around the world. The school was developed by Muse, the brainchild of Emmy Award filmmaker Patrick Moreau. And the experience has been nothing short of amazing!
I’ve learned so much in the first few weeks of film school. We’re really excited to put all of these learning into practice. If you want to learn more about our journey, you can check out this story page.
I thought I’d share with all of you some of the lessons that I’ve learned from Muse on how to make great stories. There’s a lot of things to make a good film for sure, but the one proven way to great films is telling great stories. And in muse, we’ve learned of the four main keys to a great story. This blog will briefly introduce into each one, but we’ll talk more about each point in the next few weeks. So here are the four keys to a great story.
People
The strength of your characters will determine the emotional connection viewers will have to your film. People are the humans, objects or brands that your video is about. The goal is to develop characters in a way that they are emotionally felt.
When formulating your approach to telling the story of people, you need to tell the viewers about their desires, unique characteristics and complexities of the subjects. When all of these are presented in a story, you can be sure that you have a good film in the making.
Place
The place is the environment, background objects, situations and time that make up the backdrop of your subject. They make your story interesting and reliable.
Places show rather than tell what happens and how these events happen within your storyline. They also give your audience a better context of the situation and the conflict of your people, which builds a strong case for why people need to give their attention to the people and the storyline of your film.
Purpose
The strength of a film’s purpose makes it memorable. It makes sure that your audience is left with something. What is your objective or reason for making a film? When there is a buy-in to a singular purpose, it helps us filter all creative decisions.
A purpose is determined by pinpointing what is unique, inspiring and felt in your film. On top of that, it’s also important to know your audience and the action we want them to do after watching your film
Plot
The plot is the sequence of moments laid out in a way that clearly tells the story of your people.
It’s also what determines how engaging your film will be and whether people will watch it from beginning to end.
There are six essential plot points, which we will talk more about in the future. They are the hook, conflict, initiation, journey, resolution, and jab. All these parts come together to form a powerful plot.
So there you have it- four keys to making a great story. I’d love to tell you more about each one of these in detail as we continue to gain more insights from muse into these four keys. So watch out next week as we release another blog. We’ll be talking about people in detail- how to tell their story right and what aspects to highlight. See you next week! Looking forward to sharing more insights then.
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Very interested in your work especially with local businesses.