We asked television producer Malcolm Hall to give you a few tips before you get into your project. Watch the video above or read an approximate transcript below…
The first thing you need to know about filmmaking is there’s no magic involved.
It’s just storytelling and you’re already pretty good at that. You do it all the time. For example, let’s say somebody asks you a question like:
Hey, why is your cat called Widdles? It’s a really, really dumb name.
How do you answer their question?
You tell them a story.
Well, when she was just a kitten, she left a puddle right in the middle of mum’s rug. Mum was really grumpy.
She said, “I don’t want a cat the widdles everywhere”. The kitten looked so sad.
We all started laughing and then Widdles just kind of stuck after that.
Now that’s good storytelling because you told us exactly how it all happened. Mum looked angry. The cat looks guilty and you’re all worried in case she made you take it back to the animal rescue.
See how easy it is.
So, What Does a Bad Story Sound Like?
There was a girl, she found an Apple, her uncle ate it. The end.
Wow. How good was that? Just kidding. That story really stinks.
Let’s work out why.
First off, we don’t know anything about the girl or the uncle.
- Was she young, old, rich, poor?
- Where did she find the Apple?
- In the forest?
- The market?
- The street?
- The kitchen?
- Why did her uncle eat it?
- Did she give it to him, or did he just grab it?
- Maybe he was really hungry.
- Why?
See the problem?
The story has a beginning and an end, but there’s no middle.
We never find out about the people or what made them do what they did.
So, we don’t really care what happens to them.
We just think argh… Whatever.
One More Example of Bad Storytelling
There was a girl, she was invited to a party. She had to leave early. Later, she married a guy she met there. The end
See, it’s the same as the girl who found an apple story.
There’s a beginning, there’s an end, but there’s no middle.
So, we never find out who the girl is, where the party is, why she’s been invited, why she has to leave early, who the guy is or why they decided to get married.
So, the whole thing is just a huge waste of time.
Now let’s tell exactly the same story again.
Long, long ago, there was a girl called Cinderella, you may have heard this one, but watch the video anyway…
If the video above does not play, head over to YouTube and check out the movie trailer for Disney’s 2015 production of Cinderella.
It’s pretty spectacular and fantastic storytelling.
You might think the big difference between Malcolm’s examples and the Disney version is the millions of dollars they spent on it.
But what’s really different is this: The Disney film is full of information.
We know who the people are, where they live, what makes them do what they do, when it all happens and how everything works out in the end.
So, we start to care about them. That means we’ll keep watching to the very end.
It’s the same with the kitchen story. We know who was there: You, mom and the kitten, we know where it happened at home.
We know when it happened when the cat was very young, and we know what it did. It made a mess on the rug.
So, we know why mom was grumpy. We know how it ended. Everybody laughing and the poor little cat stuck with a really silly name because we know all that stuff.
We care about the people and the naughty kitten, so we pay attention.
In conclusion:
When you’re deciding on your story for the competition, make sure you tell your audience who, what, where, why, when, and how stuff is happening in the video.
To do that, you’ll need to shape the film, so, it’s easy to follow. We call that structure, and we will be talking about that in the next video: How to Choose a Story.