Developing your Story Ideas

Story Basics
• Story – narrative / telling of an event or
series of events, in a way to interests the
audience.
1.Exposition – information that grounds you in a
story; who, what, where, when, and why.
2.Narrative spine/ train –element of the story
that drives your film forward, from the
beginning to the end.
 Story Basics
3. Theme- the general underlying subject of a
specific story.
-race, poverty, power...
4. ARC – refers to the way / ways in which the
events of the story transform your characters.
- A janitor takes over the company, a nobody
winning a tournament.
 Story Basics
5. Plot and Character
-character-driven – one in which the action of
the film emerges from the wants and needs of
the characters.
Plot-driven – characters are secondary to the
events that make-up the plot
 Tools of screenwriting
• The story is about somebody with whom we
have some empathy.
• This somebody wants something very badly.
• This something is difficult – but possible- to
do, get, or achieve.
• The story is told for maximum emotional
impact and audience participation in the
proceedings.
• The story must come to a satisfactory ending.
 Documentary Storytelling
• Story Rights
• Finding the Story during the production.
• Serendipity
 Developing the Story
• If you know the story, won’t your presentation
be biased?
• Telling an Active Story.
 Approach
• Approach - the manner you present the story on
screen( running time, tone, production elements)
• Archival Film making – Use of archival footage
and stills (stock or third- party)
• Recreations – can suggest historical past
- partial reenactments
• Docudrama – improvised scenes
 Structure
• Structure – the foundation on which the story
is built (narrative spine / train)
- where you start the story, where you end
it, and how you parcel the information along
the way
 Elements of structure
• Shot – single “take” on an image
• Scene – consecutive group of shots within a
single location; overall action
• Sequence – collection of shots and scenes that
tell a more continuous story of an event
• Act - series of sequences that drives to a
major turning point – climactic moment that
springs directly from the story
 Elements of structure
• Inciting incident – the event that sets the action
of the story(to the train / not the subject) into
motion.
• Point of attack- this is where you, as the filmaker,
enter the story.
start with the best opening and let the story
evolve from it.
• Backstory – incudes the events that happened
before (sometimes long before) the main story
being told.