As a film maker, are you telling a compelling story? The post is originally appeared here:http://ljimc.org/blog/telling-a-compelling-story-challenges-opportunities-of-new-wave-filmmaker/

1. Telling A Compelling Story: Challenges & Opportunities Of
New Wave Filmmakers

2. Today, film makers have an easy access to
film making tools and an immense difficulty
in crafting stories that’d appeal the
audience.
Without a compelling story the movie falls flat,
no matter how great the film making is.
One of the most important factor that makes
or breaks a film is its storytelling.

3. This article is a crash-course for every new wave filmmaker.
Just as no two journeys can ever be similar, no two movies
can ever be exactly alike.
In this article, as Ahmedabad’s leading mass media and
communications institute, the LJ Institute of Media &
Communications has listed down the challenges and
opportunities for the new wave filmmaker in telling a
compelling story.

4. Challenges faced by the new wave
filmmaker in telling a compelling
story:

5. How to depict the beliefs of real-life
characters (in a documentary)
The biggest challenge while filming a documentary is to tell a
compelling story in such a way that it does justice to every
character. These characters are not perfect, its upto the filmmaker
to bring out their imperfections, impatience, beauty and navigate
through the story emotionally.

6. Portraying a story where the audience
hates the main character:
Here the filmmaker has to set up a story with the audience
hating the main character. The character is vulnerable, flawed
(like us), capable of love and complicated. Even when people try
to do the right thing, they end up doing it in a wrong way.
No one can escape sufferings, but at the other end of the road
there’s hope. Getting people compassionate about the main
character is the toughest trick.

7. Opportunities in telling a
compelling story for modern day
filmmakers:

8. Why should the core audience care about your story? Every
story solves a question, this question is explored by the movie
protagonist. Who is asking the question, you or other people?
Every movie has a dominant character, to keep the story
revolving around them is the task of the filmmaker. This
question is the lifeline of every story, irrespective of the
medium.
Importance of the core question –

9. To search for answers, the story requires the main
characters to go out of their way and seek them. This
results in conflict and hence bringing them closer to the
answer. The audience care about the conflict and want to
see it get resolved.
Here they put themselves in place of the protagonist and
gauge their own reaction. The opportunity lies in showing
the conflict in multiple ways – positive, negative, empathy,
personality trait or a happy surprise.
Importance of conflict

10.  The audience has to quickly invest in the protagonist and
story. In case of a short film the film maker has a few
seconds and for feature film a few minutes to grab the
audience’s attention. The core question must resonate with
the audience quickly – what does the main character care
the most about? Storytelling for a narrow audience is easy
while for a broad audience the issue has to be universal or
recognizable. The storytelling opportunity here is to explore
the questions concerning the protagonist and lead to a
resolution either expected or unexpected.
Grabbing the attention of the audience

11. Telling a compelling story is challenging but with
immense opportunities. The platform for every film is a
strong story, it is up to the film make to bring it out in
the best light.
Conclusion

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