As a video production owner, I always wonder what it takes for me to make a film or what does filmmaking mean.
Is it the fancy CGI, music, sound, lights, or camera?
You see, filmmaking is all about conveying an idea through a story.
While these have their place of supporting the film, it doesn't really tell me what a film really is.
You see, filmmaking is all about conveying an idea through a story. Story is everything in making a film.
You can have the best idea in a film, but if the story behind that idea doesn't touch your audience, well, let's just say the idea is lost and your story ruined it.
So what does it mean to have a great story?
You need three elements, character, setting, conflict, plot and theme. Without any of these elements your story is not a story. Let's go through these one by one to better understand them.
Character
These are the individuals that your conflict, theme, setting, and plot will revolve around. Your character can be the hero or the villain. Each character needs to be relatable to the audience. They need to have a human side of them the audience can emotional feel. Your character can be simple or complicated in the story. This can also be nonhuman, with a great example of this being the movie from 2000, Cast Away. In the movie, the main character, played by Tom Hanks, becomes friends with a volleyball he has named “Wilson.” During the movie, he has arguments with the volleyball and in the end, he loses “Wilson.” It's crazy, but people actually teared up when they saw "Wilson" floating away.
Setting
Setting has to do where the character or characters are. This could be location, and time. Setting can be set in the '30s, a war, a city, 2090, and so on. This gives the audience context on the characters manners, thoughts, and cultural of that time.
Conflict
This is what makes a story. If there is no conflict, then are left to wonder why are we watching this movie? There has to be some kind of conflict to resolve or to fail at. There is a great video online that describes the different types of conflicts you can use in your film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg_10OfdEss.
Plot
For plot, there is a structure that many stories go by and it is as follows:
1. Exposition: The Beginning
2. Rising Action: Introduction of the Problem or Conflict
3. Climax: The High Point
4. Falling Action: Winding Down
5. Resolution: The End.
You can see the chart of these actions here
Each element can either break or make your story. The ending is the most important.
Theme
Last but not least is the theme.
What do you want your audience to take away from your story? Is it that good guys always win, family is important, or money does not bring you happiness? This is the big idea you want your audience to leave with. This is what you are trying to persuade them to accept your idea.
This is why you created the film in the first place.
So now we know the structure of what filmmaking really is, then we can actually deal with cameras, lighting, actors, and so on. Without taking your film through these elements your idea/film will fail to be effective.