STORY: The First Law of Storytelling

One of the best books I ever read on marketing is "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" by Al Ries and Jack Trout. This book boils the entire topic of marketing down into a relatively small number of easily understood laws, which if broken usually end up producing negative results.

As I began thinking about the art of storytelling, it occurred to me that there might also be a set of unchangeable laws for the crafting of great tales. After more thinking and a couple glasses of wine, some positive results started to emerge. Here then is the first law, which all others are subservient to:

#1: We must care about the protagonist and the problem he/she is trying to solve.

This seems so obvious and fundamental, and yet it is seemingly one of the most violated rules. If the protagonist is not likable or at least someone you can empathize with, the story will be a flop. After all, the protagonist is the character who pursues the main goal of the story, so if we don't care about him/her, or the goal the character is trying to achieve, there really isn't any story worth listening to. This is the main emotion that pushes the story forward--empathy for the protagonist.

One particular movie where this rule was violated is "Alexander." This was a huge budget movie, with massive sets, CG effects, and actor payrolls, and yet it violated this basic principle. Alexander the Great is really not someone you can care about. He had profoundly misguided ideas of freedom, had a strange relationship with his mother, and really was a power-hungry megalomaniac. No matter how much the filmmakers tried to make him likable and worthy of our empathy, they did not succeed.

So, when evaluating a story for it's potential of success, ask yourself whether the protagonist is someone the audience will like or at least empathize with. Once you have a character that is potentially likable (he's not a Hitler), there are several ways to ensure that he is likable, and you would be wise to include one or more of these in the first act of your screenplay.

1. Make him do something that reveals the good nature of his heart, without making him look like a "goody goody."
2. Show his human weakness, especially if his weakness is something that most of the audience also struggles with. This can be a weakness with some vice, or a weakness in abilities. Weakness of character will likely result in some disliking him, seeing him as someone who deserves punishment.
3. Cause him to be victimized in a way that makes the audience feel sorry for him. It's important that the audience not feel that he/she deserves the victimization, but rather that the suffering is unjust. This is especially powerful if many in the audience either experienced the same victimization, or have lived in fear of it.

Story! Story! Story!

My wife and I have been renting five or so videos a week as a way to keep my storytelling inspirations flowing. The first week we started doing this, it was easy to find some great classics like "Being There" with Peter Sellers, "Forrest Gump", "The Matrix", and "As Good As It Gets". The second week was also fairly easy--all we had to do was pick the titles that had the best actors, like Denzel Washington, Anthony Hopkins, Clive Owen, Emma Thompson, Hillary Swank, etc. After three weeks, however, we noticed something disconcerting: it was getting more difficult to find great movies that had great stories. In the fifth week of our movie-watching adventures, we rented the five best films we could find. To our disappointment, we had to turn off the DVD player on four of them after about 20 minutes--the stories were that bad.

That's the main reason I started this blog: to try and help bring some focus on what makes great movies, so hopefully screenwriters and filmmakers will stop making the sad specimens we've seen of late. One can always hope.

As those who have ever purchased a house can attest, the three most important factors in determining a property's value is location, location, and location. Likewise, in any movie, the story is preeminent, and it, more than anything else, will determine a film's success or failure.

Here then are the basic ingredients for a great movie:

1) STORY: Start off with a really great story
2) ACTING: Add in competent actors giving believable performances
3) SETTING: Add in interesting locations with solid cinematography
4) EDITING: Edit the film so it sizzles
5) DISTRIBUTION: Distribute the film to the widest audience

In the subsequent entries, I will endeavor to expound on these five areas, elucidating the main ideas with Occam's Razor, and providing references to the best books and articles for those who desire more in-depth reading.

So, with no further ado, let us begin...