The Intricate Art of Story-Telling

Books and/or Movies

Sharing thoughts while sipping Coffee

Growing up I had the opportunity to read books, one of my favorite authors is still Agatha Christie. I read fiction and non-fiction but my heart lies with fiction.

I also enjoy watching movies, my memory reminds me that I was so much into movies as a kid because I was excited to see something new and I wanted to know what was out there. The reason was not to know what happens at the end or exclaim at an action scene but to be more engrossed in how the story unwielded. I guess the reason for logically liking books and movies for me at that time was because many books were adapted into movies.

Now that I understand the difference between Cinema, Movies, and Films. I watch films now with increased focus on how the characters behave and how it contributes to the storytelling and takes me along to the next scene. I question aspects of character building in some movies, as I don't understand why sometimes a particular behaves out of their character or does something very unrealistic. I question their storytelling and lament why I am not able to relate to it. In the past, I used to analyze the overall movie, now I analyze by scenes.

The other aspect when I look at a scene is how aesthetically the scene is presented. Let us say the book has the lines “ On a rainy morning, I was sitting on my Balcony sipping coffee and relishing the smell of Earth”.How well the filmmaker adapts the scene visually is so different for each filmmaker. Sometimes I used to make a point to watch movies that are adapted from books to see if they did adapt from the books. Also, I have come across films that were not adapted from books being presented so well. I guess it all depends on the person presenting the story whether it is in a book or a film. They both cater to different audiences, as a book lover you would appreciate how creatively the words are woven together in a book and as a film lover, you would appreciate how the scene is presented visually. Of course, there are different genres and personal choices that influence the liking of people. When are you making a movie, there are constraints on resources budget, actors, film sets, and more. But a book gives the freedom to express all of these in detail, you can develop characters and backstories.

For me, books or movies point to one thing — the art of storytelling which I feel is a gift for not many people. To learn this art, most of the time I observe that you share your own experiences through a story, you are exposed to different cultures and have a keen interest in a subject or a combination of all of these. I observe that this level of storytelling might see some changes going forward considering the increasing trend of shrinking attention span.

Also, the writing is influenced by what you consume, we are more interested in stories that are quick, action-oriented, and love quick dopamine. Human beings are complex, we go through different situations, and presenting that in a story requires effort from the story writer to create situations in which a character behaves in a certain way. The story writers are quick to put characters in a good or bad spotlight and shy away from writing grey characters. This in turn allows the audience to make polarized judgements about a movie. When we do not have these layered characteristics written for a character, we are not encouraging our audiences to make a choice but instead emphasizing a point. This is the reason my title says it is an intricate art of storytelling and that's the reason why once in a while there comes a movie that opens our eyes to a different perspective. Guess not all movies can be made like that and for that one movie once in a while, I will be happy to appreciate the filmmakers, filmmaking, and master storytellers.