Filmmakers: Does story really matter?
Three M’s of moviemaking that all films must have to succeed, beyond story
“Great storytellers and orators have known down through the eons that it’s not the story, but how you tell it — the showmanship behind it — that makes it enjoyable.”
Maybe story isn’t really that important anymore. I’ve heard so many times in seminars, how-to books, film classes, and I’ve even said it myself — that story is the most vital thing in a good film. We repeat this basic tenant so often that we don’t even think about it anymore. We just assume it’s true. Of course it’s true, isn’t it?
But then I’ve sat through many Hollywood films in recent years that didn’t have much of a story, watched indie films — some that I really liked — that were vapid on story. Hitchcock was so obsessed with manipulating us with voyeurism that his stories often were an afterthought. Stephen Gaghan (Academy Award winner) said recently that story is the last consideration in writing his screenplays, after character and setting. Is there something to that?
The older I get, and the more I think about it, I have to question whether this long-held gospel of cinema is true. I’m here to propose that story, while important, doesn’t necessarily have to be the driving force that makes a good experience for an audience. And, of course, you’re free to disagree.
Great storytellers and orators have known down through the eons that it’s not the story, but how you tell it — the showmanship behind it — that makes it enjoyable.
I’ve developed what I call the Three M’s of Moviemaking: three key elements that all films must have in order to resonate with an audience. As a director setting sail on your new project, these are the three primary things you must consider: mood, momentum, and manipulation.
1. Mood
Firstly, a good film captures and delivers a mood, or a series of moods. The shifting of moods is where we feel a satisfying emotional change as a film progresses.
It occurs to me that a great deal of film students and amateur filmmakers are driven to make films of their own because they’re chasing after something — a vague feeling or aesthetic — that they enjoyed in their favorite movies. Fan fiction, after all, is about recapturing the essence of a film you liked, say, about Star Wars or any classic Film Noir.
There’s something romantic about recreating that feeling you get when a detective in a fedora hat walks down a dark alley with a cigarette. You hear a voice-over with a sarcastic macho voice telling you about how his days of crime fighting are giving him the blues. That’s not story! But that mood-setting effect has a profound impact on us. We’re already hooked.
Recent psychological studies have demonstrated that when we sit down and watch a movie, our emotional state changes to emulate what’s on the screen. So yes, mood, is a huge factor to consider when designing your film. Your job as a director is, first, a mood setter.
2. Momentum
The second most important M in designing your film is momentum.
Nobody ever gets onto a roller coaster and asks, “Okay, what’s the story?” Of course not. There is no story on a roller coaster, but this doesn’t stop us from the enjoying the ride, being jostled around safely at high speeds and letting gravity pull you forward.
In movies, momentum — that forward feeling of anticipation — is generated by various things. Hitchcock was able to use glances and subjective camera language to lure you into a character’s hidden secretive world. Sexual attraction is another one — if a heartthrob is on the screen, we have a tendency to hang on to see what they do, in fascination. There’s also the rubber-necking effect — the thing that causes people to slow down and gawk when they see an accident on the side of the road.
When a character is faced with a universally understood situation, we immediately form empathy, and wait to see how they handle it. Comedy is another one. If someone makes us laugh, we wait to see what clever hijinks they’ll come up with next.
I could go on, but you see, creating momentum — kinetic energy — is vital in your job as director. And notice I didn’t mention story. Story does, of course, create momentum, but not on its own.
3. Manipulation
The last M essential in a good movie is manipulation.
Card tricks and magic acts work because we enjoy the art of trickery. Audiences love being fooled! Moviemakers, too, must grasp this art and make it their ultimate goal. You must manipulate your audience’s expectations. Use red herrings, proverbial trap doors, mirrors, sleights of hand, and other gags to get your audience to think, “I’ve been tricked, and I like it!”
First manipulate what they know, and provoke them into wondering what they don’t know. Give your audience secret information that the characters don’t know, let one character withhold a secret from another, or mislead the audience with false information. Then by cleverly revealing this secret in a dramatic way, you create a sense of satisfaction in the audience.
As a director you must play with the basic psychological need for closure — that compelling itch to solve a puzzle. Just one more move and it will be solved. The audience — like a mouse — when trapped in a compelling mental maze, must feel like they’re on the cusp of the exit. But then, you have to give them a surprising new way out before they reach that exit. They will love the feeling that they’ve discovered a secret door or a cheat code to get past the expected outcome.
Audiences want to be playfully manipulated and tricked. They need to feel that the movie isn’t just meandering randomly, that the events aren’t just happening “because.” Audiences need the satisfaction that someone has an intelligent plan, that there’s something profound to be learned from these events, and that the director has found a way to outwit our skepticism and make us feel it unexpectedly. If your film doesn’t manipulate, no amount of story is going to compensate.
Story just isn’t enough to make a good film. Directors must create moods, generate momentum, and manipulate in order to be successful at winning over their fans.
Originally published by The Director’s Chair on March 10, 2015
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