Find Your Film's Story: Work Backward

This is the last of four blogs to give you a few strategies that have helped me find the seed of a new project. Try them out! They might help you too.

LIST YOUR RESOURCES

At some point, you will want to produce this film, and that means working with the resources you have or can access. Make a list of those and work backward. Your list should contain places, equipment, and collaborators. Also, consider what kind of stories you can schedule in the time you have to prepare your application.

This is a limitation. But every film ever made has had to face some form of this limitation. 

Limitations can also inspire us. There are many famous examples, from the Dogme 95 filmmaking movement to Haiku short-form poetry to 48-hour film festivals. 

Strangely, focusing on creative solutions to our limitations can lead to our most innovative storytelling.

OWN YOUR FREEDOM

What you don’t have in resources, you have in freedom. Think about what change or effect you want to create—not what you want to say, but what you want to ask. In other words, what do you want to try?

COLLABORATE

Filmmaking is a collaborative medium. No film is the work of a single person. If you’d like to direct, consider that almost all directors work from screenplays written by someone else. You could find a collaborator to be the writer or co-writer of your film, and maybe they even have a script already written.

STEAL (OR ADAPT)

We are all inspired by other artists, and it can be productive to channel that inspiration by stealing storytelling tactics. 

You could also think about adapting an existing work. As always, the trick is to make the idea your own. Stealing, in this case, is not actually copying – it’s more of a feeling and a place to start. What can you get away with?

START WITH IMAGES

Start with sound or images that create a mood

Filmmaking is an audio-visual medium; you don’t have to start with the written word. You can take photos, make a playlist, draw, or collect images or sounds that express a mood or theme you’d like to explore.

Your artistic process is a deeply personal thing that you alone can develop. Mix and match the techniques suggested in these four blogs. Keep what works for you, but trust your feelings and intuition. Creating a personal process is part of your own personal overall film journey.

If you are interested in working with Jesse Damazo on your film portfolio or need help with any part of your application process, contact Best Fit Education or email us at info@bestfitedu.com.