The Director and the Story
There are many phases of the Director’s preproduction on any film – from location scouts and creative meetings to casting and shot listing – but the first, and most important part of your job is to understand the Story.
Understanding the story requires a lot of work on your part because you need to break down the script and analyze each individual scene to discover: what the story is (really) about; what the main theme is; what the story points are; who the main characters are and what happens to them.
Your script breakdown will be a never-ending process because every time you review your script, or have meetings with department heads about the script, you will discover different things about the story or the characters you did not know before.
And the script will also constantly change and evolve because of your creative notes, writer notes, actor notes, producer notes, studio/network notes, location availability problems and scheduling conflicts. But as long as you know what the story is about and where the story is going, you will be able to adjust to all the changes.
Remember: a director is a storyteller and to be a good storyteller you need to first understand every detail about the story you are telling. So no matter what part of the production process you are in, whenever you make a logistical or creative decision, you must always ask yourself, “Does the decision I am making now serve the Story?”
The Story Log Line
(Contributed by Michael Bruce Adams)
As a director, knowing the logline, or premise, is the single most important tool to track your story from script to screen. Why are loglines so important?
Loglines are the crystallized expression of a story idea. Loglines provide the essential elements at a glance to keep the creative process on track and moving forward. Loglines provide the story touchstone for every aspect of production and loglines provide the hero’s main goals and conflicts.
What are the key elements of an effective logline?
- A hero begins an external journey… (physical arc, problem to solve)
- … and fights an internal struggle… (emotional arc, moral dilemma)
- … while up against the main conflict with the primary opponent… (who stands in the way of the hero achieving her goals? How do they do this?)
- … in order to achieve the tangible external goal… (the hero will either solve the problem at the end of the journey or not.)
The language we use for creating loglines is full of clichés and simple language; it is meant to be. Unfocused loglines lead to confusing exposition-laden storytelling. We want to use the simplest, most impactful language to communicate our themes and ideas.
Here are some examples of movie loglines that work:
Whiplash logline: A driven conservatory student must overcome the abuse of an acclaimed bandleader in order to become the best jazz drummer in the world.
Moneyball logline: A jilted baseball general manager turns to an unpopular new approach, in spite of sabotage from his chief scout and manager, in order to give his team a winning chance.
Jaws logline: A cowardly policeman battles a greedy community and an obsessed shark hunter before going on a suicidal mission to save his community from a man-eating shark.
Gravity logline: A grieving astronaut is trapped in space after a catastrophic accident and must turn her grief into determination in order to return to earth alive.
