Being a creative filmmaker is tough, even in the digital age. If you want to be the next Chris Nolan you gotta have content that people want to watch, which basically means you have two options. You either have to find good scripts or you have to write good scripts.
Finding the good ones, though, is tough and the scripts themselves are expensive because it’s hard to write them and not many people can do it. And those good writers? Well...They need to eat, so they wanna get paid handsomely for their insanely hard work.
It’s no surprise then, that the ones who can afford the great writers and scripts are studios, which means all the great content gets concentrated into large production companies and handled by the professionals who are most capable of turning them into profits. The only way to get the really great scripts then is by freak accident through heavy networking and gig work. That or just be super-rich and buy the unproduced content yourself.
There’s a third option, though, that unfortunately, most people have to endure: rolling up your sleeves and learning how to write good content yourself. But this is very challenging because it requires a lot of time, energy, and patience just to have a shot at being able to write something worth filming.
There are people who spend their entire lives trying to figure it out and fail miserably even though they read all the great scripts, studied under the best professionals, wrote script after script after script, and more or less went through every unimaginable hoop just to make it as a writer. And while there may be a whole slew of reasons as to why more writers fail than succeed, one major reason could be the fact that most writers aren’t maximizing their ability to make their ideas more unique and creative. But is it even possible to do this or are we simply born with this ability?
Some people might naturally be better at creativity than others, just like anything, but also just like anything, if you’re a fully functioning person who happens to live in a stable country where your basic needs are met, you can get better at it, too. And, by improving your ability to be more creative, you can really give yourself that extra edge that could mean the difference between being given a shot or falling to the wayside...So, how do you enhance your creative abilities? Well, it actually might be a lot easier than you think.
Let’s first look at how we create ideas. Scientists recently discovered that there are essentially three neural networks responsible for producing creative ideas. One of them is called the imagination network and that’s involved in piecing together past experiences in different variations. So in other words, the things we’ve watched or read; the things we’ve done and experienced in everyday life are recycled in the stories we create. We just can’t see them because they’ve been broken down and pieced back together so much, they’ve become entirely new ideas.
Well, if this is the case then it seems that as a filmmaker you really only need to do three things if you want to be more creative with your stories. Obviously, learn how to write well, but beyond that, immerse yourself in media and go live your life!
Start watching a bunch of movies across genres and time periods. Listen to heavy intellectual podcasts about anything and everything. Start reading but not just fiction, even though it’s always great to lose yourself in a story and it's a great way to learn from the pros. But if you want to enrich your stories, if you want to really develop your “writer’s voice”, you need to read a lot of nonfiction. Read as much as you can in as many academic disciplines as possible because it will enhance your understanding of the world outside of your own personal experiences.
And you can then take this knowledge and express observable truths that can be argued in your characters and plot so that your audience can feel and experience the philosophy of what you’re trying to discuss without actually discussing anything at all. I mean, that’s really the whole point of a story. It’s what makes them so enjoyable because we’re not sitting in a lecture hall listening to a 3-hour talk. We’re watching an exciting movie where characters do things and crazy stuff happens, but it’s all happening in a way that connects back to the larger point of the story or the premise, which is all crafted by the knowledge one accumulates about the world.
That’s actually what we really mean when we say, “writer’s voice”. It’s not the dialogue from the characters, but rather the compilation of everything and all the choices you make to really drive home that deeper point. So, read lots of non-fiction to make your stories deep and meaningful. Otherwise, they’ll end up with a lot of bark and not enough bite.
But you still have to go beyond media consumption because, no matter how much you read or watch, it can never replace experiencing the real thing. The real thing is all-immersive. It leaves one with a deeper understanding of the experience, which as a writer, you can use to better develop that emotional complexity you want your characters to embody.
So go out on that date you think will end miserably. Go on that trip with your friend even if you think it will suck. Get that blue-collar job that’s back-breaking instead of that film job at the advertising agency. Hang out with different people in different scenes and different classes. Go to that part of the city that’s a little too dangerous or that town that’s a little too safe. Go out and explore! And develop relationships along the way. But most of all, listen to everyone whether you love em or hate em. It doesn’t matter if you agree with them or not because the point is to try and gain valuable knowledge from the experiences themselves.
Doing these things probably won’t turn you into Charles Bukowski, but at the very least, it’ll give you memories, which you can then dice up and reinvent in your stories. And when combined with all the media consumption, you can significantly expand your creative palate and strengthen the meaning and significance of anything you create.
So no matter what, if you truly want to create a great script and turn that into a great film, learn how to do it technically, network, collaborate, figure out how to get funding, and consume as much media as possible...But above everything, live your life! Your future self will thank you.
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Story Prism, LLC