The Driving Force Behind Every Great Story - People
Let’s start with a story.
Early on in my journey with The Curious Society, I was trying to figure out what kind of work I wanted and what my style was. Although the work I had watched was amazing, nothing really resonated with me yet.
Until I stumbled upon a video about an elopement in Paris.
Paris Elopement by Philip White
At this point, I was pretty sure I didn't want to take on wedding videos. But as soon as I watched this clip (which I’ve included below), I decided that if I ever shot weddings, it would be exactly like this.
I loved the filmmaker’s style so much, I signed up for his wedding film course. And although I do a lot of different type of work, there’s a few things that are always universal.
One of them is people.
People are the heart of every story. In the video above, what really stands out is the couple - their love, their desire and their story. Philip White, the creator of that film, says the same thing in the description of that video.
Here’s another example - I’m a big fan of Batman films, and one thing I noticed about a lot of the recent Batman films is they’re not about Batman - they’re about Bruce Wayne. The films focus on Bruce’s desire for justice, his flaws, his weaknesses and his strengths.
If you created a film about a superhero without really focusing on the person behind the mask, it might be a good action film, but it wouldn’t be a good story.
Whenever I approach any project, I always look at the people. How much do they care about the subject? What’s their reasoning behind what they do? What drives them? To me, this is the heart of every good film and every great story. It’s what allows us to fall in love with characters, watch to see what happens to them, and, more importantly, get lost in the story.
Without people, you don’t have a story. And just to clarify, I don’t mean they actually need to be humans. Ratatouille is about a rat named Remy who is so passionate about cooking and becoming a great chef in Paris. Even though it’s an animal, we fall in love with Remy because he has those qualities we seek in people.