In the past five years, I’ve created three documentary films and dozens of shorter-form client projects. During that time, I’ve learned several lessons about storytelling and how to tell stronger stories. These lessons have helped my most recent film enter 14+ film festivals and win three awards.
In this article, I want to share the most impactful lessons I’ve learned.
Three tips I’ve learned that have helped me tell better stories through film (that go beyond the basics of a character wanting something).
Before we start, I believe learning is constant, and once you stop learning, you stop growing. I am still continuously learning about storytelling, using new techniques, and refining my craft to constantly improve my abilities.
1. Have a deep interest in the topic of the story.
This is crucial before taking on a storytelling project.
In the past, I’ve failed to complete some personal projects because I ran out of interest in the story. Films and certain video projects take a long time to come to fruition, so you must have a strong passion for the story.
The first thing I’m looking for is some sort of benefit to society (that matches my worldview). So while I love sports and a good sports story (I’ve been an athlete my entire life), if it doesn’t have some other element attached that can be used to make a positive difference in the world, I know I will likely run out of interest if it’s a long-form project.
My first film, New Roots, grew out of my love of food.
I’m a passionate amateur cook who loves working with good, local ingredients. My four years living in a remote Yukon town without much access to fresh food helped shape my outlook on the importance of our food systems.
When the pandemic hit and the world was talking about our food systems, I knew I wanted to make a film about it and how it related to where we were in the Kootenays.
If you’re not deeply passionate about the topic of your film, you are likely to take shortcuts to get the film done, not putting in the time, effort, and exploration to truly improve the story.
I’ll be going into further details in the future on how to identify your interests in a way that goes beyond “I am interested in this topic,” so if you want to learn more, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter here.
2. Have a thorough understanding of the themes you want to express through the film.
First, let’s talk about what a theme is.
The theme of your story is the primary (and/or secondary) message that your story is about. You can think about it as “What question is this story answering?” or “What are you trying to convey through this film”?
Common themes for stories include Good vs Evil, Love, Sacrifice, Coming of Age, and Overcoming Challenges.
It’s beneficial to have a general idea of the theme of your film as you start generating ideas, but in documentary storytelling, be open to changing your ideas as your movie progresses.
Once again this happened on my first film.
Initially, I thought the story’s theme was about small farmers surviving in the face of a food system that had “failed” us during the pandemic. Throughout the film, I realized that it was actually about family and passing down the knowledge of how to grow food so that this knowledge doesn’t get lost and communities can continue to feed themselves.
When researching a story, look for themes beyond the obvious.
At first glance, my most recent film, #MoCrazyStrong, could have been a simple story about an athlete recovering from a life-threatening injury. Another storyteller may have focused on that.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with this theme. However, I’ve found too many similar athlete stories with that theme, so how would this story stand out if I focused on that element?
By having an excellent in-depth discussion with the film participants at the beginning of the process, I learned there was so much more to this story than what initially meets the eye, and some of the surrounding participants in the story were just as, if not more important than our leading participant.
Now, I won’t give away the themes here (you’ll have to go watch it to find out—join us on April 11th!), but from talking to many people at film festivals following the screenings, it seems like the themes I wanted to express in this film came through loud and clear. These themes help differentiate it from other athlete recovery stories and will likely lead to its having the impact we want it to.
3. Understand how pace and timing serves the story.
Understanding pacing and timing is crucial to improving storytelling. If your video or film loses people’s attention, it won’t achieve the impact you want.
This is one of the most important skill for storytellers to work on.
Too often, I see videos or films maintain the same pace throughout, with little variation. This can be very monotonous for an audience to watch (and yes, I’ve also been guilty of this in some of my early work).
You may be inclined to think I’m only talking about stories that are too slow-paced, but that’s far from the truth. If you create work that is just quick cuts after quick cuts, this is also very problematic. How do you expect your audience to take in the information provided?
You need to leave space for your audience to breathe and reflect on the film’s content.
When planning your film or video, consider each scene individually and the appropriate pace for it.
When you move on to filming, consider how your filming style relates to that pace. For example, a slow-paced scene may feature minimal camera movement, whereas a fast-paced scene may benefit from frantic hand-held action or quick whip-pans.
In the edit, consider how the relationship between the scenes affects the film’s overall pace. Try to add variation in parts so you don’t move too fast or too slow through the film.
How do you know when this is successful?
You’ll need to ask an outside audience what they think of the film or video. Ask them if it was too fast or too slow. Where did they get bored? Where did they fail to grasp the story?
For #MoCrazyStrong, when we were at film festivals, we made a point of asking programmers why they selected our film.
We heard consistently that the story kept them engaged throughout and that it was well-paced. Our festival consultant, who we hired to help us with our strategy, told us that it didn’t feel like an 18-minute film; it felt shorter, which is a good thing (in general, if you can convey something in a shorter period of time, you should).
These comments let me know we were successful in our pacing of the story.
Bonus!
There’s one other element crucial to top-notch storytelling. I’m working on including this element more significantly in my future films and video projects, and so should you.
Watching some of the best documentaries in the past few years, I’ve found that they have a way of creating a strong sense of place where the story occurs.
This can go beyond the physical location of the story. What is the environmental and/or cultural context? How does this impact your film’s participants?
To see this at its highest level, I would recommend watching All That Breathes and To Kill a Tiger, two films that really help place the film’s participants in a world, and that really impacts how the story unfolds.
What has helped you improve your storytelling? Let me know in the comments below!
Great article. On April 11th, I’m going to ask you about having conversations with your film participants and how you brainstorm themes. I’m beginning that process right now on my next project. I’m looking forward to receiving newsletters from you and being part of the tribe. Thank you.