The Importance of Story

The Author at the Showbiz Expo Listening to a Filmmaker's Story

     In the last few years, the AOF, one of my partners and I have begun placing money with filmmakers and writers so that they can bring their visions to life.  Some of the donations have been small, others much more.  In reviewing the projects, I began to wonder what each of the films we helped out had in common and I was not surprised to discover that of course, it was the story.   Not the story the artist was trying to tell, but the story of the artist him or herself.
     I don't think in any case where we assisted that there was a pitch. It was a simple, 'So, what's going on?' From there, the artist either told us what was happening and we said, 'yes or no' accordingly.  Some times there is a phone call or an e-mail but the process is pretty much the same.
     Which ones get funding?  Well, that depends on the story, but I can tell you which one's don't; it's the ones that don't focus on story, that are either obviously unoriginal, template formatted, or copied from someone else.  For some reason we seem to get those as well.  They are summarily denied.  If 'your' story isn't original, how can the artistic story that you are trying to tell be?
      I'm not saying that you have to have the personality of record executive from the 80's to move ahead but I will tell you that it doesn't hurt to have the ability to sell the interesting things about yourself to your audience, no matter who that audience might be.
     Thanks for reading and to those of you who enjoy film please get to a theater to see the story as it should be seen and for those of you who make film, please, start with the story.