The Creative Process: Teamwork, Time, and Risk

In any sort of video production (or any production), one of the most challenging and important stages is the story development.  It is easy to simply get excited about an idea, then run out and shoot it.

But I’ve found that some of our best projects are the result of the slow development of a story, rather than a flash of inspiration.

Free, one of our latest projects, is a great example of this. There were hours of pre-production, video shooting, and post-production editing and effects. However, none of this would have mattered if we didn’t have a strong story.

Our challenge was to tell the story of people who needed to be reminded that Christ has already set them free.

Free’s story changed several times from our initial brainstorming meeting. In fact, if you had just been in that first meeting, and not involved until you saw the final product, you might not even recognize it.

Out of our initial meeting this film had: a pair of boys rather than the girl, there was a huge wall of photos, an overnight candle lit vigil, a huge crowd at sunrise on the beach, and no Polaroid camera.

But rather than rushing out and shooting our initial flash of inspiration, we were patient and did not settle for the story we had. We spent a few weeks building upon, breaking apart and rethinking our initial inspiration, and as a result ended up with a powerful story that has engaged the emotions and spirit of thousands of viewers.

Here are a few things we have learned about story development over the years. These are certainly not original with us, but our hope is that whatever story you tell, and however you tell it (video, worship service, writing) you can incorporate one or two of these concepts:

1. Team Effort

Whenever possible, include a couple of trusted thinkers in your development discussions. Don’t try to do it alone. Even if it’s only one other person, that extra perspective may be the difference you need in your story. While the Polaroid camera in Free was my idea, it came after someone else suggested the characters holding the mug shots to start with. One thing to point out here is that this team does not have to be a part of your production team. Out of the 3 or 4 people on our brainstorming team, only 2 actually produced the film.

2. Keep Talking

My favorite shot in Free is the final shot, where the girl breaks the fourth wall and takes a picture of the audience. That final moment, I believe, is where the story ultimately connects with everyone watching, and makes it personal. However, this shot was one of the last ideas we had, and it did not come from our development meetings. It was the idea of my good friend, Alan Reynolds, and it was after we had already been talking about this project for weeks. If we had not continued the conversation outside of our brainstorming meetings, that shot would not have happened.

3. Don’t Settle 

There was a point in our story development when we were close to being finished, but one part of the story didn’t really make sense. It would have been easy (and it almost happened) to just move into production and hope the audience could make the jump or not notice the inconsistencies. Thankfully, there was always at least one of us who refused to settle and challenged us to continue pushing until we had a complete story.

4. Refuse Safe Stories 

You may have heard this before as “think outside the box,” but we refer to it as a refusal to tell safe stories. God’s story deserves more than that. Make your stories intriguing. You can do this in story development, casting, choosing your shots, editing, and music choice. One of our passions is to engage real emotions in our audience, and that requires the audience to buy into the story. Great stories involve great risks, and while it’s difficult to do this in a video under 5 minutes, it can be done. Why tell a story if it’s safe?