What Does it Mean to be Truthful to Your Film?
Channel: Film Fighters Academy
Date: 2016-01-05

What does it mean to be truthful to your film?

You hear this word thrown around a lot by story tellers. Truth. What does it mean? 

Telling the truth in a story doesn’t mean being factual or trying to emulate reality. Movies are more like dreams than reality. We want to see and experience things that don’t happen to us in our day to day lives, and nothing does that better than a good movie. 

So, how do you tell the truth when you are telling a story about, let’s go back to our original example, a dinosaur? Telling the truth is about being honest with yourself and being true to your story above all else. It’s about having the courage to make the film you want to make, not the one you think other people will approve of. 

Peter Jackson puts it best, “The most honest form of filmmaking is to make a film for yourself.” 

Don’t change a line of dialogue or the violence you want to depict because you don’t think you parents or friends would approve. As you are writing your story, ask yourself what you really want to see happen or how this character would really act in a situation. 

As Tarantino put it, “A writer should have this little voice inside of you saying, Tell the truth. Reveal a few secrets here.” 

Too often people write movies while worrying about how they will be judged if they make their characters do something offensive or strange, even though they know in their hearts this is how they would react.

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