{"id":16711,"date":"2013-11-26T10:41:47","date_gmt":"2013-11-26T15:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mediastorm.com\/blog\/?p=16711"},"modified":"2013-11-26T10:41:47","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T15:41:47","slug":"story-is-the-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mediastorm.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/26\/story-is-the-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Story is the Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the 90s, as a graduate student in creative writing, I discovered the novels and short stories of Richard Yates<\/a>. His masterpiece Revolutionary Road<\/em><\/a>\"\", which was the basis for the 2008 film<\/a> starring Leonardo DiCaprio, depicts the stifled dreams of a suburban couple. Kurt Vonnegut called the book the greatest American novel since Fitzgerald\u2019s The Great Gatsby<\/em><\/a>\"\".<\/p>\n

Last week, I found a series of quotes<\/a> by the author. One in particular stood out.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t be seduced by prose, the point is structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think the parallel is clear. To paraphrase, don\u2019t be seduced by gorgeous imagery. Story is the point.<\/p>\n

Now don\u2019t get me wrong, I love beautiful video. I adore it. And seeing a stunning photograph for the first time is like a window opening in your heart you didn\u2019t know was there. It\u2019s a revelation.<\/p>\n

In fact, I\u2019ve written elsewhere<\/a> that we should embrace the grammar and aesthetics of cinema. And I believe that completely. But without story, a documentary is an empty vessel. Story is the point. And to quote myself, everything else is details<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To illustrate, here is a brief list of recent Oscar-nominated films with amazing stories and aesthetically, one could argue, less than stellar visuals: Exit Through the Gift Shop<\/em><\/a>, GasLand<\/em><\/a>, Capturing the Friedmans<\/em><\/a>, Trouble the Water<\/em><\/a>, 5 Broken Cameras<\/em><\/a>. And the list goes on. But what these films lack in beautiful imagery, they more than make up for in moments of real drama.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s safe to say that most of us want our movies to look like Into The Mind<\/em><\/a>. And that\u2019s a good thing. But I would trade a beautiful backlit mountain vista at sunset for a quiet moment of deep connection every time.<\/p>\n

And I bet most viewers would too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the 90s, as a graduate student in creative writing, I discovered the novels and short stories of Richard Yates. His masterpiece Revolutionary Road, which was the basis for the 2008 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, depicts the stifled dreams of a suburban couple. Kurt Vonnegut called the book the greatest American novel since Fitzgerald\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":15742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[52,896,1644,1643],"class_list":["post-16711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-storytelling","tag-eric-maierson","tag-film","tag-richard-yates","tag-story","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediastorm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediastorm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediastorm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediastorm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediastorm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediastorm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediastorm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediastorm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediastorm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediastorm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}