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Story Development Exercise

It’s your turn to brainstorm some story ideas. This is the process that begins every film. This is not necessarily a film you will make in this class, but the exercise will help you stretch your imagination and think from a story standpoint.

  1. Start with a list. Write down a rough list of 3-5 events or story ideas. These should be real events that might make a good story. These events could be:
  • from your life,
  • from someone you know,
  • from a news story,
  • from a Bible story,

[Note: When you are ‘brainstorming’ you will come up with lots of ideas but most of them won’t be very good. That’s OK. You’ll weed them out later. Just see how many you can come up with.]

Make your list here: My Brainstorming Ideas/Events:

  1. Next, ask yourself if you can discern Dramatic Moments, potentially Interesting Characters, and Big Ideas that flow out of this list. Pick one (or two if you feel inspired!) of these events that you feel is the strongest and most interesting to you and develop it through the next steps:
  1. Choose a main character and write a brief, one or two paragraph biography to help you develop the interior life of the person. Use vivid detail and try to touch on major life moments from growing up to the present moment. Who are they and what makes them interesting?

My Main Character Biography:

 

 

 

  1. Identify and write down a Dramatic Moment and Big Idea for the events you are developing. Remember, the Dramatic Moment creates a way to show the Character and to place them in a situation that forces them to act in a way that explores a Big Idea.

My Dramatic Moment: (Describe the Dramatic Moment in as much detail as you can, what action is happening, how are characters reacting, what emotions are involved, etc.)

 

 

My Big Idea: (Tell us what the Big Idea is in the story; what theme or moral or lesson or message do you see in the story?)

 

 

[Take me back to the Lesson Page]