Writer, poetess. Sad young beautiful girl, actress in image of medieval person posing isolated on dark background. Comparison of eras concept, emotions, flemish style. Classic art character
When we write down our goals, they lead to breakthroughs that can change the future, and today I had a big breakthrough that would have otherwise taken me months to accomplish. For several months, I needed help crafting my documentary storyline, and I didn’t know who to turn to for guidance. I knew neither my story’s genre nor what is called obligatory moments—and I felt I needed to know these things to start the writing process. In other words, I was at a loss for how to begin my documentary film script. I also needed to learn how to weave the three interviewees’ stories into one cohesive film script, and the internet didn’t provide any answers. We all face tests where we need guidance on how to begin.
So, how does goal-setting trigger breakthroughs? In his audiobook Goals, Brian Tracy says that those who write down their goals earn ten times more than those who don’t. That’s because goal setting focuses our minds, even subconsciously, on solutions. To illustrate, I was drifting throughout the evening, wondering what to study next, when I decided to write down my goals. One of those goals I immediately acted on was as follows: I chose to analyze the near-death experience movie After Death, scene-by-scene, in as much detail as I could jot down in a single viewing. I planned to structure my analysis of the film by scene titles, according to the DVD scene menu, while noting the duration of each scene. When I finished analyzing the After Death documentary, I planned to model my own documentary on it. So, my analysis of After Death would serve as a template for my film, although my movie idea and structure are unique from After Death: My story is about unconditional love as an ideological model for higher education, whereas After Death is about near-death experiences.
I began jotting the scenes on paper to transfer them to the computer but thought this would take too much time. So, I searched for a phone app that might help me with a scene-by-scene analysis of the movie. The app I found, called Pluot, did not disappoint. Whenever we need to approach a task that confuses us, consider searching for a phone app to ease the process.
In the Pluot phone app for writing stories, I started laying out the scene titles in After Death, and that’s when I discovered a section in the app for the story structure. In the story structure section, there was a field to enter the hook, the inciting incident, the first, second, and third moments, the climax, and the resolution. I had three interviewees, so I put their individual stories in each section; for instance, I put each of their inciting incidents in the one inciting incident field, each of their climaxes in the climax field, and so forth. And the story magically appeared. The storyline came together like a miracle, and I was delighted with how this app instantly resolved my long-term struggle with developing the story. I went from a proverbial F student in story writing to an A student. We can all go from a proverbial F student to an A student for any dream we wish to pursue.
And the best surprises in life stem from setting goals and finding aids to speed up the process. Surprisingly, the resolutions of the two interviewees I mapped out in the app involved their calls for academic reform, which is perfect for my message. However, the third interviewee’s resolution has yet to occur in real life. Her journey will ideally conclude with unconditional love–at least, that would be the best-case scenario, as this documentary is about unconditional love. As a result of the Pluot app, discovering my documentary film story structure took under half an hour. However, finding the story structure might have taken many more months without this app. So, a phone app can demystify the process of solving our problems.
My next step is to dissect the scenes of After Death fully. Hence, the scene analyses will serve as guideposts for my documentary, outlining elements such as timing, pacing, interviews, reenactments, stock video, photos, etc. I will also study the camera transitions, most of which appear to be jump cuts, which I’m skilled at creating. I also need to examine how the music is layered into the documentary. The After Death template will ensure I stay within the time bounds and the pacing of a typical documentary film. So, that’s how an amateur racing against the clock with interviewees either in their twilight years, very ill, or undergoing multiple surgeries adapts quickly.
What might take us a year to complete can take us an hour. That’s if we know the roadmap, or in other words, we write down our goals daily. Those goals will subconsciously and consciously drive us to the promised land: our dreams fulfilled. With the focus we gain from writing our goals daily, we can overcome the most ominous of Ivory Towers!
On that note, I discovered that requesting the screenplay from the producers is an even easier way to analyze After Death.
