ABSTRACT
All films are about storytelling. Even films that are purely visual have some kind of story to tell. It is a basic human instinct to respond to a narrative story. “Narrative” refers to a sequence of events in verbal, written or picture form that are put together in a way that tells a story. In filmmaking we are in the business of telling stories with pictures. Now of course this is a simplification: most films use dialog, music, titles, subtitles and other media to tell the story, but the visual images are fundamental to filmmaking: without them we’re really just making radio. Many very wise people have analyzed and thought about what makes good film stories and they have almost all come to agree on certain basic elements that are essential to film narrative.
