The Magical Story

Let’s forget all those beautiful theories. Let’s forget all those romantic legends. Let’s forget the beautiful lies we tell ourselves. Let’s get rid of it all, get rid of everything.

You are alone. Completely alone, just “you” and “your film idea.” That’s all that exists, it’s the only thing that matters. The outside world? There is no outside world.  Just you and your idea. Your idea that is to become your film.

You sit in your room and think. How, how can I make my idea grow? Where do I start, how does an idea become reality? Very good. Finally, we have arrived at a level that really matters. Right at the bottom.

At the level of ideas.

An idea. A vision. Invisible, incorporeal. And now we are going to perform a magical act. We are going to make something out of nothing.

This is the magical act.

The idea becomes a film. Let’s get started!

Level “Zero”

The ‘idea’ of a film. Pure energy. Little structure, vague, undefined.
Most ideas remain at this level.

Because each subsequent level means more energy that you have to put into your idea.

Level “One”

You write down the idea. An idea becomes words. You create order out of chaos. The first level has been reached. You have invested so much energy that something new has been created. It’s not much yet, almost nothing. It’s up to you whether you have the strength to invest new energy in the project.

Level “Iteration”

A new word: “iteration.” Iteration means repetition, but also improvement. This is the hard level. This is where successful filmmakers separate themselves from unsuccessful filmmakers. Because at this level, you work on your idea. You rewrite, you write anew. You improve the text, you delete the superfluous. You add new ideas.

Did I mention that this level is the most difficult of all?

ANYONE can talk about a film idea, ANYONE can write down a few keywords about their film idea. But only a FEW actually sit down and work out their idea in detail. And only VERY FEW continue to work on their idea afterwards. Because this work is really painful.  But at this stage, a piece of glass can become a sparkling diamond. Something ordinary can become something extraordinary.

It is your ENERGY that makes this possible.

Level “ Tranquility”

Once your script has reached the best quality possible for you, put the story aside. For a few weeks, for a few months. Why is this important? You created the story with your ideas and your goals for the story.

If you have worked really hard at the “Iteration” level, then the story has become something new. A story that has developed a life of its own. Characters who no longer do what you want them to do, but what the characters choose for themselves. You have created a world that has developed its own laws. Its own ideas. It has gone from being YOUR idea to becoming its OWN idea. That’s why you need distance. You still see the story as the creator. But the story has become its own entity. That’s why you need distance from the story.

You still see the story as you conceived it at the beginning. Give the story time, give yourself time, give your subconscious time. When you come back to the story weeks or months later, you will see it with different eyes. You will sense what the story needs, what the story is telling you, where it wants to go.

Trust me. Weeks later, you will see the story completely differently. Did I write that? Did I overlook that? That would be a new idea for the story. This character fascinates me, I want to know more about him.

So, now we wait. We put the story aside.

The “master level”

Congratulations if you have come this far. Welcome to the master level. You understand your story and your characters much better now than you did at the beginning. Maybe you’re only now realizing the real, deeper meaning of the story. The true conflict, the new possibilities. Maybe you’re only now realizing that the story needs a completely different ending. This is the exciting part. Now is the time to be brave.

If the story needs a different ending, then give it a different ending.

If the story needs a new beginning, then write a new beginning.

If your secondary character is more important than the main character, then give them the space to do so.

If the plot offers new possibilities, then incorporate those possibilities into your story.

I said that this is the master level. You are the master, and that means it’s up to you when it comes to making tough decisions. Be brutal, have no mercy. Have the courage to completely rewrite the story. Replan. Rebuild. Later, the reader won’t care what your first draft looked like. Only the new version matters.

This is also the point at which it’s perfectly okay to be proud of your story. Yes, that’s okay. It was your energy that brought you to this place.

Let’s move towards the next step.

The outside world

We are now stepping out of the space we have shared with our story. It’s time to show our idea to other people. And now, only now, are we talking about marketing our screenplay.

I would like to pause here and remind you once again of the first steps. We have been on a magical journey: a formless idea became “something,” that “something” became a better story, and after a break that we allowed ourselves and the story, only then did the original idea become something special. If we had simply skipped these steps, these levels, we would have skipped the fundamental basis for our screenplay.

The story is the foundation. Your energy created this foundation. This solid foundation is the basis for our future marketing. How can we show our story to the world? How can we inspire enthusiasm for it?

By performing another magical act.

The words of the script are now transformed into objects. We can show these objects to other people. They can hold these objects in their hands and thus experience the idea. If the experience is positive for these people, then they will also be interested in the story. We are now applying new energy to create these objects. How can we achieve this?

We will continue in the second part. Tomorrow.