The Story is Everything
Advice for bringing life to your production.
You can have the best camera in the world and still make something forgettable.
You can shoot on an iPhone and move people to tears.
It’s not about the lens, or the light, or how clean your transitions are. It’s about what you’re saying.
Every production whether it’s a film, a music video, or a thirty-second short—lives or dies by one thing: story. Not the Hollywood version of “story” with plot twists and perfect dialogue, but the human version. The feeling you’re trying to pass to someone else.
There are multi-million dollar blockbusters that flop because they never give the audience a reason to care. You can feel the money in every frame perfect lighting, perfect CGI, perfect sound design—but no heartbeat underneath it. Then you scroll across a short someone shot on their phone, no crew, no budget, just truth and it hits you. That’s the power of story.
Gear, editing, lighting those are tools. They’re like instruments. They can amplify emotion, shape the mood, and make your story look and sound beautiful. But they’re not the story. They’re the paint, not the message on the wall.
As creators, it’s easy to get lost in the gear. You chase the sharpest lens, the best LUTs, the perfect render settings. I do it too often. It feels like progress, but sometimes it’s just noise. None of it means anything if you don’t know what you’re trying to say.
A story gives purpose to every creative decision. Once you know why you’re making something, the lighting setup becomes a language instead of decoration. The camera movement becomes emotion instead of motion. The color grade stops being an aesthetic and starts being a feeling.
That’s why the best filmmakers and artists, regardless of budget, focus on honesty first. You can’t fake a good story. You can’t buy it. You have to live it, understand it, and share it in a way that only you can.
So, whether you’re filming on a cinema rig or your cracked iPhone, remember this:
The audience doesn’t care what you shot it on.
They care about how it made them feel.
The fancy stuff should serve the story, not distract from it. Because when the story is real, the gear disappears and all that’s left is connection.
Here’s a few tips for enhancing emotion and story that I try to remember when filming.
1. Let the Camera Feel What the Character Feels
If the character’s anxious, don’t keep the camera calm move with them. If they’re lost, frame them small inside wide, empty space. Emotion should drive composition, not the other way around.
3. Use Sound for Storytelling
Silence is a weapon. Background noise is world-building. The creak of a chair or distant hum of traffic can communicate loneliness better than dialogue. Always ask: what should the audience feel through sound right now?
4. Show Change, Not Events
Stories live in transformation. A film isn’t about what happens it’s about what changes because it happened. Focus your shots and edits on that evolution. Even a one-minute short should have movement in emotion or perspective.
5. Cut for Emotion, Not Continuity
A perfect cut is one you feel, not one that follows the rule book. If jumping slightly breaks spatial logic but enhances emotion, do it. The viewer’s heart forgives what the eye can’t explain.
6. Give the Audience Space to Think
Don’t over explain. A lingering shot, a look, or an unfinished line of dialogue invites viewers to connect dots themselves and that’s what turns a story from “content” into an experience.
7. Anchor Everything in Emotion
Wether you’re shooting sci-fi, horror, or surreal art make sure there’s a human truth under it. Fear, love, jealousy, curiosity. Those are the real special effects that enhance your story more than any post-production ever could.
-ShakeyCG
