Optimizing Your Impact with Jeff Schomay
Hollywood lost it. They used to have it, but they lost it. What did they lose? Impact. Where did it go? First lets define what it is. “Impact” is the opposite of “forgettable.” Impact causes you to be unable to forget the experience because it leaves an almost tangible impression in your heart and mind. It leaves a lasting effect. It changes the way you think and feel. So where did Hollywood go wrong?
Do you like rollercoasters? Have you felt the thrill of each twist, turn, and drop, the exhilaration of 0-60 miles per hour in three seconds? Have you gotten off the ride with your heart pounding and your legs shaking? And then did you go back for more? Some people live for that. Thrill seekers can’t get enough of it. But would you call it impactful?
For the last few years Hollywood has been building rollercoasters, not movies. There is a difference between “thrill” and “impact,” but in this age of “anything is possible with CG,” Hollywood has forgotten that. What’s the last movie you saw? Did it blow you away and keep you up at night thinking about it? Or did you walk out of the theater, heart pounding and maybe legs shaking, but for the most part leaving the movie behind? Thrill is the easy way out. Impact is tough.
So what makes a strong impact? In the movies, as with life, it’s all about a human story. It’s about the journey, what the characters went though, the active – not passive – decisions they made and how different things were at the end of the journey from the beginning for their choices.
When you walk out of a movie, after the adrenalin subsides, what are you left with? In most cases these days, you feel empty, because there really was no story, no journey, no true changes that mean anything. Thrill is just one tool used to tell a story. Story is everything. Rollercoasters can’t offer story. Hollywood can. And people will love the movies more when they get back to it.
So in your own interactions with your own audiences, remember that your market will love you and your products the most when there’s more than just a “thrill” to get their attention, but a story that they can resonate with, a value that means something to them.
There’s always a story behind everything. Find yours.
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Jeff Schomay
Screenwriter, Marketing/Branding ExpertWant to tell your story best? Let’s talk.
http://jeff-schomays-portfolio.com/Branding-and-Marketing.html
For more information, please visit Jeff's TNNW Bio.
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2 comments:
I think you have a point. There is the story and a journey to complete in a film.
However, the audience needs to enter the hero’s world and appreciate the hero’s point of view. Then the audience needs to go on that journey as well.
I think you have a point. There is the story and a journey to complete in a film.
However, the audience needs to enter the hero’s world and appreciate the hero’s point of view. Then the audience needs to go on that journey as well.
Lookman
Gilt Entertainment
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