The art of telling a story three times

A movie is a story told three times - once in the writer's study, once in front of the cameras and once in the edit suite. I had heard this said, but it was during the making of the feature film “How to make a movie for £43” that I saw the proof.

I came up with the concept behind the movie. I wrote the screenplay. I might have fondly thought that it was therefore MY story. But then I saw what other people did with it: the genius of the director Rhys Davies in being able to take scenes I had written and transform them into a visual vocabulary that told so much more than I had anticipated, the actors, discovering depths and comedy in the characters that I could not have imagined. I could go on and list all the different production roles, because each of them is a storyteller, from make-up artist to DOP and everyone in between.

As for the editor - anyone who doubts the amount of storytelling that happens in the edit suite should definitely watch this re-cut trailer for Mary Poppins. The same footage used to tell an entirely different story. Not for those of a nervous disposition!