Discovering the word “storyteller” was a monumental moment for me. It explained everything about my life. It made everything about me finally make sense. I was a storyteller. Storytelling is not just a means of creating entertainment. It psychologically influences the audience and their lives without them even noticing. Through this and the power of composition and other forms of connecting with the viewers, it transfers a [hopefully positive] message from the artist to the viewers. This is exactly why I am the storyteller I am and am pursuing film. It is my way of creating a positive impact in a way that is way more powerful than most people realize.
Storytellers tend to be artists as well. The true meaning of an artist are people (no matter the medium) who create things to communicate something. They force you to think about it. A successful piece creates a discussion either with other people or within yourself. Artists tend to notice little details about life that are often overlooked and communicate it to the public through their work. Film is an art. Almost every film has a “message” or “theme”. If the movie didn’t cause you to think about something after watching it, it often means that they didn’t successfully do their jobs. I have hundreds of personal favorite messages from films that have spoken to me and are showcased in a very smart, yet entertaining way but one that specifically stands out to me would be Click (Frank Coraci, 2006).
It’s hard not to understand the themes in Click. You literally learn the life lessons that Adam Sandler’s character, Michael, learns by experiencing them through him. At first it’s just a typical slapstick comedy until Michael starts to learn the consequences of wanting a different life. “You realize there’s something deeper that the story is driving.” He misses his children growing up and realizes that the best part of life are those “boring” moments that he thinks he would rather skip past. Us viewers connect with the character and feel for him. We automatically picture ourselves in his situation. By seeing Michael deal with the consequences of not enjoying every moment of his life, it wakes you up to the little things that are important in your own life but may not always be there. You instantly don’t want to end up like Michael. One of the best things about movies, like this one, is that you get to learn life lessons without having to learn the hard way (the characters do that for you) and those lessons may just change how you look at things in life– or even change your life altogether.
