Home Video Hints: Telling a Simple Story

Sooner or later, even the most casual shooter gets an itch to create a story not a record of a birthday party or vacation, but a real movie. Often, that itch gets scratched by second thoughts: too hard to find an idea, too tough to get actors, too complex to shoot in short, just too much work.
OK, but suppose you could dream up a movie in a morning, shoot it in the afternoon and edit the whole thing before bedtime? Suppose you could do it with any old friends or family members, plus yourself as a crew of one? Sound a bit more tempting? Then allow us to tempt you further. Even the most casual production has four phases inventing, preparing, shooting and editing so let's take a sample story through each one. To ensure our promised simplicity, let's go for a one-minute movie; that's the length of a long commercial.

Inventing Your Story
For a 60-second show you don't need a plot, just a situation: for example, Mom and Junior Start the Day. Now you need a reality check: can you cast a mother and son, or should it be Dad and Junior or maybe Mom and Sis? For this discussion, let's say you have a Mom and Junior among your family or friends.
How about sets, lighting, costumes? Household bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, front yard. Available light. Ordinary clothes. No special effects. That'll work just fine.
We'll show our two performers getting up, brushing teeth, getting dressed, eating breakfast and leaving the house. See how it works? As you invent your story, keep testing it to make sure it's easily shootable.
Back to planning: we'll borrow a tricycle from the Dillards next door. Why a tricycle? Because by itself, a situation's not enough to intrigue your audience. Mom and Junior Start the Day? Oh whoopee-do.
To satisfy your viewers, your situation needs a concept. A concept is a hook, a gimmick, perhaps just a novel point of view, something that gives the situation extra interest. So you think, hmmmm: they leave the house. Suppose Junior drives the car and Mom rides a kid's tricycle. You see it in your mind's eye: after Junior is established starting the car, it drives out of the shot, revealing Mom in her killer business suit, as she hangs her attaché case on a handlebar and pedals off on the ridiculous trike. Bada-boom!
Now your situation is energized by a concept and you've verified that you can easily shoot it. That's as much inventing as you need. Onward to preparation.

Preparing Your Story
You don't need a script or a storyboard, but your action does need a beginning, middle and end. The end is obvious: the payoff of the tricycle gag.
As for the middle, it would be good to pre-plan specific details: Junior tossing pajamas on the floor, throwing on any old clothes, messily brushing teeth, wolfing down cereal. Meanwhile, Mom is carefully styling her hair, checking her outfit in the mirror, neatly drinking her coffee, assembling papers in her expensive briefcase.
Now you need a strong beginning that establishes the situation and secretly plants the concept. Something like this:
EXTERIOR, DAWN: Wide shot of house with car in drive and tricycle beside it.
INTERIOR, DAWN: CU of alarm clock with display reading 6:45. The alarm rings and a female hand enters the shot and stops it. MOM (offscreen) Junior! Rise and shine, kid! JUNIOR (offscreen, in distance, sleepily) OK, Mom.
In just two shots you establish who your people are, where they are and what they're doing. Since your show will run only a minute, the audience will remember that trike in the driveway when it pays off in the final gag.<…