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There is a false notion amongst many aspiring film directors that any script can be made better by a great movie director. These film directors believe story is just a nicety and isn't the backbone of a good film. Movie directors like this think they can add other elements that can make up for a poor story. Without a compelling story this kind of movie director falls into a pattern of using certain elements they hope will cover up this deficiency.

Overacting

A film with a poor story will still be full of situations; they just won't be particularly interesting since there is no thread holding each together with the other. There will be scenes of conversation, but they will be chit-chat not dialogue. There will be scenes of people going about their business, but there won't be much interest in them because they don't seem important. Without inherent interest in the actions of the characters the only way to make the scenes compelling is to turn up the acting.

A poor director will make these scenes compelling by having lots of yelling and facial contortions. The audience will assume these people would not scream if what they're saying was not important, right? Nobody makes a pained face unless they are truly affected by the situation and it's of crucial significance to them. This movie must be good because the actors seem so into it. In life people generally don't fake these emotions (except drama queens), but in movies directors have actors do it all the time to keep you from getting bored.

Score

When the story is incoherent or non-existent there won't be much emotion in the film, so it must be gotten somehow. Instead of having actions and turns of events that change the fortunes of characters honestly elicit emotions in the audience, bad directors just slap on an emotionally-indicating piece of music made just for this part of the movie. So the part where we don't care what is happening but somebody is crying can be made sad with a sappy score that in itself would make us weep and now in conjunction with these meaning-challenged images makes us think we are crying because of the movie.

Music

Maybe this movie has no sad or exciting parts that a custom score can accentuate or fabricate. This movie may be so devoid of anything interesting that the traditional musical accompaniment won't work. In that case a director can just add pop music of the moment and ensure audience attention. This will turn the length of the movie over which songs are played into a glorified music video, but it's better than walkouts. Whenever an especially boring part arises a filmmaker need do nothing more than play anything from the catalog of popular music and be assured the audience will stay a few minutes longer. Not only will they stay for the duration of the song, but they will also think about what song could be played next and if that doesn't last long enough they might replay the song you just played in their head for a while.

Exploitation Bits

A movie with no story and no characters, that nobody cares about, and doesn't have any of the above might still have a chance to find a willing audience. When people are bored with your movie they will certainly stick around to watch naked people. Naked people needn't have a story attached to it because we make one of our own in our mind. Nudity is a cure-all and sex scenes are all the better. There is an industry of filmmaking that is done without a story, includes graphic sexual content, and makes billions a year. When in doubt make it a skin flick. If you are a prude, then just blow things up and kill people violently. It's the next best thing.

How artful these ideas for saving your story-less movie are. Though it was all done tongue-in-cheek, these are precisely the solutions that too many directors employ to salvage their floundering epic.

Once you are already shooting and things are pretty set, it's too late to write a compelling story. When you already have scenes shot and are in the editing phase, it's not feasible to start all over but with a story this time. Instead of putting yourself in the position where you have to take these hack measures, don't rush yourself. Make sure there is a story from the start and keep the telling of it foremost in your mind.