The Sixth Sense was famous for playing with context. The great thing is, we can very easily play with our audience’s assumptions, and turn them upside down. Context is what everybody assumes, based on what we show or hint at. – Oh, good morning, co-worker, how are you today? Ready for doing some work in your working place?īut none of that is needed, in fact it would sound silly, because we have context. We could have another character come and greet the hero, saying: Note we don’t need words or lines or dialogue to make this point. If this person enters an office building, dressed in a suit, and sits at a cubicle - everyone assumes this is her working place. Picture this short scene: If we show a person and follow her with the camera for a while, everyone watching will assume that’s our protagonist, our hero. Now, if we’re going to use just a few words, we will need to use some shortcuts to better communicate with our audience. If you can feature someone using your product and service, and having an easier life for it, that will do wonders for your marketing. Show the benefits of your product, don’t tell people about them. Let’s put it this way: Talking a lot is boring, but talking a lot about yourself is even more boring. How can you make this work for your brand? Take Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 and Steven Spielberg’s Duel, for instance. They fully understood and used the power of showing without words.Įven long after the silent film era, some movies still provide masterful examples of storytelling with precious few words. In fact, not being able to rely on spoken word made them better storytellers. It’s no coincidence that Buster Keaton and Charlot’s movies remain among the biggest classic movies of all time. And gosh, there are no dialogues!īut if you sit and watch for a couple of minutes, you understand everything that’s going on, don’t you? Think of Charles Chaplin or Buster Keaton movies.
In fact, you should rely on them as less as possible. Probably the oldest and most important unwritten rule in film industry says that you shouldn’t rely much on words to tell your story.