By Chua Qin Yi/Photos provided by interviewee
Many people may encounter writer’s block when writing fresh scripts or expressing themselves literally. Some may even be doubtful whether they are good enough to convey their ideas to the audience. Thus, what is required before writing a story? How do we write good stories?
Taco Hong is one of the founders of Story Art Studio and Sa ya Stories. He has filmed local documentaries and published a lifestyle magazine called “Sa ya Stories”. His work records local stories in Malaysia with the purpose of sharing rejuvenating experiences in life.
As he and his other two partners are interested in the stories of Malaysians, they feel magazines could provide an excellent platform to reach out to the masses.
The differences between documentaries and magazines
Taco Hong is involved in the production of documentaries. According to him, documentaries tell the audiences stories through the screen, and use images and music to present the stories in which the overall packaging design could appear rich.
Magazines are nevertheless flat, and the audiences cannot really listen to or feel the sense of the pictures. However, the audiences can slowly refine what the writer wants to express while reading by stimulating their imagination to capture the stories.
He said the producer provides the audience’s picture when telling a story through videos, while the magazines provide the audience’s imagination through text.
Creation needs sense
Hong said before creating a product, one must understand and have clarity with the story he/she wishes to express. Then, one should think about what kind of information the story should bring to the audiences. That is the core of the whole storyline.
He believes that every creation is emotional. When we create, we have to integrate emotions and build relationships with the objects, but we also need to organise the contents rationally during production to let more people know the story that we want to express.
In addition, he also believes that the preliminary work is crucial, whether it is shooting or writing a script. It is important for us to first set the purpose and theme, and then conduct a research on a topic, collect all the information, then only start creating.
“We also need to be sensitive to the things around us, and have strong observation skills, which can also help us to be able to create smoothly,” said Taco Hong.
A good story can make the audiences or readers feel immersed when watching it, and it allows us to experience the feelings of the creator’s product.
He added that the sense of resonance is also important. The creator must know who the audiences are, so that the story created will be more focused and suits the designated audiences.
The creation will inevitably focus on family affection, love, suspense and other elements. Although many people think these elements are very old-fashioned, he said that we can use different ways to express them, or add creativity in the scenes, so the creators must do a lot of research.
Hong said production is like a dish, it is necessary to add ingredients and beautify it before serving it to the audiences.
He encouraged young people to be brave to try, not to always doubt and worry about their bad work, just try to get comments from different people, no matter good or bad, it is the motivation to strive forward.
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