“SEVEN DEADLY MISTAKES SCREENWRITERS MAKE WHEN USING A SCRIPT CONSULTANT”

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To answer this question, we have to go back to the roots of storytelling.

Fundamentally, storytelling arose around the tribal fires in parables and myths, and was used by the chiefs, shamans, high priests and priestess and religious leaders as a tool to educate the tribe or the flock on how life works and how to make it work better.

Story was used along with all kinds of entertainment such as song and dance. There was an innate understanding that the way our minds think is fundamentally in story. Story is the mechanism that our mind uses to problem solve, which is why we dream in stories. That’s why we’re always telling our ‘story’ to others; the mechanism of story telling arose because it is fundamentally how we’re made up, how we’re wired.

The notion of entertainment on top of story is that entertainment is that part of the process that distracts or amuses our senses or gets our attention.

Another definition for entertainment is to contemplate or to hold up an idea for consideration, as in “entertain this thought or idea.” To entertain something means to consider it, to contemplate it, to put your attention on it. When we combine that whole definition, you’ll understand that the mechanism for entertainment is to temporarily distract or to hold the attention of our senses while we offer up an idea for deeper contemplation and consideration. In addition, when it’s done right we are temporarily hypnotized and an idea is injected directly into our subconscious. That’s why commercials are so powerful. Unfortunately, they’re often used for purposes that are not always in our best interest, but nonetheless they have a very powerful effect on us, to hypnotize us and then ultimately cause us to believe certain ideas and things.

When you understand the mechanism and the power of entertainment combined, you understand that it is a very powerful vehicle for inspiring, educating, influencing and enlightening the population or the tribe. It really grew out of a purpose of actually being beneficial; as the saying goes: “stories are equipment for living”. Over time, as with anything in a commerce driven society, something that people want suddenly becomes a product or commodity and gets taken over by a merely business ethic, and then gets driven by what would put more people in the seats rather than what will ultimately help people the most.

The product is underpinned by the real purpose of entertainment and the real reason we go to the movies or watch TV, or why we write movies and television, but has been corrupted to some extent. It has been covered by purely profit driven ethics. We eat food because we need to survive. Inherent in food there’s a natural draw to consume it until we have enough. But if you look at the food industry, they have taken that natural process and created certain chemicals and derivatives that cause us to eat food even when we’re not hungry, to eat when we don’t need it and to eat more of it than we need.

The same thing has happened with the entertainment industry. The mechanism of distracting our attention so that we can consider and contemplate ideas more deeply has been used to create overblown special effects and information overloaded products that cause us to consume more and more entertainment. Ultimately it ends up being many empty calories and we don’t end up nourished by it as often as we could be, and we consume more of it than we need.

The reason we need more conscious entertainment is to get back to the original intended purpose of it, which is to nourish, educate, inform, inspire, uplift and ultimately enlighten and move society forward in a very entertaining and fun way.

Francis Iltes, founder Total Script Consulting

http://www.totalscriptconsulting.com

This article is based on a conversation between Derek Rydall, the Enlightened Entertainer Group and myself. Derek Rydall is the author of the book “There’s No Business Like Soul Business.” For more information please visit: http://www.enlightenedentertainer.com/