![]() ![]() Because the audience’s memory already contains an entirely fleshed-out story to conjure up with only the slightest reminder, before a new storyteller even says a word of their own devising. And this is why nostalgia is so powerful. It is our remembering self, taking away the best parts of our experience and filing them in our subconscious to bring to the forefront when reminded…even when we least expect it. It’s a story of what we remember that we log away in our minds until something triggers it. It is a powerful memory which is created by something good that we experienced in our past. This means that, whether we like it or not, our experiences inform the stories we remember and resonate with. What we get to keep from our experiences is a story.” We don’t only tell stories when we set out to tell stories. ![]() And that really starts with the basic response of our memory. Kahneman explains “the remembering self is a storyteller. He says that what this means is we have two “selves”: our experiencing self, which is our self that is in the here and now and is experiencing life as it goes by, and our remembering self which is how we remember these experiences after they have happened. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman refers to this as the “Focusing Illusion”. And it all comes down to the perspective of what we experience, versus what we remember of those experiences. To understand what I mean by this, we must first understand what nostalgia truly is. In fact, nostalgia should take hard work to apply. Nostalgia, if applied properly, shouldn’t be an easy thing to use. In fact, I propose that nostalgia can be a powerful tool to craft amazing stories, and doesn’t have to be a trick used by studios to shirk their work or responsibility. I personally believe that it’s all about perspective on this one. ![]() But I personally believe that this is because nostalgia has become misused by Hollywood, and therefore vilified by the masses. These days, nostalgia is unfortunately seen as a cheap trick, a false feeling that’s built on the foundations of our rose-colored memories and recycled to sell movie tickets. In a world of sequels, prequels, reboots, remakes, and spin-offs, the concept of nostalgia has garnered a bit of a negative reputation. Today I wanted to talk about a concept that has seemed to become a problem in the filmmaking industry, and also one that I believe has been incredibly misunderstood: The concept of nostalgia. And I’m going to use the art of filmmaking to illustrate these ideas since it’s the medium I’ve studied the most throughout my lifetime, and the medium that I can most easily apply to other forms of storytelling. But lately, I’ve been wanting to talk about some hard storytelling lessons that I’ve learned through my own personal mistakes and experiences in writing. I think it’s safe to say that every art form is capable of telling a story, and we can learn valuable lessons from all of them. As an art form, storytelling can encompass countless mediums and talents. It allows us to express ourselves in a unique manner that connects to the souls around us. ![]() It has the ability to interpret our greatest joys as well as our deepest sorrows. Storytelling is a profound expression of the human soul. ![]()
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