Focus is a radical and revolutionary concept. It demands that the storyteller find out everything possible about the story – including, as far as possible, its context, structure and meaning – before it’s shot.

• Focus is the powerful, liberating, guiding and central idea of the story.
• Focus is the midwife of Storytelling.
• Focus gives the story life, shape and energy.
• Focus designs and enables the story.

First, do the research. Somewhere in the research, sitting there, waiting to be born, is the Focus of the story.

The Focus sentence:

• Always contains both cause and effect.
• Almost always includes a person. The viewer relates to people. The viewer understands and empathizes through the experiences of other people.
• Can’t be a question – it’s the answer to that final question which has echoed down so many ages through so many newsrooms: "what the hell is this story about?"
• Is written in the active voice as tightly, vividly and simply as possible.
• Contains strong imagery – elements you can see, feel, smell, taste.
• Is very specific – it defines precisely what you’re going to shoot, edit and report.
• Dictates the chronology, the order of events and, therefore, the structure of the story.
• Is a road map. It tells everyone involved where they’re going and how they might get there.
• Identifies the roles of the principal player/s.
• Defines and reveals the emotional as well as the factual meaning of the story.
• Defines the moral basis and, therefore, the intended emotional effect of the story.
• Evaluates the stake involved. The greater the stake, the higher the risk, the stronger the story.
• Goes all the way, pushes the story as far as it can legitimately go. All the way to the wall. Focus is not for the weak of heart.
• Defines what the story is not, just as much as what it is. You leave out of the Focus any major elements which aren’t part of the story. Maybe you put them in another Focus. But don’t put them in this one.
• Is shared with everyone involved in making the story – assignment editor, cameraperson, editor etc. thus enabling them to buy into the story, share its ownership. It makes sure that everybody involved understands the story and is working on the same story in the same way.
• Makes sure the story is absolutely clear to the viewer. But be warned – Focus also makes the story absolutely clear to hungry lawyers.
• Is dangerous. Don’t fall in love with the Focus – the better the Focus, the more likely it is to betray you. Life has a nasty habit of not always agreeing with research. Focus must change as events change.

Think of Focus like this – Focus is somebody doing something for a reason. Fill in the somebody. Then fill in the reason. Now you have a Focus.