The other day I was re-watching one of my favorite movies, “Not Fade Away.” I’ve probably seen it 9 million times. Some of you know it, too.
One of my favorite scenes in the movie comes during one of the band’s practices, when the main character, played by John Magaro from “The Big Short,” challenges the lead singer and says he can sing better than the lead singer can. John Magaro’s character initially backs down from the challenge, but then steps back up again, insisting that if the band is going to move forward, he has to take the lead singer position.
In movies, the accepting of the call is a key moment in the development of the main character. The main character’s transformation begins at that point, such that he or she is not the same person when the movie ends.
In this example, the John Magaro who will be comfortable as a lead singer at the end of the movie does not exist yet. He will need to transform, and he is taking a certain leap of faith when he accepts the call and says to himself, “I’m not sure what will be required yet, but whatever is required, that is what I will do.”
BTW, the accepting of the call is almost always preceded by the “brief glimpse of the vision,” when the main character realizes there’s a bigger world calling, but he or she hasn’t accepted the call yet. Often, the glimpse of the vision will come after the success of an initial project, as it does in “The Social Network,” the movie about Facebook, but sometimes, especially if the main character is male, the vision will be hinted at by the love interest, as it is in “Not Fade Away.”
Anyway, back to the accepting of the call: In movies, the accepting of the call is often a key moment in the movie, but in a real-life work presentation, it is often accomplished with just one transitional sentence, which is basically “…and so we decided to find out why” or, if the main character of your story is your customer (as it often is), “…and so they decided that they needed to fix the problem.”
Don’t be fooled by the shortness and simplicity of this transition sentence. It’s a key signal to the customer that an inflection point has been reached and the problem is now being solved. It’s an important gear shift, and you’ve gotta make sure it’s in there.
Remember that before this inflection point, you were describing the problem, so if you omit this sentence, the customer will get confused, thinking that you are still describing the problem when in fact you have moved on to the solution.
Oh, and one more thing before I go…
Not only does “Not Fade Away” end with one of my all-time favorite unanswerable questions, and a little jig danced to the Sex Pistols, moments before the end there’s a brief appearance from Julia Garner (Ruth from Ozark, a favorite show of mine).
How on earth could you not love a movie like that?