Someone has described drama like this: Getting into trouble and out again. Another of my favourite quotes is (Smokey Robinson talking about writing a song over a given theme): What's going to touch people's hearts about ...
Who ever saw a good film with no bad guy in it? Actually, the badder the bad guy, the better the film.

So, you need to work on structure. Like starting with a nuclear explosion and then building up to a climax.
You need to make the spectators feel for your good guys and fear your baddies. So you dress your good guys in white and back them up with sweet music - and dress your bad guys in black and make them look really ugly as well. Make them do nasty things and back them up with ugly sounds.
Take a look at the opening of Seven Samurai. (All of it too, by all means.) You'll see the bad guys riding towards the camera, all black silhouettes and nasty drums. Even when they stand still they keep pulling at their horses' ... (don't know that word) to maintain restless movement in the frames.

Sonicfella gives good advise but you've got to do more. Don't just look at good films, look at how they make the good guys look good and the bad guys bad. Decide on a direction (A to B) for the entire production and let every single frame contribute to the forward movement.

Forget about developing your own style, nobody does that consciously! Just tell good stories well and style will take care of itself. Only a hypocrite will compliment someone for style. Like when you taste something awful and declare "it's interesting". You don't want to make interesting videos in that sense, do you?

When you see a really good film (or video) there is (in addition to the important bad guy) always someone who starts out falling about in a pigs' sty (The unforgiven). After a while that person makes an important decision whereupon he or she starts lifting himself or herself by the hair to become a hero of sorts. Dead or not.

When you look at films and stuff, don't worry so much about what they do (and how they do it). Think about what they are making you believe and why. There is too much focus on technique in the video community. We should be more concerned about our stories.

Do not think that this is about adventure stories only. In music videos or wedding videos the basic story methods - and the needs - are the same: Getting into trouble and out again.

Tor

Thanks to Sonicfella and TorS.

I appreciate your insights and zest for the "art" side of productions. I hope I didn't appear I wanted to "take the easy way out" by copying a style from a book. A long time ago I learned that there are two components of basic communications: content and technique. Without a good balance between the two, the "message" communicated from the source to the destination will be lost. I wish I had the patience to view as many productions as I can, but alas, I am more of a doer than a watcher. I guess I would like to receive some coaching from people who are acknowledged to have a "universally accepted" good set of techniques and use their it as a touchstone in developing my own "style".

"The only absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth..." there's my quote for the day...quoting myself....(sorry, I'm feeling inspired this morning after a night out with the lads......) On a serious note, apart from films, my main guideline is...(wait for it..) advertisements/commercials/spots call them what you like...now there is a challenge: tell a full story in 30". But the real secret as far as I'm concerned is the audio: good audio can "make" a good video whereas good footage with poor audio will ruin a production. oh! and the simpler the better...