Is an Art
The art of story telling is by creating an anecdote interspersed with reflection points which engage the viewer. This is stark contrast to how you’re taught to write stories in high-school > introduction, analysis in the body and then conclusion.
We’re ditching that and creating great stories by using anecdotes, these are a sequences of events (actions, thoughts, speech) told in a relatable fashion. You can start with an action, which is preceded by another one, and then you can change gears and say something about your thoughts.
Pepper it with moments of reflection for the viewer. Why is something happening the way it is? Provoking questions like that from the audience are more engaging than giving it to them straight (that’s more like porn - food porn, actual porn, whatever).
Finding a great story
Another key to great story telling is the importance of Finding a great story. Ira Glass talks about how much time they spend looking at a story, doing the research and taking trial runs at it.
If it doesn’t work, it’s good to be brutal and cut it to try again, than put something bad out. Failure, hence, is a big part of success and it’s not something to be discouraged by.
Taste & Tell
Curating good stories comes by developing a taste for them. It’s not an easy thing to do, often times it takes time to get there. But you will get there, so even if you have to take time to get there, do it. Put yourself on a deadline and commit to telling stories, continue down that learning process and soon you’ll figure out what works as a great story to tell.
Talking the way people normally talk helps alot. It will take time to convey the story in the best possible way however in a good story, it’s going to be about the other person as much as yourself. Just like in a good conversation. Your personality shows even in narration (thinking David Attenborough from BBC’s Planet Earth).
Our Story
Together with Jordan, Jesse H and Yi Ting - we’re going to be telling a story about the Astor Place subway station. We figured thousands of commuters use that station every day, and there’s more to its history, location, name and design than just a name.
Our shot list consists of:
Historical documents / old subway map
Public Theatre
Colonnade Row
Cooper Union
K-Mart
island entrance
downstairs
split screen - above and below ground
people buying tix - at window and machine
arrival times
people boarding / leaving train
train arriving / leaving
bathroom signs / candy stand
mural / beavers
Billy Joel album cover
renovation construction
The story board pdf is uploaded via DropBox here