Sunday 16 November 2014

Storytelling

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." - begins 1984 by George Orwell, enticing the reader to eagerly find out what was special about that particular day. With no exception, all the books I've ever finished are either fascinating stories or are comprised of them.

Stories engage us deeply because they take us to their world before we know it. And our behaviour is hardwired because that is exactly how real life happens - chronologically, manoeuvred by characters and circumstances, following some stream of continuity - thus taking our deep attention just like the happening real world.

Last month I finished the course 'Understanding Media by Understanding Google' by Prof. Owen Youngman on Coursera. As part of the curriculum I went through the course video lectures and ended up watching every video at least twice because they made such intriguing stories and so I thought It'd be nice to find out more, maybe learn a bit of storytelling and once I have some material - write this post. So here it is - I've got some examples with cracking storytelling, a few fundamentals you could keep in mind and a couple of resources to get storytelling help should you need.

Okay, here is some storytelling from hollywood.

Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven is one of my best movies. Together with inspiring visuals I think the movie has one of the best narrations ever.


Narration by the adolescent Linda


Casino is another movie I love to see with friends, watch out for Nicky's narration at 1:50

Joe Pesci's narration in Casino

Here's a short Woody Allen feat

Christopher Welch primes Vicky and Cristina's stories


And here's a visual storytelling in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon


The epilogue in the last frame has text if you've not watched BL


Our generation of businesses are run by presentations, board meetings, tele conferences and are hence aced by the likes of Steve Jobs, see his live storytelling prowess below. As he always said - the most powerful person in the world is the Storyteller.

Steve Jobs tells the story


Improving Your Story

Well, for those who learn by doing bit by bit, here's my short crisp two cents - the simple parts of stories are time, place, characters and sequence. You just got to be mindful about these components and give them due light with your language and make the language appealing to the reader/listener's senses (touch, taste, vision, sound, smell..), rather than witty logic tidbits. Relay an experience to them, not a theory. Keep the continuity, reality always flows.

If you wish to read, wikipedia will fetch you enough to debate. Some quick contemporary tips can be sought from these Inc, Forbes and Entrepreneur articles and more on the web. Best you read a book, especially if you understand the rise of the creative class.

Still the better way to get the Once upon a time edge to your stories would be to learn from the best. Simple, get these Pixar Storytelling Principles in your head, read and watch all there is about the best storytellers around and start your gig.

Lastly, for our presentation age, I find Visually and Prezi quite handy to present compelling stories on the table. And if you want to publish online, try websites like Medium that light up every individual page rather than website layout shouldering your content.

BTW Blogger has a new look as well, with more emphasis on each page. Check out this story I just wrote.



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