The Elements of Storytelling

If you watched my latest podcast interview with Maya from Sailing Magic Carpet, you might have seen where, with brutal honesty, she said, “your videos don’t have to be boring just because you are trying to show real boat life”. So many of us pick up the camera with the goal of being authentic, showing what our adventurous lives are really like, but as Maya says, “If you want people to engage with your content, you need to put more thought into it than that”.

Without that thought, you may be telling a story different to the one you are intending to tell. You may not be conveying the emotions of the event accurately. Or worse, different storytelling elements may signal conflicting emotions, making the audience uneasy and uncomfortable without understanding why, resulting in them clicking away and never returning!

At first, the various storytelling elements might be overwhelming, and it is not possible to remember which elements we should be considering. My best advice is to simply take a pause before every shot to recall where you are in the story and consider as many storytelling elements as you can remember in that moment. That simple pause alone will do wonders to improve your storytelling.

Over the next several newsletters, I will go into the most important elements, as well as link to some of the best resources I have used over the years to learn these elements. If you want to be successful on YouTube, you should always be seeking to improve your storytelling, and make it a continuous practice. A friendly reminder that all your storytelling choices should lead back to your brand.

What are the elements?

The storytelling elements fall into four categories:

1. Pre-production
2. Filming
3. Editing
4. Post-production

Pre-Production:

In our world of spontaneous adventure, storyboarding can be hard to do, but putting even just a wee bit of thought into the journey you want to take your audience on can ensure your shots match up with the end story.

• What is the goal of this video? What change are you trying to make in your audience (emotional change, behavioral change, change in mood, or beliefs)?
• What is the plot / storyline? What is the challenge the characters will overcome?
• Who are the characters? Is there a main hero to the story? How will the characters develop throughout the story?
• Is there any symbolism or metaphors in the video? Can they be repeated throughout multiple videos to string them together? (This is a great way to up the quality and engagement of your videos!)
• What is the tone and prevailing emotion to the video?
• How will this video engage the audience? How will they feel involved?
• Are there any transitions that you can plan in advance to support the story?
• Will you include spoken word in the video? Which type of spoken word best supports the story?
  • Dialogue (natural or scripted)
  • Interviews
  • Narration

Recording:

It is during recording that I personally have the hardest time ensuring I am taking shots that support the story. Unless it’s an emergency or spontaneous event though, you typically have time to pause. Doing so will also result in less footage overall and only footage that supports the story, making your editing much easier and more streamlined.

• Which perspective would support the story best? Which character should tell this part of the story? How should it be told (dialogue, interview, narration)?
• Which camera angle would support the emotion in this segment of the story? How should that angle change as the segment progresses?
• Where is the light and what needs to change in order to support the story and improve the cinematography?
• What camera movements would best support this segment of the story?
• What movements in characters or objects would support the story?
• What visual composition makes most sense for this part of the story? How should the composition change as this segment progresses?

Editing:

Editing is where you have the opportunity to clean it all up, and oftentimes, change up the story entirely as you start to see things you didn’t see in pre-production and filming. It’s also where you ensure the story flows.

One mistake I see though, and I am guilty of myself, is this area of the process taking up the majority of the time. I remember in the first two years of my channel, I studied the hell of out of editing. I added all these fancy transitions, graphics, and added in a million cuts. And yet, my videos still did not perform better.

As I learned recently from big youtubers like Paddy Galloway, Ed from Film Booth, George Blackman, the bulk of your time needs to be spent in idea generation, packaging, and storyboarding. Without those processes in place, no good editing is going to help your video blow up. Additionally, without deep understanding of each editing element, you might be telling a story or portraying an emotion you’re not intending.

• What is the pacing of the video overall? How does the pacing change throughout the video? Pacing is determined by many factors that have already been set in stone at this point (camera movement, character movement, etc), but can be altered by how you edit (cut length, music, etc).
• Is there pattern interruption to ensure the audience stays engaged?
• What color grading will support the emotion of the video overall and each segment? (simplified: blue = sad / orange = happy)
• Is music needed to support the emotion of the video overall and each segment? How long should the music go on and when should it stop to enhance the storytelling?
• Does the story need sound design? How will adding sound design add or detract from the story? Is the audio able to be heard across the entire story?
• What transitions would support the story and the change of emotion between each segment? (NB: Until you understand what a transition signals, I advise basic straight cuts. Fancy cuts without understanding make videos look low-quality.).
• Does the video need graphics to support the story (price, dates, locations, time, and addresses)? A lot of big youtubers will use graphics like crazy, but my experience is they are a massive waste of time compared to the impact that the other story-telling elements.

Post-Production:

Your story doesn’t finish once the video is done. How you post and engage with the video can have a continued impact on the story.

• Where will you post the video? Will you continue to tell the story or extended parts of it in other formats (posts, reels, stories?)?
• Will you do a live premier and signal to your audience that you’re accessible?
• Is there a special community that will get your video? Sailing SV Delos support their story by constantly engaging with their private audience group like they are a tribe.
• Will you provide any behind-the-scenes or director’s commentary?

Action:

• Learn to PAUSE before filming, consider where you are in the story, and how you can best support that part of the story.
• Make learning these elements a constant practice.
• LEARN TO PAUSE!
• LEARN TO PAUSE!