Speaker: Alison Norrington
Storytelling – 5 things to consider
Okay, so five things that I would say are important to consider with storytelling specifically in the digital space. Know your platform. So, for example we wouldn't attempt to write a novel and deliver it on facebook. Nobody is going to read that. So know your platform and use  he platform to the strengths that it offers. There are platforms that we probably all use. Instagram and Twitter and whatever that might be. But understand your platform. TikTok is great for performance based things. But understand your platform, understand the rhythm and the pace of how people use that platform. That's number one. Number two, know your audience. I would always say, don't try to drag an audience to where you are. But go to where they are. You're not going to get a crowd of people to come to your platform because you want them to. You need to go to where people are already hanging out. So, that is something different from when you are looking at digital to venue based. Because venue based they are going to come to you. When you are digital you need to go to where they are. They are not going to go find you. They are not going to scroll and look and check you out. Third thing to understand for storytelling for digital. Is to understand the sense of pace, timing and duration. So people may sit through a one and a half hour performance in a venue. The likelihood is that they will not do that in their homes if they are watching it on a screen or on a phone. Remember, that we have had a couple of years now of having to live through doing meetings on Zoom, right. People are so tired of sitting in front of a screen. It is not seen as relaxing time. People have a different physicality now when they are checking stuff out on their phones. They maybe sitting up in bed or who knows where they are. But people have a different physicality. So you might want to consider taking longer piece and breaking it up in into some smaller pieces so it is a bit more digestible. Fourth thing to understand when you are telling your stories digitally is to understand the overarching experience of your story. So, traditionally great storytelling has an establishing shot so people can understand where they are and what is going on. What's the frame of reference. Then something happens, doesn't have to be  hugely dramatic. But something happens.  When that thing happens, that's called in  storytelling, an inciting incident or a catalyst. Because you know from that moment your character has two choices. They either accept the change, in which case you have no story or they pick up the challenge and you know their life is going to change because of this thing. So have sense of what is that trigger. What's that inciting incident or that catalyst. Because to have that means you've an audience that are invested in your character or your story. Because they want to see the resolution which is the great power of storytelling. And the fifth thing I would say to consider is be very clear on the experience you want to deliver. Now I don't think you need to tell that to your audience. That's quite boring. None of us would want to go and see for example Avatar the movie if we were told it was a story about seeing the world through different eyes. Sounds very boring. So none of us wants to know that intention or that emotional output at the beginning. That's for you as a creator to know. And for you to design around and keep in your back pocket. Don't put that out for your audience to know. Because that's really off-putting and very boring. But for you to understand. What's the experience you are delivering how do you want people to feel at the end. That helps you and your team because you're going to need a team around you to deliver these kind of stories. That helps keep you all on the same page. So when new ideas come on the table also you're able to say now remember This is us telling a story around these kinds of topics. This is how we want people to feel. Will your suggestion amplify that or dilute it? So for you to understand that is very key. That's my five things on things to really remember when you are telling stories in a digital space.