These are the essential elements of documentary storytelling: Engage the audience with a present time story before revealing the back-story. The present time story engages the audience through the beginning, middle and end of the film. Define the Palette of...
Learning how to be great storytellers begins with a paradigm shift, changing your relationship to the stories you’re telling. You tell the best stories when you understand that you, the characters in your story, and your audience are all part of an “echo-system” that...
At an Esalen Institute conference in Big Sur, mythologists like Joseph Campbell and Robert Johnson were trying to come up with a clear, simple definition of “myth”. After several days, they still hadn’t come up with an answer, so they asked Robert Johnson’s young son...
The Future of Storytelling rests on your ability to time travel. When you develop your stories, you are on a parallel emotional journey with the characters in your stories, the same journey the audience will experience. But how do you register this? Being aware of...
The storytelling center for social impact is inside of you. Change and transformation begins with an inner shift of self-perception and by asking: What if you’re not who you think you are? The emotional resonance between you, your characters and your audience is an...
Raymond Chandler wrote great mystery novels like The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely. He also wrote screenplays like “Double Indemnity” and “Strangers on a Train”. Chandler once said, “If you’re telling your story to someone and noticing that you’re losing their...
