The Art of Storytelling
Leader: Stephanie Bryant
“How to be a Hero with 1000 Faces.”
A how-to, hands-on workshop on blending traditional and literary story structures with videoblogs. We will storyboard and plan your own videoblog that tells a complete narrative using traditional structures drawn from literary and mythological sources. This will be a fun, creativity-building session, excellent for beginners and long-time vloggers alike.
We’ll kick off by exploring some classic story structures, particularly the quest narrative (fans of Joseph Campbell will be gratified!). The quest narrative resonates well on screen, so we’ll look at that structure in particular, but we’ll also discuss other narrative structures and ways to present a quest that is not a physical journey.
We’ll watch a couple of vlogs that tell a complete narrative, either in an individual episode, or as part of a larger storyline, and discuss the structural techniques used in those vlogs.
We’ll talk about story arcs, building plots, and using different storytelling techniques effectively. Finally, we’ll use storyboards and outlines to plan out our own narrative vlogs, whether they’re fiction or non-fiction.
If there’s time, we’ll also explore non-linear story structures, drawn from works like the Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction and the many non-linear videoblogs in the vlogosphere.
The goal of this session is for each participant to walk away with some inspiration and a complete plan for making a video that tells a story in a satisfying way. The focus is on narrative structure, rather than camera technique.
Bio: Stephanie Bryant is a technical writer, novelist, and videoblogger from Santa Cruz, California. She’s the author of the upcoming book Videoblogging for Dummies, due in stores in early July, and she helps educate legal professionals on videoblogging. Her vlog is Hold My Beer and Watch This! at http://mortaine.blogspot.com.