FTWWTTBS – Hello, I'm DK – creative producer and speaker coach

For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #16 | Conducting Emotion, Demonstrating Deconstruction, Painting Whilst Interviewing

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

A lovely ‘behind-the-scenes’ snippet here with conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic (as they tackle Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3, see number 4). The range of physicality and articulation of emotion he’s imbuing to express the sentiment offers a summarising vignette of his overall teaching approach (see a longer example from a year ago).

A deconstruction of one of the best songs on the planet (check out the Alchemy live version—you’re very welcome). Illustrated with demonstrative talent, intersecting performance and historical / lyrical context, with no jump-cut and all done in one-take. Masterful.

The Idiosyncratic Nightmare Podcast discusses and explores painting with a guest artist whilst the two interviewers paint a portrait of said guest. The five camera set up offers a unique and multi-layered evolving experience and is damn impressive. Would be wonderful to have seen the response from the guest to their portraits.

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For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #15 | Bass Breakdowns, Revealing Complex Choreography, Mmm x4

Amazing Stories v26 n10 [1952-10] - William P Mcgiven

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

Loving the conversational manner of this video deconstructing and showing / applying / exploring the bass playing of Steve Harris from Iron Maiden (one of my favourite bands from youth). The two camera set-up and post production narrative editing to creates a distinct format flow which keeps your attention (even if you’re not a bass player or into the music).

Revealed through a static view of a fixed cam, here’s a visual feast showing all the camera operators and angles, dancers and tech people, backdrops and lighting, in-sync and aligned to create this one-shot music video by Jungle. This literal and layered choreography makes my brain tingle in all the right ways as a producer!

A nostalgic look behind one of the most popular songs of 1993, watch and learn from the song writer and uncover both the stories behind a song and also the wonderful insight in how the place-holder of the “mmm’s” becomes the hook to the whole tune.

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For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #14 | Narrative Structures, 4 Words & 5 Lines Concept, And Making Noodles

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

Shared on Twitter by Prof Lennart Nacke of University of Waterloo is this mountainous feast of storytelling frameworks and models to get lost in. He recently posted a much higher resolution version as a pdf / poster to download, it’ll certainly keep you busy plus extend your literacy in this arena!

Always on the hunt to learn from others and how they approach coaching storytellers in the world, and the above added some gems to my current knowledge. Jeremy Connell-Waite currently works for IBM as a Communications Designer and in the video above gives us a wonderful breakdown of Ted Sorensen’s (JFK’s speechwriter) “4 Words & 5 Lines” concept. Superb stuff.

For the majority of this video only two camera shots are used: the main one focused on the table where nearly all of the action takes place and the second a hand-held side shot for a few close-up vignettes. Added to these is the simple descriptive overlay of each of the elements and stages taking place. Only the last three minutes do the framing change to oversee the stretching of the dough and formation of the noodles. No words are spoken but a tale is told in how to make Chinese hand-pulled noodles.

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For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #13 | Thumping & Plucking The Bass, Informational For Buying A Car, and Drumming Blind

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

Bass player, Larry Graham, taking us through a musical story of how he established the slap bass technique we’ve all come to know (and love). It’s a case of showing / illustrating whilst telling which simply adds a literal underscore to the narrative being shared. And check out the integrated microphone on the guitar itself. Phat!

The pure amount of information crammed into this video about buying a used car is intensely cool. Think about any ‘how to’ videos you’ve watched recently or ones you develop to share knowledge and now see it through the lens of this approach. More is definitely more in this case.

As an ex-skin-basher I found this a wonderfully intriguing plus awe-inducing. From the ‘blind listen’ to the reveal / education of using a lead sheet right through to the exploration of improvisation. Removing an instrument track or an element from an existing creation and asking someone with mastery to complete it is a fascinating example of creative exploration, recording it and sharing it with the world is bold as. What would this look like in your industry / sector?

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For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #12 | Video Store Chat, Blind Drawing Tutorial & Web Story

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

Own one of the last remaining video stores in France, invite film-makers and actors in for a look around, strategically place films in-and-around the journey to spark conversation and story, film and share. Very simple and clever. Hats off to Konbini Video Club (who have a lot more fine actors / directors in their store doing the same walk and talk experiences). A fine example of situating the story in and around an array of the medium.

The cartoonist for the New Yorker (Zoe Si) taking a comedian, writer and voice artist through drawing one of her creations in this split screen journey. It’s a fun exploration of the creative process, starting with a brief, through to inking, ink wash, and caption, whilst neither of those involved can see what the other is doing (until the obvious end and reveal).

A written story about the rise and fall of Yahoo Pipes (loved playing with this platform back in the MediaSnackers days and showing clients of the possibility of mashing up web sources to create RSS feeds ). Have a scroll through this visual essay and see the story unfold.

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For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #11 | Time, Chess And Carbon Dioxide

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

Illustrating the 13.8 billion year time scale of our existence on a dry lakebed in the Mojave desert attenuated by wonderful graphics. Abstract notions like time need to be made real through metaphor and this video does a wonderful job at telling our cosmic story through the ages (and how little humanity has contributed to it).

What a fun video where someone is explaining chess whilst unaware that the person they are teaching is already a grandmaster. An imagination and enthusiastic verbal journey which shows how colliding people of differing literacies forces the teacher to create new narratives for understanding. So much fun.

From the clever folks at NASA Scientific Visualization Studio comes this year long illustration of carbon moving in the atmosphere during 2021. What an arresting way to show the acrid flow and provoke a reaction to the toxic human-made filth we are polluting our planet with. Full explanation and other examples here.

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For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #10 | AI, MJ On Fire & Tiny Stories

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

Much like ‘The Scared Is Scared’ featured in last FTWWTTBS post, creating a visual from a recorded audio is a simple model. This time the above is crafted with the help of AI to generate the images which is often bizarre but never boring.

What a delight: the personality behind the art only on top of crafting plus the topic itself. The intricate details of the making is only matched by the exquisite tonal approach to the narration and story, right through to the song-and-dance outro. A half-an-hour which will delight, make you laugh out loud, chuckle and frown.

LOVING this 365 days creative project from Twitter account @smllwrlds, minimilistic science-fiction offerings to spark the imagination. Showing us how much can said in with little space and few words. The above are just a selection from this intriguing project.

All offered up to inspire, teach and make you smile / think.

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For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #9 | Embellishing, Star Wars Scroll & The Scared Is Scared

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

A friend introduced me to this track over twenty years ago. An example of prefacing a performance which amplifies and cascades it’s way into the tune. An embellishment of the highest order. Stick your headphones on and turn off the lights for this one.

Imagine the whole story of the first Star Wars film STAR WARS IV, A New Hope in a single scrolling computer graphic… well imagine no more, check out the immense infographic of SWANH which has it all there. It took over 1000 hours to complete and is 123 meters-long or 1024 x 465152 px or 27 x 12307 cm or 10.6 x 4845.3-inch. Created by graphic novelist Martin Panchaud.

Blast from the past with this one as remember seeing it doing the rounds a decade ago when it came out. Still one of the sweetest ways to creatively embellish a piece of audio from a young human telling the best story on the planet (with some great life advice at the end as well for us all).

All offered up to inspire, teach and make you smile / think.

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For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #8 | Freestyling, Revealing Code, And Getting Moist

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

Nineteen minutes of pure improvisation between beatboxer/looper/producer Beardyman and the freestyle rapper Harry Mack. With random words from the audience as a starting point in which to weave and overlay off-the-cuff stories with impressive lyrical and musical aplomb.

Revealing the development and process behind the thinking, testing and final solution of showing a coding workflow. What is revealed is the depth of thinking behind the production side of presenting technical aspects of computer work whilst retaining the human element of guidance. A job well done Outlier.

Wonderfully spoken, the enticing letters between literary lovers of ilk given voice by tremendous beings in this Letters Live piece. Steamy and erotic. Recitals are hard to do as the tread the line between verbatim reading out loud and nuanced emotive expression which is needed to bring the writers intentions alive. A perfect example of the latter in play here.

All offered up to inspire, teach and make you smile / think.

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For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #7 | Consultation, Hwyl, & Budgets

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

FRAGMENTS illustrates superbly how to report back on a research project. My first career was in local government and I remember taking part in ‘community consultations’ which we’d then had to synthesis into written reports for committee meetings. Here’s an example of how to do it properly. Led by ff.studio and Peopletoo, in collaboration with Essex County Council (ECC), plus funded by the DfE.

This is what happens when you ask a Welsh actor of pedigree to improvise what he would say to a Welsh football side ahead of the World Cup to inspire them. Not just does this but so full of ‘hwyl’ (a Welsh word for heart, effort and the life spirit). Read about the backstory here.

In the UK there is recently a new (now gone) Prime Minister (which only 0.3% of the UK electorate voted for) and (now gone) Chancellor who together announced a mini-budget which could be deadly (the latter of which attended a same-day champagne reception with hedge fund managers). With that in mind, click on the above graphic to a website which Led By Donkeys has put together to tell the story by showing how much this inept-budget is going to cost normal people, plus how much the rich will get, as well as an overall example of how those in power truly don’t care about closing the wealth divide anymore. Adds another dimension to doomscrolling.

All offered up to inspire, teach and make you smile / think.

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