Storytellers Pro — remodelling what modern storytellers do and why.
Can storytelling make a dramatic change in solving big issues such as health, poverty, diversity, conflict, business, and any number of crisis? I had some media friends around my house and we got into this animated discussion and we’re aiming to put out a workshop in November.
I’ve trained/presented to thousands of storytellers that include the FT, Chicago.com, UN, BBC, Press Association, but this would be different. Some context follows.
Storytelling is a catch all phrase; everyone is a storyteller. It’s as old as the hills. There’s a professional class of storyteller (Storytellers Pro) that includes, journalists, documentary makers, writers, PR, filmmakers, YouTubers, TikTokers etc (apologies if I’ve missed the obvious out!). They don’t just make a living but contribute to the library of storytelling styles.
The history of storytelling or otherwise narrative shows how different styles and forms emerged as movements (usually artists) disrupted and the political-social conditions were ripe for change for audiences’s acceptance.
Digital cultures provided a means to break an old meme; you really could be a jack of all trades and master of them all. Da Vinci would have had a field day today.
This era has also reframed storytelling. Storytellers are not just considered screen content makers, but engineers-of-sorts who problem-solve to build physical artefacts. e.g. a start-up. Whilst a business model of film makers includes physically building movie sets and creating franchise amusement parts e.g. Harry Porter, there’s a prevailing meta quality developing. Tell a story, but build too where you can, towards larger solutions. That is the fundamental chasm between the two worlds.
A group of storytellers have become the human equivalents of APIs interfacing an issue with consumers calling on knowledge and skills across cognitive behaviour, neuroscience, psychology, tech, cultural diversity, design and classical and evolving story craft.
One paradigm I’m interested in is storytellers whether they’re journalists or otherwise who call on the myriad of cinema (film making) skills to develop screen-based material. Think Hitchcock, Tarkovsky, Satyajit Ray, Bergman, George Stevens, Ozu. Storytellers who were psychologists; they tend to know how people think. Now combine that with tech.
Here’s a visual aid of challenging storytelling over the years. Thanks Jon for the visuals. I think it’s tongue in cheek as we were also chatting about James Bond’s successor. Yeah right!
