The Importance of Character-Driven Stories

Posted November 13, 2019

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Here's a news flash

The same people who are watching your videos are also watching Netflix and Amazon and maybe even AppleTV, despite the rather appalling Morning News (at $15m per episode!)

There is an inherent, if unspoken expectation on their part that your non-fiction, whether it is news or documentary of even a short video is going to be as interesting, as compelling and as well done as Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad.

This may seem unfair, but that's the way it is.

You may have important information to deliver, but unless you can package it in a way that is 'easy to digest' - that is, that holds people's attention and does not let go - they are gone.

And once they are gone, whether it is from your newscast or your website, they are not coming back.

There are too many other options

When we run the bootcamps, I would say that now we spend about 15% of our time focusing on the tech side - phones, apps, etc,,; and about 85% of our time focusing on great storytelling.

We have spent hundreds of hours taking apart the best Hollywood movies and cable TV series to understand what makes these things so popular. Think ot fhis a old style AI, without the computers.  And we have created our own formula for making every story compelling.

Last week, we ran a bootcamp for Spectrum1 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was based on our formula for great storytelling in the world of news and information.

Megan Carptenter, an MMJ at Spectrum1 reported, shot, edited, scripted and produced this story on her iPhoneX, and all in one day.

It works.