The Craft of Storytelling by Brian Reed, highlights many important aspects of constructing a well thought out and interesting story. Out of all that he said, the fact that "the stakes really drive the story" really sticks as an important thing to keep in mind going forward through our story. He also talks about how important the stakes in a story are because of the lack of direction or importance without them. "There is some question that keeps you listening" This expands my thinking in ways that I haven't previously put much thought into, this being how we keep the story going and what is the best way to drive it forward. Another thing that he talked about was that action, reflection, and stakes are the three largest and most important aspects. Thinking about the story of Dispatch Cuts while keeping this in mind, I am confident in the fact that we should be able to include all three of them into the weaving of the story. The final thing that I took away from this video is that “Every story should speak to something larger than itself” The interview with Brandon Stanton posed many different concepts and ideas that stretch my initial thoughts about how to compose a story. One of the things that was brought up was to allow the person that you are talking to, to tell the story and not to draw any conclusions during the interview.
Going back and reading the rest of the groups first blog posts, I have noticed many good ideas and a few different and valid points that were raised. Emily raised the point that “No one has done what we want to do. In order to accomplish much of anything we need to do more than look on the easy-access internet.” This couldn’t be more true and as it stands, I think this will be one of if not the most difficult challenge over the course of this. I was thinking about it today in anticipation of mentioning it in this post, but it seems Brynna already raised the point that “our next step will be to come together digitally and come up with a list of powerful questions to ask these people.” I am in the process of brainstorming questions for interviews. Because of the lack of readily available research, I think it could be difficult to have enough questions for the first interview to get a good amount of footage. I am hoping to collaborate with the rest of the group and see if we can come up with one default list of questions so to speak for interviews. The next step I think is to be continuing with contacting different people for interviews. I do have the Granville Fire Chief (Daniel) on board for an interview, so as soon as a good list of questions comes up I think an interview could take place at anytime.
http://videos.theconference.se/brian-reed-the-craft-of-storytelling
https://storycorps.me/interviews/brandon-stanton-and-dave-isay/
"Dispatch Cuts in VT." : Emily Pecsok. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
"Dispatch Cuts in VT." : Blog Post 1: What More Am I Understanding About This Topic? N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
Hey Brennan. Hope you had a great break.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I am struck by your improved editing of your writing in this blog. Congrats for that- this attention to detail makes your writing much more sophisticated.
I pulled out the critical learning that you mentioned from Reeds' video and will address my comments and questions to those. (Note: these are not in the same order as you wrote them.)
What are the implications for you as a creator of this video to "not to draw any conclusions during the interview?" What are you going to have to do both during and after the interview to get the most out of it? For myself, it seems to follow this important advice I would need to make notes as the interview is going on and then immediately after the interview watch it again and then come up with followup questions for the interviewee as well as possible other folks to talk with and research to do. (This reminds me of a magician who is pulling handkerchiefs out as a trick, one connects to another. . . and it seems endless.)
“Every story should speak to something larger than itself.” Well, this is the Who Cares? question. The task for all creative endeavor is to make something that will have meaning for the creator (you) and then to do it in such a way that a disinterested bystander will want to buy in. You and your group have a great opportunity to tell Vermonters about a problem we don't know about yet we should all care about. I can't imagine any thoughtful person who would not want quick, reliable calls being sent out to first responders. Having said that "the stakes really drive the story" is a natural progression. This *is*high stakes because once you do your important research we will know better if and how these cuts have affected the quality of life in Vermont. I am excited to see what you and your group will do.
Great idea to get together. Our DCF group has been using Google Hangouts during the last month and it is good to be in the same room - so to speak. And good idea about looking for different info in addition to the internet. When you do meet with the Granville Fire Chief make sure that you ask him for a couple of names of people who know about this topic. If all of your group members do this every time they interview you will be multiplying your list of folks.
Okay, that's all from me. Excuse me if this was super long - I am home on the couch with my laptop and a couple of cats. Benched from teaching because of laryngitis so here I am teacher talking you!! Best and keep up the good work.
Laurie
Hey, Laurie. What I meant when I said not to draw conclusions during the interview, is to not stick only with the questions brought to the interview but to continue with lots of follow up questions. Before and after the interview I haven't figured out what exactly I was going to do but your suggestion about watching the interview and making some follow up questions from there sounds like a good strategy.
ReplyDeleteI like the Google hangout suggestion, but my internet at home has been dicey and not working. It might be a great thing for my group in the future though.
Brennan
Dear Brennan,
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of not drawing any conclusions during an interview. This helps you to get the entire idea without assuming and without interrupting the others thought process. By jumping to conclusions you can even cloud your own judgement on the topic and come to a completely different place than where the person you are interviewing is. I would also like to point out that your editing is improving quite well. The quality of reading has much improved. When you quote, “the stakes really drive the story” I was wondering what the stakes are exactly. There are a lot of problems with getting information from the internet. It can be a good source, but some cites can be extremely biased and may not be a source you want to use. Books are always a lot better to reference than internet pages. Newspapers can be a good source too. The internet can be tricky and should be approached with caution when using it for resources. “Because of the lack of readily available research...” I did some research myself on the topic of dispatch cuts, and I could not agree with you more. Information is hard to find on the topic. Maybe, after your first interview, you can ask the person you are interviewing if they would have any questions they would ask about the subject. It would make it a lot easier for you and it could even get the other person to think more on the subject. I’m glad to see improvement in the writing, organization, and the thought process of your blog. I cannot wait to hear from you again Brennan.
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DeleteHey, Brittany
DeleteI like how you brought up the stakes, the main "stakes" would be the danger to the public. I am continuing to work on how that could be portrayed through video. I recently got an interview and the person I interviewed said it very simply and that as of now is probably the best way to do it. Because I interviewed the fire chief for a town next to mine, they recommended similar people to those that I had in mind at the time. But I will ask that to everyone that I interview.