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Lesson Info

The Elements of Story

we're gonna dive more into something that I touched on in the session previously. But but we're gonna really dive into the nuts and bolts of this, Which is sort of what is what is it? What is a story, Um, and literally like, what are the what are the sort of the physics of the story? What is the architecture of a story? What is the story actually look like? And how do you construct a story? Um, but so that's what's coming up in this in this in this segment. But just before we get anything, I just want to review what we have done so far. So, um, so we've we've talked about this a little bit. We talked about the nuts and bolts of a good story. We've talked about the art of the interview. We talked a lot about what Audio is good at emotion. And we talked about what audio is good at narrative. Um, and we're going to get more into the narrative part of it in this in this segment. But before we do that, we had some homework, uh, that I've like, had a chance to review, and it's really excitin...

g so I want to hear from. So I want to hear from some of you. Is you the assignment Again? Assignment was Thio was to interview you. You were each interview each other and to take, you know, your favorite to 40 seconds from that interview. And just and send that to us. And so you all email your clips. Um, And what I'd like us now to do so We're gonna play some of those clips. And what I wanted you to do is whoever is clip we're gonna play, But they're all in order. It's all labeled whoever whoever's clip it is, I want you to set up the clip and then we're gonna play it. So you're either going to set up like what? It was sort of. And the instructions were that these clips were gonna be some of the most honest or emotional moments for the interview or the best stories from that interview. So that's what these clips are gonna be illustrating. Um, So you guys ready? Teoh, Show your work. All right, So we have the first one is Keira Run Kohli. All right, So you want to set up what we're about to hear. So I had to go get my daughter from school. So I kind of cheated a little bit. And I interviewed myself at home on. Um basically, I just tried to think of in my life what was the most transformative or the most pivotal moment in my life, actually, And, uh, and this was it. All right. I remember typing in the terms in every combination that I could think of. Baby stops babbling at four months, resists eye contact with this touch and every combination that I came up with, the results were always the same. Red flags for autism. And my baby girl waas four months old, and she resisted eye contact. She had stopped babbling. She didn't like to be cuddled. All of these things that I saw came naturally toe all the other babies we knew, and I felt like my world had crashed in on me. Wow. Um, do you wanna talk about that? What? Yeah, talk about your interview with yourself, Uh, about this story. Are, um Well, I mean, it has a happy ending. Excellent. Yeah. Um, yeah. So we just did what any parents would do because you want Teoh, do something. Eso We just, uh because you feel helpless and doctors and no one can make a diagnosis and an infant of autism because it's a social emotional developmental problem. So, uh, essentially, um, we did did all the research. I'm a librarian, so I was on the computer looking for solutions. What? What could I do now? And there's lots of research about early intervention when you see these red flags. So like a baby play therapy and developing connections early on to build that foundation of social emotional development, which normally comes naturally to babies. And so we just we're ready to go. There's a center in Israel called the Myth Knee Center that is doing some amazing things in this realm. So we just embarked on ah, major therapy for the next three years of her life, and, um, and my my point was that I don't really want to know if she ever had autism or not. I want to do everything and, um so she, um, she is seven years old and she's definitely, ah, unique, special, strong, powerful child. But there's no diagnosis of autism, so that's that's amazing. Yeah, it was I mean that, but I feel like that was again, like I think that clip you selected was I mean, it's it's It was It's powerful because we care, You know, we want to know, Like how how, how your child is doing and what we want to know what happens next. But it was also it was exactly the again just in purely in sort of audio mechanics terms. It was it did the things like you were sort of going through this list of sort of like we check this, check this and we check this and it kept coming back red flags. It was like the secrets of actions. They were sort of leading to a sort of a conclusion. And so and, uh, not to diagnose your life in terms of, you know, sort of the mechanics of creating good audio. But But that was it laid out in that way. And I think that's one of the reasons that it was It was an effective piece of and maybe was looking forward. I think the I think the the protocol should be you set up your clip and then when it's done, talk about why you selected that particular moment from the interview? Eso going forward? Julie, I was interviewing Shelly. So, Julie, do you want to set it up? Sure. So I also left at after I'm from out of town. So I have a friend and I met for dinner. Uh um And it was a really noisy restaurant, so I couldn't do my homework there. And so the clip is from the car ride to drive me back to my hotel. And I'm thinking we already told all our story every that happens, But I have to do my homework. So, um, I turned on my phone microphone and and I forget about it as something like, you know, how are you feeling? And she said blah. And so you said, Well, what do you mean? You feel blah. And I was thinking, We need details. So I said, Take me through your life. What block are good? That's the clip. No routine of the day. Getting my daughter up in the morning, off to school, working than her up, making breakfast, lunch, dinner dishes, cleaning the house. You know, those dreadfully boring routine things that need to get done and then you do it again the next day, and the next day it never goes away. It's always there and again the next day. So once you think you feel so accomplished getting those tedious things done, and then there, there again the next day. So what? That sounds like those things don't bring much joy. They do not. So what does bring joy in your David? Like, what makes you know, feel blonde planning vacations, thinking about the future with no dishes. Wire that tradition, teacher, Because I will have won the lottery. Excellent. Uh, so what did you did you choose that clip? What was the? I think I felt like a lot of people could identify with it. Yeah. Do people identify with that clip? Yes. Um, Willow do want to set up your clip. I was interviewing Jen, and she, uh, is talking about her father. Ah, getting a diagnosis. I don't think I need to say much more than that. And so I remember standing in a hallway with the doctor and him saying to me, No, I don't think you understand. We actually found a big tumor, and he has rectal cancer, and I was like, and then the room starts spinning way. Would you just say And then he said we made a mistake and you found a tumor Has rectal cancer Any surgery like schedule for tomorrow? Wow, it's like And then we have to schedule it for tomorrow. Is really comes up. It's, like, sort of a shocking. And you don't You don't realize that that's where that's what You don't realize that that's where you are Until that very moment. Yeah, um, Michael, Um, his interviewing. Roddy. Michael, do you want to set up Rodney? Yeah. So interviewed Brodney after class here, Uh, um asked him to tell me about a time where he did something that would be totally out of the norm for him on Dhere starts off by saying it happened on a day where he was just going about his normal business, and but it took a strange turn. You're in borders, like looking at, like, business section was stop always way on coffee or whatever. Just hang out. Just kind of calibrating my mind. Calibrate my mind, just transition from something. Stop and do. Before I got into work, that was kind of a habit so it's normal for you to be there. But this day, this day it was like the feeling of draft waas. You want to hear what happens next? That definitely, Uh uh. We're gonna come back to to the point where we'll come back to that. We'll save that for a second. Um, all right, so and then I think this is the final one. Sean and Ryan showing you want to set up Brian? Yeah. Yes, I had theon to nitty actually earlier in the day to find out something very interesting about Ryan, and I wanted to hear more about that. Sloths are great at being held because they want to do is hold on to you. So you just slot around your neck and you just kind of there, but and they're happy And yeah, So I'd be like just sitting with her in my arms chapel, somebody and she would, like, see a potted plant, like, right near where we're talking now and start reaching out for that. And you know, now you're foods. I'm like, trying to prevent this really long armed animal from reaching out, snagging, which is not supposed to have just incredible experience slots, right? Like, yeah, I didn't get a description of holding a sloth and tell me and reach out and try to eat potted plants. Uh, it's great. It's very vivid. Yeah, absolutely. These air. Great. Like it's really it's really like these were exactly the sort of the moments that we talked about. They were emotional, they were like they were sort of narrative driven. They were describing sort of key details and stuff like that, and, uh and that is exactly what we're gonna be talking about for the rest of this segment. Um, So what is a story exactly on? We were just hearing versions of them just right now, and you guys were all collecting them. But I would say there's like there are some very basic parts to them. Um, there is a sequence of actions, right? Um, so it starts. It has a place that it starts. I was walking out. You know, I walked out my door in the morning, uh, and I was walking down the street and I looked up and I noticed that the sky was blue. There's a sequence of actions, and they are, so they form sort of a rising action on you can't help once we're wired. Once we hear actions and sequence, we're sort of wired to listen to them for at least a little bit. Uh, and then they go on too long. Then we lose interest. Or if they don't go toe interesting place that we lose interest. But but for that, You know, the minute I say I walked out the door, I was walking down the street. I looked up at the sky. You're with me. No matter what I'm like, it's a boring a couple of things. But you're with me because you want. I'm telling you the story. For some reason there must be I must be getting to a point. Right? So the first part of a story is just simply a sequence of actions that has a beginning and sort of rising, rising action. They're telling details, right? Uh, that sort of distinguished this story from other stories that you've heard. So I went on my door was walking down the street. It looked up. This guy knows the sky was blue. I went over and I saw my neighbour. My neighbour was outside washing his car even though it was the morning weird. Right? Okay, so you got these telling details, right? Uh, university was wearing a Johnny Bahamas with Tommy was my neighbor was wearing a Tommy Bahama T shirt. Okay, so now you've got the Tommy Bahama T shirt. You've got me walking out the door. You got the sky's blue. Um, and then it has to arrive at a conclusion, like some sort of resolution. The conclusion I started caught the punchline because sometimes you know, a good joke is a story where you have, you know, you have Siris of actions arising. And then there's a punch line where it's like the conclusion is not what you expected, and that's what makes it funny. Um, but it can be a realization. It could be a dramatic revelation. It could be any sort of thing. It has to just resolve into something. And for audio, it has toe happen within a certain amount of time. Right? So the sequence of actions could go. I don't know, 2085 to, like, 40 50 maybe a minute long. But once you're over a minute long of just on all you have his action sequence of actions. People are going to start to flag. And they were like, Okay, where's this going? Right. So the punchline or the resolution of the revelation has toe happen within a certain amount of time. Or there has to be enough telling the there has to be something that sort of moves, that something has to change in the story to move it forward. Um, and then often, what makes a great story? Is that those after that, after there's a moment of reflection, What do this mean? What did it You know, What did I think about it? And the moment reflection could be very short. It could be a line. It could be a long story in and of itself. But it helps us to sort of, like once we have heard. And especially this is true for audio, I think more than most other media, once you've heard the story of heard the sequence of actions you heard, you know, you heard that you heard the punch line. Do you want to know? Sort of like Okay, what I think about that, um I'm gonna be talking a lot more about that this segment, but just for an example. And so and so the difference between sort of a good story and a bad story is in those, you know, the mechanics of the same on the difference between goods during the bad stories on the details. So my story about walking out the door I was walking out the door, The sky was blue, I looked over, knows my men, and my neighbor was wearing a Tommy Bahama shirt. We waved and I looked down and I realized something. Okay, So you're with me, right? You want to know what I realized? When I looked down, I realized that my shoes were brown. Bad story, right? Like, there's nothing. All right. Okay. So what s your shoes around? Uh uh. Look down. And I realize I forgot to put pants on this morning. Okay, That's a good story, right? How did you forget to put pants on? All right, so then then you're like, and then you're there. There's something so that different. So, uh so So a lot of what we're talking about, like so story problems come from either. The story details are too familiar, and the punchline isn't good enough or and I'm gonna get to this later. Sometimes the the details, the order isn't right. The mechanics are all wrong of the story, and you have the good good parts in place. But they were arranged in the wrong order. So, um, I'm gonna play. Ah, the story that I played last session. It's a story with the actor Tate Donovan. I'm gonna play the whole thing all the way through. I won't stop it in the middle this time. Um, but as you're listening, I want you to sort of identify what are the parts to this story. What are the sequence of actions? What are the telling details? Uh, what is the punch line? What is the moment of reflection? Just serve just, like, sort of note to yourself, maybe write them down as they come along. No, to yourself. What is happening when he's telling this story? Because he's a great storyteller, right? And so he gets a lot of the stuff, sort of intuitively what makes a good story. So we're gonna play that and again, the set up is it's an actor. Tate Donovan. He was sort of a character actor. Wasn't very well known, was kind of actor that walked out on the street, didn't get noticed. But then he'd been getting a little bigger and bigger parts and had a big part on friends. And so he actually found himself at a Broadway show, and all of a sudden he was getting recognized everywhere he went. He was getting recognized all the different people who were going to the show. And it was great because for him, it was this moment where he finally got to be the celebrity that he'd always wanted to be that he'd always wished he would have met the magnanimous liberty. He was happy to have autographs, Happy to sort of, you know, greet them, greet the people. Uh, so, um and he was then and he was doing that. People were coming up and was signing autographs. He was chatting. He was being magnanimous. Was living the dream. I was I was I was exactly how I wanted to be. I was doing I was doing great. And then the kid with the camera came along. This'll nervous kid. He must been 16 years old. He's in a rented tuxedo, unbelievably like shy and awkward, and he's cock acne and he's got a camera in his hand. And underneath a marquee is his date. Who is mentally like a prom dress. She's got a course AJ, and she's really, you know, nervous and sort of clutching her hands. And he sort of comes up to me any sort of mumbles, you know, something like, You know something about a picture. And I'm like, I just feel for him so much? Absolutely. My gosh or I have no problem. Like God, you poor thing and and I go up to is his girlfriend. I wrapped my arms around her and I'm okay. Where you from? Fantastic. Going to see the play. It's great. And the guys sort of not taking the photograph very quickly. He's just sort of staring at me. And he's got his cameras hands and down by his like chin, you know, and she's very stiff and awkward, and I don't know what to do. So I just leaned across and I kiss her on the cheek and I'm like, All right, come on, take the picture, Hurry up! And finally he sort of like snaps it. And I'm like, OK, it's really wonderful to meet you. And he just stammered over to me and was like, um, could you take a picture of us? Oh, and the whole time, he just wanted me to take a picture of him and his girlfriend underneath the awning of the play. He didn't want a picture. Me, He had no idea who I waas. Oh, God, they were in shop. I don't think they had ever come across the shooting. Yeah, you know, I mean, could you imagine you ask someone to take a picture and you just get in it yourself? All right, so So it's diagram that story. Let's, uh let's take all the fun out of that story, but no, but but I think it's actually an instructive, instructive extras. Let's diagram that start. What was he doing? Why did why was that something that sort of held your attention that may, you know, was it was pleasing to hear. So, first of all, what were the sequence of actions that he was laying out? Like, what were anybody? Where did it start? Where did that story start? Was the first action here, Michael. Well, he starts right away by talking about There was the kid with the camera, right? He's nervous there, outside of a theatre. Um, so you get, like, this visual of exactly where they are and who is interacting with, right? Right. And then he's like, Yeah, exactly. And then what else? With another. So what? What are some of the other s? So there's the actions. And then there's the details. What were some of the other actions that happened yet? Ryan, the kid comes up and asked for the pictures and then take goes over to the girl instead of taking the camera from the guy, puts his arms around her and then eventually kisses her. Yeah, he's like, So you've got these actions. The actions are sort of like he's doing everything he is. Everything is going the way he wants it to be. The kid with the camera shows up, comes up with the camera, stammers over, he goes to, you know, take us over to the girl was around our kisses her It doesn't take the picture. So those are the actions, right? What are some of the telling details that are in that story? Yeah. Jordan. Oh, I'm sorry, Morgan. Yeah. Um, he talks about how a shy and awkward out there's acne. How she's the dress. Massage just goes on a total picture of this, like whole school. Couple way to prom. Any other telling details is the acne There was the prom dress. What? It was another telling you Tell you, Richard? Well, he described the body language. He said that the guy looked confused on the girl. Felt awkward and stuff. Right. So there is something there? Yeah, You know what with another one to remember. Well, he actually the first description he gives of them is that they're nervous. And I guess what What is implied to the listener is that they're nervous because they're meeting him, right? Right. Yeah. It's kind of through the misdirect on away. Yeah. Yeah. I love when he described the camera by his chin. Like I know exactly has that exact mission. That's it. Really. I know. I was thinking about details, like a camera by his chin. You could just sort of seemed like Okay, you know, and it's like this. Nice. Sort of like you get this, like, visual. Uh, from that Yeah. Um all right, punch line. What was the punch line? could you take a picture of us? That's an obvious punch line, right? So you got that like that. Sort of like it's like the unexpected sort of reveal. Um And then there's the moment of reflection. What was in a little reflection after that? Yeah, reflection was he said he was putting himself in that Boys shoes like what if that happened to me? It would be very, very on, Right, Right. And it's sort of like it's it's sort of like it's like this nice moment. We're just sort of like, Yeah, exactly like where it feels like, Oh, my God, that would be so weird. And where he's sort of commenting on the weirdness of it in a way that sort of, like, puts a bow on the story. Yeah, yeah, and question. The music is masterfully opening into the voice track, and I wonder if the music is deliberately delineating thes parts. Absolute Ori. It's just I don't know it. It really, really carries you along. We're going to talk a lot more about music. Well, not a lot more. We're gonna talk a little bit about music towards the end of end of the session. But just on that, because the women talk about when I talk about music is actually slightly different. But absolutely so. One of the reasons. So one way that you use music is a way of sort of like, um, evoking a mood, you know, sort of like pulling out some of some feeling from from the thing that you're listening, Teoh. But it could be used for many other things as well. And one of the things that so that story actually goes on for a little bit, like there's a lot of really interesting details. Here's a pretty charming character. So it was sort of like, So what the music does is it sort of, like, moves the story forward in a certain way, Like he says. Then the kid with the camera shows up. Music starts, and you're like, OK, it sort of resets you. It resets your mind to be like, Okay, we're now starting again. And now I have another 45 seconds before I'm gonna get bored, right, Ana? Because now I'm like, Okay, now I'm intrigued. There's music coming into that must mean something. So what often, what music does? Is it sort of like, if you're in the middle of a long story, at least this is the way we use it at this American life. If you're in the middle of a long story and the details are really good, but you haven't gotten to the punch line yet. And there isn't, like, an obvious sort of like And then the next thing that happened was this there isn't that sort of obvious moving for deacon sticks of music in there in the beginning. And it just sort of, like, resets your mind and says, Okay, now I'm prepared to listen for longer. Um um And then it also is essentially just a room shot, you know, like, sort of like, you know, like after the after the job, then you bring up the music and a breather.