My strategies to make better stories’
Lesson 16 from: How to Become a Freelance PhotographerIsaac Johnston
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My strategies to make better stories’
Lesson 16 from: How to Become a Freelance PhotographerIsaac Johnston
Lesson Info
16. My strategies to make better stories’
Lessons
Meet Isaac Johnston
03:53 2Problems Becoming A Fulltime Freelancer
02:45 3The Tool I Use To Create
21:22 4How To Know If Your Hobby Should Be Your Profession
05:10 5Showing Your Work Daily
02:55 6Getting Support
03:05 7Handling Fear of Failure
03:08 8Creating Your Own Unique Value
08:39My Workflow
19:24 10How I Approach A Brand
07:07 11How To Build A Proposal
08:46 123 Strategies on Increasing Exposure
04:47 13How To Meet Artists You Love
06:19 14How To Find Ideas
07:53 15My Techniques To Shoot Photos
05:45 16My strategies to make better stories’
08:48 17Writing Videos For The Internet
07:56 18How To Be Comfortable In Front Of The Camera
06:08 19Final Thoughts & A Note On Obsession
01:55 20Getting Work and the Post Covid Goldrush
27:20 21Live Lesson: The Covid Goldrush
1:05:34Lesson Info
My strategies to make better stories’
My strategy is to create better stories, no matter the medium. I'm sure you've heard, and I know I've heard, focus on the story. The gear doesn't matter. Story is king, and yeah, like all of these one-line quips about story. And we know those are true, but we don't know exactly how to shape a story just because somebody says a one liner. It doesn't really fit into a 10-minute YouTube video. I haven't seen anything on YouTube that really does story justice. And I think it's just because it's so easy to grasp the concept that story's important, but it takes a lifetime to master. I know it takes a lifetime to master because sometimes you see like multimillion-dollar Hollywood films go to the movie theaters and they fail. Like, they just bomb. And so we know that it's really, really hard, but I've developed a few strategies for myself to make sure that I'm creating a story that is both good to me and good to my audience. And yeah, this works for me, whether I'm writing, doing photos, or do...
ing video. So let's jump in. I like to start with a basic structure in mind. And my basic structure is always the same, a beginning, a middle, and an end. Super basic. Right? So what happens in the beginning? A beginning is usually setting of the scene, setting of the characters and then the middle is the character arc or what happened. And then the end is usually a victory or a fail, but basically, the emotion or the cause and effect that happened as regards to the middle, the what happened because of the journey that we've taken. So that's not a perfect analogy of story, but it's what works for me. And I'm gonna give you an example of how that works on a real video. I like to use Casey Neistat as an example because a lot of people know him and I really like his movies. So usually, his stories start out with, he usually jumps right into the middle, usually an action part to kind of grab you and hook you and get you to watch the whole film. That's a YouTube technique, but it's also a really helpful technique to get people to enjoy the whole story. So in the beginning, after he's done his hook, he starts out with a time lapse. It's usually some wide shots. He usually gets closer and closer till eventually, he's talking to the camera. And he sets up, "This is what I'm trying to achieve today." So for instance, in a film that I just watched recently, rewatched, he lost a drone. So he's like, "I'm gonna go find this drone. If I can, I'm gonna go find it." And that's the beginning. So then he travels, in the middle part, he starts traveling. He makes his journey to where the drone is. He flies another drone to see if he can see it. He finds the drone. He's very excited about it. And then he postures about how can I get that back? And then in the last act of his little movie here, he basically says, "I can't climb out there and get it. I'm super stoked. And this is kind of a to be continued, I'm gonna find a way to get it." So he lets us know that in this journey, he has found a solution. And that's the end of that film. So even though this is just a vlog, and something that he did every single day, it had a beginning, a middle, and an end. And because of that, I think it made it really interesting. So how can we use the video example from Casey Neistat when we're shooting, maybe a photo set, a photo set of a trip? So let's just say, you're going to Alaska. You're gonna do an entire trip to Alaska. So you could do a photo set that lasts, say two weeks, over the course of this trip to Alaska and back. And it could start, say, with your planning, you're packing, you're loading up your van. You're excited about it. And you could take photos of the people that are with you and maybe even yourself kind of getting ready for this trip. The middle could be you traveling to Alaska, doing the ALCAN Highway. You could do wide shots. So you're setting the scene, and close up shots of eating a hot dog 'cause there's only gas station food to get on the way to Alaska. And then you could also, in the middle, include getting to Alaska, and of maybe some map shots of where you're going next. And then the final act could be you've gone on a hike, and you're shooting this journey that you're doing on this hike and it's wonderful, and you get to this classic Alaska vista of maybe a glacier. You come back home, you're tired, you shoot some blisters. You shoot the way home. You shoot your friends, looking dirty and tired. And then maybe the final shot is victory. You guys are back, at the car, and you see like maybe a sign that gives you some sort of indication of you're back where you started in Alaska and this is your Alaska journey. So starting with the planning the trip up there, the victorious hike. So you see how it's all there, there's the beginning, the middle and end, just like the Casey Neistat video? I feel like Instagram has taught us that we need one banger photo that sums up the entire trip, and you should still shoot that photo, and you probably should still share that photo. But there is value in doing an entire essay of photos that shows the beginning, middle, and end. If you want to have more interesting photos and videos, do more interesting things. So I have a lot of messages asking me how to shoot better photos. And my answer is almost always the same. It's just go do more interesting things, and shoot photos of that. So for instance, coming up with a story is really hard. That's why, again, Hollywood films costs so much, 'cause they have to have somebody write a story that they imagined in their head. That takes a lot of time and effort. What I do is I let my curiosity lead. So I wanna ride a mountain bike across some ridge. That would be a lot of effort, and maybe do like an overnight camping trip. That sounds interesting to me. And maybe it would be an interesting story. Let's go see what happens. Let's shoot that. Maybe make a video of it. Maybe just shoot photos. You could do a whole number of things, one of my last videos, I put studs on a motorcycle and went up a snowy mountain road, towing Alex Stroll on skis. So like that was something I actually wanted to do, and I thought it would make an interesting video. And to me, it did. So you don't have to come up with these things on your own. You can just go do the things that your curiosity is leading you towards. I think there is a tendency to just wanna shoot what's right in front of you without making this story. So shooting a video of an unboxing of some new camera gear. Great, I'm not saying it's bad, but there's so much more that you could shoot videos about. Or maybe maybe you're shooting photos of the lake near your house at sunset. Again, great, but let's try and find some things that really make us excited to find out. You could shoot photos of that lake, but maybe you could shoot photos of a brand new kayak on that lake that you're just demoing because you've always wanted to try out a kayak. You see how that's more interesting than just your typical sunset photo? And maybe you don't have an interesting story that you want to be a part of. Maybe you're not comfortable shooting your own story, but you probably know maybe, let's say, a disabled athlete that's doing some epic, 50K trail run. Shoot that that sounds really interesting. Or there's all sorts of people who are doing cool things, or have interesting stories, whether it's your retired grandpa who was in the Vietnam War. Maybe his story is interesting. Maybe you could go shoot a photo essay about him in his office and his medals and kind of learn his story. And you could have the writing of that in a caption be part of the story for the photo essay. There's a number of things that you can do to come up with more interesting stories, your own or somebody else's, but you don't have to settle. Make a story and share it. So I feel like this is a theme of the whole workshop that I'm teaching here. I keep saying it, make your stuff and share it. I mean, I've already said this, but it's the most important part of storytelling, is doing it over and over again because you're not gonna get good at this first go, second go, maybe not even 10,000th go. You have to do it so many times. Now, the thing you're gonna feel is a serious resistance to finishing your story, especially, if you get a really good story, there's gonna be other things that pop in your head to do. It's gonna feel like, ah, I'm not so sure this is a good story. And look, it doesn't matter if it's a good story. The practice is more important than the end result for the first several hundred times you do this. Go out and do it over and over again and commit to doing it. Look, it's gonna feel so boring when you shoot a story that you're not into, and you get back to the computer to edit it if it's video. It's gonna feel super boring to edit photos. If you get back to the computer, and it was like something that you just went out and shot on a whim, and you're like, "This is gonna be a good idea," and you get back and it doesn't look good, but you need to finish. You need to completely do the whole process so that you can recognize next time what story is better, and so that you can recognize, I don't like the way that this is setting up and you can adjust. But you don't get to quit halfway through and still learn the lesson of how to do stories. That resistance you're gonna feel? That's normal. Do it over and over again. These are some of the principles that I use and that help me design and create a story that I'm proud of, and that I know my audience wants to hear. So hopefully you can use those and go create something that you're proud of.
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Ratings and Reviews
Ken Neubecker
A great course/workshop, one of the best I've seen with CreativeLive. While at 71 I'm not looking at starting a full new carrier in freelance photography or video work, doing the work helps keep me off the street. It has given me inspiration to do a stoty about what I am going through now as a full time caretaker for my wife, who has been suffering the declining pains of Alzheimer's for a few years now. No one with Alzheimer's travels that final journey alone. In a sence it is an adventure, mostly for those close to the one with the disease. While it's not like the travels I did 50 years ago when what today is called "adventure" (canyoneering, something we used to simply call a hike in the desert...). I spent a lot of my life running rivers and working as a wilderness wanderer and guide/instructor. Now my travels are pretty well limited to long walk with the dog and occasional fishing outings with my wife who used to be a guide herself. Maybe thats not all that interesting or exciting as say going over a cliff with a bike and a parachute, but for many older folks it is the new story, the new adventure as their later years unfold. This in itself will be an adventure, at least for me.
Ryan David
Practical yet fun Great workshop and worth the time/money. Isaac is an easy to watch presenter and the various modules were each concise and practical. Time well spent!
asieh harati
honest advice from an adventure photographer who went through career transition I think a lot of us are mulling over the idea of transitioning to become a photographer. It's not easy. There are lots of fears and hesitations. It's a change that could affect our life. I'm at this decision branch for the second time in my life, and I still fear. Isaac shares with us how he overcame those very same hurdles and fears. He is genuine, practical and proves that you don't need expensive gear to start or even continue to become good enough. The pitch deck example, the starting up a conversation with a prospective client, the way to deal with blockers, all are real. I cannot wait to put them in place and start my first pitch. Thanks Isaac for sharing your journey!
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