How To Vlog and Be a Better Storyteller

Summary

This video script emphasizes the importance of storytelling in creating engaging video content. It offers five techniques to enhance storytelling skills, such as practicing by telling more stories, building a structured outline, consuming stories over tutorials, analyzing story structures in consumed content, and becoming a visual storyteller. The script uses examples like MrBeast's videos to illustrate the application of story structure, aiming to help viewers captivate their audience and improve their vlogging and YouTube content creation.

Takeaways

• 📚 Storytelling is essential for creating engaging videos that hold viewers' attention in an age of divided attention across various media platforms.
• ⏳ Viewers have a limited time span for engagement, so it's crucial to quickly capture and maintain their interest with compelling storytelling.
• 🔑 To improve storytelling, one should practice by incorporating narrative elements into everyday conversations and experiences.
• 📈 Use real-life examples to illustrate storytelling, transforming simple facts into engaging narratives with context and emotion.
• 🏞️ The script provides a hiking example to demonstrate the difference between a flat recount of events versus an immersive story with vivid details.
• 📝 Building a structured outline for stories helps in crafting a narrative with clear context, challenges, complications, payoff, and character development.
• 🎯 Identifying and setting up a challenge in a story provides a clear goal and creates tension that keeps viewers curious and invested.
• 🔍 Complications in a story act as plot devices that create obstacles and add depth, making the journey towards the goal more interesting.
• 🎬 The resolution or payoff of a story should provide a satisfying conclusion to the journey, showing whether the goal was achieved and its impact.
• 🌟 Consuming more stories than tutorials can enhance one's ability to understand and emulate effective storytelling techniques.
• ✍️ Writing down the structure of consumed stories helps in understanding and applying story beats, improving one's own storytelling skills.
• 🎥 Embracing visual storytelling means using camera shots and editing to convey the narrative, making the viewing experience more dynamic and immersive.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video script provided?

The main focus of the video script is to emphasize the importance of storytelling in creating engaging videos and to provide five techniques to improve storytelling skills.

Why is storytelling considered crucial for video content?

Storytelling is crucial for video content because it helps to capture and maintain the viewer's attention in a world where attention is divided among various social media platforms and distractions.

What are the five ways mentioned in the script to improve storytelling in videos?

The script does not explicitly list the five ways within the provided excerpt, but it does mention that the video will cover techniques to become a better storyteller, including applying story structure and consuming more stories.

What is the significance of telling more stories to become a better storyteller?

Telling more stories helps to practice and refine storytelling skills. It allows one to experiment with different narrative structures and styles, making the storyteller more adept at engaging audiences.

How does the script suggest improving the engagement of a story about a hike?

The script suggests adding context, setting the scene, and incorporating elements such as challenges and complications to transform a simple recount of events into a more engaging story.

What role does structure play in crafting an engaging story?

Structure is essential in crafting an engaging story as it provides a framework for the narrative, including elements like setup, challenge, complications, resolution, and change, which help to maintain audience interest.

Why is it important to build a structure and outline for stories?

Building a structure and outlining stories helps to organize the narrative, ensuring that all necessary elements are included and that the story flows logically and engagingly for the audience.

What is the purpose of the 'challenge' element in a story?

The 'challenge' element in a story sets up a goal or an obstacle that the storyteller must overcome, creating tension and curiosity, which keeps the audience engaged and invested in the outcome.

How can complications in a story enhance viewer engagement?

Complications introduce unexpected twists and obstacles that the storyteller must navigate, adding depth and unpredictability to the narrative, thus increasing viewer engagement.

What does the script suggest about consuming more stories rather than tutorials for improving storytelling?

The script suggests that consuming more stories rather than tutorials helps in understanding and observing story structures and narrative techniques in action, which is more beneficial for improving one's storytelling skills.

What is the final tip provided in the script for becoming a better storyteller?

The final tip provided in the script for becoming a better storyteller is to become a visual storyteller, using different camera shots and techniques to show the story rather than just telling it.

Outlines

00:00

📚 The Power of Storytelling in Video Content

The video script emphasizes the critical role of storytelling in creating engaging video content. It highlights the challenge of capturing and maintaining viewers' attention in a world filled with distractions. The speaker outlines a series of techniques to improve storytelling skills, including practicing storytelling in everyday life and understanding the structure of a compelling story. The video promises to deliver five specific ways to enhance storytelling, and it invites viewers to subscribe for more content on the subject.

05:00

🏆 Mastering Story Structure for Engaging Narratives

This paragraph delves into the importance of building a structured outline for stories to make them more engaging. It discusses the necessity of providing context and setting the scene to draw viewers in. The paragraph outlines the key elements of a story structure, including the establishment of a challenge, the introduction of complications, and the resolution or payoff. It uses a hiking anecdote to illustrate the transformation of a simple recount into a full-fledged story with depth and engagement. The speaker also encourages viewers to apply these principles to their own experiences to enhance their storytelling abilities.

10:02

🎬 Learning from MrBeast: Storytelling in Action

The script provides an analysis of MrBeast's video titled 'I Got Hunted By A Real Bounty Hunter' to demonstrate the practical application of story structure in video content. It breaks down the video into its constituent parts, including setup, challenge, complications, and the final payoff, showing how each element contributes to viewer engagement. The paragraph also touches on the importance of change or transformation as part of the story arc and encourages viewers to observe and learn from successful content creators to improve their own storytelling.

15:04

📚 Consuming Stories to Enhance Storytelling Skills

The speaker suggests that to become a better storyteller, one should consume more stories and fewer tutorials. They argue that understanding the mechanics of storytelling is more important than technical skills when it comes to creating engaging content. The paragraph advises viewers to observe and analyze the stories they encounter, whether in videos, books, or podcasts, and to apply this understanding to their own content. It also introduces a PDF resource for viewers to help them dissect and understand story structures more effectively.

🎥 Becoming a Visual Storyteller Through Practice

The final paragraph focuses on the importance of visual storytelling, especially for vloggers and YouTube creators. It encourages the practice of capturing stories through visuals rather than relying solely on verbal narration. The speaker shares an exercise of creating quick visual stories at the park, emphasizing the use of different shots to convey the narrative effectively. The paragraph concludes with a reminder that good storytelling is a skill that evolves with practice and experimentation, and it suggests setting goals and challenges for vlogs to create a more engaging narrative.

Keywords

💡Storytelling

Storytelling is the art of conveying events in a narrative form that engages an audience. It is a fundamental aspect of this video's theme, emphasizing the importance of creating engaging content to capture and maintain viewers' attention in a world of divided attention. The script uses the concept of storytelling to illustrate how to structure narratives in videos, providing examples such as hiking stories to demonstrate the difference between mere facts and an engaging story.

💡Engagement

Engagement refers to the level of interest and participation from the audience towards the content. In the context of the video, it is crucial for storytellers to create engaging stories that keep viewers watching. The script mentions that with the multitude of distractions, capturing and maintaining engagement is a challenge that storytelling can help overcome.

💡Attention

Attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other things. The script discusses how storytelling can help grab and hold a viewer's attention in a world filled with competing media for this limited resource.

💡Structure

Structure in storytelling refers to the organization of narrative elements in a logical and coherent sequence. The video script explains that building a structure and outlining stories is essential for crafting engaging narratives. It outlines specific beats such as setup, challenge, complications, resolution, and change, which are necessary for a compelling story.

💡Setup

Setup is the initial part of a story that establishes the context and background for the audience. In the script, the setup is described as a critical element that grounds the viewer in the story's scenario, providing necessary information to understand and follow the narrative, such as the characters, setting, and initial situation.

💡Challenge

A challenge in storytelling is an obstacle or problem that the protagonist must overcome to achieve their goal. The video script uses the concept of a challenge to create tension and drive the narrative forward, such as the example of a time constraint to reach the summit of a mountain before sunset.

💡Complications

Complications are events or circumstances that arise to make achieving the goal more difficult. In the script, complications are portrayed as essential narrative beats that add depth and interest to the story, creating suspense and uncertainty about the outcome.

💡Resolution

Resolution is the point in a story where the conflict or problem is resolved. The script explains that every good story should have a clear resolution, informing the audience whether the goal was achieved or not, which provides closure to the narrative.

💡Change

Change in storytelling refers to the transformation or development that occurs to the characters as a result of their experiences in the story. The video script suggests that even in shorter formats like YouTube videos, identifying how the journey affects the storyteller or characters can add depth and relatability to the narrative.

💡Visual Storytelling

Visual storytelling is the use of visual elements to convey a narrative. The script encourages creators to think visually when crafting their stories, using different shots and camera angles to show rather than tell the story, thus creating a more immersive experience for the viewer.

💡Consume

In the context of the video, to 'consume' refers to the act of watching, reading, or engaging with content. The script advises creators to consume more stories in various forms to understand and learn from the storytelling techniques used by others, which can improve their own storytelling abilities.

💡Writing Down

Writing down, as mentioned in the script, is the process of documenting or noting the structure of stories one consumes. It is suggested as a method to analyze and understand the beats and elements of storytelling, helping creators to internalize these structures for their own content creation.

💡Vlog

A vlog is a video blog, a form of storytelling where creators share personal experiences or events in a casual and conversational manner. The script uses vlogging as an example of content where storytelling techniques can be applied to enhance viewer engagement and create more compelling videos.

Highlights

Storytelling is crucial for creating engaging videos that capture and maintain viewer attention in an attention-divided world.

To effectively grab attention, storytelling must be concise due to the limited time viewers have to engage with content.

The video offers five practical techniques to improve storytelling skills for more engaging content.

Storytelling involves more than just facts; it requires context and elements that make the narrative interesting.

To become a better storyteller, one must practice by telling stories in various contexts, applying storytelling rules to make them engaging.

A good story includes a setup that provides context and draws the viewer into the scene.

Establishing a challenge in a story creates a goal and conflict that can drive the narrative and engage the audience.

Complications in a story act as obstacles that can increase tension and keep the audience invested in the outcome.

A story's payoff or resolution is essential for providing closure and satisfying the audience's curiosity about the outcome.

Reflecting on how a story or experience changes the storyteller or characters adds depth and relatability to the narrative.

Consuming more stories and less tutorials can help improve storytelling by observing story structures in action.

Writing down the structure of consumed stories can deepen understanding and improve one's ability to craft narratives.

Visual storytelling is key in video creation, where showing events can be more impactful than simply telling them.

Practicing visual storytelling through exercises can help in developing the skill of capturing and conveying stories through images.

Continual practice and experimentation with different storytelling techniques are essential for growth and improvement in video creation.

Applying a clear goal, challenges, and complications to vlogs or daily shoots can transform them into engaging stories.

Transcripts

- Story, story, story.

Story.

Storytelling is super important

to be able to create videos that are engaging

so that someone wants to continue watching.

Our attention is divided up

between all of these different social media accounts

and everything else that's going on in the world.

So you really don't have a whole lot of time

to be able to grab someone's attention

and keep them engaged with your content

for a long period of time.

Now, storytelling will help you actually

keep the viewer engaged

and keep them watching.

And in this video,

I'm gonna give you five ways

that you can actually improve your storytelling,

instead of just giving you a breakdown

of what story is

and structure of story.

These techniques will actually help you become

a better storyteller

so that when you approach a situation,

you're gonna know,

"Okay, this is what I need to do

"to be able to tell the story

"and create an engaging video."

Now, before we get into number one,

I just wanna mention that

this is part of a series that I'm gonna do

all around storytelling.

I'm gonna break down different aspects

around storytelling.

So if you're part of the 86% of you

that aren't subscribed to the channel,

make sure you hit that subscribe button

and turn on the bell notifications

so that you don't miss when I release the next video

in this series.

So number one is to actually tell more stories.

Now, this may seem obvious,

but to become a good storyteller

you have to tell more stories.

And I mean just in everything

that you're doing.

So if you're talking to your friends

or your family about a hike that you did last week,

put it in the context of a story

and actually apply all the rules of storytelling

to be able to make it engaging

and more interesting.

So let me give you a quick example from a hike.

Here's what you shouldn't do.

So last week I did this awesome hike

with my buddy.

We went up to the top of this mountain.

And it had like the best view ever.

That's not really a story.

It's not that engaging.

There's not a whole lot of context.

There's nothing really going on

when it comes to what you're talking about.

You're just giving some facts

around something cool that happened.

And you're not really diving into the story element.

So let's rephrase that

and put it in the context of a story.

So last week I had

a super long shoot up in LA.

It was five days.

I was in a studio from morning

until five o'clock at night.

And my buddy, Jesse,

was also on the shoot with me.

Every night we'd get done shooting

and we'd see this mountain off in the distance.

In LA there's actually

some mountains surrounding the city.

And in the location that we were at,

we could see the peaks off in the distance.

And after being in a studio for long days,

both of us just wanted to get outside

and just be in nature.

So on lunch during one of the shoot days,

we were looking at AllTrails

and just trying to find some good hikes

in the area to go explore.

And we found a trail that was

10 minutes away from the studio.

And this is perfect

because the time of the year

that we were shooting,

we only had like an hour of daylight left

by the time we were gonna be wrapped.

So we had very limited amount of time

that we could get out and go hiking

before the sunset.

Now, this hike wasn't a super easy hike.

It was about an 1,800 foot elevation gain,

over the course of a couple of miles.

So really, we were just going straight up this mountain.

Both of us weren't really prepared.

We just started the trail and started going up.

And we were pushing ourselves

to try and get to the summit

because the sun was setting off in the distance.

We didn't really have that much time.

But just as the sun was dipping towards the horizon,

we made it to the summit.

And on the top of that mountain

was one of the best views that we've seen of LA.

This mountain was positioned in the perfect place

to be able to see downtown off in the distance,

and all the way down the valley

the other direction.

It was an incredible view.

And we got to see it right at sunset

with all the lights turning on in the city.

So the next day when were on set,

we jumped on AllTrails

and we found a different hike.

And every day that I was in LA,

we hiked a different trail to catch sunset

from this amazing viewpoint.

Now, there was definitely a lot more

that went into the second story example here,

but it's more of an engaging story.

And that's what you wanna create.

So to be a better storyteller,

you just need to be telling more stories like this.

When you have an experience

where you're doing something that's really cool

and you wanna tell your friends or your family,

try to put it in the context of a story

and see how they respond.

And see how you can tweak that story

to tell someone else.

And see if you can make it more engaging

with the way that you tell it.

Number two is build a structure

and outline your stories.

And it's easy to craft

once you just know what beats you need to hit.

So number one is just giving some history and setup.

So when you're going to tell a story,

you wanna give some context

so the viewer is with you in this moment.

You wanna put them in the scene.

You want them to feel like

they know what's going on.

Because if you don't give any context,

you don't give any history or set up

to the story that you're gonna tell,

then someone's not gonna be as engaged

because they don't really know what's going on.

So the big key here

is you wanna set the scene.

And this could be as simple

as just giving a quick context

of what's going on,

or it could be something longer

where somebody needs a history

and they need to know

a bunch of different bits of information

to be able to follow along on the journey.

Now, the second thing you need to establish

is the challenge.

So what's your goal and what are you up against

to be able to reach that goal?

That's an easy way to think about it.

So with my little hiking example,

we wanted to get to the summit of this mountain,

but we were up against time

because the sun was gonna set within an hour.

So time is a great way to set a challenge.

If you only have so much time to do something,

that is a challenge.

You only have this amount of time

to finish something.

And you'll see this time and time again

in YouTube videos.

Challenges are great when it's a 24-hour challenge

or a 48-hour challenge.

There's so much story built into that structure

because you have to try and finish

what you're doing

by the end of the time period.

And your audience is gonna want to know,

"Well, are you gonna be able to finish it

"in that time period?"

It piques the curiosity

of somebody who's watching your video

and they wanna see if you actually fall through

or make it to your goal.

Recently, I did a video where I was overlanding

with my buddy on the Pony Express.

And one of the things that I was up against

was I only had three days to do this trip.

And instead of just showing you the trip,

I set up this time crunch

and it became a challenge that was a through line

for the entire video.

Every time we ran into a roadblock of some kind,

it would put us back

and we would get further away from our goal,

which we only had so much time to achieve.

The key thing here is you wanna set a challenge,

something that you're up against

that's gonna make it harder

to be able to reach your goal.

Now, number three is complications.

So what are different beats

that happen along your journey

that push you back away from your goal?

So this is just the little story beats

throughout the video

that push you further away

or bring you closer.

So as you're telling a story,

you wanna have things pop up

that will pull you away from actually achieving

what you're going out there to get.

So as the journey of your story

goes through your video,

you wanna show challenges.

You wanna show things that are pushing you away

from your goal.

And that's different complications.

Now, these can be things that you could set up

when you're crafting a story or outlining it,

but they're also things that naturally will happen.

And that's the beauty of vlogging

or creating YouTube videos

or adventure films,

whatever it is that you create

is that when you actually go through the process,

very rarely does everything happen as planned.

And when you're telling a story,

you'll start noticing

that these different complications will happen

and you'll spend a little bit of time

actually filming them

so that they can become elements within your story.

Number four when it comes to structure,

is the payoff.

Did you achieve your goal?

Did you not?

Or is it kind of just somewhere in the middle?

You wanna have a resolution to your story

and you wanna know what that element is

because you set that up at the beginning.

So stories are very structured in that

you set everything up in the beginning,

you go through this journey,

and then you either achieve your goal

or you don't.

And then the fifth part of the structure

is how did this change you?

Now, when you're watching a film

or you're reading a book,

there's usually a big profound change

that happens with the main character.

When you're creating YouTube videos

or you're vlogging,

there's not gonna be these massive changes,

once in a while, maybe.

But you still wanna look for some sort of change.

After you went on this journey

and you reached your goal

or you didn't reach your goal,

how did it make you feel?

Because your audience is on this journey with you,

and they wanna see how this journey affected you

at the end of it

or your main character.

Now, I know this seems like a lot to think about

just for a simple vlog or a YouTube video,

but when you watch the big creators on the platform,

you'll see the story structure

time and time again.

So let's just break down

one of MrBeast's videos real quick

and you can see how he integrates the story structure

into everything that he does.

And there's a reason that his videos

have a ton of engagement

and people wanna follow along.

So he did a video titled

"I Got Hunted By A Real Bounty Hunter"

So in this video,

he starts right at the beginning with the setup

so that you know what's about to happen.

- This is a professional bounty hunter.

And if he successfully hunts me down,

he gets $100,000.

He has until midnight to steal this backpack from me.

And all I gave them was a knife.

This is going to be craziest chase ever.

I have a helicopter lined up.

A dozen cars.

I have everything.

He is not hunting me down.

- Immediately, he tells you the goal of the video

and he tells you the challenge.

And this is something with creating YouTube videos

is you have to make these story beats happen much faster

to get someone into your story

so that they actually wanna be engaged.

MrBeast is a master of this

because he does it so quick.

Within the first 30 seconds of a MrBeast video,

he's gonna give you all the setup,

the context and the challenge.

And he does this in such a way

where you're up to speed

and you're ready to go on this journey with him.

So right at the beginning,

he gives you exactly what's gonna happen in this video.

There's a bounty hunter.

He's chasing him.

And he has all these different obstacles set up

to try and escape this bounty hunter.

Now, this hero's journey actually focuses more

on the bounty hunter.

Because you wanna see Mr.Beast get caught,

and you want this bounty hunter

to win $100,000.

So the complications throughout this video

are the different obstacles

that MrBeast has set up

to try and trick the bounty hunter

from actually capturing MrBeast.

And there's a ton of them in this video.

And you wanna see whether MrBeast is going to escape,

or if this bounty hunter is going to catch him.

Now, the payoff at the end of the video,

the climax, the ending scene,

is that the bounty hunter does capture him.

And what is the change?

Well, watch this clip.

- I got a young child at home.

And this money sets him up.

This is his college fund.

This changes my life.

Thank you so much.

- And MrBeast included this clip

because this was the change that happened

when the bounty hunter was able to capture MrBeast.

So go watch any of MrBeast's video

and think about story structure

when you're watching them.

You'll see these different beats happen

in most of his content.

Go to another channel like Yes Theory,

you'll see the same structure happen again.

Story structure is super important

to be able to keep your viewer engaged

and keep them on the journey with you.

Number three to become a better storyteller

is consume more stories and less tutorials.

Now, understanding how your camera works,

learning how to shoot cinematic B-roll,

all of these things are great and their aspects

around creating interesting videos to watch,

but really story is more important.

So if you spend all your time consuming tutorials

and how to videos

and no time consuming story,

then you're not really gonna be seeing story in action.

One of the keys to becoming a better storyteller

is to watch more stories,

consume more stories,

and see how the structure actually works

for that video or that book,

or that podcast,

wherever you're engaging with the story.

Stories can come in all forms.

So you wanna consume more of that kind of content,

and you wanna be more observant.

You don't wanna just sit there

and be entertained by it.

You actually wanna think through

all the elements that we've been talking about

in this video,

and how they apply to that specific story

that you're watching.

And this brings me into step four

to be a better storyteller.

And that is actually go through the process

of writing down structure

for the stories that you are consuming.

So take the five steps that I gave you in step two

and actually apply it

to the stories that you're watching or reading,

and write down these different beats.

Now, in the description,

I'll include a PDF that you can download

that just gives you these story beats,

and you could just fill out

what each of them is

when you're actually watching a video.

And start doing this more often.

When you're watching a video,

enjoy it,

watch the video,

experience it,

but then take a step back

and look over the sheet and say,

"Okay, what was the challenge?

"What was the setup?

"How did this creator get me into the story

"and make me wanna keep watching?"

You also wanna look for

when stories don't do this

and if they actually fall short.

So if you're watching a video

and there is no structure to it,

are you engaged with that story?

Do you wanna keep watching it?

And if you are still interested

in watching that video,

why?

Is it just because you enjoy the content?

Or is there something else going on

that's keeping you engaged?

Most of the time,

you'll find that the stories

that keep you the most engaged

and the ones that wanna keep you watching longer

to the end of a video

are ones that have story baked into them.

And the more that you could see this

and the more that you can pick out

these different elements,

the easier it's gonna be

to start crafting your own stories in your videos.

Now tip five for being a better storyteller

is actually become a visual storyteller.

So if you're creating vlogs

or you're creating videos here on YouTube,

it's a visual medium.

We're creating videos.

We're not just telling stories.

So you wanna start applying

these different elements

that we've been talking about,

setup,

challenges,

complications,

resolution,

and pay off.

And you wanna start thinking,

how can I tell this using visuals?

Now, in vlogs,

a lot of times we like to just talk to the camera,

but a lot of times

it's better to actually show what's happening

rather than just telling.

An exercise that I do

is try to just tell visual stories.

And yeah, you're not gonna have

the same complications and challenges

and things like that that you might have

with a bigger vlog,

but if you're just doing quick visual stories,

you wanna set up the scene,

you wanna take someone on the journey,

and then you wanna to have some sort of payoff.

So for example,

I'll go to the park with my family.

But I'll try to tell the story

just with some quick visuals.

So I'll set up what's happening.

I'll take the viewer on the journey.

And then try to show some sort of payoff or ending.

And so like this quick little video

is my wife taking my daughter to the park

and just showing how excited my daughter gets

when she likes to go on the swing.

And instead of just filming one shot

family style with your iPhone,

actually take your camera

and try to tell it visually.

So try to capture different things

that are happening within that moment.

Try to use wide shots, closeups, mediums.

Become a storyteller with the way that you shoot.

And try to take someone on a journey

from the beginning to the end.

To become a good storyteller,

it just takes continual practice.

It's something that is going to be evolving for you

and you're gonna find

different strategies or techniques

that work better for the content

that you're producing.

So don't get down on yourself

if your story's not super exciting.

Take every opportunity to try and tell more stories

and try to infuse this kind of structure

into the videos that you're creating.

If you're just someone who's shooting vlogs of your day,

try to set up a goal for that.

Try to set up some challenges

to be able to get you to that goal

and try to set up complications.

So instead of just turning on the camera

and just shooting whatever happens,

think through what is the goal?

What is the objective?

And what are some things

that are gonna stand in your way

to be able to achieve that goal?

And even if it's quick

and you just do some notes in your notepad,

putting more emphasis in creating the structure

is gonna help you make better videos

that are more engaging

and more people are gonna wanna watch them.

Now, next, I highly suggest you check out

this video right here.

It goes through storytelling structure,

but also shooting, editing,

and how it all comes together in an edit

to tell a story while you're vlogging.

All right, guys.

I'll see you over there.