Examples from a master storyteller
There’s a lot to be learned about storytelling from Al Tompkins’s tribute column about Ken Speake, a reporter for 28 years at KARE TV in Minnesota. Al has meticulously linked a whole course worth of video stories reported by Speake. While you have to sit through the cumbersome shuffling of windows at the KARE Web site before the videos open — and then, they play in Windows Media Player, so good luck –those I have watched so far are worth the hassle. (I wish someone would rip these for YouTube! But that would be a copyright violation, so don’t do it.)
Of course, these are narrated, voiceover stories produced for TV, so you’ve got that annoying “voice of God” thing going on. The stories’ subject matter is interesting enough to compensate, however, and the way they are told (apart from the narration) is where we can all take notes and learn from a master.
The key today is learning to do this without the voiceover. It’s going to take longer, but the end product will be that much more compelling.
Technorati tags: video | storytelling | narrative | reporting | television
Leave a Reply