{"id":1120,"date":"2008-12-15T15:12:06","date_gmt":"2008-12-15T20:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/?p=1120"},"modified":"2023-10-31T17:31:17","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T22:31:17","slug":"video-production-storytelling-with-character","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/video-production-storytelling-with-character\/","title":{"rendered":"Video Production and Film Making Techniques: Storytelling with Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"

What Makes a Video Worth Watching?<\/h3>\n

Story, characters and emotion are key elements in creating a video that’s fun for the audience to watch<\/strong>.\u00a0 You have to entertain people, or they will be gone in a flash.\u00a0 Even marketing videos benefit by being fun, or they will not be effective, because few will bother to watch.<\/p>\n

Especially in the world of online video where the average attention span is slightly less than .0002 seconds, presenting a story that appeals to human emotions is crucial.\u00a0 Consider your storyline to be the core element in creating a video that viewers will agree to watch, which should be the #1 goal of any video.<\/strong> You can not sell people something if they will not even bother watching your video!<\/p>\n

\"girl<\/p>\n

People love stories.\u00a0 So draw viewers into your information by presenting it as a story<\/strong>.\u00a0 <\/em><\/h3>\n
    \n
  • Stories affect the viewer’s emotions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Stories are based on characters that viewers can relate to emotionally. \u00a0Almost all fiction starts with the author conjuring up the characters first, then coming up with the plot second.\u00a0 So first, create characters your audience can relate to.\u00a0 \u00a0That’s not as hard as it sounds.<\/p>\n

    Characters are really nothing more than people who experience things and react in emotional ways.<\/p>\n

    Characters for your story will be people who have the experiences, emotions and characteristics you wish to convey to the audience.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Generally speaking, the easiest character to use is the “every man\/woman\/child,” someone who is typical, and probably much like your average viewer.<\/strong> Place an “every person” character into a situation, have him react according to his personality, which brings logical consequences, which he then reacts to, and there is your story.<\/p>\n

    The viewer will relate by saying, “Gee, I know how he feels!\u00a0 The same weird stuff happens to me, too!”<\/p>\n

      \n
    • When you’re doing marketing videos, your product or service can be the “good guy” in the story that solves your every man’s dilemma.<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      If you want more diversity with your characters, start by imagining the many different characteristics that make them up.<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Are they good or bad?\u00a0 Defining what “good” and “bad” mean in your story is a big step.<\/li>\n
      • Nice or mean?<\/li>\n
      • Smart or dumb?<\/li>\n
      • Brave or timid?<\/li>\n
      • Funny or serious?<\/li>\n
      • Cheerful or gloomy?<\/li>\n
      • Outgoing or shy?<\/li>\n
      • Seemingly real or totally imagined?\u00a0 Think the Geico Gecko or Flo from the Progressive insurance commercials.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        \"\"<\/p>\n

        Characters become more interesting if you combine seemingly contradictory traits, like gloomy yet funny.<\/p>\n

        Remember, too, that you can also use real people who are willing to share their story<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 A character in a news story is definitely always a real person, but that’s not true of commercials of course, but you certainly can use real people.\u00a0 Often their stories are more persuasive than an animated lizard.<\/p>\n

        You can even make the product your character, such as M&M candy, or your spokesperson, such as Ronald McDonald.<\/p>\n

        If you are making up multiple characters for one story, ensure conflict between them by having them be diverse people who would never agree on much of anything.<\/strong> Then, no mater what situation arises, there will be conflict, which drives your story.<\/p>\n

        It’s much easier to write meaningful dialogue if you know your characters well, and if all your characters are opinionated loudmouths, then dialogue will flow like a river.<\/p>\n

        Telling a story visually is fun for the mischievous. \u00a0 As you prepare your shots, be aware of creating first impressions with a LOOK.\u00a0\u00a0 Video is visual (no kidding!); so much of your storytelling relies on visuals, not words<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 An exaggerated facial expression can replace the dialogue that says, “Oh, that’s gross and disgusting!” and can immediately tell the viewer the character is squeamish.\u00a0 The gal pictured below looks pretty excited about something!\u00a0 That obvious excitement would be part of the story.\u00a0 Her personality would be shaped around the visual impression the character exudes.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        \"THRILLED<\/p>\n

        Creating characters on video means relying on visual cues and visual information.<\/strong> How they look, dress, wear their hair.\u00a0 What do their surroundings look like?\u00a0 You can impart A LOT of information about your characters using visual information alone.\u00a0\u00a0 Don’t worry too much about being stereotypical with your characterizations, especially if you have limited time. (But never be mean.)\u00a0 Professionally done TV commercials often tell amazingly complex stories in 30 seconds.<\/p>\n

          \n
        • Relying on instant visual identification and communication means you have to tap into the familiar.\u00a0 We’ll have to save in-depth, nuanced characters for much longer stories.<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

           <\/p>\n

          \"spoiled
          What do you assume as you look at this character and her environment?\u00a0 Do you think she is a poor, struggling single mom?\u00a0 Clearly not!\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

           <\/p>\n

          Use close-ups to show details<\/strong>.\u00a0 Is your character is a spoiled, gold-digging tramp?\u00a0 Make sure and get a close-up of that pile of gift boxes thrown on the floor.\u00a0 \u00a0Can you see all the different name cards?\u00a0 Make sure they are closeups, so we can see names well enough to know that she has many admirers.\u00a0 \u00a0 That tells the audience the gifts come from more than one guy, but she doesn’t care too much since it’s all tossed onto the floor.\u00a0 \u00a0Now THAT is visual characterization without using a single word, which is the unique beauty of video communication.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n

          \"party<\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n

          As a person who has taught video production to others, it’s quite obvious to me that storytelling is usually the LAST thing<\/strong> people master.<\/strong> Newbies to video feel the need to get all the technical stuff down first.\u00a0 What kind of camera to use and where to put the lights and microphones are their first questions.\u00a0 Understandably, newcomers focus on such technical matters long before they contemplate storyline.\u00a0 Personally, I think it is a good idea to focus on storytelling from the beginning.<\/p>\n

          While technical stuff is important, in the end, it is not nearly as important as your storyline and your characters<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 So get those creative juices flowing and come up with a story for your video.\u00a0 Make it as emotional as possible, because that’s what makes your video interesting to watch.<\/p>\n

          FOOD FOR THOUGHT<\/strong><\/p>\n

            \n
          • In your own words, explain why it’s a good idea to hang your story on compelling characters.<\/li>\n
          • True or False:\u00a0 Characters often embody whatever information you want to impart to the audience.\u00a0 (True, but not always.)<\/li>\n
          • Look at the picture of the woman in the article surrounded by presents.\u00a0 Thinking visually, what does this image convey to a viewer?\u00a0 How does that differ from the impression one gets from the picture below?\u00a0 Think of as many reasons as you can for the different impressions you get.\u00a0 Is it the style of image?\u00a0 Expressions on the faces?\u00a0 Colors used?\u00a0 Subject matter?\u00a0 Lighting?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            \"Smiling<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Creating characters is one of the most fun, and most important things you can do to produce a successful video. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[363],"tags":[3026,542,74,2604,609],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/spoiled-woman-gifts-on-floor.jpg?fit=1152%2C896&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1120"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19969,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions\/19969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.videoproductiontips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}