“Lydia is dead.” Six fundamental storytelling rules

The best videos – even ones designed to be simply promotional – tell a story. Technical expertise is important, but if the video content is well told, the grainiest, poorest lit, most terribly shot video in the world will ALWAYS out attract its higher quality, well lit, better shot rival.

Consider these two informational videos designed to promote dog training businesses:

• Just Jumpy the Dog (Jumpy), a two minute video posted in 2013 that has been viewed more than 12 million times, and
• For contrast, Dog Training in Toronto Canada (Toronto), a one minute video posted more than a year ago, viewed 149 times

[Note: if you spend three minutes to watch these videos the following will make more sense.]

1. The first line test

Stories are a little like calf roping; you need to grab your audience right out of the shoot. I always give novels the first line test, in part to determine if I want to keep reading. Here’s a great first line from an excellent novel: “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know that yet.” (From Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You). The first line is so compelling you must keep reading. The Jumpy video works because of what Jumpy does when the narrator says: “Go to mark. Good boy.” This dog is clearly intelligent and well-trained. We’re intrigued. The Toronto video opens with a nine second logo display, no words, no story, just blah.

2. Make it human

The Jumpy video is about a dog. But dogs can often seem practically human and Jumpy begins to demonstrate his humanness. Also, of course, the narrator is human and their relationship comes through in the video. The Toronto video features dogs and people, but mostly in disconnected images or video clips. No one speaks except the narrator, who’s off camera. And nobody barks.

3. Show, don’t tell

After the nine second logo display, the Toronto narrator says: “Dog obedience training classes are an excellent forum for supporting guidance and training your dogs in excellent skills.” This prosaic intro is supported by showing three still photos of people training dogs. The Jumpy video is all about obedience, but shows it, doesn’t tell it.

4. Where’s the drama?

The drama in Jumpy’s video is all about the next mind boggling trick this dog is going to do, all the while demonstrating remarkable attention and intelligence, not to mention athleticism and daring. In contrast, the Toronto video is drama-less. It’s really not a story at all, though both videos are designed to promote their dog training businesses.

5. Give us an unexpected, meaningful ending

Jumpy ends with a remarkable, poignant trick. The Toronto video … a handler giving a leashed dog a treat … for doing nothing.

6. Keep it short

The intro to the Jumpy video, mentioned earlier, takes two seconds. Two seconds! The logo and first spoken sentence of the Toronto video takes a whopping 16 seconds. Almost one fifth of the video!!!

Watch any video; if it abides by these six rules, you’ll want to watch it again.

Giving voice to your business video creations

Just this week I received an enquiry that read something like: “What is the process, turnaround, and cost for finding a professional voice to read a phone or video message?”

In previous posts I’ve talked about the low, middle and high business video spectrum. The low part of the spectrum involved ephemeral videos, easily and cheaply created, typically in-house. The middle and high parts of the spectrum typically have more sophisticated production value, are more expensive to produce and have a longer shelf life. The middle and high end are usually produced using external help. Often these kinds of videos require some kind of professional narration. In those instances, it’s best to engage a pro.

The following considerations were provided by John Gabrik, from First Light Media, who has produced thousands of videos involving professional voice over narration.

1. Have all the copy/text you need recorded ready so the voice talent can see how much is involved and they can provide you with a solid price bid.
2. Choose a voice that fits your desired “image” and fits in your price range. You can use some of the sites below to listen to numerous male and female voices.
3. If you have a preference for a male or female voice, that cuts the potential candidates in half! If you have no preference, you can obtain auditions from both.
4. You can post a sample of your text on a voice talent web site and various artists can audition and provide bids.
5. Almost all voice talent has their own recording audio equipment and they will record at their own location. Some recording considerations to keep in mind include:
   • If you are not particular about “how” they read it then they can generally be trusted to record on their own and provide you with the recorded files.
   • You may want to do a read-through with them on the phone to make sure there are no odd pronunciations, names or industry-specific terms that the average citizen may not know.
   • If “style” and/or “mood” are important, most voice talent will use a phone patch so you can listen in while they record to ensure everything is satisfactory.
6. Finally, if you need background music many voice talents also have access to music libraries, though you can also access music sites like pond5.com and choose your own.

You can easily locate voice over talent web sites using your favorite Internet search engine, but here are some to get you started:

www.voice123.com

www.voices.com

www.amazingvoice.com

www.voicejungle.com

www.fiverr.com