Grasping what story really is, is a tough one. Then learning how to not just tell a story, but tell an amazing one is that much harder.

For us, we are always looking for new ways to push our understanding of story and test out what we know. When we told Jude’s story over at Sugar Wheel Works we debated whether or not to include a few clips of her meditating in the morning as it wasn’t directly related to her craft of making wheels. A few clips may seem trivial but Joyce and I went back and forth, talking about it for a quite a while before we came to the conclusion that it was important to show that sequence as a metaphor to what wheel building does for her character.

By really understanding and embracing the structure of story, we can look to inject it into every film we make.

And by understanding these 4 things that every amazing story needs, we can look at each of our stories moving forward and ask ourselves how we can strengthen each element.

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This tutorial is part of Storytelling Parade, a Story & Heart initiative to bring people together and encourage us all to tell stories of those doing good.

We want to make sure everybody that joins the Parade gets as much out of the experience as possible. We are offering 5 tutorials, entirely free, for those that sign up – the one above plus 4 more over the next two weeks.

It’s our way of helping set you up for success in the story you choose to tell.

All of these tutorials are meant to help you tell a story like the one of Lek, The Elephant Whisperer. While in Chiang Mai for our Canon Asia tour, Joyce, Bex, and I took a couple days to meet Lek, and tell the story of somebody doing good.

We got to know her. We spent just over a day at her sanctuary. And we put together a story that we hope you feel.

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More than that, the mechanics of this story, are exactly what we are sharing with Storytelling Parade.

Things like;

• What makes Lek a strong character?
• How do we craft the strongest open possible?
• What do we leave the viewer with?
• How do we weave the narrative and broll together in one clean process?

Storytelling Parade is our opportunity to come together and show the world the power of our craft. It’s a different kind of filmmaking contest  – one with heart. And we’re working with Story & Heart to provide awesome education to help you make the most out of this experience.

I’m sure you’re busy. And while the idea of telling a story for yourself, one of somebody doing amazing things, sounds awesome, it’s probably tough to clear the time. But guess what? That is almost always the case.

Make the time to tell a story that needs to be told and we’ll help by making it as accessible as possible. We are asking you focus on one main character, one main shoot day, one camera, and one clear take-away. All of these constraints will help you tell a powerful story while maintaining your busy schedule.

And… $100,000 in filmmaking prizes ain’t too shabby either.

We hope you’ll join us. You can sign-up today at the Storytelling Parade website.

P.