THE ART OF STORYTELLING, Khan Academy+Pixar

1. Your unique perspective

We all storytellers.

When and where you told your first story? Something from your life

Stories connect with people on an emotional level

Retelling story makes story sparkle. No two people will tell the story the same

Exercise 1: Expressing memories

Part A: Think of a memory that your remember vividly. It should be a memory that comes easily to you.

I was in Bhaktapur, small and old town in Nepal at night in the street.

Part B: Why do you think you remember this so well? Try connecting one or more emotions to this memory.

It was first time experience of possibility spending night in the street (we weren’t sure if there was any hotel at all), uncertainty, fear, possible dangerous, ect. I felt lot’s of different emotions in 2 hours.

Part C: Now try and express your memory and emotion in some way. The goal is to get it out of your head. Here are some ideas for what you could do.

Verbally =)

Written

I was traveling in Nepal with my boyfriend and we decided to go visit very old and small town — Bhaktapur. I booked a place (only one available) on Airbnb, came there in the evening. We couldn’t find this house at all. I called the host until my phone went down, but he didn’t answered. Finding myself in a street without any lights, phone wasn’t working, there were no one, taxi driver just went away. 2 hours of walking around without any result. I had no idea where city center is, whether or not there are any hotels.

Then we managed to find one opened “beer spot” — a room in the building with 3 tables and light and ability to order beer or tea. There were a company of young neplaeese men, that looked at us with a strange interest: we had all our backpaks, cameras, laptops and it was quite scary — we didn’t know if it was safe to be there at all, but I was too thirsty and, at least, would like to have a tea before spending night in the street. My boyfriend was completely furious about it. Furious about situation and that I wanted that tea soo much that we stay there for so long. I thought, that it’s easy to be killed or rubbed in dark street, than at beer spot with lightning. And with tea.

After looking at each other (me and that group) for some time I decided not to wait and just went to chat with them, “make international relationships”, as I would say. They were shocked, I was shocked too. But then when we managed to understand each other (only one of them was talking english), we became friends. And then they told us how we can find hotel, which is the best.

Visually

2. Your favorite stories

Story is a sequence of events, narrative.

Exercise 2: Your three favorite films

Part A: Identify the three films that you would take to a desert island….

http://sovietmoviesonline.com/comedy/178-meri-poppins-do-svidaniya.html

Part B: Why do you think you connected with these stories? Come up with at least one reason for each.

Kuzya makes me believe in wonders, simplicity of life and a fun way to solve problems. Magic Voyage is about fun adventures and friends, that go forward even if they don’t know what is out there. And Mary is an example of easy, fashion and respectful person.

Part C: What, if anything, do these three films have in common? How are they different?

They all about traveling, adventures and importance of friendship. They happen in different worlds.

To be continued

3. What if…

Part A: Return to your 3 favorite films and try reframing each of them in terms of a “what if” statement. Share these with someone (written or verbally) and see if they can guess what movie it is from!

Part B: Now it’s your turn. Come up with 3–5 of your own “what if” ideas.

4. Characters & Worlds

Part A: Return to your 3 films. Identify the worlds and characters in each. Write these down.

• Who are the main characters?
• Is there a character you identify with most?
• Where does the movie take place? Is it one world or multiple worlds?

Part B: Try mixing a character and world from different movies. Try this a few times and see what happens.

Part C: Return to your three “what if” statements from the previous exercises. Pick your favorite one. Can you imagine a possible character and world?

Part D: (optional) Draw or write about what life would be like in this world.