Ep 76 - Secret Sauce: Where Great Stories Begin

Great stories don’t begin when you press RECORD. They begin earlier. Before the cameras. Before the lighting. Before the edit. They begin with curiosity.

In this episode of You Gotta Hear This!, I share how I start looking for the heart of a story long before shoot day—by doing a little research, talking to the people involved, listening closely, and asking one more question.

Sometimes that question changes everything.

I’ll tell you about a story I was preparing to shoot at a museum filled with more than 40,000 bunnies. At first, that sounded like the story. It wasn’t. A phone call the day before the shoot revealed something completely different: It was a love story.

We’ll also look at what CBS correspondent Steve Hartman demonstrated with Everybody Has A Story - that great stories are everywhere if you’re curious enough to find them.

And there’s one more question every storyteller needs to ask: Who am I telling this story to?Because curiosity helps you discover the story. Understanding your viewer helps you decide how to tell it.

Key insights include: Get curious about the person before the shoot. Find the other voices that can help tell the story. Get a feel for the location and see what you discover. Look at the story through the eyes of your viewer. And never underestimate the power of one more question

Great stories don’t begin when you press RECORD. They begin with curiosity, listening, and understanding who you’re telling the story to.

Sometimes a great story begins with a big idea. And sometimes it begins with a phone call the day before the shoot—and one curious question. Curiosity is where great stories begin.

Connect with me at: paulstevenforrest.com