Transcription
Most creators think that storytelling is complicated, but actually it's not. And by the end of this video, I will teach you everything you need to know to start mastering it.
I've learned this firsthand by spending over 15 years behind the camera as a professional and making over 2,000 videos as a content creator myself. I started from zero and built an audience that's reached millions. And none of this happened because of fancy camera gear or editing tricks. And in fact, some of my best performing videos were built around just normal everyday life. My perspective on things and just things that I found interesting. And what made them work wasn't ever necessarily the subject at hand. It was how I crafted the story.
This is the Creators Desk, a show about the process, strategy, and day-to-day reality of building a career as a creator. I've lived it, and now I'm sharing everything I've learned. And today I'm going to break down exactly how you can do the same.
Number one, the core story arc. Every good story follows the same structure. Setup, conflict, resolution. And look, your video doesn't have to feel or look like a movie. It doesn't even need to be fancy with a script, dialogue, or effects. But your content does need these key pillars. And if you don't, your story is going to feel flat. And that's not just film making. This is human psychology. This is how we've told stories thousands upon thousands of years around fires, in books, in scriptures, in movies, and now through our phones. Our brains are wired to look for patterns, a beginning, middle, and end. And if you don't introduce these patterns, the audience is going to lose interest.
This is where I see creators most slip up. The setup. Establish who, what, when, where. You need to give the audience context so they feel grounded to your story from the jump. The setup should answer, "Where am I? Who should I care about? Why should I care?" Without it, the viewers feel lost immediately. You know, it's like opening a map and not knowing where your starting point is. You can't follow the journey without it. A beautiful shot, something cinematic, sure, it might grab some attention, but without context with your setup, you're going to lose them fast. So, next time you film, try this. Start your setup in one sentence and one shot. Like, I'm in my kitchen and here's a problem. I'm somewhere and this is what happened.
Simple formula, which leads us to this conflict. This is what makes us follow the journey past the hook. And I don't mean conflict as a fight or something negative, just something inconvenient, unexpected, something that incites and sparks curiosity. Without conflict, there's no tension. That means no reason to keep watching. So next time you're making something, make sure you ask yourself this. Where here in this journey might make somebody ask themselves a question or continue watching. What is that? You want to think from a viewer or consumer's perspective. So next time just highlight that and that will be your story's conflict.
Next resolution. Resolution is what's going to make your story satisfying. Even if you cliffhang it, if you propose a question but never answer it, people are going to feel cheated. It's like walking out of a movie theater 10 minutes before the ending. Nobody does that. So, don't make somebody sit through that. You need to make sure that your story closes a loop. So, for example, I made a video about things in my family's Filipino household that didn't quite make sense. And the resolution throughout that entire video was every time I revealed an odd object or something that doesn't make sense, I would explain it. So, the viewers got clarity and that payoff kept people watching. So, as you're writing your next story or whatever you're making content on next, you need to ask yourself, did I answer the conflict or the question at hand? If not, your job is not done and you shouldn't go out and start shooting.
So, when you hit all three of these things, the setup, conflict, resolution, even the most ordinary moments become watchable. It is now telling a story. Because a story isn't about the craziest visuals or cinematics or using the fanciest gear. It's about giving your audience a journey to care about.
Number two, emotion is the real hook. If the story is the engine, then emotion is the fuel. This is what fuels the entire story because at the end of the day, people don't really remember what you showed them or what it looked like. They remember how you made them feel. And this is why even the most simplest clips go viral. It either made you laugh or spark nostalgia. You know, our brains are literally wired this way. Psychologists call this the emotional memory effect. When emotion is attached to information, we actually retain it longer. We remember it. We want to share it and we value it more.
So, here are some things that creators tend to overlook. They focus only on visuals. The shots look great, but there's no feeling. It supports a good story, but it can't make a bad story good. They confuse relatable with emotional because just showing something common isn't enough. You need to make people feel something about it. They try to force emotion by overexlaining instead of just letting the moment breathe, letting it sit. And I've tested this a lot in my own videos. Some of my most shared posts weren't the ones with the best production. They were the ones where people commented, "Wow, I felt that. I feel seen. This is me." These are some of the things that get shared, saved, and remembered. It's simple. Humans are connected to human emotion.
So, every time I write a story, this is what I keep in mind. Identify the feeling you want to create. Do you want your viewer to laugh, to feel suspense, to reflect upon themselves? You need to decide this before you shoot. A lot of creators focus on what they want to say, but not what they want the audience to feel. So, next time you're in your writing process, write down the one emotion that you want your viewer to feel because that now becomes your entire story's north star. And now you need to match every creative decision to that feeling from your tone of voice, your pacing, your music, and even the framing should reinforce that feeling. If you want suspense, cut faster. Use closer shots. If you want the audience to feel calm, let the edit breathe. You don't need to cut so fast. Use more calm music.
A common mistake that I see here is the mismatch between the mood and the visuals. Like using an upbeat song over a serious story. You're breaking the trust here. Does this choice push the emotion that I want the audience to feel? Or does it fight against it? Give people a release. If you build emotion, you can't leave it hanging. You know, every laugh needs a punchline. The tension needs resolution. Inspiration needs a takeaway. Something that I see so much is creators build the energy but never deliver the payoff. When I see stories like that, I'm disappointed. So, next time you're sitting with your edit, try this. Watch the beginning of your video, then skip all the way to the end. Ask yourself, did I answer the question? Did I pay it off? Did I waste my viewers time? Did I promise what I said I was going to deliver? If not, it's back to the drawing board.
And before we get to number three, here is a word from our sponsor. If you're enjoying this so far and you want to go even deeper and build the entire foundational system that makes it all possible, I built an online academy called Content College. Inside, you'll learn how to plan, write, film, edit, and post with a creative system designed to help you grow without burning out. And it's more than just courses. You'll also be getting my color grading preset, my sound effects pack, my templates, worksheets, and how I film and edit my videos from start to finish. And it just starts there because there is so much more inside. And I'm not just showing you how I make my videos. We'll be working on your videos together. Every step of the process, the skills you need that won't be affected by an algorithm. If you're serious about taking your content to the next level, check out Content College. The link is below in the description.
So now let's get back to number three. Stakes and tension. If story is the structure and emotion is the hook, then stakes are what keeps people watching. Because without this tension, without something at risk, your story has no driving journey, nothing to push the viewer moving forward. And this doesn't mean life or death or some all-encompassing end all beall problem. Something just has to be on the line. Some common mistakes that I see are if nothing is at risk, the viewer has no reason to care about the journey, no reason to care about the outcome, so they stop watching. They confuse stakes with being dramatic. Because like I said, tension doesn't have to be extreme. It could be as simple as running out of daylight before you finish filming or missing your bus or the subway or spilling your coffee and you've been looking forward to that coffee all day.
They forget to pay it off. I've said this earlier, but let's dive deeper. If you build tension, you need to release that tension. In so much of my content, it isn't about the visuals. It's about the what if. It's about the what's next. It's about what if this doesn't work? Am I finishing it on time? What if this whole setup fails? What can I learn here? What is the risk involved if I don't finish watching this video? This is what keeps people invested until the very end. So, when I'm building out my story, this is what I keep in mind. I make the viewer ask a question. The moment somebody thinks, "Wait, what's going to happen?" You've got them hooked.
A common mistake is telling too much upfront. If the outcome is obvious, then there's no reason to stick around. It's like, have you ever gone to the movie theaters and seen a trailer and by the end of that trailer you're like, "That's really cool, but I don't need to watch it anymore because I pretty much just seen the whole movie." Yeah, that. So, next time when you're writing, try this. You want to hint at the challenge or the conflict at hand, but don't give away the solution, but you do want to hint that you're going to solve it. Raise the tension. You want to make the risk feel like it gets bigger throughout the video, even if it's just by adding urgency or some sort of mini conflict while trying to solve it. A common mistake I see is keeping mistakes flat. It never escalates. your viewers are going to lose interest. So, next time as you're writing, ask yourself, does it get harder? Does it become funnier? Is it still uncertain more than it was at the start? If not, you need to continue writing out your story more.
So, next time you're crafting a story, make sure you include all of these steps. This gives your audience a reason to stay locked in until the very last second. This is the difference between a video that people scroll past and a video that they can't scroll away from.
All right, that is everything on today's topic, but now it is your turn. Every episode I answer a handful of questions submitted by you all rapid fire Q&A style, all picked and sorted by my team, so I'm seeing them for the first time.
Which one is better, Sony, Canon, Fuji, or Nikon? The best one is the one that you already have. I'm going to be so completely honest. any of these camera don't help tell my story better. It doesn't. If the story sucks, these cameras aren't going to make it better. If the story's good, all of these cameras are going to do the same exact job.
I have so many niches I want to make content about. Any advice on how to navigate that without burnout. Try all of them. See which one you like the most. Honestly, you're not going to figure this out just by feeling, you know, analysis paralysis and being stuck with should I go this way, this way, this way, or this way. If you're not trying, you're not learning. And if you're not learning, then you have no data to basis off of. I've tried so many different styles of content before. I found the one that I saw myself enjoying most and can be doing the longest.
Do you export in 1080p or 4K? If I'm doing YouTube, it's going to be 4K like this. But if I'm putting it just vertical social media, 1080p is more than enough.
Is there a certain number of reals or carousels we should be posting each week? Yes. The answer is whatever number it is that won't burn you out. Some people have capacity to make something almost every day. Some people have the capacity to only do something once a week or once every two weeks. So whatever is the most sustainable for you is the path you should take. Good art, good content made with good emotion and a story arc will reach people, but you won't get good at this if you're not trying enough. So, the strategy is to do just enough to learn from, but also not enough to burn you out.
Well, that wraps us up. If you've made it this far, comment the word shea down below so I know you made it here and that y'all are the real ones. And this is our little inside joke. And also before you go, make sure you subscribe to the free APCC newsletter for digestible content creating tips sent to you weekly, as well as highlighting some of our community's creators. And lastly, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, hit the notification bell, and I'll see you back here in 2 weeks, same place, same time. And if you haven't already, go follow me on the other platforms because everything I post on every platform is different. All right. See y'all.