At this critical time when the value of the library is often questioned, libraries and librarians must learn to better promote ourselves to our potential users. Using online promotional video is one good way to achieve that goal. The idea of this Screenwriting for Librarians series of blog posts is to share some screenwriting and storytelling techniques that I think might help fellow librarians who are interested in utilizing this medium to attract more users.

We all know a story has a beginning, middle and end. But what is in the beginning, the middle, or the end? When does the beginning become the middle, and how does the middle become the end? Sounds like silly questions, but knowing the answers means you know how to properly structure a story.

The beginning or Act I is the set up. It has to establish who the protagonist is, what he wants, and what is preventing him from getting it. Then comes an inciting event, which turns the protagonist’s world upside down and gives him a goal. This is where the real story begins. It is the question of whether the protagonist can achieve his goal that engages the audience. Towards the end of Act I, there should be a plot point that changes the direction of the story and makes the protagonist take drastic action to solve his problems. After which, the story moves into Act II. An example:

• Raiders of the Lost Ark:
• Setup – The opening action sequence of Indiana Jones trying to retrieve a golden idol in a South American jungle establishes him as an action hero, and then we find out that he is also an archeology professor.
• Inciting event – Two government agents show up, and in their meeting Indy realizes that the Nazis are searching for the Lost Ark, which would make their army invincible. Our protagonist’s world is turned upside down, and his goal now is to stop the Nazis from acquiring the Lost Ark, and the real story begins.
• The question – Can Indy stop the Nazis from acquiring the ark?
• Plot Point I - Indy finds the headpiece of the Staff of Ra at his former lover Marion’s tavern. The Nazis attack the tavern and burn it down. Marion and Indy become partners on his continued quest. This changes the direction of the story and moves it into Act II.

The middle, or Act II is the confrontation. The protagonist actively tries to overcome his obstacles. Another plot point occurs towards the end of Act II that once again changes the direction of the story and moves it into Act III.

So, in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy and Marion confront the Nazis in Act II. And Plot Point II is the Nazis steal the Ark from Indy and kidnap Marion, which changes the direction of the story again and moves it into Act III.

The end, or Act III is the resolution. This is the answer to the question posed in Act I. So in Raiders of the Lost Ark, we find out whether Indy achieves his goal of stopping the Nazis from acquiring the ark here.

Google’s Parisian Love commercial is a good example of great storytelling. It’s simple, and it illustrates the story structure I just talked about perfectly. It shows that it really doesn’t cost a lot of money to tell a compelling story and to make a effective promo.

Act I

Set up – The protagonist studies abroad in Paris.

Inciting event – He meets a girl at a Parisian cafe, who tells him he’s très mignon. (His world is turned upside down, and the real story begins).

The Question – Will he and the girl be together?

Plot Point I – He has gone back home and he seeks “long distance relationship advice”. (This changes the direction of the story).

Act II

Confrontation – He takes action to try to overcome the obstacles to achieve his goal – to be with the girl. He looks for a job and flies to Paris.

Plot Point II – He looks for churches in Paris because he and the girl are getting married. (This again changes the direction of the story).

Act III

Resolution - A happy ending as he and his girl are going to have a baby. And it answers the question posed in Act I.

The message this commercial wants to convey is simply, “Search on”.

This is wonderfully good promotion, as it seduces and it uses the product to tell a story. (read more about good marketing vs bad marketing here).

At this critical time when the value of the library is often questioned, libraries and librarians must learn to better promote ourselves to our potential users. Using online promotional video is one good way to achieve that goal. The idea of this Screenwriting for Librarians series of blog posts is to share some screenwriting and storytelling techniques that I think might help fellow librarians who are interested in utilizing this medium to attract more users.

Drama is conflict. A dramatic story contains two essential elements: 1) a protagonist who wants something – a goal, and 2) obstacles that prevent the protagonist from achieving that goal. A typical story is always about someone wanting something but has to overcome obstacles to obtain it. The physical goal of the protagonist is the engine that drives the story forward.  But a story is not that interesting or “dramatic” if the protagonist can easily obtain what he or she wants. Therefore, obstacles to make life difficult for the protagonist (which creates conflicts) is essential.

We only have to look at some of the recent Hollywood movies and see that. For example:

• in The King’s Speech, Henry VI has to overcome his stammer (obstacle) to become a worthy king (goal);
• in Black Swan, to play the evil Black Swan (goal), Natalie Portman’s ballerina must fight against descending into madness (obstacle); or
• in The Fighter, Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) wants to triumph in the ring (goal), but his domineering mother, crack addict brother, big haired sisters all make life difficult for him (obstacle).

The same principles apply to short videos. Because of the restriction of time, the goal of the protagonist must be clear very early on and the conflict must be simple and easy to see. An example:

As mentioned in my previous post, good commercials tend to focus on delivering just one simple message. This absurdly funny State Farm commercial only wants to convey this simple message: “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there”. The protagonists’ goal here is to chill and enjoy their burger (just one! ). The obstacle is, well, the “raging” buffalo. And when their goal collides with the obstacle, we have conflict and drama.

And then the story is about them trying to overcome the the obstacle. First they sing the ridiculous State Farm Magic Jingle (which is now firmly lodged in my head. Just to show that this is a successful commercial) to summon the State Farm agent, who in turn comes up with the idea to use the jingle to transport them to his office to escape the attacking buffalo. Problem solved. End of story. Message conveyed.

This video also has a proper story structure: Act I (The Setup) is two dudes enjoying their burger and then getting attacked by a raging buffalo; Act II (The Confrontation) is them summoning the State Farm agent, and work together to confront the problem; and Act III (The Resolution) is where their agent solves the problem by transporting them back to the State Farm office.

Using a story is a good way to captivate viewers, but dramatizing a message is not an easy task, which is why we so often fall back to those dull “present the facts” videos. Hopefully the tips in this post will help you create a engaging story.

At this critical time when the value of the library is often questioned, libraries and librarians must learn to better promote ourselves to our potential users. Using online promotional video is one good way to achieve that goal. The idea of this Screenwriting for Librarians series of blog posts is to share some screenwriting and storytelling techniques that I think might help fellow librarians who are interested in utilizing this medium to attract more users.

Go to youtube and search for library promo and there are more than 2000 results. That number will no doubt increase as video technology becomes increasingly accessible. You don’t even need a proper camera these days. Anyone with a newish cellphone can shoot and put a video up online in no time. However, learning and using the technology is the easy part – just like learning how to use a pen to write – the tricky part is to create something that captivates your audience.

A common mistake non-pros make when creating promo videos is to cram a ton of information into a short period of screen time. Or worse – reciting a laundry list of info in a long video. Web viewers have extremely short attention spans. Studies have shown that people usually just watch mere seconds of web videos, and most people do not finish even a 3 min video. A long video (that’s anything longer than 4 mins in the online world) better has an intriguing hook, otherwise most people would not even want to press play.

The nature of online library promotional videos share a lot of similarities with TV commercials. Both are (and should be) short (usually 30sec – 1 min), both try to “sell” something, and both want the audience to “take action” to buy/use the products. A lot of good TV commercials are good short films, which means that a good script is essential.

The purpose of the promo is to get your audience to use your libraries/products/services. So, 1) we must figure out what we have, what’s unique about us, that would be attractive to our potential users. This is really the first step of any marketing plan. 2) Distill that into one easy to remember message (a slogan). 3) Then craft a memorable and entertaining short story (video) that shows, not tells (that’s the golden rule of screenwriting) the audience our message.  Simple, right? I can’t help you with the first 2 steps, but hopefully I can give you better ideas of how to achieve step 3 by sharing some of what I have learned in screenwriting.

The most memorable commercials tend to deliver one simple message that captures the essence of the product/service/company/person that it promotes. Think Nike’s “Just Do It”, or Apple’s “Think Different”. Now compare them to those local (let’s say, furniture stores or car dealerships) commercials where someone just stands there and “tells” you all the facts and information he can fit into that 30sec – 1 min time slot. Which one creates more impact? Obviously a Nike commercial has a multi-million dollar budget that a local business simply can’t match. But creativity can overcome financial limitations. Many great commercials do not cost a lot of money. They are great because of their clever ideas. And we will see an example of that in the commercial below.

This funny AT&T commercial most likely didn’t cost much to make. There’s no fancy CGI, or spectacular car chases. There is only one office location, and only one speaking actor. We can all do that, right? Yes!

The simple message here is “Don’t get left behind. AT&T – The nation’s fastest mobile network is now getting faster with 4G”. Instead of just “telling” us that, the humorous story is a wonderful way to “show” us the importance of having a fast connection, or rather, the danger of not having one. The story has a proper structure. There is a beginning, middle and end. The beginning (the set up) is the guy (who doesn’t have AT&T) notices that there’s a taco party and he thinks he’s not invited. The middle (the confrontation) is him mouthing off to his co-workers. And the end (the resolution) is him realizing that he’s actually invited but his phone was just too slow *oops*. Then there’s the call to action – “don’t get left behind” – what are you waiting for? Get AT&T now!

Seeing something like this gives us hope that we don’t need millions of dollars to make a good promo video for our libraries. My next post in this series will talk about story structure in more details.