When we're listening, we'll take the time to hear from multiple perspectives, do our re-search, and fully understand the concepts before we make any creative decisions.
After we've thoroughly listened, we'll start crafting your story. Story is built on 4 Pillars: People, Place, Purpose, and Plot. Each pillar has a main role, or function. Our goal is to maximize each one of these pillars in the story we're telling for you.
We believe that you need to let the story move you, before you try to move the story. And so we start with listening. To the people, places, plot, and purpose that exist within any story.
This is why we feel that the best storytellers are the best listeners – they see and hear what others don't and allow the story to come to them.
As we start in discovery, we are listening for that perfect character to be the heart of the story. Somebody who can carry the story through their great complexity, uniqueness, and desire. And as we follow them on their journey, we can bring the viewer to the purpose, we can allow the viewer to come to the same conclusions – for themselves – that we have. This is what it means to speak to the heart in order to move the mind.
We love to get on the ground first-hand. Experiencing the product or service, walking the factory floor, and talking to people who all offer a different perspective.
For stories with a much wider possibility for that potential heart, we'll develop casting questionnaires to ensure we've scoured the earth for that perfect person to tell the story.
Through online research, in-person discovery, and additional reading, our first milestone is the development of 5 keywords.
These keywords represent what we want this to express, what we want the viewer to do, how we want them to feel, and what they should be left with. They act as a lens to filter all of our decisions.
Once we've agreed on the keywords, we then look to develop the other 3 'P's. We'll choose the heart of the story, as well as secondary characters. We'll plan out all of the places we'll need to go to illuminate the heart of the story. And we'll develop a strong plot – a structure – so that the story can hook the viewers and hold them until the very last frame.
Our next milestone is our recommendation for the heart of the story, complete with characters' bios, as well as storyboards that make the storyline and places very tangible.
A remarkable story is written well before the cameras roll. For us, this comes from our passion for listening, for finding the heart of the story, and in our drive to make every story we tell, the best story we've ever told.