‘Tuning in’ to Storytelling
By: Lauren Cook, Founder
I had trouble sitting still at Batch Austin that day while the students played saxophone, drums, guitar, and bass alongside fellow students and jazz professionals. Even after filming for hours and interviewing numerous students, I felt the urge to stand while they played. My body needed to move to the rhythm and beats.
Prior to working with the Austin Jazz Workshop (AJW) on their fundraising campaign content, I would say I liked jazz, or maybe that I appreciated it. But our experience with filming, interviewing, and storytelling about jazz left me hooked. One student featured in the video said jazz makes him feel “Alive!” and I agree.
There is something about jazz that requires a certain attention to the present moment that my mind, heart, and body respond to. It’s live, right there, happening before us! What is being created has never been done exactly like that before or since. Several of the students told us they love this improvisational nature of jazz.
It made me think about the improvisational nature of storytelling and how being present – really tuned in – is essential to making compelling content. You first have to listen and connect with yourself and the people (or creatures, land, or issue) you’re featuring. Then you follow leads, hunches, and improvise to create something new and fresh. You have to take it seriously, but you can’t cling too tightly or try to control it, or the story won’t unfold as richly.
We’re proud to have created a rich feature video and a fun social media piece (see below) for the Austin Jazz Workshop. They have been bringing their craft to Central Texas elementary school students for more than 30 years.
We’ve also published a case study about the project. We believe sharing our insights about bringing projects to life not only helps us to improve and grow, but benefits the entire field and our collective storytelling work.