By Heart or From the Heart? When to Use Them Both.

The Video Job Application.

This morning I received an email from a client that inspired this post.

She’s been asked to prepare a four minute video as part of a job application and has asked for my help.

The video can be on a subject of her choosing as long as it bears some relation to the job that she wants to do.

My client suggested three topics and then said, ‘I feel I can write well about all of them but I’m not sure about creating a script.’

To which I replied, ‘Whatever you do, DON’T write a script.’

Why No Script?

Writers spend a long time learning how to create screenplays that sound like real people talking.

And actors spend a long time learning how to deliver those lines as if they have just popped into their heads.

Given that my client isn’t applying to be either a screenwriter or a movie star why would she try and wing it as either of those things?

The process she has been asked to go through is really so that the employer can get a sense of her values and ethos.

It’s about my client letting the employer get to know her. It’s about her telling her story.

All she needs to do is know her message, find the story to illustrate it and then tell it from the heart.

And nobody needs a script for that.

There may be facts that she has to get over which she will have to know by heart.

But the major part of the exercise is about discovering her story, developing that story and then delivering it from the heart.

So What Can I Do Instead of Scripting?

I’ve suggested that she does a process of story discovery that goes like this.

First she will divide her message into four sections called Situation, Problem, Question and Answer.

Then she needs to start thinking about the stories that will plant images in the audience’s mind for the Situation, Problem and Answer.

She should make a storyboard and cover it with post-it notes of triggers to these stories.

Who is involved? Where? When? What is going on? How does it affect them. Why should I care? Why does she care?

No censoring. Anything goes at this stage.

The Question will be one sentence that tees up the Answer story she will tell about how she helps.

The Question may be something that she needs to learn by heart.

But for the other sections?

As long as she really connects to the images and commits to putting them in the head of the audience then nobody will know nor care what words she uses.

She just needs to tell if from the heart.

And that is something we will explore as we develop the shape of her story and work on the delivery.

Why Not Get in Touch?

If you’d like a 15 minute chat to see if our ‘3D Story Approach®’ of Discover, Develop and Deliver could help you stand out from the crowd then drop me an email on david@mckechnie-pullan.com.