A good story has the power to entertain, inform and empower. All three elements are necessary if you want to change people’s attitudes or create action. The challenge we always face is how to find the right balance of each for your purpose and audience.
The power of story to entertain is particularly important when faced with an audience that is uninterested in, or even hostile to, the topic. During my years at Walt Disney Imagineering I worked on many projects sponsored by groups that hoped to use the Disney platform to “sell” their ideas. Because the audiences for those projects were paying guests that were coming with the expectation of being entertained, we always focused on satisfying that need first. If we were successful in that regard we could “lure” our audience into the topic space where they might let down their guard enough so that we could stealthily inform and educate them. We described this approach as offering the guests dessert before we asked them to eat their broccoli. Over the years we gathered plenty of real world experience to suggest that we were often successful with this strategy.
Of course, like anyone who believes in the power of a specific tool, I can sometimes fall prey to the “more is better” syndrome. There have been times when I’ve had discussions, at least in my own head, that went something like: “Sure a simple story teller might be effective enough for this particular project, but wouldn’t be cool if we added media, and sound and music. This could be awesome!” If you’re not careful you can end up baking a “masterpiece” that is so sweet and rich as to overshadow the rest of the “meal.”
Fortunately, I experienced some “serious entertainment” recently that reminded me how important it is to maintain the balance between content and entertainment. The event was a screening/performance of Icarus at the Edge of Time. Prior to attending, I knew very little about the story. The only reason it appeared on my radar was that it was being offered, for free, as part of a week long celebration of the new performing arts center here in Orlando, Fl. The price of the ticket, a desire to see the new space, and the fact that the score was by Philip Glass ( a personal favorite) was enough to get me to show up.
What I did expect (from the event description) was a unique combination of film screening, live orchestra performance, and live narration; a form of media mash-up I particularly like. I also learned from the description that it was based on a young adult book about black holes and the theory of relativity; not a topic I have much interest is. The author Prof. Brian Greene, is considered a “world famous popularizer of physics topics,” so that held out some promise.
What I did not expect was that Prof Greene, himself, would be part of the program. A large part in fact, as he kicked the evening off with a half hour presentation on the science behind the story. He was a great storyteller, had some really impressive visuals to illustrate the more difficult points and actually made physics and relativity much more interesting that I would have ever imagined. This was followed by the screening/performance, which was well performed by the local university symphony and celebrity narrator.
When it ended, it got a rousing response from the audience. I turned to my wife, who had been skeptical about the whole event (undoubtedly due to my poor sales job), and asked what she thought. Her response mirrored exactly what I was thinking. It was better than she had expected, entertaining and accessible, but “she actually thought she liked the lecture part better.”
And that brings us back to the question balance. On the one hand do those of us who believe in the power of art to transform overestimate its need and underestimate the ability of our audiences to engage in “hard work?” On the other, would anyone have shown up for a lecture by a world famous physicist on the theory of relativity? Free ticket or not, I probably would have spent my Friday evening elsewhere. Was Prof. Greene’s part in the performance intentionally not advertised? Was the entertainment portion, excellent as it was, merely used as a gimmick to simply get us in the door?
Of course, the real challenge is mixing together just the right amount of entertainment and serious content. There is no magical formula that lets you know going into any project where that sweet spot will be found. Sometimes you use entertainment to communicate most of the message, other times it is the lure that gets your audience’s attention. It is never the same for every audience or even every member of a single audience. The only way to ever find out for sure if you have landed on the right mix is to stand up your project in front of an audience.
What I do know for certain is that, whether intentional or not, in the case of Icarus at the Edge of Time, it was the promise of dessert that got most of us into the theater. I also know that you have to make good on that promise. The dessert, even when the main course is unexpectedly enriching, has to satisfy that deeper need for connection that is ultimately what story and entertainment are all about. In this particular instance, I was reminded that the every best meals are both enriching and entertaining.