Storytelling

Every good Crash Course video starts with a story...

Not like “Once upon a time…” or “Can you believe she said that?!” But more like, “We’re starting here. And by the end, we’ll end up somewhere new.” Even in a nonfictional video that’s explaining real-world stuff, a story is key to connecting with an audience.

So what makes a story a good story? And how can we use what we know about stories to make an engaging video that shares knowledge with the viewer? Explore the Big Questions, Key Terms, and more below to learn about the very beginnings of a Crash Course video.

Let’s Brainstorm…

What is a story?

What makes a story good? What makes a story bad? Are these useful ways of judging a story?
How can something nonfictional have a story? What kind of nonfiction stories do you interact with in everyday life?

Note your answers to these questions. We’ll return to them as we explore storytelling and create a script.

Key Terms:

A story, also called a narrative, is a series of connected events with a beginning, middle, and end. It’s a way to tell or show someone information in an engaging way.
The hook is exactly what it sounds like! It’s the shiny, pointy beginning of your script, used to grab the viewer’s attention. Usually, a hook is present in the first two to three sentences. The hook asks a question, or introduces a problem, that engages your viewer.
If the hook is the, well, hook, then your introduction is the string. It’s the line your viewers follow to get into the video. It proposes an answer to the question/problem that the hook introduced (though importantly, doesn’t provide it yet).
The body of your script is where the bulk of your story takes place. Here is where you will answer the question/problem of your hook and where your research into your subject will be explained. You’ll provide the viewer with engaging examples, statistics, and anecdotes that will help explain the hook of your story. You can use analogies, refer to current events, or create fun jokes that will keep your viewer watching.
If the hook asks a question, and the body answers it, then your conclusion tells your audience why it’s important that they know this. What insight have they gained from this episode? What should their takeaway be? In other words, this is your “why you should care/so what?” moment. But, it’s also a moment to recap what you’ve learned. It’s helpful to provide a very quick review during your conclusion.

Now that you have new vocabulary to talk about stories, how have your answers to our original questions changed?

Let’s Practice: Script Analysis

Read the sample script below twice. The first time, don’t take any notes; just read it to understand its content. The second time, put brackets around and label the Hook, Introduction, Body, and Conclusion. Then answer the questions below, considering each of those four parts.

Crash Course Art History Script:

Everybody knows what a museum is. They can be kind of boring sometimes, but sometimes they can be fun, too. You might have gone on a field trip to one or on a trip with your family. There can be lots of different objects there, like art or fossils. There are tour guides, maps, lots of different floors, and usually a café and a gift shop.

Today, we’re talking about art museums.

Hi! I'm Sarah Urist Green and this is Crash Course Art History.

[THEME MUSIC]

Art museums took a long, winding road to get to the version we know today. Actually, the earliest known spaces for art were caves— like the Chauvet and Lascaux Caves in France and the Altamira Cave in Spain, where prehistoric people used ochre and charcoal to depict different animals.

Still, we wouldn’t call these prehistoric caves museums just because there are pictures on the walls. A modern-day museum has professional, trained staff, an open and publicly accessible space, and objects of historical and cultural importance that are not only preserved, but arranged to educate the public.

In museums, artworks are sorted into groups, or categorized, so that they can be stored and studied, and eventually displayed in deliberate ways, like to tell a story about a certain part of history.

We get the word “museum” from the ancient Greek word “mouseion,” meaning a shrine to the Muses, the Ancient Greek goddesses of art, music, and poetry. And while we wouldn’t consider these shrines “museums” by today’s standards, some places in Ancient Greece definitely had the feel of them.

And actually, the earliest known spaces dedicated to collecting art weren’t in Europe.

Now, flash forward to Europe in the mid-sixteenth century, when private collecting took on a whole new flavor — that of the “wunderkammer,” or Cabinet of Curiosities. These proto-museums were full of strange and wondrous items: “dragon eggs” and “mermaid hands” right alongside legitimate art and artifacts from around the world. Wealthy nobles and merchants, as well as some scientists, put these bizarro collections together to show off their travels, but also to advance knowledge.

Cabinets of curiosities weren’t meant for the public. They were meant to bring the outside world to the nobility. It wasn’t until the eighteenth century that the first publicly accessible museums began to open their doors, as a way for wealthy art patrons to show off their collections more widely.

Importantly, these collections often included works stolen from other countries as part of colonialism, and all of this stealing has left a pretty messy legacy.

Museums in Europe and the United States are chock full of art and artifacts that were taken by force from their country or culture of origin, and they’re often displayed in ways that make them seem “primitive” compared to European art. James Luna’s artwork critiqued this.

Now, museums have been called to decolonize, or to acknowledge and free themselves of their colonial influences.

Take this portrait of Sir Thomas Picton, the former colonial British governor of Trinidad. In 2020, the National Museum in Wales removed it because of his brutality toward enslaved workers and free people of color on the island.

Two years later, the museum opened an exhibition called “Reframing Picton,” which highlighted this history, and included the work of Trinidadian artists to help develop a more complete picture.

The work of rethinking our museums also involves diversifying those who work within them, serve on their boards, and make the decisions about what is collected and displayed.

As we’ve seen, the very idea of a museum was concocted by wealthy members of the ruling class. So a lot of perspectives have been left out for a long time, and that legacy isn’t going to be unraveled overnight.

Hook ↓
[Everybody knows what a museum is.]
Introduction ↓
[They can be kind of boring sometimes, but sometimes they can be fun, too. You might have gone on a field trip to one or on a trip with your family. There can be lots of different objects there, like art or fossils. There are tour guides, maps, lots of different floors, and usually a café and a gift shop.
Today, we’re talking about art museums.
Hi! I'm Sarah Urist Green and this is Crash Course Art History.]
[THEME MUSIC]
Body ↓
[Art museums took a long, winding road to get to the version we know today. Actually, the earliest known spaces for art were caves— like the Chauvet and Lascaux Caves in France and the Altamira Cave in Spain, where prehistoric people used ochre and charcoal to depict different animals.
Still, we wouldn’t call these prehistoric caves museums just because there are pictures on the walls. A modern-day museum has professional, trained staff, an open and publicly accessible space, and objects of historical and cultural importance that are not only preserved, but arranged to educate the public.
In museums, artworks are sorted into groups, or categorized, so that they can be stored and studied, and eventually displayed in deliberate ways, like to tell a story about a certain part of history.
We get the word “museum” from the ancient Greek word “mouseion,” meaning a shrine to the Muses, the Ancient Greek goddesses of art, music, and poetry. And while we wouldn’t consider these shrines “museums” by today’s standards, some places in Ancient Greece definitely had the feel of them.
And actually, the earliest known spaces dedicated to collecting art weren’t in Europe.
Now, flash-forward to Europe in the mid-sixteenth century, when private collecting took on a whole new flavor — that of the “wunderkammer,” or Cabinet of Curiosities. These proto-museums were full of strange and wondrous items: “dragon eggs” and “mermaid hands” right alongside legitimate art and artifacts from around the world. Wealthy nobles and merchants, as well as some scientists, put these bizarro collections together to show off their travels, but also to advance knowledge.
Cabinets of curiosities weren’t meant for the public. They were meant to bring the outside world to the nobility. It wasn’t until the eighteenth century that the first publicly accessible museums began to open their doors, as a way for wealthy art patrons to show off their collections more widely.
Importantly, these collections often included works stolen from other countries as part of colonialism, and all of this stealing has left a pretty messy legacy.
Museums in Europe and the United States are chock full of art and artifacts that were taken by force from their country or culture of origin, and they’re often displayed in ways that make them seem “primitive” compared to European art. James Luna’s artwork critiqued this.
Now, museums have been called on to decolonize, or to acknowledge and free themselves of their colonial influences.
Take this portrait of Sir Thomas Picton, the former colonial British governor of Trinidad. In 2020, the National Museum in Wales removed it because of his brutality toward enslaved workers and free people of color on the island.
Two years later, the museum opened an exhibition called “Reframing Picton,” which highlighted this history, and included the work of Trinidadian artists to help develop a more complete picture.
The work of rethinking our museums also involves diversifying those who work within them, serve on their boards, and make the decisions about what is collected and displayed.]
Conclusion ↓
[As we’ve seen, the very idea of a museum was concocted by wealthy members of the ruling class. So a lot of perspectives have been left out for a long time, and that legacy isn’t going to be unraveled overnight.]

Consider the entire script…

What works well in this script? Name at least two examples.
What doesn’t work well in this script? Name at least three examples.
What questions are you left asking?

And now…your turn!

Write Your Own Script

Step 1: Create an outline for your three-to-five minute video

Using everything you’ve learned about storytelling and script writing so far, create an outline for a 3-5 minute video on the topic of your choice. Your outline should include the following:

A title idea
A sample hook
Three topic sentences that outline the body of your script
Sources for reference

Feel free to include fun ideas for jokes or moments of humor if you think of them! You can always add more later in the editing stage.

Step 2: Write your own script.

Using the outline you created, write a 300-500 word script with a hook, intro, body, and conclusion.

Script-writing tips:

Am I being accurate/truthful?

No one wants to feel misled when they click on a video. If you propose a question in your hook, you have to answer it in your script’s body. If you don’t, then you’ve created one of the biggest internet annoyances: clickbait.

Who is my audience?

It’s important to think about who you’re writing for. Every audience wants something different out of your writing. Your parents are a different audience than your teacher, and your teacher is a different audience than your peers. Think about what each group needs and wants from something you’re making.
At Crash Course, we have a few different audiences! We make videos for:

Students to learn information and study for tests
Teachers to use as part of their lessons
Casual learners who just want to know more cool stuff.

We try to keep each of these groups in mind when making our videos. We make sure the language in our videos is easily understandable for students, provide resources in video descriptions for teachers, and include lots of goofy bits and fun jokes for casual learners.

How can I make this more engaging?

There are lots of ways to grab and keep the viewer’s attention. Here are a few:

Keep introductions short and sweet. Save the more complex introductory info for after the theme music.
Make sure the hook is simple to understand, rather than super nuanced. You’ll dig more into the topic’s complexities later in the video.
Whenever possible, find a way to relate to the viewer and connect to the present moment.
Try adding jokes! No worries if it doesn’t land at first; a bad joke can often lead to a good one.

Use our Script Template to help structure your own script.