What gives me goosebumps

I enjoy stories. I enjoy telling stories as well as hearing peoples stories. When a good story is being told, and I really connect with the story emotionally, then I get goosebumps. I am not talking about campfire ghost stories. Just regular stories told well. Strangely enough, though, I don’t often get goosebumps when the actual event takes place. It is only the re-enactment of the story that does this to me. Why? I think I have an explanation. It is in the edit. Its the way you manipulate the detail of the event. Not change the details, but focus on certain detail, exclude certain detail, massage certain information, and present it, not as the events unfolded, but present the information by creating suspense by withholding certain information, and sometimes focusing on seemingly trivial detail to further build that suspense...

This is the same as editing film, or video. You have the facts - the shots. You have the chronological order of events. This is the linear sequence in which everything was captured. As an editor, or a story teller you can take those facts or shots and just trim off the really bad bits, and lay them out as events unfolded. This is quick and easy, and doesn’t require much thought, but the result is predictable, and boring to watch. Like when some people tell a joke, and you kind of know where it is going... The punch line, when it is delivered, is expected, and evokes a polite laugh. The really funny jokes take you completely by surprise.

Nonlinear narrative or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique, used in film, wherein events are portrayed out of chronological order.

Pulp Fiction, in my opinion one of the best films ever made, makes extensive use of this technique. I like to use this editing technique. This takes time and imagination, and the results are often unpredictable and surprising. This is what gives me goosebumps.

When I make a video, I love to watch the final edit with my client. If I get goosebumps, then I know I made a connection. It is like a sign. A message from somewhere telling me what I have done is good. And this is a fantastic feeling. I wish everyone could get goosebumps when doing their work... It would make the world a better place...

Mark