[Podcast] Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland
SOUND JUDGMENT, THE PODCAST - EP04 PUBLISHED ON 10/27/2022
Last year, Crime Show's Emma Courtland was nominated for a Podcast Academy Ambie Award for best host -- most likely because of her measured, engaging delivery; her vivid, cinematic storytelling; and the humanity, nuance, and suspense of the stories she and her team uncovered. We dissect "Paging Dr. Barnes," an episode rescued from the cutting room floor and transformed into a beautiful exploration of a son discovering that his father was a con artist.
Takeaways from Emma Courtland, host of Crime Show
Look for the three registers of a story.
Have you heard about the three registers, or dimensions, of a story: external, philosophical, and internal? As Emma told me, a good story includes two of these registers. A great story has all three.
Herewith, some definitions:
External: What happened? Everything we produce needs this but plot-driven narratives are especially driven by the question, “and then what happened?”
Philosophical: What is the meaning of this story in the outer world? Often, in journalism, this is the answer to “Why should the listener care?”
Internal: Who is the main character? What is the meaning of this story to this person? Are we invited into the character’s thoughts, emotions, relationships, and the ways in which the events of the story changed this person?
The internal story, that's the hardest one to get. But the one that's often what makes the richest, most memorable story, we get inside our protagonist head and their heart.
Ask a great warm up question.
The warm up question has come a long way from the standard sound check question, “What did you have for breakfast?” If you've ever been in a radio or a voiceover studio, you’ve most likely heard that one.
“They’re going to be asked to sit down with a stranger and talk about what is probably the worst experience of their life. You cannot just ask people to do that cold.”
A great warm up question from Emma is, “Tell me the story of your name.”
“It is a great question to start with because it is very specific, but it also allows them to take that question wherever they want to go. Usually what ends up happening is people will tell you a little bit about their parents, you can learn about their ethnic history, their relationship to ethnicity, you can learn about their relationship to their parents, the relationship between parents… there's so much that can be learned from that one question.”
Use the word “story” when asking questions.
It's important to use the word story when you ask questions like the warm up example above. As Emma says, “We human beings tend to dismiss our own stories as boring or unimportant. By asking someone to tell you the story of their name or the story of something else, you're extending an invitation and saying no, it is important. I really want to know you.”
More about Emma Courtland
Emma Courtland is an award-winning podcast producer and oral historian. In 2020, she created Crime Show, an episodic documentary series "about people -- and sometimes crime." The show peaked at #2 on Spotify's podcast charts. Her work in audio has been recognized by the Podcast Academy (Nominee - Best Host, 2022), the Clue Awards (Nominee - Outstanding Episodic Series, 2022) and the National Council on Public History (Winner - Excellence in New Media).
Emma holds a BA in English from UCLA and a MA in oral history from Columbia University.
A note about Sound Judgment: We believe that no host does good work alone. All hosts rely on their producers, the hidden hands that enable a host to shine. We strive to give credit to producers whenever it’s possible to do so.
The episode(s) discussed on today’s Sound Judgment:
September 2021, Paging Dr. Barnes
March 2021: 18 Minutes
Senior producer: Mitch Hansen
Producers: Jade Abdul-Malik, Cat Schuknecht, Jerome Campbell
Editor: Devon Taylor
Sound: Daniel Ramirez
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Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC.
Host: Elaine Appleton Grant
Project Manager: Tina Bassir
Sound Designer: Andrew Parella
Illustrator: Sarah Edgell
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