If you were to make, or if you had made a professional video promoting your work, what would you include?

I ask because on YouTube (not the best source for "professional" videos, I know), there are plenty of amateur videos of people telling stories.
However, for the most part, the videos submitted by professional speakers are highly edited, such that, I can't actually tell if they are compelling speakers or not. There are shots of engaged audience members, sometimes even testimonials from people who have hired the speaker, but when it comes time to showing the speaker, there's only thirty seconds or so of speaking... and it's usually an excerpt with either a provocative statement or a laugh line... but never a full story-- even on the speakers who bill themselves as storytellers!!!

For that reason, I find a poorly produced video that includes an entire story more compelling than a slick one that advertises a storyteller but leaves out any stories.

How about as a producer? If you were going to hire a storyteller or speaker, what do you need to see in a video?

_________________
Tim E
http://www.storyteller.net/tellers/tereneta
http://www.myspace.com/storiesbytim
http://storytelling.blogspot.com
http://storytellersunplugged.wordpress.com

Found a YouTube video from the producer's end: it's a summary of the local library's storytelling festival in Northern Kentucky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTRvtjJu4Ec


I recognized Donna Washington and Lyn Ford in it, but ironically, the five minute video doesn't have any stories in it.

But from the producer's standpoint, I think it's the right decision to explain the purpose of the library programming, and its benefits, since I don't think showing a storyteller in five minutes on video is going to be anywhere near as compelling as a live performance.

[quote="MFrast"]Found a YouTube video from the producer's end: it's a summary of the local library's storytelling festival in Northern Kentucky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTRvtjJu4Ec


I just watched this clip---a nice news clip but not a great example of promoting storytelling. Lots of empty chairs, small audience, many with staff shirts, and it was really about the library, promoting reading, dramatic readings.... a little about telling came at the end. The line "storytelling is a dying art" rang loudly in my ears. And the idea of Telling being just as compelling for teens and adults was not there.

Is there a great storytelling promo on You Tube?