in this video i'm going to take you shot
by shot and we're going to go through
one of my videos where i use
storytelling and i actually wrote out a
whole script and i wanted to make this
video because i want to show you how i
go from script to the actual video now
this video was when i went up to the
eureka dunes in death valley and tried
to capture the sound of the singing
dunes and in this video i talk about the
history i talk about this weird
phenomenon that happens at these eureka
dunes and i try to paint the picture of
the entire experience while also showing
some of my adventure to get to the top
of these dunes and so i wrote out an
entire script to make this video and
you'll see as we're going through this
script
i did use this script for a lot of the
filming but then there was also these
other moments that i added and things
happened when i was actually out there
filming and you'll see how something
just goes from a simple script that i
put together to an actual video that is
engaging and keeps viewers watching and
when looking at the data for this video
there's a good average view duration so
that's how i know that people are
watching towards the end now there's a
couple things i want to talk about
before we actually get into shot by shot
first i just want to explain how i came
up with the story for this video so i've
heard about the eureka sand dunes in
death valley and i heard that they sing
but i didn't really understand what that
meant so i did is i went into google i
typed in yurika dunes singing and i
found some videos of people actually
going and exploring this and some of the
videos just weren't that good but it was
an interesting story because of this
weird phenomenon so what i did is i dug
into the research a little bit more and
started writing out my script so i use a
few different sources government
websites wikipedia i use atlas obscura
which is a great one for these kind of
oddities and then i just hunt through a
bunch of different travel vloggers there
are people who have been there and
written about this place and what i do
is i look at all of these sources and
then pull all that information into one
document and then i start rearranging it
and coming up with what the outline is
so what story beats do i want to hit and
what do i want to touch on and then i
could start going through and actually
crafting the script from beginning to
end so to start any video you want to
hook so i want a hook that explains
what's going on and then also gives you
an introduction of what you're going to
experience in this video so this is what
i wrote there's a place in california
that i've had on my bucket list for a
long time this is the eureka dunes and i
drove over eight hours today from the
sunny beach in southern california to
the northern section of death valley to
stand on a giant pile of sand just to
hear this strange phenomenon i'm gonna
kick the sand and then i'm gonna tell
you that is the sound of singing sand
now when i was out filming i made sure
to capture this when i was at the top of
the dunes because i want this to be the
hook and i want to be from the location
of where we're at i didn't want to do
this hook sitting here in my office
sitting at home or down by my jeep i
wanted to actually be in there and show
you what is coming that's a big thing
when you're doing a hook is you want to
preview what's coming in the video
now i've had a place on my bucket list
for a long time
this is the eureka dunes
and i'm standing
at the top
where
there's this strange phenomenon that
happens when you kick sand
off of the edge
listen to this
[Music]
so the next section i want to get into
is some of the backstory to kind of set
up what the dunes are and where they're
at and some information about them
so i wrote the eureka dunes are some of
the tallest dunes in north america they
sit on top of what was the sea floor a
long time ago it's crazy to think that
this whole region was underwater
especially because we're on the eastern
side of california in the middle of the
hottest desert in the world temperatures
in death valley have been recorded up to
134 degrees in summertime and we've come
out here to the end of winter to catch a
cool 80 degrees now when i wrote that
section i'm sitting at home so i don't
actually know what it's like out there
i'm actually going to change some of
this when i'm out filming but this gives
you a sense of kind of the story beats i
wanted to hit to set up what we're doing
and so when i was filming i didn't just
go right into this i wanted to use some
visual storytelling to show the process
of getting to these dunes
eureka dunes are the tallest dunes in
north america and this whole region used
to be underwater this was all once the
sea floor which is crazy to think about
because we're on the eastern side of
california in the hottest desert in the
world it's been recorded up to 134
degrees in death valley but i'm not out
here in the middle of summer it's a cool
90 degrees and we're gonna climb to the
top of that dune
so a lot of that footage that you saw
from this intro we shot as we approached
the dunes i didn't know where i was
gonna use that footage but something
that i do when i create these stories is
i'm just trying to film the process so
i'm constantly just grabbing shots as
i'm getting to the location i don't do a
ton but i make sure to spend a little
bit of time and get some different
angles and shot variety now when i'm
doing these stand-ups i'm not using a
teleprompter i look at my phone i read a
section i'll try to get it out a few
takes and then after doing it a couple
times i'll memorize all the beats that i
want to hit and then it comes natural
and this is just something that comes
from experience the more that you talk
on camera the easier it will be to just
ad-lib different sections like this but
if you are newer to making videos a
teleprompter does make a big difference
it's a lot easier to get through these
sections especially when you're trying
to hit specific things all right so this
is the next section in the script now
scientists who study this region believe
that these dunes are over 10 000 years
old and were only recently added to the
national park system in 1994. the
entirety of death valley is 140 miles
long and the park covers 5 270 square
miles whereas the eureka dunes are only
three square miles of that one mile
across and three miles long it's a tiny
section of sand in comparison to the
massive valleys and towering mountains
around
[Music]
now scientists who study this region
believe that these dunes are over 10 000
years old
now death valley in its entirety is
massive it covers over 5 000 square
miles of land but these dunes that i'm
climbing up which is
pretty tough to climb up are only three
square miles of the entire region you
have one mile
from the valley over there to the
mountains behind me
and then three miles from end to end
that's it if you look in the surrounding
region around these dunes
there's no sand it's just this one patch
of sand
and that's it
so for that section i really changed up
how i said the information but i still
tried to hit the same beats that i was
talking about and there was actually
some stuff that i cut out from the
script and talked more about my
experience actually climbing up the
dunes now the process of me shooting my
a-roll was basically either i do it on a
tripod where i'm standing there with a
cool background or i'm doing the vlog
style where i'm walking around hand
holding the camera and a lot of times
when i'm making these kind of videos i
like to switch it up between tripod
handhold it just feels a lot more fluid
when you have this kind of motion and
you have these variety of shots and then
all the b-roll that you're seeing we
were just shooting throughout the
experience whenever i would see a cool
shot or something unique i would grab it
and if there was something that was
gonna help tell the story i would make
sure to grab some extra shots of that
and so for example we shot some footage
of me dumping sand out of my shoes it
just shows some more of this experience
as we were climbing the dunes okay the
next section of script goes like this
what makes this so special though is the
unique characteristic of sound some call
it singing some call it booming it's the
sound that's created when you climb to
the top and push sand off the side now
don't get me wrong this is not an easy
climb to the summit the tallest of these
dunes around 700 feet and we're sitting
at 3 000 feet of elevation on top of
that you have soft shifting sands that
feel like one step forward and two steps
backward and so for this section i
actually broke it up into a few
different shots
but what makes the eureka dunes so
special is not the fact that it's just
these dunes in the middle of the desert
but it's this unique characteristic of
the sound when you climb these dunes
and kick the sand off the side
some call it singing some call it
booming
but it's essentially a weird phenomenon
that happens when you push the sand
off of these steep cliffs
[Music]
now the tallest of these dunes
is around 700 feet
and
when doing my research
i thought this was going to be a much
easier climb
but it feels like every one step forward
is two steps back
now this is where there's a big shift
between my script and what i actually
film so when we were out there filming
we got hit by a big wind storm on top of
the mountain and so we actually had to
turn back at this point so this is all i
got shot in the first day originally i
had planned to shoot this all the way
through till sunset and then the final
shots of the video were going to be at
sunset on top of the peaks but we got up
there and got hit by this windstorm and
it became a mess all of our gear was
covered in sand and we just wanted to
get out of there so we ended up climbing
the dunes again the next day and then i
had to bring that into the story because
it looks completely different we were
shooting sunset looking footage it's
golden hour it was looking really
beautiful and then it's bright early
morning completely different look and so
that's where i started incorporating
some more just vlogging elements of what
was going on and then i added some
moments in to keep the story moving and
show more of the experience now there is
one section later in the script that
talks about how difficult it is to hear
the sound and it goes like this now this
doesn't always work you have to have the
perfect conditions the sand has to be
dry there has to be low humidity to hear
the singing but when you hear it the
sound is out of this world but what i
did is i actually talked about our
experience of trying to capture the
sound and i put this information in a
way that makes sense for what was
actually going on while we were there
now the reality is in that last shot i
just superimposed the sound of the
singing or booming
over the footage because
getting that sound is actually not as
easy as just walking up and kicking sand
off you have to have the proper
conditions it needs to be super dry and
it has to be low humidity to be able to
actually hear that sound and so day one
yesterday i came up to the top
with my buddy jesse who's helping me
film this video and we got to the summit
and got hit by a crazy windstorm and it
was just awful only filmed about half
the video
and so last night we slept down there in
the valley on top of my rooftop tent and
day two we're climbing up again so that
we can get that sound clean to be able
to use in the video
so you can see how this whole section
was added because of the situation that
we are in when we're out there filming
and this is part of when you're making
videos things will change especially
when you're doing this kind of content
outdoor adventure it's not always going
to go as planned and you need to be able
to change the script or change the way
that you approach the content because
you're going to have these things that
happen and going to change the way that
you're filming
so the next section goes like this why
this occurs is not fully understood but
the leading theory is that the sound is
caused when a sheet of sand avalanches
down a slip face exciting the sand
grains the friction between these grains
creates acoustic airwaves that emits an
audible sound and it may have something
to do with the smooth texture of the
grain sands and the friction of those
grain sands sliding against each other
it's like the base note of a pipe organ
or the distant drone of an airplane so
that really doesn't roll off the tongue
well and this is something where i had
to actually go through and change it and
just make it feel more natural and this
is where i'm gonna bring some of my
personal experience of actually going up
the sand dunes and talking about this
while trying to hit these points of what
actually might cause the sound when
you're on these dunes
[Music]
now the reason for this sound is not
fully understood but the leading theory
is that when there's an avalanche of
sand sliding down these hillsides the
air pocket that's created from the
smooth sand particles emits this sound
that you and me can hear
and when i've been up here
stepping on the edges of these cliffs i
just see a big cascading fall of sand
and then you start feeling a vibration
and then you start hearing the sound and
it's eerie it's kind of like the drone
of an airplane out in the distance
or like the base note on a pipe organ
it's so bizarre and you can feel it
through your entire body
now i wanted to have a payoff for this
video which was actually getting to the
top of the dunes kicking the sound off
and hearing the booming or the eerie
sound and i didn't write anything for
this but i knew this was something that
i wanted to capture for the climax of
this video
i've driven
over eight hours
and climbed 700 feet of sand
just to get
up to this point
and kick sand off the side
to hear the sound
now the last thing that i have written
down in my script is a takeaway now this
i figured i was going to write when i
was out there because a big part of it
is experience in actually going through
this but this is what i wrote some
people might think it's crazy to spend
all day driving through the desert just
to climb a sand hill but
so when you come up with a takeaway you
want something that the audience can
take with them and for me i was
something that i was thinking about when
i was actually doing this experience
like why is this important or why i even
come out here and do this and that's
going to be my takeaway now when we were
done filming we started running down the
sand dunes so i decided to capture a
little bit of this and i ended up adding
it into the video
it's been a tough
couple days
climbing these dunes up and down
but we finally got a clean recording to
hear that rumble
now comes the fun part
[Music]
some people might think it's crazy to
drive all the way out here and hike up
these sand dunes in this heat
just to kick some sand off the side and
hear this weird strange phenomenon but
finding these cool unique things to go
explore gives us a reason to go do
something and
gets you to see somewhere that you
probably would have never seen or go to
a location that you probably would have
never visited
and so i follow the same story structure
when i'm making all my videos that's the
hook
back story gets you into the story the
experience have a climax some point that
you're building to and then a takeaway
that the audience can walk away with
that framework is the simplest way to
create a story that's engaging and keeps
people from beginning to the end now if
you want to see another video where i
break down storytelling step by step
through a vlog and through one of these
adventure films make sure you check out
this video right here it goes through
the entire aspect of filming shooting
editing and everything it took to make
this video