Event Video Coverage, Infused With Storytelling — with Myron Brooks

Transcript is auto-generated from the episode audio and lightly edited; it may contain small errors.

Highlight reels and recaps are really important, but I feel like there's so many missed opportunities to capture during events. There's so much investment going into an event — you're bringing people from all over the country, sometimes all over the world, to be at this event. And there's so many stories and so many moments and so many things you can capture and convey from that space and time. I think there's so much more that can be creatively captured at events that tell stories that really convey the value of the brand, illustrate and help visualize messaging pillars. Instead of just telling people, you could do so much better than just a highlight video or a recap reel. I wanted us to just kind of brainstorm together a little bit for people — let this be a bit of a brainstorm session. What could be possible at your event to capture that's not just highlight videos?

Known For podcast, episode two.

Grace: What comes to mind for you when you're talking to someone like, hey, we know we need video coverage — what do we need to be thinking about?

Paul: So first off, the question is why are you doing video coverage? Because the highlight reel is in the moment, and it's something we're really good at. We'll bring a team in depending on the size of the event — as small as three or four, we've done 20 before on really big events — but we also turn all these highlights around in real time. So the people at the conference, at the concert, at the event, are able to walk out and open up their social media and they're still at the event. Which is huge — it's great, it's amazing. That's the highlight reel, and the speed of it is incredibly important for those things.

But from a nuts-and-bolts, dollars-and-cents perspective, you can argue that the people are already at the event. Why would you spend the effort or the money to produce highlights while you're there? Because those people have already paid for their ticket. It's not adding that much value from a bottom-line perspective to your events that year. They've already bought the ticket — they have not bought a ticket for 2026. So getting the video, getting the coverage, the photography, getting the stories of the people that are there at your current event are great, and you make it the highlight reel and add to that experience, because those are going to be repeat customers. But all of the video, all of the stories, everything you're capturing is marketing for the next event. Take that real-time highlight and add: register for next year, register for the next city. Because a lot of people are booking the next conference at that event — they're driving sales.

One of the bigger conferences we did was, I think, 38,000 to 40,000 people, and we were doing real-time social videos and highlights and playback on screens and everything for it. And they announced the next year's date — I think it was at like 80% capacity when they made the announcement — and it sold out weeks later. Getting the video for those things, for the marketing, that's where the value is.

Grace: Okay, so let's get really granular. What specific types of video should you be after if you're getting ready for your next conference and you want to be set to market the one after that? What marketing opportunities do you need to capture at this conference to set you up to sell next year's?

Paul: We get those establishing shots — we show where the event is, we show how many people there are. Then you want to move into the emotion. It's easy to go to the kind of, people are happy to see each other, there's friends, there's family, there's people that go way back, they haven't seen each other since last year — you get those kinds of things. Anything corporate is likely going to have sponsors, and at that point you're not just working for your client, you're working for your client's sponsors too.

Grace: That's what I keep saying to people, is that you're not just selling to your attendees, you're selling to sponsors, you're selling to talent to come and speak at your next event. Because of all the exposure, all of the opportunity, you want to make everybody who's there look good, and create demand. Because you can build a wait list. I was talking to someone recently — she puts on an event every single year, and they've gotten to a point where they're building demand for sponsors. Sponsors are coming to her because of the experience that attendees are having with those sponsors. And she's trying to figure out a way to really focus on and capture the sponsor-and-attendee relationship and the story that's happening there. Because it's important for attendees, but it's really important for people who are paying to be there for the exposure. So how can you sell that and create demand that way? That's huge.

Paul: So thinking from a sponsor shot list, what's going to be important to most sponsors? Their signage with people in front of it. Happy people. You don't want boring — you don't want people walking past it, ignoring it. You want to make sure you catch the interaction, whether it's a bank or a tech sponsor or anything — you see the people at their booth interacting. And I know we haven't really touched on attendee interviews yet, but from a sponsor shot list, it goes a long way to hear people say, thank you — I don't want to name any sponsor, but, thank you, big corporation, for putting this on for us. Fifteen people say that in succession — thank you, thank you, thank you, I'm walking away with this knowledge now, I'm walking away with the right contacts, thank you, I'm walking away with this.

But I know the thing you probably want to talk about the most is attendee stories. I don't want to forget about sponsors, because they're really, really important — I think it's easy to forget about them. But with attendee stories, I want to talk about how to really capture all the value that they're getting at an event. We can interview attendees — we talked about customer interviews in a previous episode, so if you didn't listen to that, go listen, there's lots of information there that applies to this context as well. But when you're at an event, you don't have as much time to prep questions that apply to the different people coming in. You don't know as much as you do when you're prepping for a specific customer interview. And when you're at a 30,000-person event, you have to go and find stories, because a lot of times our clients don't have specific people they want us to talk to — we have to go and find them. And it's up to us to find the stories that align with the brand's values and the messaging pillars to build that marketing. They'll tell us, hey, we'd really love to hear this perspective — if you find someone who's come from out of the country, or someone who has this role, or is like a mentor, feature them. But a lot of times it's up to us to go and find it, and that takes a lot of time.

Grace: I want to introduce someone that we actually interviewed. He's that guy who people come to and they want him to interview them — they just want to get to know him in general. He's that type of personality. So we thought it would be cool to interview him and ask him about how he works, some tips on how to get in the middle of complete strangers.

Paul: There's natural charisma there for sure, but there's so much more strategy to it.

Grace: So take a listen. This is Myron.

Grace: All right, well, I have Myron Brooks on the podcast with me right now. He is really, really great at telling stories, capturing stories. Myron is associate pastor at Union Church, he runs a creative company called Theophany Creative, he's doing a lot of creative work. So Myron, take the floor — tell us about you.

Myron: Listen, first off, Grace, I just want to say I appreciate it. Love you and Paul so much, you guys are the best. I think the biggest thing about me — I was just working through updating my LinkedIn and I was like, oh, I'm doing a lot of different things, but it's all in one world. I started off as a church kid, a volunteer at church, and I just really loved telling stories and creating stories and creating moments and atmospheres. I didn't know that people did that as a job. Once I got into it, it's kind of become all the things that I do. I went to school for counseling, but even when I went to school, I was on the production team, I was running lights, I was doing plays. So it was something I got into, and I didn't think I was going to do it as a career, working in any kind of creative space — but it's been the best, it really has been the best.

So yeah, I run production for Union Church, a great church, an amazing church. When we came, the church was 2,000 people and about 20 staff members, and we've just been putting our hand to the plow, and the church has exploded — it's like 15,000 people, eight locations, three states. Working in church really does do that — so many different personalities, so many different walks of life, so many different perspectives on the world. And leading in this space, being able to work in a lot of diverse church experiences, it really does help me to be able to talk to anybody. I say on my podcast all the time, I'm bilingual — I can speak like Caucasian, I can speak Black, I can speak Presbyterian, I can speak Catholic. When it comes to church and talking to people from different walks of life, being in this space has made me really well versed, and unafraid to have a conversation with somebody. And that removal of fear, I think, is what gives me an edge when talking to strangers, because I don't mind just walking up to somebody and saying, hey, tell me about your experience.

Grace: That's a really good point, I haven't heard it put that way, but that makes a lot of sense — you kind of have to understand what meaning people assign to things, and understand their language, to understand their story and piece it together and tell it effectively, especially if you have a small amount of time to get the story out of them. I'd love to take that to more of a micro perspective — how you, as a creative, gather stories. When you're at a conference with us and you're having those conversations with people, I feel like you have this gift where you make people feel comfortable first, and then they open up to you in a way they probably wouldn't with any other stranger. How do you approach those conversations and create that magic?

Myron: So I use this counseling degree — just not as a counselor — but there's a great deal of psychology that goes into how I approach people, who I approach.

Grace: Spell it out, I want to hear the psychology of it. I didn't know you had a counseling background — that makes so much sense.

Myron: So spill it, I want it all. Usually, depending on what the task is — if we're saying, hey, we want man-on-the-street, we want to get interviews, we want to hear about people's conference experience — I'll try to get a group of people. I'll try to find like a lady and her girlfriend, or a lady with somebody else. Usually I'm using that to play the odds — if I see a group of ladies, four or five of them, I only need one of them to say yes.

Grace: And just for context, he's focusing on ladies because we've done a women's conference together.

Myron: But yeah, human beings in general — everybody, all humans, if they're in a group. Then usually I can just grab one person — I'm partially playing the odds. And usually there's a light that clicks in somebody's eye, that's like, I really want to say something, but I don't want to look crazy on camera. So if I see somebody have the spark, like, oh, I could do it — I immediately let them know, hey, listen, it's real easy, I'm going to prompt you, it'll be a really easy prompt, and then you'll just tell me about your conference experience. And the effort to disarm is immediate — that's the heavy lifting at the front. If you're disarming people, you're smiling, you're engaging, you're doing the, where are you from, what's your name — you're immediately getting them talking about themselves. Then you have a higher probability of being able to close. The ability to tell stories and disarm people is the main key to getting genuine content out of people.

Grace: What techniques do you use, and what do you think through when you're interviewing someone and thinking about the end product — what other story pieces, especially when it comes to video, are you thinking through that would add to the story more? Like, for example, we said you find a group of people and you're talking to one person, but sometimes I've seen you bring other people in and they're having a conversation together, and when they're talking to their friend and telling the story, you see them light up in a different way than when they're talking to you. I know you got people's phone numbers at a conference and followed them around at an event with 30,000 people to really capture that one perspective, which was amazing, because it's so hard — people get lost in those big rooms. And so when you find that story and you follow people and you capture that B-roll, you get to watch them experience the conference while they're talking about it. That's really amazing. How do you think through that, and what techniques do you use when you're piecing together that production piece in your mind?

Myron: When we're dumping footage, I'm trying to go in there with the editors, like, what do you guys have, what do you need, what do you feel like you need more of? Because it's a team sport — we're not playing doubles tennis, we're playing basketball. This is a lot of passing and communicating that needs to happen for the whole project to feel complete, and I just want to be a good contributor. So for me, it really is looking at the whole product, and then depending on the person — if they have a really great vibe and they're very engaging, I don't have to keep prompting them, they want to keep communicating, they have something to say, a story, how they've been impacted. If there's an opportunity for us to follow up on that and even take it further, I'm always down for it. We only get a small amount of time to interact with some of these folks, but the memories that we're able to make and the moments we're able to capture last longer than the interaction I had. If I can create a positive feeling that's then attached to a positive output, I've created a memory — a really cool memory. Somebody's like, I was interviewed at this conference and it was so cool, and then I saw myself on the screen, and then I can go tell all my friends, I want to come back to this conference. And everybody is going to be so excited to keep rebooking, because we keep coming back to have a great experience, and people want to keep showing up.

Grace: We think the world of you, Myron, and we just feel like anytime we get to do any work with you, we feel like you're our team, we just love working together. I love what you said about creating a memory, and how when you're capturing a story to create this experience for an audience, you're also focused on creating the experience for the storyteller themselves. That's really, really powerful. Before I let you go, thank you so much for your time — where can people connect with you and see everything you're up to these days?

Myron: Yep, so Instagram is a great place. I've been reprimanded by some of the people on my team — they said that I'm not using my social media like I should, so this is fresh off the presses. Yeah, they've said as much — everybody on my team has been like, okay, now you said you were going to do it, you're not. So on Instagram, you'll be able to follow me, a lot more cool stuff happening there. Also, First Generation Suburbs podcast, with me and my sister — definitely the best of both worlds, very silly on there. If you want to hear me say some very outlandish stuff, come watch the podcast, it's a hoot. And then I'm getting ready to drop more content specifically about creativity and production, so be looking out for that.

Grace: We're going to be excited to learn from you when all that stuff comes out, so keep us posted on that.

Myron: I will, for sure.

Grace: Myron, thank you so much, and we'll be talking soon, we've got projects coming up we're working on together.

Myron: Yeah, most definitely, I can't wait.

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Okay, so we just talked about attendee interviews. I feel like there's so much more to capturing the stories of attendees or audiences besides just interviewing them. Something we've done in the past — and I feel a little torn, I don't know how I feel about this sometimes — is we film conversations between attendees. And it is slightly staged, well, I mean, there's a microphone involved and there's cameras in their face, but they're still honest conversations. One of the things we think is important is representing these events in an experiential way — if you're attending these events, what does it feel like? If someone's talking to the camera, holding a microphone, looking at the camera and smiling and saying everything they're going to say, that's valuable, there's a lot of good stuff you can get there. But it feels more real when you're a fly on the wall in someone's conversation. I heard somebody the other day talk about how some of the best feedback you can give somebody is when they think you're talking about them without them hearing you — like you just get off the elevator with somebody and you say, hey, that guy was really cool. Whoever you're with, it means a little bit more, because why would you even bring it up if it's not real? And it's the same with these kinds of interviews or conversations — when it feels like there's not a camera there, it feels like you're at the conference and just kind of overhearing two people talk about what they're taking away from it, talking about how glad they are that so-and-so vendor was there. Little things just mean a lot more.

I feel like it turns just a basic highlight video into a documentary type feel, because the word documentary carries a lot of weight — it means so many things to so many people, but the thing that documentaries have is that fly-on-the-wall experience. And when you can capture that in a way that feels genuine, and you have a producer who can guide that conversation a little bit, but they're not on camera, you can't hear them, they're giving them the right questions to ask, the right things to talk about to each other — that's the difference. And if you're not exactly sure what we're talking about, the difference between an interview and a conversation, we actually have one — we called it a recap, I think, but it was technically some sort of event documentary, we've got to figure out the right word for it. This is what we make when we do events, and there's a link on our website, griffith.media/events, you can go and watch it there, so you can see what we're talking about and how this conversation look is captured, because it does feel very genuine when it's captured that way.

Most live events have a speaker on a stage at some point too. We like to call it a dirty shot, but we'll put a camera basically in the audience — there's heads in the way, if it's music there's hands in the way, people block the shot sometimes. It is not a technically good shot, but it feels so much more real, because when you're watching this video on your phone, on YouTube, it's, I'm there. Because you're attending this event, there's going to be hands in your way, there's going to be heads in your way. I'm a little taller, so I don't get that problem as often, but I know you're often behind somebody — really muffled. But it's those little tricks that make it feel more real, make the final product so much better.

I do want to call out attention to behind-the-scenes content as well, because everyone wants a peek behind the curtain of a big event. So can you say a little bit about our approach to B-roll that is just for speakers or certain attendees? If they're giving a keynote, a big speech, a message of any type, you want to see them getting ready — different speakers have different levels of access, different amounts of people you want around them, you always respect boundaries — but see them backstage, see them walk up. One of the important shot list shots is them walking on stage, somewhere there's a staircase, and you see them walk up it, whether it's backstage or on the front of the stage, wherever it is.

We also try to humanize the speaker a little bit more as well. Usually speakers have this big story they're telling, this transformational story that everyone can relate to — people are crying, it's amazing. But what about the nerves they're feeling before they walk up and share their story? Everyone can relate to that too, but are we missing it? The way you show nerves — I was just talking to someone earlier about how I pick at my fingernails sometimes right before, that's just kind of my jittery nervous reaction — so are they doing something like that? Are they rubbing their hands? Can we get some of them pacing, prepping before they go on? That kind of footage, that kind of behind-the-scenes experience, is really, really valuable to convey too.

There's so much we could get into, but we wanted to give kind of a high-level approach to how we go to events and cover events, and we can do more conversations like this on this podcast. But if this one in particular was helpful for you, you can hit subscribe, leave us a review, tell us your story. You can find any resources that we mentioned on our website at griffith.media. We look forward to sharing more on our next episode.

Known For is a Griffith Media podcast recorded on the volume wall at Big Screen Studios in Dallas, Texas. This episode was produced by the Griffith Media team. Find out more about our agency, how we can help your business grow through marketing, video, and design at www.griffith.media. Or find out more about the studio at bigscreentx.com.