How Storytelling Can Make Opportunities Appear

It’s 2010 and I’ve been attending the annual TED conference for seven years. I want all my friends and family to experience TED too, but it’s by invitation only. 

I learn that the head of TED, Chris Anderson, has announced that TEDsters can apply to create independently organized TED events locally.

I’m thinking, “What an incredible opportunity, but can we pull it off?” I worry about our ideas not being big enough to share. Not to mention, I’ve produced events before but not at this magnitude. 

After talking about it endlessly, we decide we’ll go for it.

It turns out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Those events become known as TEDx events (the x stands for independently organized TED event). Ever since, we’ve had the opportunity to produce many TEDx events, birthing ideas and stories into the world that affect change, one person at a time. 

Speaking of producing, my special guest today Angela Gulner is a film producer, actress, director, and writer,  who also brings stories to life that can touch individuals at the exact moment they need it most. In this episode, she and I look at storytelling through different angles and answer questions such as:

How does energy play a part in the writing process? As an actor, what is it like to become a character? And must your protagonist be likable, or is there another way to get an audience to go on a journey with a character?

Along the way, you’ll hear Angela discuss playing a villainess, collaborating with others to create work during hard times, taking on the producer role out of necessity, and upleveling your storytelling game with accountability.

• Why conflict or struggle is such an important storytelling component
• What truly makes a story a story in a visual medium
• How striving for story perfection can rob your audience

Angela Gulner got her start with an MFA in Acting from Harvard University. She then began her career as a writer and producer with the indie dark comedy Binge, which went viral with over 2 million on Youtube and got a development deal with MGM Studios.

Along with her writing partner, she developed and pitched TV projects for heavy hitters in the industry such as MGM Studios, Calvary Media, and Debbie Liebling. Recently, Angela wrote for upcoming features like Some Other Woman (starring Amanda Crew and Tom Felton) and Kaet Might Die for Balcony 9 Productions.

In addition, she produced and starred in the feature film The Summoned which was released by XYZ Films on VOD. Currently, she’s in post-production as the producer of the short film Gay-ish (written by Michelle Askew, the youngest female writer to ever make the Blacklist, who also makes her directorial debut with the film). Angela also has two feature films in development as writer and director for Wicked Myth Films.