Shonda Rhimes and Cyndi Stivers: The future of storytelling
珊达·瑞姆斯和辛迪·斯蒂弗斯: 说故事的未来
With the runaway success of shows like Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy, Shonda Rhimes has become one of Hollywood’s most powerful icons. Full bioCyndi Stivers - Encourager-in-chief, TED Residency
Cyndi Stivers curates special events for TED and often serves as a board member, adviser, business strategist and startup coach. Full bio
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going to change about storytelling.
What's never going to change.
are never going to change,
and exchange their stories
that feel universal,
a compelling need to watch stories,
that tell each one of us
are never going to change.
is never going to change.
for this conversation,
on "Grey's Anatomy" --
this indelible memory she had
with any of the executives,
to read for your scripts,
was the full range of humanity,
to retraining the studio executives,
of the American TV audience.
not yet realize that it needs?
we're anywhere near there yet.
like the real world in actuality.
a bunch of actors
trying to make a point,
to do anything special.
that that was new, different or weird.
because I thought they were interesting
was completely surprising to everybody --
I want to see play these parts.
they look like if they read.
that happens is
through another lens,
normally in charge of things,
this big machine that you run,
last year when she gave her talk --
is going to happen as we go on?
involved in producing these shows.
have gone and gotten greatly democratized,
who rent the audience to advertisers
now that anyone can be a storyteller?
that's happening is amazing.
sort of an equalizer happening,
can make something, is wonderful.
that you can't find the good work now.
417 dramas on television right now
because everybody can make something.
that many good painters.
the good shows,
one tiny show over here on AMC
becomes much harder.
the great webisode and who made this,
about the poor critics
watching everything.
are getting more and more vast,
for everybody in the audience
winnowed down to just who you are,
you can watch, television shows on --
wider and wider and wider.
it'll collapse a little bit
will be network television.
a lot of money around right now.
something exciting about it.
there's something exciting about it.
there's something exciting about it.
with characters from all over the world
for everybody at the same time
that television can now take on
here's our American audience.
out into the world
about the fact that America is not it.
and everything, but it's not i.
taking into account the fact
of these other places in the world
while we're telling stories.
that the world is a universal place,
launched "Scandal" in 2012,
of support on Twitter
tricks up your sleeve
will happen in that regard?
coming out this summer.
to be able to do them in time.
that we would live-tweet our show
that would be fun.
would start to live-tweet along with us.
to be a part of it,
on Twitter together
to make that possible
to make people feel engaged
all those different people making stories
are going to break through
storytellers will get paid?
with this concept as well.
to watch this particular person's shows,
a passport to Shondaland. Right?
That's a lot more work for me.
going to be different ways,
a lot of content creators
in being distributors,
that I deserve to get paid for it,
the people who work with me,
and they're all making a living.
is getting harder and harder.
that you can't really binge-watch,
of those for storytelling?
and paying attention.
think of them for gaming,
for things like action,
a sense of intimacy
and have a conversation with Fitz,
while Fitz talks to you,
a choice that he makes,
a television screen,
and he's having this conversation.
from a television screen.
who's about to execute somebody.
to another character very rapidly,
and tells you, you know,
and why he's afraid and nervous.
and I'm not sure it would work,
of something like that
would be interesting,
the people who watch my shows,
in there for them.
the input of the audience?
can actually go up to a certain point
I'm going to choose my own adventure.
or I'm going to run off with --
your-own-adventure stories.
I want to be in control of everything,
or I'm watching a movie,
that a story is not as good
over exactly what's going to happen
what I wanted to happen to Walter White,
is not the same, and it's not as powerful.
of how "The Sopranos" ends,
that's nice and satisfying,
and it's not the same emotional impact.
what that might be.
I don't get to imagine it,
to know that somebody else has told.
decide that, you know,
and you can walk away debating
but in a very different way.
sell the right to sit there
than storytelling.
as a form of storytelling,
what about the super-super --
getting shorter, shorter, shorter.
now has something it calls shows
it sounds like commercials.
really wonderful about it.
are watching television on their phones,
most of the product is coming in,
for shorter periods of content,
a way to make a lot more money.
to make it and put it out there.
a short attention span, like my daughter,
that's what you want to make,
and it actually feels like narrative,
no matter what you do.
going to consume entertainment,
the algorithmic robot overlords
what they've already done.
and make people well-rounded citizens?
than how somebody else might do it.
how we're going to do it in the future.
the subject of all of my experiments.
what I call "Amish summers"
all their computers and stuff
until they settle down
in watching our own thing,
that we're being fed, sometimes,
your own opinions
more and more right about yourself.
maybe it'll all explode,
just become more idiotic.
any corrective that you could do
that television has the power
about medical shows.
87 percent of people
about medicine and medical facts
they do from their doctors,
and every time we make a mistake,
like we're going to do something bad,
of good medical information.
to give information on those shows.
to read the news,
fair information out on those shows,
we're going to control people's minds way,
very interesting and intelligent
one side's version or the other,
was how we were giving the news.
you've written as fiction
very disturbing for that reason.
that's about politics gone mad,
we've always told the show --
pays attention to the papers.
We talk about everything.
done our show as a speculation.
if the wheels came off the bus
the wheels were coming off the bus
were really coming true.
controlling the American election,
of being involved in the American election
what we were going to do for our season.
starts speaking Russian?
and figure out what we're going to do."
was going to happen,
in the world do you look?
storytelling right now?
of interesting stuff out there.
is always amazing
very much television at all,
until I'm done with a season,
to creep into my head otherwise.
and talk about being on a throne?
until the seasons are over.
interesting European television out there.
the stuff that they were showing,
I want to watch and check out.
thinking about tech stuff,
we had someone here at TED
your TV shows essentially in your eye?
who sat on the pantry floor
to be Toni Morrison, so no.
some bigger world,
when new technology comes out
to want to try it.
and exciting right now,
to me, it feels like,
what we're going to settle on.
how to get the technology
of storytelling to meet,
the thing I briefly flew by earlier,
which is a recent phenomenon,
the storytelling process at all?
for the whole season beforehand, right?
where we were going to end.
that's been going on for 14 seasons
who have been watching it for 14 seasons,
I'd encounter in the grocery store
297 episodes in three weeks.
experience for them,
a very short period of time
has a completely different arc
and then leaving it. It's a strange --
and then putting it down.
of the experience.
something for 14 seasons.
the way everything's supposed to be.
that you don't think we should touch?
I think of story that way.
and what characters would do
in order to make them move forward,
in terms of just plot,
into my writer's room and pitch me plot,
I need to hear what's real.
to think there's something I wouldn't do
pieces of plot off a wall or something.
do you think you will use --
on the board of Planned Parenthood
in the Hillary Clinton campaign.
you will use your storytelling
there's a lot of organizations
that they've created for themselves
with a better narrative.
narrative for themselves.
that could happen
that any speechwriter would mean it.
that that's, like, my job to do that.
SR: Thank you.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Shonda Rhimes - Writer, producerWith the runaway success of shows like Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy, Shonda Rhimes has become one of Hollywood’s most powerful icons.
Why you should listen
When ABC kicked off its 2014 television season by devoting its Thursday night line-up to the Shondaland shows How to Get Away With Murder, Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy, Shonda Rhimes -- already one of the most influential producers in Hollywood -- became arguably the single most powerful voice in television today. In 2015, ABC snapped up Rhimes’ latest series, The Catch. Shondaland shows have the special ability to capture both fan devotion and critical attention – she’s won everything from a Peabody Award to a People’s Choice Award.
Rhimes is known for her groundbreaking storytelling, her candor and humor in the face of her critics, and for never shying away from speaking her mind. She’s also known for her social media savvy, and fans of her shows basically own Twitter on Thursday nights. Her first book, Year of Yes, was published in November 2015.
Shonda Rhimes | Speaker | TED.com
Cyndi Stivers - Encourager-in-chief, TED Residency
Cyndi Stivers curates special events for TED and often serves as a board member, adviser, business strategist and startup coach.
Why you should listen
Cyndi Stivers is encourager-in-chief of the TED Residency, an idea incubator at TED headquarters in New York. She started out in hot-type newspapers and has since shepherded media startups and reinvigorated venerable brands on nearly every platform, including magazines, television, radio and online, right back to the early days of the consumer internet. From 1995 to 2005, while in charge of North American operations for London-based Time Out Group Ltd., she led the creation of Time Out magazines, guidebooks and websites for New York and Chicago.
Stivers is a longtime trustee of Barnard College, of which she is a proud alumna. For more work history, please see LinkedIn or cyndistivers.com, and for photos of urban gardens and other obsessions, follow @CyndiStivers on Twitter or Facebook.
Cyndi Stivers | Speaker | TED.com