In this 18th StorySpark workshop, the facilitator introduces a creative exercise: participants imagine their lives as a movie and select key scenes to compose a compelling trailer. The prompt encourages them to identify high‑and‑low moments that would hook an audience. Each participant shares a brief “trailer” narrative—Harsha focuses on injustice and suspense, Venkat recounts academic setbacks leading to entrepreneurship and bodybuilding, Alka highlights repeated failures and a rise from rock‑bottom after parental loss, Rajesh describes domestic struggles, ambition, and eventual hope, while the host shares a personal story of humble origins, dreams, ridicule, achievement, and a pivotal loss. The session also teaches the “hook‑hold‑payoff” storytelling structure and uses the MS Dhoni movie trailer as an illustrative example. The facilitator emphasizes that life stories are worth framing as trailers, urging participants to continue collecting pivotal moments for future storytelling. The session concludes with logistical reminders for the next meeting.
Chapters
Alright, so welcome everyone to day 18 of StorySpark session. So I hope you're having a great day. And now as we are moving towards week 4, which is all about composing the stories, so today's prompt is going to require you to do a little bit of creativity. So let's straight away get into today's prompt. And as I said earlier, It will require some creativity. We will spend about 2-3 minutes for you to just quickly think about. So let me share today's prompt, and that is: if your life was a movie, what scenes would you pick to compose a trailer that would excite people enough that they would want to watch the movie. So you have to, you have to be a little bit creative today. Sorry, you have to be a little bit creative today and think about— and I think Harsha is going to like this, but for others as well, you have to think about what is the trailer. So you— we all know we love movies, and in the trailer there's only few things that you want to show. So what will you choose? To show in the trailer of your movie. And this is specifically designed so that you can start to document your journeys. You can start to think about the highs and the lows. So let's spend few minutes and try to find the trailer of your life. Okay, 30 seconds more and we'll try to wrap up the trailer of Our Lives movie. Okay, I think we are done. So let's go around the room and watch our Listen to the trailers of your life's movie, right? So let's start with Harsha.
Okay, so our first scene will be injustice to me happen something. Why injustice? Because if you create injustice, people will connect emotionally. If they connected emotionally, then we will create, uh, suspense. A suspense scene will begin. Something is happening, something, uh, unknown thing, something, uh, which is, uh, someone is killing something. Something is to happen in that home or house. It was a few scenes will be like that. After that, we'll continue the suspense, then a small twist. After that, we will pay off. We'll leave a open ending. So this will create anticipation and curiosity in the audience, so they will come to the movie. Thank you.
Lovely. Thank you so much for sharing. Everybody write SPDY, Story Power To You. Let's hear, or let's hear from Venkat, what is the trailer of his movie?
In my childhood, my parents joined me in LKG. After a few months, a teacher complained to my parents that your son is not capable, so better you join, uh, enroll in Tamil medium. There also, I remember I studied second standard two times. In Tamil medium also. So, and at my teenage, I was big belly. So this movie trailer I can show, um, I was, um, and not studied in school days and big OBC in teenage, but now I am an entrepreneur motivation speaker, bodybuilder, and right now I am in Japan. So this is my, uh, movie trailer.
Amazing.
Can show.
Awesome. Everybody write story power to you, Venkat Spty. Let's go to Alka ji.
Uh, you have, uh, actually stimulated a bag of worms to come out. So it's not about what we have achieved. What came to my head was all about my failures, all about where I have failed in my life, and I've stumbled, I've fallen down, but I have got up again. So the trailer, it would be to show all the places where I have been rock bottom, where I have been absolutely nothing, and then I I've lifted myself up and how I have gone up. But some of the parts will be when I lost my mom and my dad, I was rock bottom, and how I lifted myself up by training the other senior citizens. So all the failures in my life just coming into my head. So it's a great movie. It's a great movie.
We can, we can feel your anticipation. So awesome. Well done. Story power to you as well. Let's see the trailer by Rajesh ji as well.
Yes, definitely. So here, uh, my story is going to start that, yes, a woman who is, uh, ambitious, wanted to do lots of things in life, but, uh, yes, there is a struggle in life. Like, uh, whole day, like, she has to get engaged into, um, household chores and office. Like, her life is just starting from household chores, going to office, coming back, and again it is ended up. But somewhere in the mind it is always there that, no, I'm not for this, there is something else I want to do. And that story is— that struggle is going on. All of a sudden a year comes when the life was not— was telling, it is not, uh, that I just, uh, you wanted to do something, but I have something else for you. You have to still grill down a lot. And, uh, like, her mother-in-law, she fell ill and she was like, uh, completely on bed, and, uh, there was no one how to take care. They were just— lots of struggle was going on. And, uh, finally, after a long struggle, they lost a mother. And it was just— they were not able to come out of that situation also. Then they had another major incident that another family member, he met with a serious accident, and that person went into coma again. Like their all dreams, they just settled down, settled down, and now they were just finding that they are stuck somewhere. Life has completely broken for them. They don't have any choice what they do and what they really wanted to do. But somewhere still the hope was there, we can come out of this situation, we can still do, we should do what, what is the best we can do. And again, after a struggle of few months, another person, he went off. And yes, it was a difficult situation for the people, family members, to come out and managing mentally, managing their emotions, and just to think what they should do next. And yes, after every night there is a day. And same, because the, uh, the people, they were ambitious, they were wanted to fly in the life. They accepted everything, uh, whatever happened in their life and accepted that yes, now there is, um, there is a light in their life. Now they should just come back, they should go ahead. And keep moving towards. And then they just started moving towards their own dreams. That would be— this is something like my movie is going around like this.
Yes, awesome. Thank you so much for sharing. Everybody write story power to you, Rajesh ji. Would you like to hear what I thought for my movie trailer? Awesome, thank you. So this movie starts, and I'm gonna try to be like Harsha and give you scene by scene. So movie starts from a small town, a very young thin kid walking around the streets of a small town wearing half-pant, and he has no idea what is happening. And then he sees some flights going above him, and he just wonders, will he able to ever sit on those planes? And then he sees, it's not possible, this is for big people. I am an ordinary person, I am from a middle or lower middle class. And then he starts dreaming, he starts to do many things in life, get a job, travel to different countries. But then the reality comes and he sees he gets ridiculed by many relatives, many neighbors, and he's still thinking, what is life going to be like? Will he ever make it? And then next scene comes, he's able to do all of these things. But then another phase in life comes, which is when in front of him his mother suddenly passes away, and he's at the crossroad of life where he thinks, is he going to go back into his corporate job, or is he going to do something else? And that's where the trailer will end.
Awesome.
So let's— I just wanted to make you also think about when, from now on, after, especially after this session, when you will go, you will watch a movie trailer from a different lens. And I'm gonna show you one of the movie trailers which I love, so we're gonna do that. Quickly the trailer, and then we'll go around the room and we'll ask you to share how did you feel. So I'm just bringing the trailer up. Yeah, the trailer is from the movie MS Dhoni. I'm pretty sure many of you would have seen that. If not, uh, really good movie. But what is more interesting is the trailer. We are all servants and we are all doing national duty. Finishes off in style, a magnificent strike into the crowd. India lift the— Awesome! So how many of you could feel or see parts of your story coming as a movie? You can raise your hand and you can say me, right? All of us are living, breathing story. At least Harsha agrees to that.
Right?
All of us are living a beautiful story. It's just that we need to start putting it there. And the purpose of doing this session was to instill that thought that yes, your life is also a movie. You just need to show the right trailer to the right people at the right time. Now let's go around the room and let's hear what did this exercise make you feel. Let's start with Harsha.
Yes.
It is very wonderful. Uh, it is very similar to my work. We'll do in my short films this technique, hook, hold, payoff technique. First we'll hook the audience, then we'll hold, after that we'll pay off. The wonderful technique. And the trailer was of Dhoni is very excellent. It is, uh, we enjoyed a lot, sir. Nothing, that's all.
Thank you. Awesome. Thank you so much. Let's go to Venkat.
Normally I didn't say any, uh, this whole story to anybody, but today's session recall all my, uh, from childhood itself till now because In childhood, uh, I, uh, studied 2 times 2nd standard. And LKG, they said, the teacher said, your son is not a capable person, so better you, you join your son to Tamil medium school. Then there, there, um, teacher force them, force him to teach. So I remember that incident. And that also, I need to add some suspension, suspense in my story. But I will add it.
Very nice.
Thank you so much. And absolutely, all of us have those amazing moments. Scene by scene, if we start recollecting, it will become an amazing story. Yes, Dr. Elka, how did you feel? Please unmute.
I think you have stimulated something. I really want to make a movie now.
You are a movie. We all are moving.
So the trailer has to be something which will ignite something in the audience and they would want to watch the whole movie. This is what I understood when you showed the Dhoni. It's a hook. The trailer is a hook. Absolutely. Parts of your— it's about multiple parts of your life. It's, it's nothing to do with what you've achieved in your life. It is, it's about the little, little things of everyday life which make a movie. So I think it's a great idea, and you have stimulated me something that, yeah, I mean, I can make a movie.
All of us can make movie. Absolutely, 100%. Thank you. Awesome. Let's go to Rajesh.
Yes, I agree with the Alka Ji. Yes, this movie triggered something in our mind, uh, in heart. Like, uh, when I was just watching this trailer, it was like, uh, if what next, what next, what next. So it was like, when it, uh, completely it was over, so I was okay, now it is over. So like, it was completely keeping captivating audience. So yes, the trailer, uh Life is like that also. No one is having that much time to keep listening to your struggle, but you have to, small, small points you need to just share about your struggle, which will, they like, what has, what happened next, what happened next, what happened next, that keep engaging into that particular thing. And yes, I just enjoyed this trailer.
Awesome.
So this is a thought for you, food for thought, is that don't just end this exercise exercise right now, but start the exercise from here. Think about all the points. If you look at any trailers, it will not show a mundane thing. It will show you all the upper crest, all the lower. So highest of the highs, lowest of the lows. Start collecting those. That will make your movie a great trailer, a great, a great something that we all would like to share with others. So That was the StorySpark session number 18. I hope you are enjoying that. We will be meeting again tomorrow for session 19. And if you have not yet voted, please vote for the next session. Most likely we will have the session tomorrow at 8 PM, but you can still vote in the poll, community poll. And yes, as I say every time, until next time, keep learning, keep Keep growing and keep going out of your comfort zone. Take care, have a great rest of the day.
