Jonny Harris's storytelling formula: Visual anchor before contextual bridge. Experience it and then understand it.
What makes Jonny Harris's storytelling compelling? He uses the formula "visual anchor before contextual bridge".
Unlike traditional storytelling in journalism like TV news, where the narrative establishes the context first and then shows footage as evidence, Jonny Harris does the opposite.
When telling a story, he first thinks about what's the best visual anchor to make the audience curious. He puts visuals upfront and provides context later. He often says, "look at this thing!" when offering visual anchors to let the audience experience it. Only after that he gives contextual bridges to let the audience understand it.
He creates continuity by repeating these visual anchors throughout the whole video with only necessary contextual bridges. In his storytelling, contexts are the minority of the video and always come after the visual anchors.