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OK…I’ll admit to springtime blahs. Weather so nice it is boring. Not much of anything going on and then my sister in Wyoming emailed me the following video. Extreme sheepherding.
She, of course, is a beef backer – husband Winn Brown runs cattle and was the “star” of my first online video, Wyoming Cattle Drive.
Now the sheepherding isn’t quite what it appears to be. Those common-looking folk are experts at what they do. In fact, Gerry Lewis is the Welsh champ at the sport…and he and others were recruited by The Viral Factory, who represent TV maker Samsung, to create this spoof of a spot.
In addition to sheep shananigans, there is also some some creative computer work. Viral Factory’s Matt Smith admits the Mona Lisa was computer-generated and thought the public would realize it, however in today’s Telegraph he says:
“We thought the Mona Lisa was the big wink to people – once they saw that we thought they would realise it was not all real.
But we have been quite surprised that there is still a debate about whether it is all real and people have been coming up with various theories.”
I’m not a fan at all of stupid youtube videos…but I do admire a good joke and the thought of sheep playing Pakman…well, that is good for a bellylaugh. Oh – and to keep this tied in with my focus in the blog – creative storytelling.
One factor for the news media to take note of: this short video got a million hits in about four days. Admittedly this is entertainment…but it is NOT Jackass or thousands of other dumbed down videos.
In the same vein, millions are closely watching what is happening at the contest being run by Tourism Australia for what is billed as “The Best Job in the World.” More than 30,000 entered and the world is voting for the best wildcard entry.
People care about videos like these because they are included…they can laugh, connect, take part in the fun (or seriousness).
I’ve seen way too many newspaper videos…and now even broadcast videos…that are pointless or merely there to fill time.
Show me something different. Make me care. Don’t just document and then complain that no one watches.
I want Ethos, Logos, Pathos. I want to care and I want to be included…much as I suspect your waning audience does.
End of lecture. Now go back and watch the show. Again.
Part One of this series delved into the elements of visual storytelling. Today we’ll check out different styles of telling the story and how to determine what might work best for your story.
The beauty of storytelling is you can choose which elements to use or not use – and also which elements to lead with and which to use as background noise/information. So you can go with a slide show, an audio/video clip, a narrative….it all depends on what you have to work with.
First ask, “What drives this story?” Is it the interview, the facts, the video or audio (natural sound or music from the scene), or the event itself?
Next ask, “What can I use to hook my audience?” Look at the same elements mentioned above.
Generally I begin asking these questions when I first start considering or shooting a story…and focus on the strengths of the story as I shoot. Before heading down that path, let’s consider the options for styles or formats.
Fact-driven
Stories that are driven by information. City council meetings, legislative hearings, medical reports and updates.
Event-driven
The easy choice – breaking and general news. Fires. Crime. Parades. Sports.
Audio-driven
When audio rules. Parades (again). Breakers (again). Interviews (character stories included). Musical events (profile of a musician). Barking dogs. Demonstrations.
Visual-driven
When visuals tell the story. Repeat the first two above (breakers, events with something happening). The money shot. The perfect sunrise, scenic, decisive moment.
Chronological
I’ve included this because it is the classic. “Once upon a time…” Telling the story for the sheer joy of sticking with a classic form and walking the audience through the details.
Let’s take a look at a couple of stories and how they developed and how the decision was made to go with a certain format.
Yosemite Demograpics/visual, sound (natural or ambient sound), and fact driven
Sometimes the scenery makes the story. You can’t go wrong in Yosemite National Park. This story began as a fact-driven look at how the economy has effected tourism in the park…but the natural beauty of the park was a natural way to get the story going. The sounds of nature also help pull the audience in…and as they enjoy the scenery and sounds, they are also picking up information.
Relay for Live/visual, sound (interviews)
Images drive this story…and a theme of light. The narration works to tie the images and interviews together. This story began as the sun began to set and the theme emerged as spots of light – so I shot to the developing theme.
Absailing/sound (natural sound and narration)
The visuals are so-so, but the enthusiasm of the climbers and the interviews make this story work.
Bleacher Creatures/sound (natural) and visuals
Sometimes the clip alone is enough to tell the story. Sometimes you just need to find a single clip or series of clips and let them run without explanation.
Emergency Windscreen/fact or information driven
A basic how-to video. Simple and effective.
Wyoming Cattle Drive/visually driven
Without the visuals this story would be difficult to tell. One of the few times I’ve used music (royalty free).
You may have noticed that each story fit several formats…and this is true with most stories. You may also realize that choosing the format begins before you begin editing…also very true.
As the story reveals itself to you or as you begin to realize what the story is about, you should begin shooting to the format that plays to the strengths of the story. If there are few visuals, think of ways to enhance the story with audio, information, interviews. If you are strong on information, you will need to come up with appropriate and creative visuals and sound to make the story.
Next up…(hey I’m tap dancing through this as I rack my brain trying to explain what I do daily without thinking about it)…let’s shoot something and explain our way through it as we produce the story.
So sometime in the next week I’ll shoot something and do a walkthrough. And if you’re in my blogging audience and you have a story you can’t quite figure out how to produce, let me know and maybe we can work this out together (yeah…I love a challenge).
What makes a story memorable? Is it the plot; the setting; the characters; use of imagery and figurative language? Although these are standards in written stories, there are additional elements in visual storytelling that must be taken into account.
Stories originally were told orally – through words and gestures by common folk and master storytellers. The master storyteller used pacing of words and sentences, choice of words, facial expressions and gestures with arms and hands and even whole body movements to hold the audience’s attention.
But a story told by a master storyteller could be trumped by a common person with compelling news or information. Such “stories” were fact or event driven – they had information the public wanted to or needed to know.
Although master storytellers are still with us, technology has advanced how stories can be “told.” We moved from oral to written stories (newspaper/books) to visual (silent movies) to audio (radio) to audio-visual (talkies) to more audio-visual (television).
To where we are today – storytelling on the Internet using words, audio, and visuals. Although it may seem that technology has made storytelling more complex, today’s visual stories still have many of the same elements as those told the old-fashioned way.
Stories are told using sound – orally. Narration, interviews, music, natural sound are all used to “tell” or enhance stories created using technology.
Stories are told using words/print. Today’s technologically-created stories use titles, supers, pages of information, overlays to convey information. They also use graphs and artwork, maps, etc.
Body language and gestures helped the master storyteller convey information. In today’s language, that means photos and video: what the audience sees that helps them understand the story.
Let’s look at the progression of complexity in telling a story using visuals:
1. Silent still – Series of stills with no sound (also called a slide show).
2. Silent video – Clip or series of video clips with no sound. Not used much because audio and video are recorded simultaneously with most cameras.
2. Music added – Music added and visuals (still/video) are edited to match the mood of music. There are ethical questions about adding sound that was not part of the original event that must be dealt with on this type of story.
3. Natural sound – Sound recorded at the event is added and visuals are edited to follow audio/with video sound recorded with clip is played back.
4. Interviews – Interviews are edited down to include essential information and visuals are edited to follow/match information in interviews. Natural sound may also be used to help tell the story.
5. Narration – Narration is written and added with visuals edited to follow/match information in narration. Natural sound may also be used to help tell the story.
6. Full package – Natural sound, narration, and interviews are mixed together and visuals edited to follow audio.
The beauty of storytelling is you can choose which elements to use or not use – and also which elements to lead with and which to use as background noise/information.
Next we’ll look at what drives stories – which elements to choose to best tell your story. These include visuals, audio, event, fact, chronological. Stay tuned.
Slid over to Colin Mulvan’s site for a quick reality check about an ongoing hot topic: will newspapers survive?
His comment:
The excuse of, “We can’t make enough money online,” needs to be banished from the lexicon of publishers. Figure it out for Christ’s sake.
Agreed and double-agreed on that one. The print audience and printed edition are both rapidly dying relics.
While Colin addresses the future of videojournalists…I have a comment regarding that of newspapers. There is a lesson to be learned from broadcasting. A big one, that might make a difference.
Both newspapers and broadcast media subscribe to news services – AP, Reuters, etc. for international and national news outside of their regions. Makes sense and saves money. But most broadcasters take it a step further…many TV stations are also affiliates of networks. They get their programming, some revenue, and even more content for their news shows from this partnership.
How it works. Say I’m a station in Sacramento, California and I want some breaking news from Timbucktoo. I give that town’s affiliate a shout and arrange for tape and a live shot from one of their reporters and trucks. Sweet – and they even tag out with my station’s call letters.
Every day I put breaking, general, and feature stories from my station up on the bird (satellite) and allow others to pick and choose what they want…all the while I’m picking and choosing from their feeds. Sweet again.
While my station may only employ a few dozen reporters and cameramen, I have access to a national network.
Plus the network has crews stationed all around the world, giving me access to international news.
Now I’ll admit there is a certain prestige in having your own Washington correspondent and being able to send your own crews off to far-flung venues…but that is expensive. EXPENSIVE. Not economical.
So dump that capital bureau. Scratch those out of town trips. Cut back to covering YOUR area and doing it right. Pare down to what you need to make YOUR community happy.
In tough economic times we all have to tighten our belts…cut back on stuff we love but don’t need. Make your choices and make them quick, cause there ain’t much time left.
And take a hint from your broadcast bretheren…form partnerships and alliances…and perhaps save your collective butts. I for one sure don’t want to depend on the slim pickings of local broadcast news (hey guys – I’m admitting print has the depth and the tradition of doing it right…so find a way to KEEP doing it right – if not for yourselves, for my students and my kids).
Below is the Mamie Starr Performing Arts Center at Ronald E. McNair High School. Quite a mouthful, I know. My home is hidden in the rear of the building…formally titled the “Green Room,” which is ironic since of course that’s my last name…it is actually the TV studio.
The grading was the hard part. Thirty finals on “The Pearl” (taken a month ago and I just couldn’t get into them for some reason) and twenty freshmen research papers. Then later this week it will be thirty finals on “House on Mango Street” and twenty freshman district assessments. The latter will be a snap to grade – run through the scanner and done!
Oh – and ten advanced broadcasting videos. If any of them is smart enough to check out my blog, they’ll get advance warning here. A storyboard for a thirty second video which they must shoot (keeping in mind lessons they had on manual camera controls, lighting, and composition) and edit.
Still having a job is bittersweet. Apparently the district handed out the pink slips a week ahead of the deadline this past Friday and either they couldn’t find me or I’m not getting one. Most likely the latter.
The bitter part is how many folks DID get pink slips. In excess of 200 teachers plus additional cuts in other fields. Just in my district.
Of course – take nothing for granted. It ain’t over until the legal deadline, which is March 15. After that I breathe easy….
For weeks I’ve been watching the despair on my high school campus as our school board struggled with massive financial problems and we all feared equally massive layoffs. The worst case scenario in my district is nearly 400 teachers gone next year.
The board backed off a bit when the state finally came up with a budget…by reinstating more than 170 some-odd elementary positions by keeping class size reduction at the elementary level. Big sigh of relief all around.
But now the high school staffs wait their turn – and there are no reassurances of equal treatment. In fact what I’m hearing is additional programs are possibly on the block – journalism, yearbook. Possibly broadcasting. All electives, but all classes that encourage independent thinking and leadership.
I got my start in journalism in 1964 at Lodi High School. I’d caught the photography bug a few years earlier when I got my first camera and then took the equivalent of online or distant learning classes from the UC/University of California system. They’d mail me lessons, which I’d complete and return…they would grade and send me another lesson. Slow but very effective.
In high school I learned to come out of my shell, shoot well-composed photos, get names, understand writing and layouts. Alright – so I mostly wanted to be a photog, but I did learn a bit of everything in both yearbook (Tokay) and journalism (The Flame).
Now I was double or triple-bitten. My love of photography expanded to a love of photojournalism and lead to a nearly three-decades long career in TV news.
I have students who can’t imagine our campus without these classes – and I sincerely hope they aren’t all cut. I know the school board is faced with few choices…what to save? Music? Languages? Technology? Art? Sports? AVID? (no – not the nonlinear editing program – the college prep class) Journalism is one of the ties that bind a campus together. It is a mirror of the micro-society of the school and informs and entertains. It can dispel rumors with facts and recognize achievement.
What small-minded administrators and controlling school boards could not accomplish in other districts may take place due to budget cuts right here at home.
And generally what disappears does not easily reappear.
I get the occasional email and posting from folks wanting me to put their agenda up on my personal space. Most of the time I’ve found them focused on an agenda that doesn’t mesh with my goals for this site.
So today I dumped one comment, have one email pending while I find out what the author has in mind (hey, don’t just tell me you want me to post something – tell me what you want me to post so I can make a decision), and here’s the one I’ve checked out.
Online Degree World posted on their blog yesterday a pretty comprehensive list of resources for free online journalism-related courses.
And by comprehensive, it runs the gamut from writing to FLASH to video to film literacy. Here’s a list of the headings – if you go to the site you’ll find dozens of links.
New Media and Comparative Media
Media Arts
Technology and Media
Photography and Photojournalism
Video and Film
Writing
Exploring Self and Others
Politics
Copyright, Ethics, and Freedom of Information
I link-hopped for a bit to see where the courses original. The MITs appear to indeed originate from M.I.T. They’ve posted a large number of open courseware online for the public. No degree or certificate, but great learning opps. I’m checking out some for myself.
Piles of homework to correct – literally inches of English and a variety of videos. And right now I’m into avoidance.
So I’m looking at the blog stats. Now if you have a blog, you may hop over and take a look-see to see if your audience count is up/down or stable.
My very first month blogging (December 2006) from the 10th through the 31st I had a grand total of 198 hits for the entire month. By comparison, this is the first of March, 2009 and already at 1pm I’ve had 70+ hits. Not enough to brag about for serious bloggers, but it shows a stable audience.
In January 2007 I made friends with Andy Dickinson, Mindy McAdams, and Howard Owens and the count went up to 1220 hits. That was the month I learned about linking and online communities.
February blew me off the charts…someone ratted on me and then Al Tompkins of Poynter linked to the site (The Hand Trick, Simple Lighting Tricks, Basic Shots) and it literally went through the roof with 2887 hits. I was floored. Lesson learned: big time bloggers can send you big time audiences. On February 28, 2007 I got 535 hits, all referred by one man and his computer.
Now the monthly count has been all over the place since…never as low as that first month though. And with each passing month I learned more. How to post tags to pull in more audience. The ethics of tagging and blogging. My goal was a videojournalism site – but once when I mentioned the Hussain hanging, I got a lot of hits and comments. Lesson learned: big stories and voyeurism pull in the audience. The former is okay with me; the latter not. I have to stay true to who I am and what my blog is about and not be tempted by the God of Blogging Numbers.
Part of the reason for posting this is that last month – February 2009 – was my second highest month, exceeded only by November 2007. Not sure what ticked the meter that month.
But I’m posting less and getting more audience.
The site is taking on a life of its own as word gets around that there is content here that can help. And numbers are what drive all media – numbers are what make survival possible.
Example:
When I worked at KQED in San Francisco, our numbers were low compared to the commercial stations in town…but surveys showed that our numbers included the movers and shakers.
Commercial stations look at numbers to set their advertising rates. So do newspapers. And once they figure out HOW to count the numbers on the Internet (is it time spent on site? time spend on a particular story? how many hits on the site/story?) that will factor in to advertising too.
All moot points, since I’m dern sure not making any money here. But it is good for a satisfied sense that maybe I’ve written something that made a small difference for someone, somewhere.
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