digital storytelling
TRANSCRIPT
Jill Hopke
@jillhopke
Digital Storytelling
• The visual brain and storytelling • Developing narra8ve arc with images • 4 C’s of good storytelling • BeAer digital photography with a smartphone
• In-‐the-‐field Exercise • Mobile photo edi8ng with Snapseed applica8on
Workshop Overview
The Power of Visual Imagery
• Gestalt Theory – See a larger picture before its parts
• Vary shots – Helps brain analyze story from variety of “points of view” (POV)
• One element is subject, all else perceived as background
• Filter through our personal experiences
Percep8on Processes of Visual Imagery
• “Pictures and words should not match,” Al Tompkins in Aim for the Heart (p. 103)
• Use text and cap8ons to explain images – Give viewers informa8on they otherwise wouldn’t know
– Don’t just state what’s happening in picture – Explain the “what about that.”
Words Explain Images, Not Match Them
Your Visual Brain on Storytelling
Think back – What is an experience when you remember being totally absorbed? Wonder or awe?
“Being completely involved in an ac8vity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies.
Every ac8on, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one,
like playing jazz. Your whole body being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”
~Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on FLOW
Source: hAp://www.wired.com/1996/09/czik/
• Developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, formerly of U. of Chicago
• Science of crea8vity
FLOW: Theory of “Posi8ve Psychology”
• Completely involved, focused • Sense of ecstasy – Outside everyday reality • Heightened inner clarity • Ac8vity feels do-‐able • Serenity • Timelessness – Focused on present, lose sense of 8me
• Inner mo8va8on
How does in “the flow” feel?
• Human universal • Appeal to us as social beings • Persuade and mo8vate – By appealing to emo8ons and our capacity for empathy
– Engaged through “psychological realism” – Relate to story à Higher transporta8on
The Science of Storytelling
• Social cohesion – Research shows storytelling develops social bonding in groups
– Pass on knowledge between genera8ons – “Flight simulators” for social life (Oatley and Mar) – Learning tool within groups
• Read more: Hsu, J. (2008). The secrets of storytelling. Scien0fic American Mind. Available at: hAp://www.scien8ficamerican.com/ar8cle/the-‐secrets-‐of-‐storytelling/
The Science of Storytelling
Narra8ve Structure
Narra8ve Arc – Drama8c Curve
Exposi5on Inci5ng Moment
Rising Ac5on
Resolu5on
Crisis or Climax
Adapted from: Rabiger, M. (1998). Direc0ng the Documentary. Boston: Focal Press. Time
Intensity
• Take audience(s) somewhere • Focus on “why” and “how” • Subject in their reality • Basis for all produc8on decisions • Usually OK to take sides
Point of View (POV)
Types of Conflict
Internal External Societal Environmental
① Connec0on – Emo8on ② Context – Explain moment ③ Change – Turning point, see
something in new way ④ Closure – Reflec8on, personal
growth
Four C’s of Good Storytelling
• Did you go somewhere? • Did you meet anyone interes8ng? • Did you learn anything? • Did you feel something? • Were there surprises? • Did it transform your thinking? Adapted from: Wadhams, S. (n.d.). Thinking about radio. Unpublished manuscript.
A good story will take you on a journey
Storyboarding
• Lead photo – Grab viewer aAen8on, maybe a portrait
• Establishing shots – Mood, ac8on, humanity
• Close-‐ups – People engaging with each other
• Extreme close-‐ups – Light, texture, paAern, etc.
• Closing shot – Resolu8on, sense of closure, par8ng moment
Developing a Photo Essay Digital Story
• WriAen, or graph, sketch of all your story’s elements – Brainstorm for images, text, technical requirements, any audio or other elements
– Chronological order? Other organiza8onal schema?
Start with a Storyboard Brainstorm
