Why should I care about a backpack?
Marketing people are using emotional storytelling to sell their products. Why? Because it works!
Here are two online videos from LL Bean:
This one uses a lot of still photos. It also has a journey in a non narrated interview.
This one also uses still photos with a more traditional narrative.
Why should I care about a backpack? Because it’s not really about the backpack.
Here’s a story with no interview (but a story that transmits an amazing amount of information). You’ll notice he used still pictures too.
America’s Dead Sea by Jim Lo Scalzo
winner of third prize in the 2012 World Press Multimedia Competition.
If you’d like to know more, click through to the story’s Vimeo page where there’s text to explain the rest of the story. I didn’t need it.
Watch what the judges say about the winners in the World Press Competition. Some great insights on storytelling and multimedia.
this morning I was chatting with Andrew Devigal, the NYTimes Multimedia editor. He told me about judging the POYi contest for multimedia.
He also sent a link to one of his favorite pieces, Afrikaner Blood, the first video on this list.
He told me he thought the piece was near perfect, that he forgot he was watching a multimedia piece and that he wanted to see more. Check it out and tell me if you agree.
Two examples of cinematic storytelling in a long form non-fiction story, both on the same story from Esquire and from GQ, both in the same month. Notice how details build the anticipation and power of the opening, especially in the Esquire piece. That’s one reason we shoot a lot of details in visual storytelling.
Stark powerful B&W photos by Pari Dukovic in the Esquire piece.
John X. Carey mixes stills and video, video portraits, different interview styles and some wild editing, color grading and cool typography into an award winning short advocacy film.
My favorite line is spoken by one of the characters. “Go! Go forward!” Let’s make that a mantra for the upcoming semester!
I love the radio show On The Media, hosted by Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield. It’s a show about us!
I also enjoyed the story Brooke Gladstone tells to explain her book, The Influencing Machine..
Remember, great radio is about pictures.
p.s I found this video on the Amazon.com page for the book.
One of your class projects must use still photography so I wanted to pass along Starved For Attention, a site that was both inspirational and inventive on many levels: storytelling, web design, community interaction.
While there are several stories on the page– a package that is about an issue– here’s one in two parts: the first in color stills and video and the second half in very moody black and white photos and video that I thought was very interesting and a great intergration of still and motion.
