Story Telling is a part of film making and videography which is often over looked. Creative story telling is one part of film making which cannot be bought with money, unless you hire a talented cinematographer. And I can't afford to hire a cinematographer. I think story telling is over looked because it is hard to teach and explain. I'll try and do both of those. Wish me luck? If you're new to videography/film making, go check out this post for beginners. It will make this post make more sense. What is Story Telling? "Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, and images, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, and instilling moral values." This is google's opinion, which is entirely right. I couldn't have put it better. Why is Story Telling important? Story telling can be used in a range of genres. When someone mentions storytelling people immediately think Hollywood movies. But if you dig a little deeper there is more to it. I will stand by these words forever. "Every good film, documentary, recount or what ever genre of film you like, will use story telling." Story telling according to google is a way to convey morals, entertain, educate and more. And every brilliant piece of videography is aiming to educate, entertain and more. This means if we intertwine film making and story telling our videos will be better. Feel free stop me if you think I'm wrong. How to Story Tell? In my opinion, story telling in film making is partly made up of sequencing, costume, set, symbolism, music, names. I'll explain those words now. Sequencing When I say sequencing I mean the order you place your shots in. Introduction Complication Climax Resolution Conclusion This is a basic plan for an action movie. This is what I mean by sequencing. Sequencing can help improve your videos dramatically. You want your audience to understand your film. It would be horrible watching a movie where you are confused. So make sure your video has an introductory shot/shots and a concluding shot/shots. In my latest video of grape picking you can see sequencing in use. I open with a shot of a sign with the name of the grapes, and the grape vines in the background. This immediately tells the audience the important stuff. What, where. I conclude the video with the wine created from the grapes. This shows the end product of the hard work of growing grapes. In case you haven't seen the video. The aim of the video was to show an insight to how a vineyard runs. I show how picking grapes works. Therefore it makes sense to end with the end product of grapes. This is necessary for beautiful story telling. Don't overlook it. Tip Try writing a story board before you shoot, to plan out your shots. Costumes Costumes are an important way to help develop a story. This means it won't create a story but it will make it a better story. If used correctly. Have you seen a cowboy movie where the cowboys where pink clown suits? Of course not. No successful movie would do this. This is sending mixed messages. The audience expects the movie to be about cowboys but they are seeing cowboys dressed like clowns. So how to make your next video appropriately use costumes. I will make a connection to my latest video on grape picking. This is a case where I don't need to dress up the actors. First reason because there weren't many actors used. Second reason because they were doing their job so were appropriately dressed. This made my life easy. It's important to always have your costumes making sense. Would you see a news presenter wearing a bathing suit on T.V. Don't give your audience conflicting messages. Set The set is the place where your filming is taking place. This can be a natural outdoors area or a controlled environment like a film studio. This technique used to convey ideas is related to costumes. How weird would it be to watch a video on airports filmed in a garage. Would't it make sense to watch a video on airports which is filmed in an airport. The way to use this technique is to make sure your message matches your set. Again I'll use my latest video. Incase you haven't got the message it's going to be my prime example. So where would you film a video on grapes? Correct. A vineyard. What a simple but brilliant idea. This technique needs to be used correctly. Other wise your audience will be confused. Make sure you don't send conflicting messages. Symbolism Symbolism is an effective storytelling technique if used correctly. To make this easier you need to know the word metaphor. "A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable." Thanks Google. Here is my terrible example. "My mind is a sponge." Notice that I didn't use like or as. If you use like or as, it is a simile. There you go you learnt some new words. So now my english lesson is over, how do metaphors relate to symbolism. Symbolism is the relation between a object, place or anything and a thought, action or feeling. A well used example of symbolism is a necklace or ring. In a romantic movie these props are often used as a way to symbolise love. A ring is used in marriage because it represents love and a circle is never ending. My mum is a celebrant that is how I know that. So how could you possibly use symbolism in your film. I don't know. Symbolism is the hardest technique to use. I find it hard to incorporate it into my films. There is no easy way to learn other than practise and trial and error. So remember to try and use symbolism in your next video. I have one secret that I will share about using symbolism. Don't, I repeat don't over emphasise symbolism. When symbolism becomes too easy to spot it becomes cheesy. You want symbolism to be subtle and just recognisable. If it sticks out, it is cheesy. Music So this is a bit of an odd one. How can music translate a message. Well my answer is, it doesn't, but it helps another technique convey a message. It's often used in association with the set technique. Horror movies are the best at demonstrating this. Picture the scariest scene you have scene. I bet you remember the scene. But do you remember the music? I can't remember. That is fortunate because the music is what makes the scene scary. I promise you that if you watch a scary movie on mute it won't be half as bad. Music is the best way technique to set the tone of your video. If you want to have a happy, bright video, use happy and bright music. This technique is easy and can be employed in your videos. There is also a more advanced way to use music. This advanced technique is always used in big films. So instead of just chucking a music track over your clip, you can do more. You can adjust your video cuts to change on the beats of the music. This is hard but just takes practise. Create a climax. If your video has a climax you can use your music to amplify it. Try slowly increasing the volume until the climax. Music has the potential to improve your videos. Utilise it. Names Now this is a technique that is very subtle. I'm bad at explaining this but I'l give it a shot. Some names are nicer than others. I'll use names from the movie Harry Potter. Harry is a nice neutral name. It doesn't sound mean or nice. That was the intention of his name. It was meant to be nice and not provoke hate. Professor Snape, well Snape is a nasty sounding name. This too was on purpose. It immediately tells you that he is a nasty person. Which he is. So names can change the way you convey a message. This is a subtle technique and is difficult to employ effectively. But I would recommend trying to use it next film. So now we have covered some techniques to employ creative story telling. Conclusion Story telling is a part of videography which is under estimated. I believe it should be talked about more. It is one part of videography which cannot be bought with money. I think that is cannot be bought, makes it special. There is only one way to improve your story telling. Practise, practise and you guessed it. I hope you enjoyed this blog post. I really enjoyed writing it. Please share and comment down below. I want to hear what you think about story telling. P.S. I recently created a twitter account be sure to follow me. | |
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Luke MeadI'm a young videographer |