06: Every Story Is Made Up of Pieces
Hello, hello!
If you're new: I use this space to explore creativity, art, storytelling, writing, design, tech, UX and the intersections between them—whatever that means. I personally know those connections are what rev me up, and so, let’s see what happens!
Every Story Is Made Up of Pieces
Mirrored Ox
Ox xO
—Ryan Ridge
My latest binge is the Netflix show School of Chocolate. It’s very fun; I recommend it. But the editing fingerprints are very obvious to me at least. Here are some examples:
Throughout the episodes, the editors will cut away from the action to a scene where it seems as if the contestant discusses their thoughts and feelings about it. The contestants are always filmed in the same clothes and in the same position. It’s all just too perfect. I notice it every time because I can’t help but wonder when these interviews were actually filmed—immediately after an episode? After the whole series? Are we even getting remarks that actually were made about the scene or person like the jump cut implies?
The scenes we see inside the challenge aren’t necessarily consecutive. Sometimes, when Chef Amaury is explaining the ask, the scene will jump to an explanation after he’s done and then jump back into a scene where he is still demonstrating. Also, the challenges can run up to 14 hours! The chefs must take breaks, snack, etc. Right???
The editors definitely try to play up the drama. They use The Great British Bake Off technique where the hosts will say: “You have 5 minutes left!” And we, the audience, see a whole bunch of rushing as if everything is actually happening in those 5 minutes. They also do close ups on people’s faces to imply that they have “feelings” about remarks. But can we really trust that is what the contestant was feeling? Or was it just, like you know, their face?
I’m talking about all this because visual storytelling is very important in the modern age, and I think we forget that an equally important component of that is the edit. What is editing? It can be as simple as fixing and amending things for clarity like punctuation. Or it can be as complex and fundamental as deciding on how to frame the intention, meaning and purpose of a storytelling piece. The fingerprints of editing are to be seen across every video ever put in front of your eyes. Next time you’re watching a movie, count down the seconds to when the scene cuts to a different perspective. Usually, it's about 3 seconds! That’s an editor deciding what you should see and how you should experience the story.
Who Is Behind the Story? What Is Their Intention?
One of the strongest arguments in favor of visual storytelling is that when done well, it communicates and imparts more information to an audience in a shorter amount of time. In the modern age, our time is more precious because we have so much we could/should/would do. Therefore, a 5-minute YouTube video that gives us the breadth of the Spanish Inquisition is a more digestible medium than a book.
However, the biggest weakness of visual storytelling is that it truncates, obfuscates and willfully misleads on context. In writing, the audience is able to take in the entire scene—you can look around a bit. But in the video medium, the storyteller/editor decides what, when and how you should look at anything. At its best, the audience learns to trust the storyteller as they move through the story—we want to look at it the way they intend even if they mislead. Think Wes Anderson. Or Stanley Kubrick. At its worse, the audience passively accepts the visual medium as it is, and then mindlessly fills in the missing context. This is what happens when you read headlines in a newsfeed. The copy screams: “Man owns shop and says people are terrible.” I see/read that and think, “Well, what a terrible person. It's a good thing I'm not them.” But if we clicked through the story, we’d maybe see that the man is disgusted for good reasons. The eye-catching visual whether copy or image does not impart the true meaning of the story. Instead, it is made to just grab our attention for business reasons—analytics, shares, likes, etc. Or for even more sinister reasons like to sow discord, to lead people to more partisan content, to manipulate sentiment, etc.
Storytelling Isn’t Just About the Storyteller. It’s Also About the Audience.
On the storyteller side, we get to decide how to engage our audience and how to teach them about how to engage with our material. We can cultivate mindful audiences or passive ones. But so often on projects, I see clients overlook this fundamental part of any experience. They tend to go in two directions:
Make everything visual! Because people don’t read: This is a fallacy in my mind. People don’t read because your site and content probably isn’t worth reading. When you have worthless content, it teaches the audience to be disengaged. Videos on every page won’t save that.
Let’s make it pretty! Then we’ll think about the copy: This is also a fallacy. Most of the time, people come to your product/site because they need information. The visuals and interactions will only engage so far UNLESS you can fundamentally tie them in with the content your users actually need and want.
I confront these two pathways a lot in my work because it’s my job as an information architect to put information in context. I want to frame it in a digestible way that is interactive and useful for business and consumer.
Our perspectives are very vulnerable to the onslaught of stories out there beckoning for our attention. It’s more important than ever for us as the audiences to not be passive. To be attentive and engaged readers/users no matter if we are scrolling on Facebook, searching out a PDF on a website, looking for a new app or reading a book. We have the choice to accept the realities shown us, to question them, to ignore or avoid them. Everything put in front of us wants our attention. But we do not have to give it up meekly.
Reading, Listening, Watching
Great editing is a hard-earned skill, and one of my favorite video series captures it perfectly by explaining it through the movies: Every Frame a Painting. Check out the Jackie Chan video and the Edgar Wright one.
I’ve been rereading the Anne of Green Gables series by LM Montgomery. In the second book, Anne starts a village improvement society, and they all work to make Avonlea prettier—much like the committee in Edgar Wright's movie Hot Fuzz but with less violence (haha). Anyway, one thing the group does is tear down trees and wild brush to plant geraniums and grass. No Anne! I thought. You’ll regret it! What a difference 100 years will do to shift an audience's perspective, amirite? Which reminds me, I read this great piece awhile ago about how a gardening columnist in Alaska can trace the shift in his perspective over 45 years of writing.
Like videos, poetry is also a visual medium. It can communicate so much in words AND layout. The quote at the start of this newsletter comes from one of my favorite minimalist poetry books by Ryan Ridge.
Oh yeah! I finally watched 2001: a Space Odyssey. It really was amazing, especially visually! It stands the test of time. There’s not a lot of dialogue, but it says so much! Here's another writer's take on why you should watch it.
Reminder: I have a book!
Dear Foe,
You know there are days that wilt off a calendar due to the viciousness of a schedule that demands beheadings, scaldings, scolding and scribblings ...".
My talented friends stylized quite a few photos, and I want to show them off.
You can read an excerpt here.
You can buy it here.
'Ta for now,
Sarah