Social Media - A New POV for Story Telling
by Rob Paterson
I think that one of the barriers of conventional Story telling TV is the imposing amount of gear that has to be used to “Get the Quality”.
If you are confronted by a interviewer, a sound man and a camera man with a huge camera on his shoulder - it’s hard to open up.
If the topic of what is on the table is a hard one - then maybe you will not open up. We are for instance finding it hard to get people to talk in St Louis about losing their homes - whereas it was easy to get people to talk about their experience in the war. We are starting to debate how we can reduce the barriers to story and hence to engagement.
This traditional approach - where interviewer is outside the story themselves - is not engaging enough.
Here then is my ideal. Molly Dineen making her brilliant film - The Lie of the Land - Available in full on Google Video.
This film is about the death throws of farming in England and about the barrier between city folk who think that food comes from the supermarket and the country folk who struggle to produce food for a living when the supermarkets and the government do all they can to break them.
What is so special about the film is Molly’s POV. By working alone with just a small camera - she is part of the story. Her warmth allows the natural dignity of the inarticulate to shine through and to give power to the thoughts of people who could never speak other wise.
There is no barrier between her and the people or the actions in the film.
The film has caused a storm. It seems to be the Silent Spring of our time. The wake-up call.
It is the technology of the mini cam that has allowed her to change the relationship between the film maker and the subject. This brings out the emotional power of the story. It is the technology of the web that is allowing you to see this film whenever you want. The new social web brings us depth and distribution. A great story will travel.
A warning - Molly shows the reality of life and death on the farm. NO shrink wrapped beef here.In so doing she reminds us of the real cost of our food - a cost that goes beyond money.
