Natural Storytellers

Posted on October 28, 2008

We all have a story. Actually, we all have many stories. We don’t always tell them - hell, we may not know how to tell them - but if you’ve been alive, you have a story.

We also have many ways of telling our stories. Novels, blogs, photos, movies, plays, musicals, newspapers, magazines and the like are all modes of what we call “communication.” These media - all media - are the focus of this blog. And yet.

I have a problem. The only way I’ve ever felt comfortable telling my stories are through photographs. I’ve never connected with something so wholeheartedly, so perfectly, as I do when I press an SLR to my cheek, peer through the viewfinder, and squeeze the shutter button. I’ve tried writing, but words come to me only in formal and sometimes stilted spurts. Professionally I’m a TV and video cameraman, but even then I’ve never been a great storyteller. Something about the hurried nature of the moving image makes for a difficult transition from my mind to the screen. The only exception to this is my documentary work, which I think I’m fairly good at. I suppose because it’s more passive storytelling - not a bad thing.

When I look through the viewfinder of a still camera, though, entire stories play out in front of me. I see the whole scene through that viewfinder, a story that perhaps an author could spin into thousands of beautiful words. It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but for me, that picture is actually saying those words. The image… well, it speaks to me. And yet.

I have hardly picked up my still camera in years. There are any number of reasons why not, from costs to lack of inspiration to lack of time to… too many excuses. I’m looking into purchasing a DSLR, a technology which I’ve staunchly refused for love of film. But I think it’s time.

And yet…

I’ve been on a story kick recently. My good buddy Rob Blatt made a Twitter post the other night:

It’s funny, the relationships we make in SM (social media) tend to be “from this point on” and we don’t generally know back stories until we meet in person

That post prompted me to ask the question, “What is your story?” I made a video post on Seesmic, asking people to tell me a story from their past, and got some interesting results. It’s something we don’t often think about in real life, because our IRL friends tend to be people with whom we have a history. The stories are built in.

How do you tell your backstory? In this time of living in the moment media, how do you convey to people you’ve only met online or remotely who you are? What medium - or media - do you use to tell your stories? You may tell them in ways you’ve never thought possible, but the stories are there nonetheless.  Leave a comment below and tell us your story.

Technorati Tags: stories, backstory, camera, visuals, photography, videography, social media, media, seesmic, rob blatt, communication

create/consume/delete

Posted on October 16, 2008

After several years of radio silence, I launched a new audio show called create/consume/delete. The podcast is a discussion with my co-host, Rob Blatt, about making all media - old and new - more accessible for creators, consumers, and deleters. Our goal is to talk about all things media, including blogs, books, movies, cameras, audio gear, production, and much more. We’ll have special guests who are experts and professionals in their fields to talk about current topics affecting media making.

When we were developing the show, we realized that we’d be talking to and teaching three distinct groups of people:

Creators - Those who make content and put it out for the world to enjoy, learn from, and pass on.

Consumers - Those people who take content in via  television, movies, books, magazines, etc., in the traditional “time based” method of content consumption.

Deleters - The newest group consists of people who take mostly web based media by downloading and/or “time shifting” the content.

It’s an exciting show that I hope will appeal to people of all expertise levels who are interested in media creation and consumption.

You can check out the website at www.createconsumedelete.com or subscribe to the show on iTunes. We also broadcast live via Ustream when we record a show at: www.createconsumedelete.com/ccd-live. And of course, you can follow Rob and myself on Twitter at twitter.com/robblatt and twitter.com/chriscavs.

Film at 11….

Posted on October 6, 2008

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