Introduction to Storytelling

WITNESS invites you to use, remix and share this curriculum. All materials are under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial

ShareAlike 3.0 License. You can also find more video advocacy training materials at www.witness.org. 

SO WHAT’S YOUR STORY?

Storytelling puts the human into human rights.Story is at the heart of video …

without a compelling story,

your audience will not be moved to act.

What is visual storytelling for human rights?

DEFINED: The strategic use of images, pictures, and sounds to tell stories that can pressure, shame, move or compel key audiences to take action that will protect, defend and uphold human rights.

GOAL: The story inspires the action you want from the audience.

1. Stories are about people2. Stories need to be fixed in time and space3. Stories speak the audience’s language4. Stories stir up emotions5. Stories don’t tell. They show.6. Stories have at least one “moment of truth”7. Stories have clear meaning8. The people in your story have to want something9. Let your characters speak for themselves10. Audiences bore easily so stories need

challenges/obstacles

Andy Goodman’s 10 Rules for Storytelling

How can you Tell a Good Story? Part 1: The Philosophy

Is there one way to tell a story…. No!

But the most effective stories often haveDramatic momentumTension or ‘conflict’Powerful characters we care about and Telling details

STORYTELLING

Not necessarily violence, but conflict between individuals, between individuals and an external institution etc., or conflicts of personality, of ideas, or daily struggles of life against an unfair world

DRAMATIC CONFLICT

Have at least one memorable fact and one detail that will remain in people’s minds…..

MEMORABLE FACTS & DETAILS

The 6 Guiding Principles of Story:1. VOICES: The people (or text) who tell the story2. STRUCTURE: The way in which your film is organized

or in other words, the backbone3. AUDIO/VISUAL ELEMENTS: What you hear and see on

screen4. STYLE: What your films ‘looks & feels’ like

5. ETHICAL REPRESENTATION: How you honor a person’s dignity and respect their privacy

6. SPACE FOR ACTION: A concrete and specific act your audience can take to create change

HOW

PRINCIPLE 1: VOICES

WHO WILL TELL YOUR STORY?

VoiceOptions• Survivors of human rights abuses• Relatives of the person/s abused• Witnesses of human rights abuses • Experts• Journalists• Narrator• Peer-reviewed citations / Other Texts• Who / what else?

What should you consider when choosing which voices to include?

EXPLORE

Emotional: The voices that speak to the viewer’s heart

Analytical: The voices that support the facts Ethical: The voices that must be included for

ethical reasons and agencyPolitical: The voices your audience trusts and

needs to hear from

ESSENTIAL: CREDIBILITY

What are the building blocks in the video & what links these independent blocks together (transitions)?

Transition

TransitionStory Expert Fact Expert Story Expert Fact Expert

Story

PRINCIPLE 2: STRUCTURE

WHOSE VOICES WERE INCLUDED? EXCLUDED?

Beginning: Set up the story, the situation, the argument, a common assumption (challenge it…)

Middle: Tell the story, engage your viewers to understand and care

Ending: Conclude and ‘hand it off” to the audience

BEGINNING – MIDDLE - END

CASE STUDY

Location/Partner: Kenya, CEMERIDE and Minority Rights Group

Objective: Secure ruling from African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on displacement of Endorois people from their ancestral lands in Kenya

Audience: African Commission, to be followed up with a public engagement campaign using a different version of video

Message: Endorois people have suffered violations of their rights under specific articles of the African Charter

Story/ Voices:

Timing/Distribution: :Impact:

PRINCIPLE 3: AUDIO & VISUAL

WHAT WILL WE HEAR? SEE?

Location/Partner: Burma, Burma Issues

Objective: Support the push to refer Burma to the UNSC under ‘threat to the peace’

Message: Actions of Burma’s military regime in eastern Burma are a threat to the peace

Story/ Voices: Condensed summary of situation, with emblematic story of one older woman

Timing/Distribution: :Used in solidarity organizing and shown to officials in Indonesia, UK, USA and at UN, alongside presentations. Also viewed almost a million times on YouTube.

Impact: Supported organizing work; ultimately no referral to UNSC

WHAT VISUALS WERE INCLUDED? EXCLUDED?

• A-roll (interviews)• Observed conversations• B-roll• Re-enactments• Still photos• Documents• Graphics (maps, charts, etc.)• Split screens• Title cards + Lower Thirds• Subtitles• Archival or stock footage

VISUALS TO CONSIDER

WHAT AUDIO WASINCLUDED? EXCLUDED?

AUDIO TO CONSIDER• Testimony• Overheard conversations• Narration• Music• Silence• Wild sound• Sound effects

Style: The ‘look’ and ‘feel’ that will resonate with your target audience.

1. Hear Us, Memory’s Story (6 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L68KxQcjbls

PRINCIPLE 4: STYLE

Click on the links below to watch clips and answer these questions:•What are the elements of style (aka, look + feel) in these clips? Compare and contrast.•What clip resonated with you most & why?

1. Hand held camera work v. On a tripod2. Fast-paced v. slow paced3. Glitzy (Highly-produced) v. Gritty (Home-spun)4. Interviews v. Narration5. Directed v. Verité6. Music choice7. Interviews: Looking directly into the camera v. the

traditional interview set up looking at interviewer v. intentionally using an awkward set up, including high or low angles of interviews

8. Concealed identify / voice9. Investigative report feel v. Movement-building feel10. Other?

STYLE CONSIDERATIONS

• What are the ethical issues that arise in this clip?

• What ethical challenges will you face in your project? Brainstorm this list.

PRINCIPLE 5: ETHICAL REPRESENTATION

Click on this link to watch a video and answer the questions below:

http://youtu.be/d3Pc-FgEB7k (Begin at 2:15 – end at 2:51)

Potential Ethical Challenges1. How will you get informed consent?2. How will you protect safety & security?3. How will you protect privacy?4. How will you protect a person’s dignity?5. Will you share the decision-making process with

interviewees?6. Will you pay your interviewees?7. Will you let interviewees review cuts?8. How do you handle hostile interviewees?9. Will you use footage you don’t have permission for?10. Will you reenact events that happened in the past?11. Framing, style & editing12. Other?

CONSIDERATIONS

Ethical RepresentationKey Best Practices of Ethical Representation in Human Rights Filmmaking

1. Cause no harm2. Be sure to be proud to send the final cut to

your interviewees3. Do not re-vicitmize your interviewees. Lift

them up. 4. Ensure future ethical use of the footage

(consider the remix culture)5. Other?

Advocacy video turns it over to the audience to take action

Need to build a ‘space for action’ into the video – not make it a closed, sealed space

This ‘space for action’ should point to a solution … a possible happy ending

PRINCIPLE 6: SPACE FOR ACTION

How much does the audience feel implicated or involved in the story and in the ending?

After watching are they detached, removed, helpless? Or included, hopeful, engaged, shamed, motivated, inspired, outraged?

Is the story closed-off or is there room for change?

Do you provide clear options for action?

INSPIRING THE ACTION YOU WANT?

RecapStorytelling for Advocacy1. Story is at the heart of video2. Human rights stories are about people3. Stories don’t tell -- they show4. Story serves advocacy. A film is for a purpose,

not about something.5. Advocacy story-telling is about effectively

communicating your message to an audience in order to generate action.

6. Build your storytelling on your audience analysis – what will reasonate with them?

Introduction to Storytelling

WITNESS invites you to use, remix and share this curriculum. All materials are under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial

ShareAlike 3.0 License. You can also find more video advocacy training materials at www.witness.org.