The God who designed us in His image, made us to be storytellers. He chooses to engage with us through the stories in the Bible. When Jesus came He engaged people with stories. Our brains instinctively try to put images, both words and pictures, together to make sense of what we receive.
The art of visual storytelling is using images to covey a certain message. It's important to understand what our images say to the people who view them. This is as true in creating a film as it is on the big screen on Sunday morning. Using the wrong framing, angle or lighting can actually send the wrong message.
The key to learning visual storytelling is to observe how it is being done all around you. Think about the images you see every day. What does that shot communicate? What do I think when I see a really tight shot on someone's face? What do I think about the person who is too dark in an image?
The Elements of a Story
First, let's understand what makes a good story. Every story, whether visual or not, has to contain several elements or its not a story. A story needs a main character, preferably someone we care about and trust. Next, that character needs to have some kind of problem or conflict. Finally there has to be a resolution of that problem. This story arc, as it is called, was discovered by Aristotle thousand of years ago. The professional visual storytellers in Hollywood have been using this concept since the silent movie days.
The storyteller's art is found in how we come to care about the main character and are drawn into the conflict. For example, early in the first Star Wars movie (the 1977 version), you begin to genuinely care about Luke Skywalker. George Lucas, the movie's writer and director, kept us engaged with his quest. Partially, this was done with great visual storytelling. Luke was in his white clothes and Darth Vader, the protagonist, all in black. Even the bright planet of Tatooine was set against the blackness of the Empire's spacecraft you know clearly who is the hero and who is the villain of the story.
It's a Matter of Trust
On Sunday morning when were shooting for IMAG is different from filmmaking, but there are some basic visual elements that need to be considered, mainly your subject's eyes. Part of man's design is to look at a person's eyes. It begins with nursing babies looking at their mother and we never stop throughout our lives. We gain information about other people by looking at their eyes.
In building a visual story, the eyes are critical. Always check focus on your subject's eyes. It's mandatory that your main subject's eyes are clearly seen. Not seeing someone's eyes is fine for a villain but not the hero. This might be tricky in your church, but it is essential to see a person's eyes. This may mean lowering the angle of some lights in order to light faces better.
The placement of your lens to your subject's eyes is also important. The viewer needs to be at the same eye level, or close to it, to establish trust. Watch the evening news and you'll notice that the newscasters are always at eye level. In the very early days of television it was discovered that in order to trust someone they must must look us directly in the eye. I know that most pastors are speaking to the crowd but they must occasionally make eye contact with the camera as well.
Additionally, if someone is above the level of the camera, they are essentially looking down at the audience. You never want your main speaker to look down at the audience. It's fine for your antagonist. We expect that. Think Star Wars again. Darth Vader is portrayed by actor Dave Prowse, who was chosen partially because he stands six and a half feet tall. He always looks down at the camera.
Looking for a Reaction
Another visual storytelling tool that helps to engage your viewer is the reaction shot. All of us do this more than we realize. We're with a friend and someone insults them. We will instinctively look for our friend's face for a reaction. The shot is used in dozens of ways like a crowd applauding or laughing on a variety show, a tight shot of our hero's eyes looking angry at the villain, a bride's mother tearing up in a wedding.
It may be harder to do in a small house of worship, but, if you are planning to stream your service, you need some reaction. This may require placing a camera on stage and editing reaction shots. This will require more work but in the long run it helps people connect. At the very least, if your main speaker refers to something on the screen, you must show it. If the pastor says 'look at this great picture I took of last night's sunset...", your viewers feel left out if they can't see it. Show us what the speaker is looking at.
The Empty Space
You may not realize it but empty space on the screen says something that your brain is waiting to fill. For example, if someone is looking toward the right side of the screen and there is open space constantly on the left, we're expecting something to happen. We expect someone to join the conversation or something to fall or a graphic to be inserted. Notice how this is done on the news. The camera on the anchor slides right and a box dissolves into the left corner. If there were empty space, we would wonder what has been left out.
This is one reason that your camera should never be locked down. Even if your speaker moves very little, you need to have someone smoothly close up the empty space. This is why professionals use a fluid head on their tripod.
Bringing it together
The old saying is true, "A picture is worth a thousand words." We need to spend some time understanding how our images communicate. Watch television, films and even You Tube videos and think about what the image says. This can help you make better choices in shot framing, camera and light placement and, ultimately, make your image connect with the people watching.
