Visual Storytelling: How To Tell a Story Through Video

Video can be a huge asset when it comes to visual storytelling as it can help encapsulate and provide a visual aid to those minor, yet essential details within a story.

Whether your story portrays a narrative feature film, documentary, commercial or something completely out of the ordinary, at the heart of it all is a strong story that can be used to make deeper and more meaningful connections with people.

Videos can bring stories to life in a way that simple words on a page cannot. If you're a filmmaker, video editor, or someone else who works with the medium on a daily basis, it's imperative to learn how to tell a story through video. Doing so can not just captivate your audience, but it can also leave the type of lasting impression that most people won't soon forget.

Develop a Clear Narrative and Structure For Your Story 

You may have noticed a trend in the videos you watch. Characters tend to be very consistent in their look and personality. Not only does it help with visual storytelling, but it also helps us connect to the character’s persona. When developing your characters, think about what their voice sounds like, how they walk, how they talk, how their friends would describe them, their emotional responses…who they are.

It’s important to know your characters inside and out before you begin filming so that you can incorporate these characteristics into your video story. Taking the time to fully develop your characters can make an impact on how your audience connects with them and the story. 

Although character development may not be the focal point of advertisements and commercials, we have seen companies use a main protagonist time and time again to feature alongside their brand name or product. Developing the main characters helps their audience leave that lasting impression they set out to achieve. 

The Role of Visuals in Conveying Emotion

Another essential practice of visual storytelling is leaning into the role that visuals play, particularly when it comes to conveying emotion.

Once you master properly executing conveying emotions, the greater the chances your audience will respond to your call to action or film. Some techniques you can use to express emotions are framing, lighting and color. 

You can definitely evoke emotions through dialogue and character expression, but you can take it one step further by properly framing your scenes. You can use a close up static shot of a character’s face or a panning shot to give the audience a larger perspective of what’s going on. The use of low angles to suggest the character in frame is of importance or some superiority, high angles showcasing inferiority, point of views to show what the character is experiencing, dutch angles to give a sense that something is off are all great ways to enhance your story. 

Lighting and color can also reinforce the emotions you’re trying to convey. Choosing between low or high contrast lighting or the various lighting angles can provide different emotional expressions.

Along with using the various lighting techniques, you can also use different hues to set the tone of the scene. This can be represented through objects or clothing within the frame and through color grading the entire video with warmer or colder hues. Some examples of color and the emotions they represent are: 

Red - passion, love, lust, rage, anger
Blue - sadness, peace, security
Purple - tranquility, mystery, wealth, fantasy
Green - nature, healing, health, envy, immaturity, corruption, and disgust

How To Use Sound, Music, and Dialogue To Drive Engagement

Although you can tell a compelling story with visuals alone, sound, music and dialogue can be great assets to your production. 

Think back to the last great action scene that you saw in a Hollywood movie that you loved. That epic orchestral soundtrack. The sound effects that make you feel like you're in the scene along with the main character. The overall mood set by the cinematic shots. That great dialogue that really helps you understand the characters and what their motivations are.

When taken together, it's easy to see how all of these elements blend into something much more powerful than any one of them could be on their own. It's a much more engaging, gripping experience. They're also things that the video medium can do collectively that virtually no other medium can match.

The Importance of Editing For A Compelling Product

When it comes to movies in particular, they say that everything is essentially "written" three times. Once on the page, in the form of a screenplay. Then again during the filming process where things naturally evolve and change. Then a final time in the editing room, where all of those aforementioned elements are finally brought together to form a cohesive, compelling whole.

For every scene that you edit, return to the "why" of it all. What emotions were you trying to convey? What was the original intention? What information do people need to know? If a scene isn't working, maybe it's because certain story beats are taking too long. In that case, faster cutting can help speed up the pace. Or, a moment speeds by too quickly and an audience doesn't have enough time to properly digest what they've just learned. In that case, utilizing longer shots and takes can help slow things down in a way that is beneficial to the original intention.

Especially in the world of video marketing, editing is crucial to preserve the original intention of the piece. It helps make sure that the finished product is as close to what your original vision was as possible.

Tips For Incorporating Immersive Elements

One of the biggest tips for incorporating immersive elements involves your willingness to think outside the box. People won't pay attention to a commercial that looks like every other ad they've ever seen. It's likely that they'll quickly forget it altogether. But if you present things in a way that people have never seen before - incorporating elements like interesting music, unique graphics, storyline and more - suddenly they're much more likely to hear what you have to say.

Interactivity is another strength of the video format, especially on the Internet. The classic example of this is a streaming live Q&A session - one where questions can be taken not only by people in the room, but by the audience watching at home. Suddenly, all participants are on an active playing field and everyone is engaged across the board.

In terms of video marketing, you also always want to include a call-to-action (CTA) at the end informing someone as to what step they should take next. Whether it's visiting your website, picking up the phone and giving you a call, or coming into your physical location doesn't matter - it keeps the relationship going long after the video itself has ended.

At TV Pro Gear, we're experts in visual storytelling and know how to harness the power of the video to your advantage. In addition to being storytellers ourselves, we can also help with all aspects of production - from creating a budget to principal photography to editing and beyond.

We have all of the equipment and production elements needed for all your live video production, film production and post production needs. Talk to us today about touring our brand new soundstage and post production facility…1632 Stage + Post, where the only limits are your imagination! 

If you'd like to find out more information about how to tell a story through video, or if you'd like to discuss your video production needs with someone in more detail, contact the team at TV Pro Gear today.