Talk Story

Above: When it comes to 'talking story' you want to hear from the people on the ground. Tuberculosis patient, Cambodia 2014. Photo ©Matthew Smeal

Words matter. Content is king. Content creator. Storytelling… We’ve all heard the buzzwords and phrases. But one term I’ve heard a lot lately—particularly within the surf culture—is talk story, the Hawaiian term for the sharing of experiences.

Those who 'talk story' are the pioneers, the elders, the members of society who have lived it, dreamed it, loved it…and struggled through it. It’s a respectful term that reflects the importance of storytelling and the sharing of wisdom within Hawaii's traditionally oral culture, and elicits the bonding that happens amongst those present.

But whether buzzwords or deeper cultural references, the salient point is that stories matter. And they may matter more to you than you realise.

People respond to people

Everyone has a story, and your audience wants yours. Why do you do what you do? How do you do it? Why are you like you are? What motivates you? What experiences can you share that others will find interesting?

People respond to people; they want to know if they fit with you and you with them. By answering those questions and others like it, you’re showing your potential audience what you’re about which helps them decide if you and your organisation aligns with their own values.

Show, don't tell

My job as a writer is to find the story. But more than just me telling it, it needs to come from those involved. In journalism we call it show, don’t tell. We do that by interviewing, by asking the right questions and finding the story within the story – the smaller personal story that exposes the greater context. We select the right quotes, and then link it all together with the right background and supportive information. Sentence structure, flow, and rhetorical devices are all creative aspects to writing that convey emotion and hold interest.

As a documentary filmmaker it’s similar: interview people, interview some more people, find the story within, find even more people to interview, capture the right supportive b-roll and cutaways and then present it artistically and creatively in a way that serves the story. And like writing, there are creative aspects to that—lighting, lens focal length, camera movement or not, camera angles, audio, soundtrack, editing, colour grading—multiple parts that all serve the story.

What’s in a name

There is a difference between cinematography and videography. I call myself a documentary cinematographer, firstly because I spent many years studying cinematography and grovelling at the feet of some seriously good camera operators. But I also spent many more years studying journalism and travelling the world documenting humanitarian issues and crises.

Those combined skills and experiences are my story; and documentary cinematographer better infers that storytelling is the driving force, and that the presentation of facts and the sharing of information and knowledge are front and centre.

It's easy to get hung up on labels, but as someone who writes for a living, I believe words and definitions are important and can get us thinking, questioning, and seeking clarity from ambiguity and the status quo. They can show where there is a difference and where that difference needs to be defined. It’s why I bristle at terms like MarComms—as though Marketing and Communications are so intrinsically linked that they can’t be separated—and why I bristle at NGOs whose communication strategy is built solely on fundraising, as though communications has no other purpose than to raise money.

I use the term documentary cinematographer partly because it shows my story; it better defines what I do by inferring that storytelling is the driving force, and that the presentation of facts and the sharing of information and knowledge are front and centre. And it’s why I prefer photojournalist. A photojournalist uses images to convey a story; again the inference—the connotation—isn’t on glossy marketing pics but on reality, on the context, on the story. If a picture tells a thousand words, then a good picture, the right picture, will tell many more.

Making sense of the world

People want good stories because stories are how we make sense of the world. Stories are how we communicate. Stories are what reveal a society and culture to itself – and to others. And stories reveal the human side to any crisis.

We all have stories to tell, businesses to promote, and issues to raise awareness about. The best way to do that is by sharing stories – the right ones, in the right way.

If anything I have mentioned makes sense to you, please reach out. It’d be good to talk story.