Effective use of detail and sequencing

Dance with the Devil from James Gregg on Vimeo.
Detail and sequencing are key to visual storytelling. They’re the driving factors that allows the filmmaker to show progression as a story unfolds. The first 26 seconds of Dance with the Devil, a multimedia piece by James Gregg of The San Diego Union-Tribune, demonstrates effective use of both sequencing and detail.

The first shot we see in this piece, is a close-up of a bull coming down a chute. This shot does two things for the story. One, it establishes the theme of the piece. It’s clear that this piece will explore an activity surrounding the bull. Secondly, it shows an arena in the background as the bull walks down the chute. This indicates were in an arena, leaving me to believe this piece is about bull riding.

The next shot is an extreme close-up of a man, yet to be identified, strapping up a saddle on the bull. This shot indicates the piece is going to describe a relationship between the bull, and the man. In my opinion, by not identifying the man, it creates a story arc that encompasses any bull rider, not just the man in this scene.

Then he begins to speak, layered over natural sound of the arena. In this narrative, the cowboy talks about how the sport is one of the most intense things a person can do. He then compares it to holding a stick of dynamite waiting to explode.

As this analogy is made, we see two key shots. The first is of another person helping him into the gate, and the second is a tight shot of his hands on the reigns as the bull bucks for the first time.

The net shot quickly cuts to the bull as it comes out of the chute, which is then cut to a wide-angle shot of the rider falling off the bull.

This entire scene lasts 26 seconds, including the paper’s intro. When constructing multimedia narratives, it’s important to understand that your audience has a short attention span.

With a large amount of content floating around the Internet, it’s key to convey a large part of your story within the first 30 seconds. If the content is engaging, people will stay on your video. If not, they’ll move to another.