Monday October 27^th, 2014

The day began at 9:30am in the office of Blue Chalk, a young multimedia company that looks to tell stories about social issues. I felt very inspired leaving there reflecting on how much the company has accomplished in such a short amount of time. I took away a lot of important key points from this company that were definitely repeated throughout the day at other companies, just in different ways.

            We were told that the most important thing we can to do market ourselves is to be likable and to “not be an island.” I think that during rush of trying to make portfolio worthy images we often forget that how we present ourselves and how we interact with the world also play a big part in getting hired later on.

            The other point that was made that I found to be important was that “its not about the F stop and exposure, its about storytelling.” This holds a lot of value to me and makes me think back on something that was said to me a while ago that a poorly composed image with a good moment is still better than a beautiful photo that has no substance.

            At Mediastorm I took away the emphasis on character driven story. We saw an example in which the characters story was apart of a bigger issue and was made relatable by connecting a common issue amongst many people. The issue is that a high percentage of men will end up in prison at some point in their lives, the character was one who is an activist against this issue and has also experienced it first hand, and it was made relatable by showing his struggle of balancing work and family.

            Brian Storm made many great point but the ones that stuck with me the most were, “don’t take a photo, give your subject a voice,” it’s not YOUR story,” and “there’s only one way to become better and that’s to tell stories.” I was inspired by that fact that he had spent 0$ on marketing up till this point and that he still watches a film every night to continue seeing how stories can be told.

            POV was an interesting place to see since it is a very different platform of storytelling from what I am used to working on myself. I am familiar with some of their documentaries and am now more aware of the unique ways of storytelling tactics. POV also looks for stories that are strong, socially driven, and character driven.