 Hi, everyone. I know it's very late in the day for anyone in Europe, Africa, part of the world. Thank you so much for coming. My name is Thelma Young Lutonato Boa. I used to work at 350 back in the day. But currently, I work in an organization called the Solutions Project. And I also run another project called Not Too Late, which is all about climate hope. I'm super passionate about storytelling and how storytelling is a tool to spark change. And so I'm very excited to chat with you all today and share some things I know. My pronouns are she, her. Definitely, if you have any questions, raise your hand. Drop it in the chat. I'm hoping we'll be having some good discussions during this session. But I'm going to go ahead and share my screen and we'll jump right in. All right, storytelling for social change. This session is all about how you have the power to shift narratives and shift how people think about an issue and use that as the really powerful way to bring new people into the work that you're doing. We're in a really exciting day and age where we get to be in charge of the stories that we tell. Before the mobile phone era, it was often you would have to wait for a journalist or a TV documentary crew who would come and document your story, and then it would be up to their whims and thoughts about how to shape your story and your truth. But now, because of mobile phones, the technology is making it easier for us. It's easier than ever for anyone to be in charge and telling how your truths and your beliefs and your work gets seen by the world. Storytelling is such an important part of activism is that crucial first step where you're sharing what you believe and what you hope for and the goals of building a connection with someone else and through that connection bringing them into the movement work that you are doing. I deeply believe that the world needs to hear a diversity of stories and your community needs to hear your story in particular. Storytelling is, again, a powerful way that we inspire people and help them get excited to be involved in the work that we're doing. So how do we do this? We know we wanna tell authentic stories. We know we wanna tell stories that speak from the heart that are not overly crafted or doctored. But we wanna show the power of the work that our team are doing. And we wanna build connections to bring people to this movement. But we also know that the internet is a busy place. People are always scrolling. So how do we create stories in a way that will grab people's attention? So let's just take... I'm sorry to interrupt you. When your mouse... It seems like when your mouse moves on the slide deck, it creates dark black squares and lines on top of the slide. So I'm not sure what that's about. Let me just try sharing one more time. But actually, so here's a quick exercise. I want you to just take three minutes and I want you to write down and think about, one, what are the stories that you wanna tell? Especially the stories that are not being heard by your community. And then what are the narratives that you wanna shift? You know, what are the worldviews that people have and you wanna maybe shift the way they think to another thing? So just take three minutes whether on your pen and paper or on your computer. But I just want you to take a few minutes to brainstorm. What are the stories you wanna tell? What are the narratives you want to shift? So just take some seconds for that and then we'll just regroup and I'll see if I can fix my screen share. All right, that was just a quick creative exercise. Hopefully we've also fixed the tech issues. But does anyone wanna either put in the chat box or come off mute and share? What are the stories that you wanna tell and what are the narratives that you wanna shift? Anyone wanna volunteer? You can either put in the chat or share. Crystal, do you wanna go? Hopefully, thank your name, right? Let me know if you want to. Hi, it's fine, it's just Crystal. But yeah, so I'm new to MN 350 up in Minnesota in the United States. We work a lot with our local Native American populations and trying to be positive treaty people. And we also do a lot of pipeline resistance work. So a big problem that we're having right now is that the Enbridge line has been leaking onto Native territories and has prevented them from doing ricing this year, which is obviously a huge blow to a lot of people on reservations. So that was the first thing that I thought of. Yeah, so what is the human impact of what is happening with these pipelines and how is it impacting communities? It's a powerful story to be told. Often we do not hear enough human stories about what's going on. That's the consequence of fossil fuel projects. So that's great. So yeah, there's so many stories that need to be heard by the world. So how do we get them out there? Oh, and Elle, did you wanna chime in? My name is Marnie and I'm she, her. I have too broad of a category, I'm sure, but it has been a hot button for me for a long time. And I would like to find a way collaboratively, of course, to, well, I wrote it down here to specific to this country through children's art and poetry and any narratives from any age person, I would like to somehow yank attention to the huge billions that are spent now on influencing policies and supporting fossil fuel and subsidizing and demonstrate through everything from a kid's drawing of a playground to everybody could get an education, just demonstrate how that money means we do have the resources as a global economy and how it could be applied to equitable climate solutions. Yes, so much of the climate crisis is actually an imagination crisis. And sometimes we have to better paint the picture for people of what is possible and what things could look like. And that is also a huge part of storytelling is telling the stories of what could be. If this is broken, then maybe we could build this and that's really powerful. So how do we tell those stories is really exciting. Awesome, thank you. So today's training, we're gonna dive into this a little bit more. So really kind of focusing more on different elements of digital storytelling, especially since, especially in the age of COVID, the digital world is the main way that we tell stories now. So we'll go into different ways you can use different online tools and tactics to tell the stories of what's going on. And we're kind of gonna dig into that a little bit more and hopefully inspire you to get out and create because anyone can be a creator, anyone can be a storyteller. Especially with the climate crisis, there's no single story. Climate change is interesting because it impacts everyone but everyone has a totally different experience, which is why we also need lots of people everywhere to tell their story. The great thing now, again, like I said, anyone can be a content creator for better or for worse because there's so much on the internet right now. So to do good digital storytelling, it takes storytelling heart, which means you have to really think about how you're gonna tell your story in a way that connects with people, that connects with people in that heart level. And so really think about that. And then it also takes some good technical tips and tricks. You want something to look good, you want something to sound good, so it'll engage people. So how can you just use some simple tips and tricks to create something that will hopefully stop people scrolling and get them engaged, watch your story, and then they'll take action? So again, that's gonna know what we're gonna kind of look at today, both the storytelling heart and how do you tell powerful stories and then just some simple technical tips and tricks. One of the really almost well-known ways to tell a story. If it is a story of you, a person, whether you're speaking to a crowd in person, you are speaking on an IG live or a webinar, a really great structure to tell a story is to use the story of self as said now. And this is a structure that was created by Marshall Ganz who's an incredible organizer, has a lengthy history. He teaches at Harvard. He's done so much amazing organizing work and he built this structure for a simple way to set up and to tell the story in a way that will engage people but also inspire them to act. So the first step is the story of self. When you introduce, you wanna make sure that you introduce yourself, who you are, what your values are, what your call to do and why you're grounded in this work. Too often people just jump to here's the action we need to take, but you need to pause at the beginning and make sure that people can connect with you in a heartfelt way, in a way where they see you, they understand you, they see your values and through that build connection. Part two is a story of us. And this is where you share your vision, your purpose, your goal, what you want to achieve. This is what you wanna hope to build and create and what your organization has been called to do. So this is a story about us and how together we can do the things that we need to do. And then you wrap it up with the story of now. This is the challenge we face and how people can join, how people can join and take part and be a part of this powerful moment. So you wanna make sure that you're wrapping it up with that call, with the pull. So you're starting with the self, you're connecting with them on that value, that heart level. You're talking about the challenge and the vision and then you're pulling in and getting people to act. So I wanna show this example. I'm gonna pull up the video and hope it works. This is Anjali Apuhtari. She was a very well-known youth climate activist back in the day during COP 27, not sorry, COP 17. She gave us powerful speech to world leaders as like the youth activists, calling world leaders to take action. She's been involved for so long and now she's running for public office in British Columbia. And she had this campaign launch video which I thought was so well done, but we're gonna watch it together. So watch it and think about, again, like what are the heart tactics that she's using, that story of self, us and now? And then also what are the technical aspects of how they feel missed that make it work? Hi everyone, I'm Anjali Apuhtari. Like a lot of people, I'm an immigrant who fell in love with these lands. I feel incredibly lucky to call BC home and yet I fear that we're on a dangerous path. I was raised to believe that all humans are equal, that we're all connected to each other in a web of life. I believe in service to the community for the good of the whole and those values that led me to work in human rights and climate advocacy. I went from grassroots organizations all the way to the UN and back and I realized along the way that our elected officials have no plan. And that became terrifyingly clear last year. Here in BC we were hit with one climate disaster after another, an entire community incinerated, farms under water, hundreds of people killed in a heat wave and yet our government wants to push ahead with the status quo. And it's not just climate, it's healthcare, it's housing, it's the sheer number of our friends and family who died in the past two years. The system is unraveling, we all feel it and our government's priorities are completely backward. Last month I traveled up to Utsuaten and Ghitsan territory in northern BC. I witnessed this government trying to force a pipeline through sovereign indigenous lands, drilling under one of the last rivers that you can drink out of, also that foreign oil and gas companies can make more money. People's lives are crumbling and it is these big corporations that have never in Canadian history been more profitable and that is a choice that our decision makers have made but other choices are possible. They tell us that sweeping and transformative changes aren't possible. They tell us that the only thing we can do is tinker around the edges and make incremental change but I don't believe them and that's why I'm running to be the leader of the BC NDP. I've answered the call of a movement, I've agreed to be the candidate and the spokesperson but this campaign belongs to you. The most important thing you can do right now is to sign up to become a member of the BC NDP. Any BC resident, 12 and up can join the party and vote for the next leader. When you get your membership confirmation forward it to join at angelie4bc.ca. That way we can be in touch about next steps. Thank you so much. This is gonna be fun. I'll see you out there. All right, so watching that, what were some of your thoughts? What do you feel like worked really well? I will say to the point she said, we're in trouble. The leaders don't have any plan. Let's lead, do this, join us. It was nice and simple and compelling. Yeah, simple and compelling. She really, if you can tell, really followed that story of self us now are really, really well. Any other thoughts about the city of both the content and then how it was filmed too? Yeah, it, I agree. It was compelling, it's nice. She looks like she's sitting in her own living room or something to deliver the message. And I thought the message was really nice. Obviously it hits very close to home being a Canadian pipeline issue. So I really appreciated that. The only point I got thrown off at the end when she said it was fun or it was going to be fun. And I suppose that could appeal to a certain people, but I take this work a little more seriously than it being fun, I guess. So that was where she lost me. And it was, that was rough because it was right at the end. Personal opinion. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think climate work can be fun. It can be serious. There should be spaciousness for joy and hard work. But this video, yeah, like it's just her in her, looks like she's in her living room in her house. You know, she's not wearing anything too ostentatious. Kind of shows that she's down to earth. It looks like it was just recorded on her cell phone. So it's probably someone just with a cell phone on a tripod. It looks like she does have a microphone on. So maybe they have a microphone connected to the camera, but it's really simple, but the lighting's natural. This isn't a big production. This isn't a big, you know, expensive campaign launch video. So that makes it even feel like it's a bit more down to earth, makes you want to connect with her, but she's really clear on her message. So this is an example. It's really simple, but it's so powerful. The last time I checked, this had like 66,000 views on Twitter. So it's definitely like reaching people and connecting with them. And they probably didn't spend a lot of money to tell this story either. Can I ask a question about it that's responsive to the lament about the word fun? Do you ever take these simply produced, but this is elegantly done? Do they ever take them and show them to what I would call a focus group? Meaning you get five people who don't know diddly about the issue and five who are passionate about it. And if somebody zeroes in on that fun word, they edit or manipulate, not manipulate, that sounds like a user thing, but they alter the language to, as you say, make it more spacious without insulting the seriousness of the work. So yeah, there's, especially with electoral work, there's one organization I can recommend is they're called Race Class Narrative. And they work with a lot of progressive groups in the US and they do a lot of focus testing and message testing, especially leading up to different electoral work. They have some really fascinating stuff about messaging on their website as well. So if you wanna see kind of and learn more about kind of message testing for different audiences, they're a really great resource to check out. I was kind of wondering in a casual way, if you would recommend that somebody doing this addresses that on their own, because a lot of common sense can apply if you get the right people in a room and do people, like with a paper that you write, edit it like crazy. Are these ever put through that kind of test without hiring an outside agency or studying it? Yeah, it's really important when you're creating content. Really great content is not created by often by a single person. It takes a community, it takes a village. So I'm sure she worked on her speech with many people and they had many different versions. I'm positive of that. I'm sure she showed this video to a lot of people before they push post. And so yeah, it is really important. And it's often important we want messaging and our stories to be accessible. So you can share it with your colleagues, but also maybe share it ahead of time with someone like your cousin, maybe someone who isn't in the climate movement and see how they connect with it so you can make sure that you're talking in a very accessible and not too jargony way. So that's one example of a way to do storytelling where it's you kind of in front of a group speaking your truth and that's a really powerful way. Another way that you can structure a story is to do an interview format where it's you talking with another person and through that interview process you're pulling out some really greater truths. And this can be done in lots of ways. We're seeing it being done nowadays with things like Instagram lives, Facebook lives, people just having casual conversations but through that telling really great stories. Interview format is really powerful. One of my favorite accounts that does this really well, you've probably heard of them, is the Humans of New York account. And it's really simple. You have, he takes a portrait of somebody and does it in a way that tries to highlight their story, their personality and who they are. And then he takes a quote from the interview and uses that in the share text for the post. So it's really simple, but through that process you're able to really pull out these amazing truths and stories about who this person is. So that's just one example. And it's again, it's something that could be really easily done by any group, no matter how small. If you have an eye for photography even if you just have your camera and if you're willing to sit down and talk to people it can be a really powerful and simple way to tell stories and tell truths that are kind of a step after kind of that you just bury your own story. So one-on-one, the interview format can be a really powerful one to think about. And I'll later on, I'll talk about some other different specific tips on doing interviews. Another great format for storytelling is community storytelling. So it's not just about what you share on your account, but it's thinking about how do I get lots of people in my community sharing about this campaign, sharing about this moment, sharing about this action in a way that matters to them. So then, often we think of social media it's like one account broadcasting out to the world but if you get your community involved then it's lots of different people sharing to their followers all about this campaign and why it matters. Through that, you're able to have a much more dynamic effect. One really great example of this was the hashtag have your say campaign. And this is a really kind of simple structure which lots of groups use and it's the selfie hashtag challenge. You see this again and again but it can be really effective if done well. So the have your say campaign was done by the Pacific Climate Warriors and then we have to COP 23 in Bonn. Fiji had the presidency for the COP so it was a new Pacific COP. And so they wanted to do a campaign to get Pacific voices talking about what climate justice means. And in San Molen, a say is the flower that you wear behind your ear. So it was a play on words but they wanted to use that as a way to bring their culture into this community of storytelling. So the ask was simple, take a photo of yourself with a flower behind your ear and then share on social media what climate justice and climate action means to you. And so really simple ask and that was really important. And they gave clear directions on how you can join. Now, where I see groups really struggle with this is they just kind of put it in social media and then they just hope it takes off. What you have to do is it actually takes a good amount of organizing to get a campaign like this to kick off. So this is where you wanna make sure that your organizers are talking with your digital and comms people so that you're working together on this because this is an organizing tool to get like storytelling as an organizing tool. So when you launch a campaign like this make sure you already have examples ready. Work with other staff members or friends who can create examples and post them to start generating that buzz. And that's really important. Message people, reach out to them, ask them don't just post it online and hope people share. It's really important. They also did a really great job of getting local influencers to share. So the man that you see here he is a famous Samoan boxer and they were able to reach out to him and have him take a photo. And so for the Samoan community it's a big deal that he shared it on his social media channels. Often when people think about how do we get influencers or slugs? They all think about the big name people. Oh, we need to get Mark Ruffalo or Leo when actually you wanna think about who are you trying to reach and who are the influencers within that audience? And that's who you should be trying to engage. And then the other thing that's really important to do is to be monitoring and amplifying. Make sure that you're tracking the hashtag and if people share about it, engage with them, respond, reshare, repost and kind of you wanna be building that energy. But this sort of community storytelling can be really powerful and you can hear things from your community that you didn't even know about and it's simple but it can be so, so powerful. And then another way to do storytelling is through artivism and arts organizing. So just some quick definitions. Artivism is when you're kind of working with an artist to create them powerful pieces. So maybe you're working with some musicians to create an album or a graphic designer to make some posters or a poet. So you're working with an artist who's already established and having them create something that can be a powerful piece of storytelling which you can then share. Arts organizing is where you're getting the community involved with the arts creation themselves. And so again, art is an organizing tool. And I hope you're seeing that again, like storytelling is so tied to organizing. And the example I wanna spotlight here is a solutions street mural. This was a part of the rise to climate day of action which was 2018, I wanna say. And this was in San Francisco. David Solna who was with 350 at the time, the arts organizer, he worked with lots of different community groups throughout the whole Bay Area. And each group kind of got a circle. And in that circle, they could then showcase what are the solutions that they believe in? What are the solutions that need to be built? So then you've got actually thousands of people to come together on the day of, they shut down the streets around City Hall and covered it with these amazing, beautiful murals of the solutions that need to be built in the world. And the solutions that they envision. So it was a way to do storytelling and the heat in a way that engages people and was really visually exciting. And if you haven't checked out art.350.org, I highly recommend it. Some really beautiful examples and resources on there as well. So we're just gonna like, again, pause. I just shared a bunch of stuff with you, a bunch of examples, but I want us just to take maybe, again, just a few minutes, three to five minutes and just do some brainstorming. You've heard some things, but what are some storytelling projects that you wanna try, maybe with your local group, with your team, what are some of the storytelling projects that you want to maybe start engaging on? So just take a few minutes and yeah, just do some brainstorming on that. All right. Do you folks wanna share any ideas that they have? Or do you feel like, let's just keep on going with the rest of the training? Okay. So we talked about some different storytelling structures and different formats. And now I'm gonna walk into some of the technical tips. So thinking about how you can take good photos and videos using just your mobile phone. This is gonna be the bulk of our storytelling work. It's through these really simple, powerful mediums. And by using just a few simple tips and tricks, you can take better videos, which again, will help grab people's attention, stop them scrolling. They wanna hear your story and then they're gonna engage and take action. So these are just some simple tips that we'll walk through, but hopefully will help. So we're gonna talk about photos first. And the acronym to remember with photos is LAM, the things you wanna keep in mind is lighting, angles, message and background. So I'll walk through all this, but these are the four things you wanna keep in mind. When you have your phone and you're taking a photo, whether you're at an action event, an activity, this is what you wanna think of. So more specifically, lighting. You wanna be aware of where the light is and how it's hitting people. You don't wanna have too many shadows. You wanna have some good natural lighting that's looking really nice with people. Angles, it's so important when you're taking a photo to get it from lots of different angles. You wanna move around. You wanna try and get it from lots of different viewpoints because then it might show you things about a story that you've had it really single for. And you also really wanna think about your message. How is your message being seen? Can someone in a split second see your photo and say, oh, I get what they're talking about. And then you wanna think about the background. The background is often a powerful part of the story as well. Every pixel of a photo matters. I'll show you some examples. So again, lighting. You wanna be aware of where the light is coming from and how it's hitting people's skin. You can see this top photo. The sun is behind her so you can't really see her face. Whereas the bottom one, it's taken a later afternoon. It's not intense sunshine. And it's really soft so you can actually see her face really well. So if you're taking a photo of someone, feel free to move them around and try different places and see how the light hits them differently. Angles is really important. So angles is where you're thinking about where the photographer is situated and how that changes the photo's story. So I'm gonna show you this example. This was at an event that 350 Philippines did many years ago. So here's one angle and then here's another angle. So you can see there's a huge difference between the two photos. This one, you can see more of their candle message but the child looks kind of sad and doesn't, you know, you don't feel the power that the child has. This one is taken down below from the vantage point of the child. You see their face, it's softer. He looks, you know, like he has more agency but you're not gonna see the banners. So changing the angle of where you take the photo really can change things a lot. So again, if you're taking a photo, move around and see how that shifts the story you're telling with the photo. You also wanna make sure that your message is being seen, bright and clear. This one's really great. You have two women, bicycles, their message, future equals renewables, nice and easy message, it's super clear. And so often what I'll see is photos from marches and you don't get the banner. You don't get the story of why people are marching or taking part. So make sure that, you know, the message is seen really upfront and clear and it's centered. You also have their smiling faces which also is a part of this story as well. So we wanna make sure that the message is involved and clear. The background, again, the background can play an important role. It can communicate more about who this person is, where they're from and what they do. So always really be mindful of what is behind. We're not gonna, well, maybe we'll see. We have time. Let me see if we can watch this really great video that walks through video tips and tricks. So let me just get this set up. We wanted to make a short video guide for you to help you become better storytellers with nothing more than your cell phone. All right friends, tip number one is to keep your phone horizontal. That means holding it like this at all times. Don't do this or that or this. Hold your phone out like that. Tip number two, always keep your phone steady. It's important to stabilize your phone when taking your footage. You can create a human tripod by bracing your arm, putting your elbow on one knee or pulling your elbows into your torso. You can also use your surroundings as a makeshift tripod. You can even use some rubbish. Tip number three, using the rule of thirds is a great way to make your pictures and video more visually interesting. Imagine splitting the scenery into thirds both vertically and horizontally. Align your subject with one of the imaginary lines or at the cross sections for a more impactful image. Don't be afraid to try out different things. Tip number four, when shooting scenery, make sure to move the camera more slowly than you think. A good rule of thumb is to hold every shot for at least five seconds. It may seem boring to you as a camera person, but you're not trying to cook the whole meal with the camera. You're just trying to capture ingredients to bring home. Tip number five, it's important to get a variety of shots when filming, including wide, medium and close-ups. Whatever you do, do not zoom. Move in closer to whatever you are shooting as much as you can. Tip number six, to tell your stories, you should reach out to your friends and neighbors. Here's some tips for conducting interviews. Choose a location that looks nice, gives context to the story, and isn't too distracting. Make sure the light is shining on your subject's face as evenly as possible. For framing, you can use the rule of thirds again. Arrange your shots so that the subject's eyes are in the top corners of the crosses and knots. Get close to your subject, no more than one arm length away, to capture a good audio. Yeah, climate change is a real thing in the Pacific. We have our low-lying atoll islands that are really at the front lines of climate impacts, and all right, I'm done. Be aware of your environment. If it's too windy or noisy, you may want to do the interview inside. Fenton, can you please say and spell your first and last name for me? Tip number seven, don't worry about getting them to sign an informed consent. What you can do instead is ask them to say their first and second name on camera, spell it out, then give us the consent on film. Always make sure that your subject is relaxed. Never ask questions that'll give you a yes or no answer. Always ask open-ended questions because you want to assume that the viewer doesn't know much about the subject. Don't forget that we do have a video toolkit for you to check out that has all these tips and tricks on how to better tell your stories using video. I really look forward to watching all the videos that you'll collect over the next couple of months. Venaka. So those are just some simple things, videos being used more and more nowadays to make content, whether it's Reels or TikTok, but having some simple tips like these really helps. So if you're working on video, just some simple things to remember, same thing as photos. You want to also think about lighting, angles, message, background. Also think of that. But then with video, you want to add stability and audio. Getting good audio is so important. And Crystal, I'll answer your question in just a second. Getting good audio is super important because we want to be able to hear people. So it can be really important to make sure that you're not into noisy of an environment, not new to crowded, or if it is noisy, make sure that you have a microphone so that you can hear someone really well. And so even if it's just a microphone on a headset, that'll make a big difference. And even if you have bad audio, you can always do the captions later. Also always good to do captions anyway because the majority of people actually watch videos without sound, though it is still good to get sound. The second one is stability. Like you saw in the short how to video, you want to make sure that you're holding your phone steady. You don't want to be too busy. So having a tripod or some way to make your camera be stable, that'll make a big difference in the quality of video and making it easy to watch. And then with your question about photographing children, I would never photograph children without their parents approval. And so that's really important to understand is don't take a photo of a child and especially don't publish it without the parents' permission, the guardian's permission. We talked about this a lot around climate strikes and especially kind of close-ups. You want to really be careful of those unless you have the express permission. So something to just be mindful of with your questions, Crystal. So again, whether it's photo or video, you might be doing an interview. Doing an interview again is a really powerful way to kind of share people's stories. But it's so important to one that you take time to build a relationship with this person. Don't just jump in and do a video, but talk to them ahead of time. Get to know them. Explain what this video is, what the interview is being used for, and really build that relationship. And that will also help you understand how to ask better questions. And then they'll also feel more comfortable. Again, make sure that you have their consent and make sure that you're clear how this video will be used and why. And then lastly, make sure that you're asking open-ended questions. So that means questions that you cannot just answer with a yes or a no. Questions that will help people describe something and talk more about the story. So you want to get to that heart of storytelling. So don't just ask yes, no questions. If you are interviewing in front of an action, this is where having a microphone will be really useful. There's a lot of what are called lavalier microphones. And those are the ones where you kind of can pin to your shirt. Those are the ones that are really great for interviews. And they have those, which then connects to the end of your phone. And so if you're at an action and you want to do interviews, just order ahead of time or see if you can find a just simple microphone. So that way you can ask for your interviewing to pin it on their shirt. And then this way you can make sure that you can get good audio of that interview because often actions are very loud, are very noisy. So having a microphone if you're going to be doing interviews is so really, really helpful. And then let's see. So that is tips for if you and you and your team are taking the photos and videos yourselves, which is probably what's going to be happening in the majority of the case. But if you are with a local group or another organization, it can be really valuable sometimes to hire a professional. There's so many talented, amazing photographers and videographers out there. So I just want to share a couple simple tips on how you can work with professional photographers and videographers in your storytelling that will really help things shine. So a couple reasons why you might want to hire professionals. Say your team has been working for months to organize a big march, rally, action, event, whatever it is, you've been really working hard on it. It's going to be where you're going to be bringing people together, showcasing your power. If that's the case, then make sure that you have a good photographer there, because you want to make sure that all the power that you've built through organizing is then going to be seen afterwards. And you're going to have a proper documentation of that. So if you're going to have a big event and you've definitely been working hard on it, having a professional can really helpful. Having a professional can also be super helpful for telling bigger, more complex stories as well. Things, again, we're dealing with the social media area where you kind of have to take big ideas and compress them into easily digestible formats. And a lot of really great professionals are really good with helping you think through the stories and then record them and share them. So this can be some really great times to hire a professional. One example, and maybe we'll have time to play this. This is a video I worked on recently with an organization called Native Renewables. We worked with the film team at The Year's Project, who were a professional film team who came in and filmed this. And a video like this is something that they can use again and again, whether they're trying to reach funders, donors, kind of people in their community. It can be so great to have a well-made video that showcases your work. What I will say this, make sure that you have the time, energy, budget to not just create the video, but then also have time to put it out there in the world. But I'm going to play this. Hopefully it also works. But this is a really short and sweet beautiful example of just short, professional, powerful storytelling for change. Why is this happening? Why aren't families getting power? Why is there no solid program or infrastructure that's actually helping Navajo families? On Navajo Nation, there's approximately 10,000 households that don't have electricity in their homes. That's a huge challenge. Native Renewables is a native-led nonprofit organization that is focusing on solving energy access to get power to roughly 15,000 families who don't have access to grid-tied electricity. Hey, how's it going? It's good to see you guys again. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited to get your house wire with solar. We have six children and eight grandchildren. So family is everything. Gathering is everything. And to have more light in our house, that's real important to us is to have people feel welcome. I think it is a joy to see the tribes thrive on solar when they are able to turn on the light in their home. It's power from the sun when they flip that switch. Wow, look at that. That's great. Yes, right. To think about how long we've depended on the sun to be able to live. I think it just makes sense for native cultures to lead the effort with clean energy to tap their own natural resources for their own energy future. Again, that was just a short, it's one minute and 57 seconds, but it's a short, powerful video that gives a good overview of the work that they do. They've been able to share it on social media. It's gotten over 700,000 views so far. They've been able to use it to then drive people to their website to get donations and signups. So if you have the budget and you have the time and it can be really powerful, finding a film team can be really, really great and super useful. Also having a photographer again, not just for big actions and moments, but even if to maybe follow your team around with the work that you're doing. It can be hard sometimes to explain people the work of your group, the work of your organization. So having just really high quality, beautiful photos that showcase the work that you do, that you can then use on your website, social media, you know, flyers, brochures. You know, if you're having an important moment, again, having photography can really make a big difference for you to have in your collection, especially something that you can use again and again and again. And just some simple tips. If you do hire a professional, one, make sure that you have a plan. Ahead of time, put together what's called a creative brief that really lays out your goals. You know, what do you wanna achieve with this that lays out the specific visuals you wanna get? So maybe you wanna tell this person, you know, I want a photo of this banner. I want a photo of this speaker. I want a photo with the capital building behind it. You wanna really be clear about what you want them to capture because they don't know your campaign work like you do. And you also wanna make sure that they know where to show up and when. And you also wanna be clear about who owns the content. So after the photos and videos are done, does the photographer own them or does your team own them? Or is it both? So you wanna make sure that's clear up front. Two, on the day of, you wanna make sure that there's some point of contact, somebody to guide the photographer and videographer. Again, they may not know who to talk to. They may not know who to shoot. They have the tools, but you know, maybe they just, they need someone who's connected with the campaign can kind of be their point of contact. Often you can find local organizations that will donate the work. I know especially, I know a couple really great production teams, at least in the U.S. that wanna support frontline and other climate groups. So there's definitely ways to get this kind of donated where you're not having to pay up front all the time. It can be tricky, but you know, there's lots of different ways to be able to pay for this work. Just that's a response to the question in the chat. And then number three is, you also really wanna be clear on delivery and review. So, you know, if they're taking photos, make sure that you're clear on, hey, when are we gonna get these photos? Is it next week? Is it tomorrow? What day is it? And you also wanna be clear on any review process. So, hey, do I get to see the photos, you know, before they get published? Especially if it's a video, you wanna be clear about how many times you'll be able to like review the video edits. Most video teams will not give you an endless amount of reviews and edits. They'll say like, you know, we'll do two edits. You can give feedback on those two and then we're done. So making sure that you have those conversations ahead of time will really make a difference. So, yeah, sometimes it really helps to bring in professional photographers and videographers. Lots of times they know they really care about this issue and so maybe they'll just donate their time and their skills. If people have a skill for photography, people everywhere wants to wanna find what is their tool that they can offer the movement. So maybe this is the tool that they offer the movement. So, we've gone through a lot today. Thank you for hanging in there and I just wanna now pause for a Q and A. If you have any final questions that you wanna discuss or go through, I'm happy to answer them. I have to, Vamoose, but I wanna say that this was just great. Your substance is amazing. I'm disappointed that this group wasn't huge. There's so much great advice here that could be applied. I think it was great. I'm very appreciative. Thank you so much for joining. Yeah, anyone else have any final questions? I'm happy to share the slides so if anyone wants to access some of them later, totally you can. But yeah, I also wanna encourage you that don't let perfection be the enemy of good with storytelling. You just have to start somewhere. So even if you're totally new to this, go and interview your friend. Go and interview your colleague and start somewhere and then maybe you'll find that you actually have a really great skill for storytelling after all. Anyone can do this, it just takes to the heart and the energy, you didn't wanna do it. Bravo. Bye-bye. Thank you. Well, if that's it, maybe we'll just like wrap up early, if that's okay. What do y'all think? Great. Well, thank you very much. That was a really nice session. I came in here not knowing what to expect because like I said, I'm new to this. So thank you for all your input and I appreciate it. Yeah, get going, get creating, anyone can do this. Well, like I said, I'm in the office. So I just, I kind of wanted to know a little bit more about what people on the front lines were going through. But so yeah, it's been good. So thank you so much. Amazing, thank you so much Thelma and thank you everyone for joining today.