This Beautiful Shot is Not an Accident

When working on social change issues, how do we stay positive?  That is the question I asked Emilia Gutierrez, Director of Online Engagement at Amnesty International USA.

Emilia started her journey in social change work on the campaign trail for Obama and has experience working in various social change organizations that leverage new ways of communicating with supporters and influences, including Change.org.

One of her tests for a good story is, does her mother understand the message?  Whether she is asking her mother or supporters, having empathy for the audience is a key to the success of her storytelling approach.

Visit Amnesty International USA to learn more about their work.
And to sign up for the September 20 Give a Home concert, visit SoFarSounds.com/giveahome.

Image:  Jordi Bernabeu Farrús from Flickr

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Stephanie Romig is a designer specializing in narrative design – including designing solutions for public spaces and public buildings.

Narrative design involves a process of asking the people who will be using the building or place questions that uncover their motivations.  This then informs the design solutions.

In addition to being a designer of places, Stephanie, who is a mother of two, decided to create a social enterprise to help new mothers, using her love of storytelling and asking questions.  In this episode, she shares how she came to create Goodmakes, where mothers come to learn fabric design while sharing stories of motherhood, along with her vision for a larger movement of empowering mothers.

Check out Goodmakes
Learn more about Stephanie from her website.

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In a short ten years, the perception of biking in the Brazilian city of São Paulo went from impossible to obvious.  Streets went from forbidding cycling to welcoming them with new bike lanes and a bike-sharing program.

In today’s program, I talk to JP Amaral who has been on the front lines of bike activism throughout this transformation.  He joined critical mass rides back in 2007, where large numbers of cyclists took to the streets one evening each month to show the city that cyclists exist.  In 2010 he helped found Bike Anjo, an organization that matches up people looking to learn biking with people who are able to help show new cyclists the ropes.  And between 2015 – 2016 he lived in Berlin, Germany learning about bike infrastructure and advocacy in Europe.

Now back in Brazil we talk about how storytelling has changed as cycling has gone from being inconceivable to the majority of people living in São Paulo, to being adopted as a normal part of daily life.

Bike Anjo, now in 28 countries and over 500 cities.
São Paolo bike map. with over 74 miles of bike lines.
JP Amaral at TEDxTombo, 2011 (in Portuguese)

Fay Darmawi, was inspired to start the SF Urban Film Fest after she saw the lack of public outcry for the elimination of the Redevelopment Agency, an agency in California that helped to finance affordable housing in cities that were increasingly becoming unaffordable for anyone but the wealthy.  At the time, Fay had been working in affordable housing finance for 20 years and could see the imminent challenges the dissolution of this funding source would produce.

In this episode Fay talks about storytelling, using story to humanize policy work, the importance of examining dominant public narratives and her current project, an activist documentary series called Society’s Soul.

We also talk about the role that filmmaking has in creating new public narratives, from TED Talks to documentary series.

“I think that the great advantage that we need to leverage off of filmmaking and filmmakers as planners, social policy wonks and bureaucrats is the way that filmmaking, as an art form, can stretch your imagination to the extent that a film can make you think about the world in radically different ways.”  Fay Darmawi, SF Urban Film Fest

SF Urban Film Fest:  sfurbanfilmfest.com
Fay Darmawi, www.faydarmawi.com
Society’s Soul, www.societyssoulfilm.com

When looking to raise $10 million dollars for a capital campaign, Bowman School Director of Development, Chiara Sani, turned turned to video as a tool for telling the story of why not only this expansion but their approach to education was so important for the next generations.

In this episode Chiara shares her lessons learned, both challenges and successes, of creating her first videos.

Chiara wears many hats as development director as she is raising funds for three campaigns.  This being her first experience with video, Chiara shares a few lessons for other folks who might be doing their first video.

“I think what is hard is to get people to do something that you want them to do. So whatever social change is, or whatever social change means, it involves action. What video does, I think, makes that message more immediate, more palatable, and easier to spread. And if the video also evokes emotions, and has that emotional appeal, then it can help social change because people then are more willing to take that extra step, “

– Chiara Sani, Development Director, Bowman School

No matter what size of client, whether doing live action video or animation – a successful project is based on a powerful story.  The process of uncovering that story and conceptualizing the approach for telling that story, is the same.

Today Matt Silverman, Executive Creative Director of Swordfish, and Kathryn Bodle, Executive Producer, share their processes and best practices for story development that can be used for commercial projects as well as social change messaging.

To uncover your story – ask why
– What are you doing
– What are your goals
– Who are you trying to reach
– Why is this important

Planning process – developing the story
– Interview to uncover the story
– Pair down to the essential narrative
– Script
– Visualize
– Storyboard
– Style, create mood boards
– Produce

This whole thing is a process. And just like we were saying earlier, when we were discussing our process of interviewing, and outline, and script, and storyboards, and mood boards, and style frames, every bit of that takes time. We’re digesting that entire time and we’re starting to understand over time what they need more and more and the vision becomes… We all start sharing our vision together, but we’re not gonna be able to just say, “Go” and make that. It’s not gonna happen. And if it does, it’s not gonna be good. And we don’t wanna make bad stuff.  Matt Silverman, Swordfish

Check out Swordfish San Francisco

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In the 1930s, the Farm Security Administration began using documentary photography as a tool for making change.  Their aim was to move the government to provide aid for the poor rural farmers who were suffering because of agricultural overproduction and the dust bowl.

Today, even smaller organizations are using cameras and phones to share stories of the world as they see it.

In this episode I speak with SF Beautiful’s Executive Director Darcy Brown and Communications Manager Peter Clarke about how they are using video and social media to increase awareness of their mission and programs.

SF Beautiful‘s a mission is to preserve the diversity of San Francisco’s neighborhood character and they have been instrumental in creating and delivering community-centered art.

Although a small organization, they have decided that working with video is a valuable way to expand the reach of their program and showcase the artists they work with.

Here are is an example from a series of profile pieces they created for the launch of their 2017 Muni Art Project where they feature local artists work on 50 buses running throughout San Francisco.  Learn more about the project here.

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Maya Zuckerman has worked with both brands and social change organizations, developing brand narratives and strategies.  Drawing from her experience transmedia producer, storyteller and culture hacker we discuss the role of design thinking in storytelling as well as the importance of defining a vision that involves action.

As a cultural observer, Maya has been asking the question, “How do we start to build a more just and caring world?”  Out of this inquiry, she has developed an alternative to the hero’s journey, The Collective Journey.

The design thinking process
The design thinking process: from ideation to testing to delivery

The 360 design approach to story
that not only considers the audience as a persona, but looks at the interactive nature of content. She reflects on how stories now take on a life of their own because of social media and user-generated content.

Creating your vision
Often, social change is focused on creating movements, which is a systems approach. If you are serving people – what do you want to serve them.  This question can help you define your vision and action.

Memes
The use meme’s in bringing out this big vision.

Changing the narrative
The need for an alternative to the hero’s journey formula.  Moving towards The Collective Journey.

Love versus fear
The dichotomy between the ideas that are spreading for human good and those using fear-based propaganda.

The Narrative Gap, by Maya Zuckerman
Blessed Unrest, by Paul Hawkin
Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson

Maya Zuckerman and her work, visit her website.

In this episode, I speak to Ray Wan, Creative Director at Earthjustice, a law firm based in San Francisco with attorneys in states across the country.  We spoke shortly after Trump took office about social change and best practices for getting your message out.

During these times, it is important to remember how much progress we’ve made and continue to make.

“It’s important to remember that if you do fight hard and you speak out, not just on issues that concern you but really come together as a movement and speaking out on these many, many other issues that are important in the progressive space, that’s how you win”  Ray Wan

Website, Earth Justice
Earthjustice Facebook Videos