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Imagine this: you have met up with a friend who has just been to an exhibition at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
Your friend is incredibly excited about what they have seen and can't wait to tell you all about it.
'I've never seen anything like it', they say. 'It was mind-blowing.'
'So what was it?', you ask.
'Well, it was a horse – a tiny horse. And it was galloping on the spot, right there in front of us!'
'What – a real horse?', you ask.
'No! That's the thing. I could have reached out my arm and touched it. But it wasn't there. It wasn't real. The best way I can describe it is like one of those photographs, but moving. Absolutely incredible!'
The year was 1880.
The visitor to the California School of Fine Arts had just witnessed Eadweard Muybridge's groundbreaking The Horse in Motion – a work that would change visual storytelling forever.
Through his revolutionary Zoopraxiscope, the first device to project moving photographs, Muybridge had created something previously impossible: the ability to capture and replay motion itself.
Here's what that galloping horse would have looked like:
The scenario described above must have played out countless times in San Francisco during that exhibition, as enthusiastic visitors relayed their experiences to friends, family and colleagues.
Almost 150 years later, the technological novelty has worn off – but the human urge to put moving images into spoken words remains. I call this everyday act videotelling.
Here are some modern examples:
- My father Jack tells us about his favourite viral video of the moment (Click here to meet him).
- Mary tells her colleague about some shocking news footage she saw on TV.
- After watching a nature documentary, a girl passionately tells her little brother how polar bears hunt for seals in the Arctic.
- Janet tells her partner about a TV advert she remembers from her childhood.
- You accidentally upset a friend by telling them what happens at the end of a film.
Video does not just belong on screen – it also belongs in our hearts and minds. And videotelling – the most communicative approach to the medium – provides a framework for developing students' language, communication and visual literacy skills.
If you are interested in finding out more, why not check out the LessonStream Videotelling?
It would be great to have you on board 🚢
Thank you for reading,
Jamie
See also:
- My father, the videoteller (Click here)
- How I became a videoteller (Click here)
- Video and grammar (Click here)
