With all of the scrutiny and criticism of social media in today’s day and age, one thing is for certain; it allows a digital art nouveau renaissance and creative collision. With 90% of the world’s data created in the past year, people are working, documenting, designing and sharing.
The internet being a network with no geographical boundaries, enables the perfect platform for artists to share their work - having it reach far beyond their time zone or meridian line. As filmmakers, we certainly utilize that to our advantage. Capturing footage from around the world that speaks to viewers from around the world. Specifically within social media platforms, artists can now showcase their creations, invite friends to share their work and find support from unknown admirer’s who’ve stumbled upon or searched for something related. It’s bold but true enough to say that the creation of social media has enhanced artists ability to produce and share their work. On the other hand, it has built more competition and perhaps created more distractions. Either way you look at this game changing invention and driving force of today’s society, it’s here to stay.
How does it really help us as visual storytellers? For example, when we work on a film for a wedding, that couple and their friends wind up sharing that video on Facebook. Perhaps we get a gig out of that from another couple who admired our artistic capture of their friend’s special day. Perhaps it is about a documentary we did telling the story of an immigrant family that reaches others online or is randomly searched for on Vimeo - and their story gets told and the respect it deserves. Social media uniquely aids business owners and artists who can utilize the controversial and often judged idiom that it is social media to their advantage and growth strategies.
So you’ve stumbled here in this present moment. Hopefully you’ve been exposed to a more positive view of social media, coming from a group of artists and storytellers who have to be on the digital cutting edge to share. So thank you social media, thank you internet, THANK YOU for being a part of our digital journey of visual storytelling.