Invisible Storytelling
Here's a scene I directed ↓ You can also click here for the original HD scene in context
As a writer, director, editor + producer, only a fraction of my work is visible in the final video. But if I’ve done my job right, that fraction carries the energy of everything that made it possible
When I show a scene like this to someone, sometimes they ask: how? How did you make the question mark ooze up out of the quicksand?
There are as many layers of depth I can go into to answer ‘the how question’ as there are layers of sand. Just like in the GIF, this ‘how’ begins as a smile of an idea, then plunges me into the unknown and eventually resurfaces as a question to explore. The space between ideation and a final video export can be a seemingly endless quicksand of technical, logistical and creative challenges.
That’s a lot of how’s.
This post is a deep dive into the vast sprawl of activities encompassed by the simple statement: “I produce video”.
Together we’ll sift the sand for the true meaning behind that keyword ‘video’.
Layers of Sand
Let’s start with the ‘how’ that tickles our curiosity:
The Magic How
What literal actions did the crew + camera perform to create this illusion? Our eyes have seen something our brains knows isn’t possible. We want to reconcile that gap.
In this case, the answer is my favourite editing trick: the reverse effect. Once you’ve filmed a question mark disappearing into quicksand you can use editing software to reverse the action. This creates the illusion of a question mark blossoming up from sand particles. The sand settles with uncanny precision into a new form.
The reverse effect has been my muse technique since the first music video I directed. There, the lead singer learned the reverse pronunciation of his lyrics so that once shots were reversed, his lip movements would look normal. This allowed us to create impossible gravity illusions around the band:
I love the reverse effect cuz it lets you conduct order from chaos. You can alter physics to suit your preference. Magical.
But the sand-grains of the reverse effect are just thin topsoil. This surface illusion is only possible by all the layers of sand beneath. These layers are invisible to the eye but provide essential support.
So, how do you do that?
The Literal How
Up above the sand's surface, a camera on a tripod points down at a bucket of white sand. A smiley face made of darker sand rests on the surface. I call “action” and a drain plug is removed from the bottom of the bucket. The smiley vanishes as the sand drains. The camera records it.
This actually was one of the simplest shots from this project to execute. The smiley vanished into the quicksand without hiccups and the effect was waaaay cooler than anticipated. Originally an entirely different (non-quicksand) shot was planned for the second half where the question mark emerges. But we adapted on the fly to embrace the trippy fluidity of quicksand vibes.
On the theme of trip fluidity, let’s time-jump way back to where it’s just me in ideation, trying to figure out what best visualizes this audio:
The Ideation How
Since you’ve already seen the GIF, it’s probably difficult to shake that imagery as you hear the audio. But before this shot concept is christened as the north star it’s just one of many bright dots. As I gauge constellations to determine which to follow I weigh considerations like:
What fits thematically? In this case my client was a land investor + author of the book Dirt Rich. Sand, soil, mud and dirt all served as thematic mediums throughout.
What material is versatile enough that we don't have to change it at every scene? It’s better to create a progressive visual sequence than a choppy series of vignettes.
How do I make production efficient? As a general rule, don't get things wet, or break them. The prep time to build multiples of a prop, or production time for things to dry, is best avoided.
Is this too complicated? You want visuals that require concentration during moments where the text gets basic/familiar, and simple visuals when ideas are unorthodox/new. Aesthetic density should be directly proportional to the complexity of the text.
Once you proclaim the mission is to ‘transition a smiley face into a question mark through a draining bucket of sand’, the north star has been set. You add this shot’s plan to the overall shotlist and share it with the other key creatives.
As a director, once you dispatch this mission you’ve set the war machine in motion. The crew will now set out with relentless dedication to achieving the effect by whatever means necessary.
Ideally, your team will let you know if this mission is actually built on a good idea — one worth pursuing. Many times in filmmaking, this isn’t the case. Far too often every member of the team is solely focused on the smooth operation of their particular lever, on turning their specific crank of the war machine.
This is how we get bad, but ‘professional’ entertainment. After all, the director is the only one whose official job description centres exclusively on making good decisions. Everyone else has their hands full enough with the technical side, which is its own ‘how’...
The Technical How
You then launch into a new batch of problem-solving hurdles:
We need to build a bucket rig that can drain and reset — to enable retakes.
So… How long is the voiceover the scene syncs to? This will determine the duration of the scene.
Ok. Now that we know the target duration, we’re confronted by the practicalities of sand flow rates.
So, we set a stopwatch, pull the drain plug + proceed to fiddle with the drain hole diameter until intentions unite with reality.
Another layer down the funnel you meet technical’s cousin:
The Pragmatic How
Here you gotta factor in the sun's position relative to your estimated time of completion. Should we create artificial shade so we’ve got a consistent shadow?
The crew is hungry. It’s almost lunch. You're behind on the shotlist from where you’d hoped to be at this point.
This layer of considerations is utterly invisible to the audience.
But it’s what was the most strongly felt by the team outside the frame, in the actual moment this footage was captured. This is the realm that 1st ADs (assistant directors) thrive in.
Sift another layer into the sands of this GIF + you meet the pragmatic’s wise grandmother.
The Interpersonal How
Here you probe into the team dynamic:
How’s our morale? If we’re in a lull, what song or joke can shake that dead energy + revive our momentum?
This level is less about the grains of sand than the airspace between them. It’s the atmosphere of open collaboration you aim to foster as a director. Questions + choices at this layer are both the most invisible and most foundational. This domain isn’t ever a layer of sand. It’s the bucket.
Keep in mind, this is all just to conceive a relatively simple shot and capture it in-camera. There are still all the other shots, and then there's post-production.
Keyword Limitations
The terror of the internet is that everything I described gets reduced to a single keyword: ‘video’.
Everything I know becomes a one-word skill.
There’s an FAQ symphony of nuances in what producing video means to me. But the algorithm’s only got an ear for practicalities:
“Ok great, you got video. But video doesn’t sell itself here in algorithm territory, so here’s two more keywords you’re gonna want to look into, Sales and Marketing. Also, I saw your website, you might wanna upgrade on Design while you’re at it. Operations, Finance... get a handle on those too. Oh, and by the way, each is a funnel of knowledge that goes deep as the one you’ve been working towards mastery at for almost a decade. Good luck!”
Initially, this freaked me out. It still does at times.
But mostly I find it motivational. I’ve come to realize that like all good improv it’s a ‘Yes! And…’ not an ‘Either-or’. I can have a wealth of depth in one domain vertically AND a breadth of knowledge in others horizontally.
Here’s a 1-minute video I edited of Tobi Lütkerbatch exploring this 80/20 principle of mastery:
I mentioned at the top of this post that only a fraction of a project is seen, but the whole is experienced.
The same is true with a skillset. I’ve come to realize the meta-skill I pursued wasn’t video, it was storytelling. And the glory of our meta-skills is they are medium agnostic. Storytelling is the force that creates GIFs, post-GIF-rambles, and will soon put humans on Mars. The only keyword limitations on storytellers are the ones we impose on ourselves.
The beauty of the internet is once you specialize at the intersection of a distinct niche, the billboards of the digital superhighway light up + direct all traffic your way.
You just need to start speaking to the algorithm in more memorable phrases than ‘video’…
…things like: ‘invisible storytelling’.
👉 If you enjoyed this post, here’s a link to my Twitter where I continue to explore these ideas in public.
Huge thanks to Michael Sklar, Chase Ruzek, Fei-Ling Tseng, Vicky Zhao, + Florian Maganza for a wealth of feedback on this piece.