INTERVIEW •• MARTIJN WINKLER (VERTOV) - 4 May 2012

Grab the audience

Why storytelling is big business now

These are exciting times for storytellers and content makers, now that the internet makes it possible for people to easily create and distribute high-quality movies, in full HD even. This is truly a breakthrough, says Martijn Winkler, founder of the digital story agency Vertov.

Martijn is originally a filmmaker and created prizewinning commercials, films and videos. He believes the phenomenon storytelling will be ever more important and we are at an interesting moment in history now. We are at a unique moment – a tipping point – in the development of the Internet, he says. Where the last 15 years have been dominated by technology and we wondered “how it works, what to do with it, how to use it better ‘, the technology is now so developed that we take it for granted. Internet works, always and everywhere. Due to its speed and dependability, we can distribute high-quality pictures and high quality sound; easily rivaling or even surpassing the old bastions of television and (home) cinema.

Martijn and his team at Vertov create stories that engage the audience. The aim is to create a world of experience. They believe in telling stories that matter, to themselves, to their clients, but mostly: to the audience. Stories are the right media to convey certain messages. It is not always needed to pack it in a film for video: words and sounds are equally important, in the form of an interactive website, for example. The strength of film as a medium, is that the storyteller has access to a wide range of communication tools at once, like images and music. And film has the power to grab the audience in the moment. That is why film is so effective……

This is an article published in Second Sight Magazine #29 ‘Making Worlds’. To continue reading, register now or purchase a single copy PDF (€ 15,-, ex VAT) or in print for € 25,- (ex VAT , ex porto).

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