How Important is Tech in Storytelling?

Of the many themes debated and analysed at Advertising Week over the last few years, the art of storytelling remains ever present.

How technology can impact upon and influence the creative process and potentially improve a narrative experience is a brilliantly-extensive topic to explore. I returned from SXSW only last month with this very subject at the top of my mind and a quote from director JJ Abrams repeating over and over in my head:

"The challenge with what we all do, using whatever technology, is that we try to hide what we use… you're trying to make it invisible so that the audience or the user is having as effortless an experience as possible but all the while keeping them as engaged as possible."

This quote is perfect for exploring how human experiences are realised through digital.

Google’s Creative Lab ECD, Steve Vranakis, is inspired by the brand's 10x moonshot thinking that encourages people to dream big. Rather than beginning with the opportunities presented by technology, he suggests defining the problem first and responding to the problem with a radical solution. Only then should you tackle it with the appropriate technology to realise the original creative vision.

This approach was used in the development of Google’s visually rich Marseilles Night Walk (above) and Inside Abbey Road. Both the projects retold very real human stories by interweaving a seamless and invisible tech layer.

However, spoken word artist Mark Grist (below), who was seduced by the possibilities of tech built on this theory after sharing films of his performances. As his popularity increased, he created evermore complex productions. Yet with every production improvement, he received fewer audience views. Initially, this was counter-intuitive to Mark, but he quickly realised that the veneers he used to convey his stories produced a deeply opaque experience. Now, he prefers to approach his work by stripping back to basics and instead, shining light on what matters to his audience... his words.

So even though tech can deliver award-winning performances, it should never take the lead role in telling a great story.