What is a story? Is it a tool, a genre, or a product?

Today, it seems that the term is used to describe everything from screenplays and longreads to social media campaigns and sometimes even images applied to cars.

So, let’s define what we will refer to as storytelling in this guide. Telling a story is an approach to conveying information from sender to receiver (i.e., to the very audience we discussed in the previous chapter), which necessarily includes:

To better understand where these characteristic features came from, let’s recall familiar examples: fairy tales, legends, movies, myths—all of these are examples of stories. So, what distinguishes a story from a news message, a social media post, or a crime chronicle, given that any of these formats can potentially become a story?

Let’s consider each part separately.

A subject or protagonist of the narrative serves as a conduit, a medium. It is the figure with whom (or which) the viewer identifies themself and, through this identification, can experience empathy, emotions, and, as a result, react to the content during and after consuming it. When the viewer’s personal experience is somehow connected to the project’s topic, the figure of the protagonist first and foremost evokes empathy and engagement.

The subject can be a person or a group of people. The subject can also be an object or a territory, such as a city. It is crucial that the subject assumes the role of the viewer’s companion, addressing all the questions and emotions that arise in the viewer during the project’s viewing. Whether the subject is animate or not, it is important to treat their description and creation as if they were a living, thinking, feeling being, experiencing the same experiences and events.

The entry and exit points are the most crucial moments of the story.

The entry point is responsible for the initial focus of attention and for engaging the viewer. Whether the viewer stays in the story or leaves it immediately depends on how we organize the beginning of the project and its initial moments.

The exit point, in turn, determines what happens to the viewer after they finish viewing—closing the laptop lid, leaving the exhibition space, or going about their daily life. Our task is to encourage the viewer to certain thoughts and/or actions and to implement the effects we planned. The exit is a key accent responsible for what the viewer returns to the real world with after immersing in our story.

When dealing with sensitive topics, entry and exit points become especially important: how do we introduce the viewer to the story without scaring them off? How do we correctly and meaningfully formulate the core message and emotion that the viewer takes away from the narrative?

If the entry and exit points resemble the familiar elements of a fairy tale’s introduction and conclusion, then development is everything that, at any given moment, moves the viewer forward through the narrative, whether it is linear or non-linear. Development influences the viewer's perception and their decision to stay engaged with a complex topic or exit from it feeling indifferent.

Our task, of course, is to maintain the viewer's interest and engagement within the story, leading them to the exit point filled with the meanings we wish to convey to them.

The dynamics dictate development: what rhythm and tempo are embedded in the overall narrative and within each fragment. We manage dynamics using specific drivers.

Saturation can be expressed in the color, light, and shape of elements. Just as a sentence can consist of a single word or even a letter, so too can an image—be it a photograph or video—be slow, calm, and quiet or sharp, fast, or pulsating. You have probably noticed how differently two videos of the same length can be perceived depending on their content.

Imagine a scene where, for two minutes, old people are pushing a wagon along a snowy railroad. Or, for the same two minutes, we see footage in a nightclub. In the first case, time seems to pass much slower than in the second because the saturation with events, forms, objects, and light will be much more intense in a nightclub than in a snowy field. The same happens with multimedia composition.

Changing the rhythm prevents the viewer from becoming fatigued with the content. It is important to maintain the significance and conscious perception of each segment of the story to avoid mechanical scrolling in an online project or a rushed walkthrough of a physical exhibition space. We must encourage the viewer to remain constantly engaged and spark in them a literal hunger and curiosity for each subsequent episode of the story.

With the emergence of multimedia, managing dynamics has become much easier since the range of expressive tools has significantly expanded. Imagine how challenging it is to solve this problem in a 450-page novel — to retain the reader's attention and maintain interest.

In multimedia projects, just by alternating different media, we already change the rhythm and switch the viewer's perception mechanics. However, merely having a variety of tools does not always ensure good dynamics and audience engagement.

Like writing a recipe for a dish, there is a certain sequence of preparing ingredients and a logic of their combinations. We follow them to achieve the desired flavor.

The development of a story within a narrative should be designed by planning and anticipating specific reactions from the viewer at each moment in time. This design can be compared to an emotional cardiogram, where we mark peaks and valleys, shocks and joy, anxiety and calm. Based on this emotional map, we build the sequence of the narrative, select certain media fragments, and edit each of them.

Creating scenarios for the viewer’s emotional dynamics, it is crucial not to abuse their sensitivity. When working with sensitive topics, it is especially important not to manipulate the fragile and vulnerable areas of the participants' feelings, maintaining a delicate balance of emotional involvement, sincerity, and ethics.

• Scenography

Throughout this guide, we frequently compare multimedia storytelling with other narrative genres—fairy tales, books, movies, or musical compositions.

To most clearly describe the concept of scenography, let’s turn now to the theater. In a theater production, we see the development of the plot on stage. It unfolds according to a written script, with the help of actors playing their roles. The action takes place in sets designed specifically for this production, and often we also hear sound accompaniment. All these parts of a stage production do not exist independently; they are carefully planned in a unified system—expressed through sound, color, form, style. The creators of the stage production—director, composer, actors, set designer, costume designer, and others—define together the most expressive and vivid interaction and composition of each element so that, when combined, they convey to the audience a memorable impression and experience.

Similarly, in multimedia projects, it is very important to create a unified system of expressive means and stylistic solutions, aligning them with each other and subordinating them to a single concept.

In the case of sensitive topics, scenography also serves as an effective tool for avoiding direct enumeration of painful events and circumstances. By creating multimedia layers, combining direct and figurative narratives and rhymes between them, we can convey not events but atmosphere, not actions but sensations.

• System of Images

Despite the complexity of the topic and the documentary nature of the content, it is crucial to develop the project as if it were a work of art. Our main tool for this is imagery. So, what is an image?

An image is a metaphor, a code invented by the authors that contains mood, intonation, and association. We give the viewer the opportunity to interpret the image and enjoy its rich meanings in a compact and poetic form.

• Stylistic Unity

Take note of one person's Instagram feed and compare it to another's. Look at a selection of illustrations for a single book or screenshots from a single movie. The patterns and features that unify the series mentioned above are what we call the system of stylistic unity.

The system of stylistic unity allows you to: