Photofocus

I get email and tweets like this every day…

“New #show filmed 100% #DSLR coming soon! PLZ RT”

“New motion picture filmed entirely on an iPhone – please spread the word.”

“Photographer uses old The Graflex Speed Graphic to shoot weddings.”

Sigh…

Folks if your press release or news is about the tool you use not the story you tell – well sorry but to coin a phrase the young people use these days – you’re a tool! (I think it’s spelled that way – but you get the idea.)

The notion that the tool you used to shoot your documentary or make your movie or record a wedding is somehow important –  is flawed from the start.

NOBODY CARES!

Or at least nobody SHOULD care. 100 years from now when each of us is dead and buried – that tech probably won’t exist. The movies and pictures and magazine and books, etc., that survive will be what matters. NOT how they were made.

If the best you can do is lead your press release with a note about the gear you used to make your movie – I don’t have to watch your movie to know it probably sucks.

REAL story tellers let the story speak for itself. Real photographers and film makers with something valuable to say, let the work do the talking and to take it one step further, if they are true masters – they WANT the tools to get out of the way. They want you to pay attention to the story and HOPE you don’t notice (or care) how the show or book or story was put together.

If you have to rely on gimmicks – such as “entirely shot on a Droid phone” then you have missed the mark by a mile.

If you have to tell me a long, drawn-out story about how you made your photo or book or movie and what gear you used, it’s unlikely that you made anything powerful, important or artistic. Concentrate on the story – not the tools – if you want to practice art at its highest levels.

“Tools do not create art.”
John Lassoer

_______
This Post Sponsored by:
Viewbug – Fun Photo Contests
Kelby Training – Use code KTSBA12 to save $20
BorrowLenses.com – Renting Canon, Nikon, Olympus & Sony, bodies, lenses, etc.
SmugMug – Professional Photo Sharing
Ice Society – Save $115 Promo Code: Bourne