Meet Rob Krieg, IT Director, who was one of the workshop participants in the Storytellers Abroad Missions Multimedia Workshop in Bucharest, Romania.

Rob had been a news photographer earlier in his career. He loved photography and wanted to add to his skills the ability to tell stories.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 1800, ƒ/5.6, 1/500

Rob had the most miniature camera system out of everyone doing the workshop. Rob shot his entire project using the Fuji X-T1 or the Fuji X-E2.

photo by: James Dockery

Rob was knocking it out of the park, getting b-roll. But, he understood the visual side of storytelling just fine.

What Rob worked on the most during the workshop was understanding the audio portion of the project. He had never been responsible for asking the questions for the interview and helping to direct the story.

What made the story more difficult for Rob was while he was getting the story concept, the subject didn’t see how they fit into the bigger picture. No matter how he sequenced the interview, there was just something missing.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 360, ƒ/8, 1/500

After taking some time to talk with Rob about the story of James Dockery, Jeff Raymond and I advised him to interview our host and missionary, Tom Graef. Tom is here talking with the priest for the Orthodox Church in Herăști, Giurgiu, Romania.

Now the most challenging thing was intertwining Tom’s comments with the subject Simon Bayrakcioglu. It would be easy to stay with Tom’s words because he was more articulate, but his remarks to Simon gave the story more power.

You see, the one thing that Rob learned was the whole point of getting someone’s comments recorded is the power of the first-person narrative to give authenticity to a story.

Listen and watch how Rob blended Romania’s visuals with Tom and Simon’s interviews.

Rob discovered that he had to have someone speak into the story. What also Rob learned was the importance of persistence.

By the way, Rob was one of the perfect candidates for the workshop. He had already mastered photography and was looking to add the storytelling skill using multimedia.

Email me if you are interested in taking a multimedia workshop next year. Here is my email address for you [email protected].