Archives for April 2016

I recently finished Primalbranding: Create Zealots for Your Brand, Your Company, and Your Future by Patrick Hanlon, a book about marketing and tribe building. What makes apple users a fanatical tribe, and Dell users just customers? How does one create tribe?

Hanlon is looking at tribe building through the lens of marketing and business, but the language he draws from comes from social movements, belief systems, and actual tribal living.

To have a tribe, there are seven requirements:

• The Creation Story
• The Creed
• The Icons
• The Rituals
• The Pagans (Nonbelievers)
• The Sacred Words
• The Leader

Since I’m currently working on a film that features a social movement, I went through the current edit to see if they fit these seven traits. Sure enough, they did. However, some groups were stronger on some traits more than others. Using the seven aspects of tribe, I could see how they could improve.

Can you see how you’d strengthen your brand or tribe?

The story behind the making of my film fits all seven of these aspects. I’d been reluctant to talk about why I made this film publicly because it’s almost too wild to be believed. Now I see it as an aspect tribe – the Creation Story. When I’m ready, closer to release, I may tell the full tale.

I recommend Hanoln’s book, but not for selling sugar water. There are more important communities to build. If I have one criticism of the book, it’s that he didn’t take his ideas far enough, out of the marketing world into the real tribes whose language he is borrowing.

I know some tribes. Not brands. Real tribes. One thing I notice about all of them:

The stronger the story, and the stronger these seven traits – the stronger the tribe.

If you’re interested in hearing the story of one of the most fascinating social movements of the past century, sign up for my film list here. 

Read more: Persuasion Lessons from Veritasium

 

Unpopular opinion: Jessie Eisenberg was going the right direction with his Lex Luthor performance in Batman v Superman.

Think about how you’d respond if you were directing a tentpole film based on a Disney ride, and your lead actor said, “I’m gonna do a flamboyant Keith Richards impersonation for my role.”

Before the release of Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney executives thought Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow character would bomb. They wanted him out of the movie. He ended up becoming the center of the franchise.

Eisenberg’s autistic neuroatypical Silicon Valley Lex Luthor could have become as iconic with a few adjustments – the kind he likely did not get during chaos of making of Batman v Superman.

A different director might have guided Eisenberg’s performance more, till his verbal ticks became part of the who he was, rather then an affectation. What we saw felt like mid-process version of the character – one that needed one or two more drafts – but then again, so did most of the movie.

(Personally, I found the performance really interesting – much moreso then any previous version I’ve seen of the character – though I acknowledge it needed more work.)

Like most of the choices in Batman v Superman, there was a “safe” way to play the character, and instead, Eisenberg made a bold choice that didn’t quite work. As an filmmaker, I can see what adjustments I might make, but I admire the film and the actor for making a bold choice (as I said in my earlier commentary).

The negative reviews have been very gleeful in their attempts to tear this film down (If you’re interested on more on that, check out this video here). Those same reviewers then turn around and ask why Hollywood always seems to do the same boring thing again and again. They don’t realize – not every bold swing will connect. You don’t get the Jack Sparrows without a few Lex Luthors.

Read More: The Bold Swing of Batman v Superman

Veritasium is a science education channel with over three million YouTube subscribers.

The interesting thing about Veritasium is that even though what they are teaching is agreed-upon science, they still have to use storytelling and persuasion techniques.

Veritasium creator Derek Muller found when he did his PhD thesis on teaching science through filmmaking that simply stating the facts was not enough. Instead he had to…

Always Start With The Misconceptions

In his experiments with students, Derek Muller found that just presenting the facts made students more confident in their misconceptions. As a consequence, Derek concluded:

“A clear expository summary is worse then no instruction at all.” – Derek Muller

When he presented the misconceptions first, and then let one character lead the other to the correct answer through social dialogue, students said they felt confused – yet their test scores improved.

In a way, this makes sense. Humans are social creatures. We learn though dialogue.

There are a couple lessons here:

• If you’re going to make a documentary, interview both sides. A balanced documentary is actually more persuasive then if you just share one point of view.
• It’s okay if people say they feel confused by a complex issue. When people feel something is complex, they apply greater mental focus, and are more likely to arrive at an educated answer.

This is good news for documentary filmmakers. It means we can include complexity, controversy, and multiple points of view — and become more persuasive by doing so.

People Learn Through Stories, Not Data

Another finding Veritasium shared is that anecdote is more convincing then data. People are better at generalizing from an individual story then a statistical result.

Again, this makes sense from a scientific perspective. Humans did not evolve doing large scale studies. They evolved to learn through personal experience.

For documentary filmmakers this means:

• When talking about a large group, pick one representative and tell their story.
• If you’re going to include studies, find a personal story in them.

Documentary filmmakers have known for a long time that telling people’s stories is much more effect then barraging your audience with statistics.

As a scientist, you may believe data is more reliable then anecdote, but if you’re trying to educate, the science says you should lead with anecdote. Ain’t that ironic?

Storytelling Required

What Veritasium is teaching isn’t controversial. No one has a deeply held belief system that conflicts with Newton’s third law. Yet, they still require storytelling and persuasion to educate their audience. On more controversial issues, the need for storytelling increases.

If you’re interested in storytelling that deals with a complex issue with numerous misconceptions, you’ll be interested in a documentary I’m making called American Circumcision. You can learn more about it and subscribe for updates here.

Read more: American Circumcision