While many professions have incorporated storytelling and video as standard practice, most urban planners are new to these tools. This training session will introduce planners to storytelling and video as tools for outreach and engagement on all types of urban planning projects. Storytelling through video offers a medium that combines story structure, music, and dynamic visuals that unfold over time. These elements can be combined with traditional planning tools such as graphs, maps and charts to create compelling, relatable and memorable outreach campaigns to reach a broad audience, but especially populations not conversant in planning concepts or terminology. Video and storytelling are important and economical tools for the planning profession to use as it strives to be as inclusive as possible. Previous experience in storytelling or video-making not required. In fact, an open mind is highly encouraged.

Participants will come away with:

• Storytelling, story structure and video production basics.
• Ideas on the creative use of video footage of meetings, interviews, found/historical footage, and simple animation.
• Methodologies to generate ideas on project messaging that sustains engagement throughout the planning process.
• Methodologies to learn from the iterative process between messaging, project planning and final design.
• Resources and tools to conceptualize, plan, and implement a video campaign for any planning project.

The workshop will consist of 3 parts. In Part 1, Keith Battle will teach storytelling, story structure and video production basics. For Part 2, Jane Lin will give an overview of a current planning project, the Irvington BART Station Area Plan (for the future station between the Fremont and Warm Springs Station). Video has played an important and integral part in communicating and encouraging engagement in the planning process. Finally, during Part 3, participants will build and improve upon the outreach campaign of the Irvington BART planning project. Participants will break into small groups to rethink the approach of using video as a communication medium. Participants will be led through an exercise to test out imaginative ideas and also learn concrete skills for developing compelling narratives. We hope our discussions will yield fresh ideas to better engage, inform, educate, and empower the public through the use of video.