Your Focus Factor
As more and more information channels bombard our senses, we tend to ignore much of the stimuli around us. How often have you heard a car alarm sounding off in the supermarket parking lot for no apparent reason? We’ve grown to accept and to filter out many diversions. We’ve also developed a habit of muti-tasking to a degree never anticipated. Years ago it was considered a skill to be able to pat your head while rubbing your stomach. Today people, particularly students, can prepare reports on computers while instant messaging and holding cellphone conversations - all at once. So – if you’re trying to get a complex message across to someone, how do you grab and hold their focus?
A couple of observations -
Often, during my lectures, I hold up two pencils – one in each hand. One of them I hold still, the other I move around in a circle. Which one do people look at? The moving one, of course. That is an instinctive response. Put that to the side for a moment.
Despite the fact that people are increasingly developing home video systems, they still go to the movies. There is something about the “focus factor” of a dark room where the light comes at you from one direction and the sound surrounds you. The environment often forces you to forget the world outside – for a few hours.
Video programs work because they engage both the visual and auditory senses. When well directed and produced, they also keep your eyes “moving” towards where the “message” lies.
Kids of this generation have been brought up on fast moving images, quick scene cuts, and a contemporary pacing that requires multi-messages to be understood at once. This is the world in which we need to communicate. This is the time when your story can best be told in the language of media.
