In digital practice this week we learnt about narratology which is the art of telling and receiving stories, the classic story structures we see in society today and typical character archetypes. There are many ways to receive these stories but one is visual, which we are focusing on in this lesson.
In general we find stories everywhere, they come in different styles and forms featuring in myths and legends, everyday conversations, television programs and adverts, social media and many more. Stories are a part of human nature, something we have learn from our ancestors. One of the most famous early stories told by Neanderthals shows a hunting scene. Found in the Chauvet Caves in southern France they are dated from 32,000 to 30,000 years ago.
There are several reasons why stories have been told through the ages, the reason for the one above is most likely to be for survival, entertainment and for the artist to remember. However there are many other reasons for stories in modern day society they can be to help people to heal, to sell products, to aide in explanation and many others.
Whilst some stories are long and lengthy and take the audience on a journey of emotions which cause them to invest in characters, there is also the genre of short stories. Now while both take the reader on a journey short stories need to be more precise down to the limited amount of words to describe the scene and plot. This difficulty is exaggerated for the sub genre of 'six word stories' which as the name suggest can only contain six words and have to tell a story.
A popular six word story is:
"For Sale: baby shoes, never worn" - Anonymous, some believe the author to be Ernest Hemingway.
This length of story causes the viewer to think, allowing them to create a backstory to the sentence and therefore emote to it. The story above implies that the seller was going to give the shoes to a baby but now does not have the need to, as they were "never worn". This can be due to a few reasons but as a reader I viewed the hidden meaning to be that the voice of the character was a woman who had a miscarriage and lost her baby quite late on in the pregnancy.
In general we find stories everywhere, they come in different styles and forms featuring in myths and legends, everyday conversations, television programs and adverts, social media and many more. Stories are a part of human nature, something we have learn from our ancestors. One of the most famous early stories told by Neanderthals shows a hunting scene. Found in the Chauvet Caves in southern France they are dated from 32,000 to 30,000 years ago.
There are several reasons why stories have been told through the ages, the reason for the one above is most likely to be for survival, entertainment and for the artist to remember. However there are many other reasons for stories in modern day society they can be to help people to heal, to sell products, to aide in explanation and many others.
Whilst some stories are long and lengthy and take the audience on a journey of emotions which cause them to invest in characters, there is also the genre of short stories. Now while both take the reader on a journey short stories need to be more precise down to the limited amount of words to describe the scene and plot. This difficulty is exaggerated for the sub genre of 'six word stories' which as the name suggest can only contain six words and have to tell a story.
A popular six word story is:
"For Sale: baby shoes, never worn" - Anonymous, some believe the author to be Ernest Hemingway.
This length of story causes the viewer to think, allowing them to create a backstory to the sentence and therefore emote to it. The story above implies that the seller was going to give the shoes to a baby but now does not have the need to, as they were "never worn". This can be due to a few reasons but as a reader I viewed the hidden meaning to be that the voice of the character was a woman who had a miscarriage and lost her baby quite late on in the pregnancy.
I wrote three of my own six word stories:
"Beautiful roses discarded on the floor."
"He drove away, no destination needed."
"Tears filled her eyes, regret also."
Bryan Alexander, a known writer and creator, said "For a given audience, a story is a sentence of content, anchored on a problem, which engages that audience with emotion and meaning."
The Pixar prompt is modelled off the companies classic story structure where it begins as a "once upon a time" story then progresses to "and everyday" then "until one day" and then "and because of that" where it ends as "until finally". By using the structure it helps story tellers configure a story which the masses will easily follow and understand. I used this structure to create a story, featured below.
The Pixar Prompt
Once upon a time... a little girl's birthday came around, she was turning seven
....and everyday... her excitement grew...
...until one day... she handed out her birthday party invitations but they had the wrong day...
...and because of that... no one came to her birthday...
...and because of that... she cried and cried because she was so lonely...
...until finally, the next day... there was a knock on the door, it was her friends wishing her a happy birthday.
The theorist Vladimir Propp, states that there are several characters which are continuously used in classic stories they are: the hero, villain, donor, helper, princess, dispatcher and false hero. Depending on the style of story it can be suspenseful or surprising, as said by Alfred Hitchcock, by addressing the threat at the beginning of the tale it creates suspense for the reader as they wait for the threat to emerge. Whereas with a surprising story the author keeps the threat hidden luring the reader into a false sense of security so when the threat emerges the reader is surprised.
Visual Storytelling
With visual storytelling in images our brains fight to generate a link between them, urging us to find a correlation so we can create a story. If the creator doesn't establish a link between the images the audience do it themselves, this is where we find different types of reading: preferred/dominant is the link which the author wants the reader to make, oppositional where the audience reject the preferred/ dominant reading and create a reading themselves, then there is negotiated reading where the audience acknowledge the preferred/dominant reading however modify it to suit their own values and opinions. We were tasked to create a story using visual elements with sixty minutes, below is the basic storyline we created.
An affair
Two people waking up, clearly love each other
Them saying goodbye, the other staying home
Boy on phone
Mistress arrives
Them in the room
Girlfriend heads back, left her phone
Mistress in bed with boy
Laughing
Shauna heading up stairs
Hand on door handle
Over shoulder, mistress and boyfriend in background.
"He drove away, no destination needed."
"Tears filled her eyes, regret also."
Bryan Alexander, a known writer and creator, said "For a given audience, a story is a sentence of content, anchored on a problem, which engages that audience with emotion and meaning."
The Pixar prompt is modelled off the companies classic story structure where it begins as a "once upon a time" story then progresses to "and everyday" then "until one day" and then "and because of that" where it ends as "until finally". By using the structure it helps story tellers configure a story which the masses will easily follow and understand. I used this structure to create a story, featured below.
The Pixar Prompt
Once upon a time... a little girl's birthday came around, she was turning seven
....and everyday... her excitement grew...
...until one day... she handed out her birthday party invitations but they had the wrong day...
...and because of that... no one came to her birthday...
...and because of that... she cried and cried because she was so lonely...
...until finally, the next day... there was a knock on the door, it was her friends wishing her a happy birthday.
The theorist Vladimir Propp, states that there are several characters which are continuously used in classic stories they are: the hero, villain, donor, helper, princess, dispatcher and false hero. Depending on the style of story it can be suspenseful or surprising, as said by Alfred Hitchcock, by addressing the threat at the beginning of the tale it creates suspense for the reader as they wait for the threat to emerge. Whereas with a surprising story the author keeps the threat hidden luring the reader into a false sense of security so when the threat emerges the reader is surprised.
Visual Storytelling
With visual storytelling in images our brains fight to generate a link between them, urging us to find a correlation so we can create a story. If the creator doesn't establish a link between the images the audience do it themselves, this is where we find different types of reading: preferred/dominant is the link which the author wants the reader to make, oppositional where the audience reject the preferred/ dominant reading and create a reading themselves, then there is negotiated reading where the audience acknowledge the preferred/dominant reading however modify it to suit their own values and opinions. We were tasked to create a story using visual elements with sixty minutes, below is the basic storyline we created.
An affair
Two people waking up, clearly love each other
Them saying goodbye, the other staying home
Boy on phone
Mistress arrives
Them in the room
Girlfriend heads back, left her phone
Mistress in bed with boy
Laughing
Shauna heading up stairs
Hand on door handle
Over shoulder, mistress and boyfriend in background.
In this workshop I learned more about the art of storytelling and how I can affect the readers view on the storyline by including or leaving out certain aspects of the plot. The workshop helped because when I am creating a story I can decide what view I wanted the audience to have on it and how I want the end result to be.
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