Home

In the Narrative unit we were challenged to write a story with very little or no dialog. Mainly everything that we did in this project correlated with our short story. In Digital Media I created an audio book from my short story and based the header images off our short story. In the audio book we had read our story, added sound effects, and created music specific to scenes in our story. In Design we created unique animal characters using Adobe Illustrator which was based off of our short story. However, not everything had to do with our short story, we created a four chords song using Reason and an eight bar EDM song. Through this project I learned how to create writing with dialog and create music to better enhance a story.

This is an image of my website in Adobe Dreamweaver

I used Adobe Dreamweaver, like you see above, as well as other applications to create the website you see above. By using Dreamweaver I was able to customize the webstie to my liking and put all of our work from other classes.

Story

To beginning formunating our story in English we had brainstorming sessions in class. After the brainstorming sessions we wrote a rough draft, and then through the next several days we finalized our story. My inspiration from the story was the night before the brainstorming session I was home alone in my house and I began to think back on what my first time home alone was like. I was nervous, but I eventually got through it.

Home Alone?

“Goodbye Timmy, see you later tonight,” Timmy’s mother said, as she and Timmy’s father got in the car and backed out of the driveway. It was his first time home alone. At the old age of eight, Timmy, who was strapped with two Nerf guns, was ready to take on the horrors of the night. He walked from the front door to the dining room table. It was a school night, but Timmy had already finished all of his homework, which he now placed neatly in his backpack. He had set his Nerf gun on the edge of the table, and it suddenly hit the hardwood floor. Scared, he jumped up, knocking his backpack over, spilling his papers across the floor.

Yet, as Timmy went to pick up the papers, they slid away from him, and as he went to get them again they slid further away. With a cold chill up his spine, he dashed out of the dining hall and into the kitchen with a face as white as baby powder. He peeked around the corner and peered into the dining room, scanning for more paranormal activity. What he saw was an open window.

Ashamed that he had been scared of some measly wind, he contemplated closing the window. But h decided to leave the window as it was, just in case he would need to use it to escape. He gathered the loose papers, put them in his backpack and zipped it up, all while reassuring himself that there are no monsters in his house.

Just as his heart rate returned to normal he heard a another mysterious sound coming from the dark hallway, which lead to his room. Timmy white knuckle gripped his only Nerf gun, and with a burst of energy, he sprinted into the void towards the light switch. Misjudging his speed, he slid past the switch. Scrambling to escape the grasp of darkness, he skates on the slick wood and narrowly escaped by hitting the light switch just in time.

From the safety of the lit hallway Timmy was just able to reach the light switch of his room. Examining his untidy bed on his right side and dark wood dresser, he noticed the stack of dusty, new books had fallen over.

Just as he was bending over to put the books away the lights flickered. Then they flickered again. Then they were out. Scrambling like a chicken with its head cut off he ripped the Nerf gun out of the pocket of his jeans and aimed it at the abyss that just swallowed him. Tripping over books and sliding across the floor Timmy managed to grasp the light switch and turn it off and on as many times as he could. With no luck he slid down and back against the wall.

Timmy was sweating profusely and twitching at every sound, but disaster struck when he could hear the sound of the doorknob jiggling.

If little Timmy were to look into a mirror at this exact moment he would see a ghost staring back at him. Timmy’s imagination lit up as to what might be at the door – a pearly white ghost, a vampire with teeth as sharp as knives, or perhaps it was Timmy as an old man so frail and weak that he could barely move.

His heart accelerated until he couldn’t sit still anymore. With adrenaline fueling his every move he made his way toward the front door, navigating in the dark by running his hand along the wall while clutching the nerf gun, his only means of protection.

Just as he was reaching the end of the hallway heard the door swing open. Who could it be? Why were they here? How did they get in? Timmy heard two pairs of feet shuffling about. Finally, relief washed over him when his mother said, “Timmy we’re home”.

Illustrations

Character Desgin Introduction

Brainstorming sketch and characteristics
Brainstorming sketch and characteristics

The charateristics in my sketch book courageous, curious, small, and imaginative. These characteristics closley corresponded to a wolverine, cat, mouse, and a flying fish. Using these creature I created my first sketch of my character. I also did some quick sketches of what I wanted my background to be. The two sketches that I drew were of a forest, and deep ocean scene. I ended up picking the forest because I felt that it would go better with the asthetic that I was trying to convey.

Example poses for my character
Example poses for my character

The reason that I took these photos was to get an idea of what my character's stance would be like if he was a real life character. Also the reason why I took pictures of a dog because it was the most closley related to what I wanted my character to be. Having the picture also gave me a good idea of what my characters feet, head, and body would be doing in certian positions.

this is a photo of my character inspired by my short story
Home Alone? Character

In my flash fiction Timmy, a young boy, gets left home alone for the first time. Throughout the story Timmy experiences some “paranormal” activity, which turns out to be just ordinary things that scare him, for example his paper gets blown away but it is just wind from an open window. Timmy’s parents finally come home and Timmy realizes that there was nothing to be scared of. The first thing that we did to prepare for this assignment was to come up with characteristics for our character. We were then told to relate those characteristics to animals whom we thought fit the characteristics best. For my specific character I choose a mouse head to represent Timmy as a little boy and to emphasize that he is young. Next I choose to give my creature a cat body and tail as well as wolverine legs because Timmy shows curiosity of a cat and the courage of a wolverine as he treks through the dark house. I also used a flying fish wing in my creature because flying fish seem like make-believe beings, and Timmy uses his big imagination to create many scary possibilities for something as simple as paper blowing in a breeze. For my background I wanted make it a park because it helps reinforce Timmy’s youth and being in a big place like a park which may not seem scary, could become if you were all alone as a little boy in it. The reason why my creature is walking on a log is to show that he is out of his comfort zone, the ground, and is in a new territory. I am satisfied with my creature, but I would have liked to add more accessories to the creature, like a t-shirt. One thing I would have like to change was to make my background more like a forest and not a park is because I think a forest would have fit better with my story.

Music

Description of Different Music Produced in Digital Media

Screenshot of my Reason eight bar EDM song

Each person in our class made eight bars of electronic dance music, or EDM, and our teacher Mr.Florendo compined it all into one song. Our only requirements were to make sound like an EDM song and to make it eigtht bars.

Below is all my songs used in my narrative audio book. These songs were used to enhance the experience of the book. Each one of these songs corresponds to a specific part in the audio book. I made each one using an application called Pro Tools, where I used different instruments to create unique sounds.

Audio Book

Below is my full audio book. Combining the work in the different classes. To complete the full audio book I make music and added sound effects over my voice recording of me reading my short story. I added in the effects and music using Pro Tools.