Introduction

During the Narrative Unit, I was tasked with answering the question “How well can you visually tell a structured story?”

Beginning with an exploration of prose fiction and the graphic novel, I had practice communicating character and story arc through descriptive storytelling, narrative digital art, storyboards, and films. I deepened my technical communication skills by learning a variety of modern professional equipment and applications such as Wacom Digital Drawing Pads, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator,Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Avid Pro Tools.

Each class had their own Visual Narrative Project, where I learned how to effectively tell a story. In English, I created my own stories and even a play. In Digital Media, I recorded that story into an audio form and create more artwork in Illustrator. In Film, I produced a short film with an original story. By practicing storytelling through these different mediums, I’ve become more confident in my creative endeavors, knowing that it is alright to fail.

English

Short Story

In English, we were tasked with creating a short story as part of our narrative unit. In my story, which loosely follows the true story of one of my relatives, the name character named Joshua attempts to deal with the realities of the world. Several assignments like a Character Questionnaire and Plot Map assisted in the development of my story. The questionnaire was a series of questions to help me develop my character, while the plot map assisted me in deciding the story.

Later in Digital Media, I would go on to create an audio version of the story, now posted on SoundCloud. Recorded on my portable audio recorder, it was edited in Pro Tools.

Playwright Study

By partaking in English Honors, I was given the opportunity to read the works of a short story author or playwright, either emulating their style in a story or writing an analytical essay. Below you can find my attempt at writing a play in Peter Shaffer’s style.

Explanation

Though the syntax and vocabulary used in Amadeus are in no manner similar to the syntax and vocabulary used in The Defective Date, my goal was to imitate the style of writing that was found in the intro of Amadeus. What I found so intriguing was the manner in which Peter Shaffer introduced with characters, so that it all felt like it was the retelling of a true event that had occurred in the past, even if the story was a fictional biography. Even if the event was fictitious, the interactions had between the characters had a sense of realism behind them supporting the story. Schaffer created a play, through unique characters and dialogue which kept the listener planted to the story, which allowed the audience feel empathy for the struggle of Mozart.

While introducing characters in the beginning of the play, Peter uses fast and quick dialogue to convey the urgency of the situation at hand; an example of how he shows and doesn’t tell. In The Defective Date, one of the friends of Bethany, which is not told to the audience until later, walks into the stage to tell the news that she brings to her friends. As a secondary character, she does not play the most pivotal role or change in a major way, yet it is important for the reader to understand that the manner in which this character converses with others. She enjoys to speak about what would be considered gossip, also is unable to consider other perspectives from her one. When her friend asks her “What’s wrong?”, she becomes very defensive as if the friend were attacking her. In Amadeus, Peter Shaffer describes the Venticellos as “purveyors of fact, rumor and gossip…They speak rapidly…so that the scene has the air of a fast and dreadful Overture…always with the urgency of men who have ever been first with the news,”(Schaffer 9) While the Venticellos are not main characters, they give the narrative a sense of urgency to the whispers that have already spread throughout the theatre. Without them no anticipation will be felt by the audience for what has occured to Salieri. I attempted the forge the friends in a similar was a Schaffer did his Venticellos, a secondary character that is essential for the story as they provide a reason to why an action occurred; in The Defective Date, that being to show the Bethany is not the person Mark makes her out to be.

An artistic choice that I found to be unique is Shaffer’s use of  a long soliloquies in order to give the audience a better understanding of the main characters. Early in Amadeus, one of the main characters, Salieri, to speak to himself in his apartment, communicating the audience who he is as a person without the use of a narrator. One example of this is when Salieri “…was very much in love with Katherina – or at least in lust, But because of my vow to God, I was entirely faithful to my wife.”(Schaffer 18) This is only some of the small character development that is injected into a 4 page soliloquy, that develops his relations to the other characters that have been introduced. Another example is later in Act II when Salieri admits what he felt when Mozart died. “What did I feel? Relief, of course: I confess it. And pity too, for the man I helped to destroy. I felt  the pity God can never feel”( Schaffer 100). This response to himself demonstrates how he changed to accept Mozart’s music and how much it sorrows him to have led to his demise, for Salieri could have enjoyed more if jealousy had not taken him over. This is essential to show the story arc of Salieri and in The Defective Date, Mark can be seen having a similar moment when judging Bethany for being late to their date. In the beginning he places the blame on her and that she was “toying” with him. Yet when the story came to an end Mark decided to give her another chance after he saw how she went to help one of her friends when she was feeling down.

Illustrations

In Digital Media, we used Adobe Illustrator to create two projects. The first project was a light cover, where we would create a design that would be engraved into plastic. The second project was more open ended with multiple options, but I decided to engrave an old iPhone 5 with a fractal.

Geometric Light Cover

Artist Statement

This Geometric Light Cover has no explicit meaning, it’s up to the viewer to interpret. An idea that can be formed is that the light in the center is the Earth. When illuminated it shows the life that exists in the cold vast darkness that is space. When seen from far away, the shine of humanity can be seen. As the first real application of the skills we learned in Digital Media, it was surprising how easy it became to create the artwork. Using the pen tool in Illustrator was a challenge in the beginning, but by the end working was a breeze. The practice of the pen tool has become useful outside of Digital Media. In Film, creating masks using the Bezier tool became much easier, not wasting as much time on each stroke.  

Illustration Project Choice

Artist Statement

Fractals are all around us in nature, from shells on the backs of snails to snowflakes falling from the sky. Now one can be seen on a mobile phone, an inanimate object. Such beauty doesn’t have to be limited to nature.This project was completely different from any work I had done in the past. Instead of using the classic tools provided in Illustrator, like the pen and ellipse tool, I created an application that would design fractals. It was a good application of the mathematics skills that I’ve learned and applying them to an art project, a field outside of STEM.

Film

During the narrative unit in Film, we were tasked with the creation of a short narrative film, one which did not require the use of dialogue to tell the story. These films began as a pitch to the class, which over the course of three months evolved into a final product.

Griffith’s Pattern Scene

Before we began work on our narrative film, we first needed to learn the basics of story telling. By examining the works of D. W. Griffith and his contributions to the film language, we learned how to establish a scene and characters through different camera positions. We practiced this common technique through a quick class exercise.

Suspense Scene

The Suspense Scene was the second assignment we did leading up to the narrative film. By studying Alfred Hitchcock and his works, Psycho and Rear Window, we began to learn how to implement suspense. Through the use of crosscutting and symbolism, we were tasked with creating a short scene that held the audience in suspense.

Chase Scene

After completing the Griffith’s Pattern and Suspense scenes, the Chase Scene was assigned to us. By learning the skills of screen direction, continuity, and the 180° rule, in addition to the skills learned in the prior scenes, we created some chase scenes that could have used some work.

Narrative Project

Narrative Synopsis

After deciding on an idea for our film, we had to create a page long synopsis of the film. During these early stages of production many ideas were thrown around, yet not all of them made into the final cut. Below is the original synopsis, which almost immediately got changed.

Act 1
Liam is a lazy teenager. He is seen laying on his bed on his cheap pair of headphones surrounded by a messy room. His mom comes in to tell him to clean up and do his chores, but he ignores her. Instead, he goes out to hang out with his friend Kate. It is clear that Liam really likes Kate, but it’s not clear if she likes him back. They walk by a clothing shop and Kate points out a specific article of clothing through the window that she likes. Liam pays special attention to this and decides that he wants to buy them to impress her. The price tag of the clothing can be seen from the storefront, and Liam realizes that he doesn’t have enough money for them.

Act 2
Liam is at home checking his wallet for any extra money, but doesn’t find any. He draws up a flyer that has a lawn and and lawnmower on it. He goes door to door asking people if they would pay him to mow their lawn. The first few houses he goes up to all decline his offer. After two or three houses, he gets a streak of people saying yes. He now has a bunch of lawns he can mow which will lead him to getting more money. Liam is seen mowing multiple lawns and getting paid by those homeowners. After every few lawns that are mowed, he goes home to his bedroom to count up his money and show that time is passing and this takes place over the course of several days. Every time he is back in his room, the room becomes progressively cleaner and neater. He is always wearing his headphones while he works, and as time passes they can be seen getting more and more worn. The music he listens to slowly fades throughout the film to show this while the sound of the lawnmower gets louder. He is often mowing lawns that are in Kate’s neighborhood so she notices how hard he is working. She also notices that his headphones keep dropping and continue to be in worse condition. They can be seen waving at one another from across the street. After mowing a bunch of lawns, he has enough money to go get the clothes and returns to the store. He successfully buys the clothes but as soon as he exits the store they get ruined because he fell in a puddle. The clothes are clearly ruined and Liam is heartbroken.

Act 3
Liam is home again with the ruined clothes. He throws a tantrum in his room over the clothes, and in the process breaks his headphones. After his tantrum ends, he tries his best to fix up the clothes. It’s clear that the clothes have improved from his efforts, but they are still in bad condition. Kate knocks on his window and crawls into his room. Liam presents her with the clothes, and she really appreciates them. She also has a gift for him, which is a brand new pair of headphones. After they give each other the gifts they sneak back out the window and go for a walk. FIN.

Storyboard

Before we could begin the production stages of the narrative film, we had to create a storyboard. Each note card displays a different shot, helping us visualize the film.

Narrative Trailer

Narrative Film

Behind the Scenes