Rebecca- Premiere Project & Philosophy of Storytelling

My digital story “GEORGE” for this course is not the cut-and-dry sequential kind of story since it ranges over two years of time, but there is still a narrative arc. My transformation in feelings towards our new pet is what I used to structure the story. Adding in visual elements with images and videos that run constantly throughout my story has added another level to what I am communicating and how I am thinking about developing my storytelling. George himself has a story of his own- his life story, but I framed the story in context to my family and me, in particular. I believe each person, object, and phenomenon has a story of their creation and moments throughout history. In order to pare down two years of memories, anecdotes, and experiences with George, I simplified the story of George into the key points. I compared the past to the present in how my dad and I dreaded getting a cat as a family pet and how now we can’t get enough of George. Besides this comparison in time, I follow a chronological order in the events of going to the shelter, hoping he was well-behaved, and now having him be confident in his role in the house. My story is clearly about George and my family's experience specifically, but I hope certain parts are relatable for listeners with pets. Whether other people had the same experiences as I did or not, having a pet and fighting some familial tension is something that many people can understand. The main focus of my story is my feelings about a pet cat, so I wanted to make sure to successfully convey my different moods throughout the story. I used voice inflection and some humor to show this. There were so many different approaches I could've taken when creating my story. Focusing on different aspects, point of view, and tone could have ended up completely different since I'm familiar with the topic and have a lot of content I could create. My visuals are literal in that they are videos and pictures of George, but they don’t depict the specific actions, events, or emotions I am conveying throughout the story. Instead, I want to show the readers a variety of visuals so they can see what I am talking about. I haven’t even touched the tip of the iceberg with the images I used, so I think that also speaks to the fact of my obsession with George. I wanted it to play like a slideshow to communicate the story as home video-esque, but I think I will add some more transitions, effects, and editing to structure the visuals more. The only archival footage I used was at the beginning and the end with the black and white video of cats- the one at the beginning hissing to mirror my dad’s negativity at the beginning of my story. For now, I kept out most pictures with my family members to make it about George, but the end image of course is the whole family to show the unity and happiness we now have over George. Though I want to tell the story through a slideshow, I still want the visuals to be deliberate and support what I’m saying. Sorry I'm just posting this now... been trying to figure out all morning how to get the Premiere project to post as a video; hopefully this works.