Stories are told for many reasons: to entertain, to
persuade, and or to make a point. As an
audience, I think you must understand why you are hearing a story in order to
dwindle down its message to determine its truth. Lies and exaggeration, combination and
omission: all of these are tools used by some extent by a storyteller. Are they okay to use? While I think the obvious answer would be
“no”, I think that using these tools has become commonplace for those who tell
stories, whether they like it or not. Adding
visuals can add layers to a story as well, but perhaps not to the same
conclusion a reader would come to naturally.
By
adding visuals, I think we “plant a seed” of how a reader should interpret the
story’s message. This can be used to
reinforce a truthful story, to “ground” a fictionalized one, or to distract the
reader from a false story. The way in
which we use these graphics also can change how a reader perceives the
message. My previous example of a story
about a crazy subway encounter on the way to work recanted among colleagues:
this could very easily be exaggerated by dramatic music, low camera angles, and
quick-cut-together scenes. On the other
hand, sad music can tell an audience they should feel sad, or suspenseful music
to create a sense of fear.
These literary and visual “tools”
are used to create connections amongst audiences and to express emotion and creativity,
but I think so many times they are abused and replaced by over-the-top versions
of themselves in order to provoke a certain feeling. Whether these effects change the main plot of
the storyline or just adds to unnecessary components of the story, surely this
varies on the storyteller and why the story is being told. Understanding that
these effects are being used to slant a story can allow an audience to understand
the underlying, true story being told.
An example of effects which alter
the perception of a story is when we watched the opening credits of a scary
movie, but with happy 90’s rock music in the background instead of the original
audio. The credits contained lots of aerial
footage of deserted nature scenes. When
asked what type of movie we thought this was an intro to, almost the entire
class said romantic comedy. When the
90’s music was muted and the origional music was played, we quickly realized
this was rather the opening credits to a horror movie.
I like your perspective on storytelling, talking about the different effects that happen by making certain decisions in composition of a story. Classes like this one, and other communications or digital media-related classes, have taught me to pay attention to these effects... try to first point them out and then figure out why they are there and what they are trying to communicate to the audience.
ReplyDeleteWhat you've explained is that a story is told to create an overall effect on the audience. Great philosophy!