Adjusting Rate of Clips in Premiere

PowerPoint Tutorial

How to add text and text animation

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jATrvY8Dq4w3hwHrbzokLgav227VjtcsTYY9tFmFX14/edit?usp=sharing

Chicago Epic from Alex Kupp on Vimeo.

vintage film effect/ filters

how to- vintage from Jacob Searles on Vimeo.

Tinderella Moment from Jacob Searles on Vimeo.

Video Presentation Korey Klinger

Lighting Effects Tutorial

Premiere Tutorial: Constant Gain/Fade and Exponential Fade

Tutorial Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1r4xN0yh2bXSDQq40ZSBsx0tpnmX_8wrdAIoJvj8Vsjw/edit?usp=sharing

Tutorial Video:


Most recent version of video project:

Maddy Dattilo Transitions/Opacity

Removing Backgroud Noise Tutorial-Andrew Moul

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=E71804DB983DBD26!279153&authkey=!AGoLSl0_GwW1Ig0&ithint=file%2cpptx

Ken Burns Effect

http://www.slideshare.net/RebeccaWardle1/ken-burns-effect-on-premiere

Elyse Dumas: Audio Transitions & Revised Project

Audio Transitions Tutorial:



Revised Project:

Revised Storytelling and Project

My project has gone through multiple revisions since I first decided what to do. While sticking to a central theme of promoting the City of Chicago, my approach has significantly changed. When I first stared out my project was going to the route of showcasing all the holiday attractions there are in Chicago. As my project evolved, I found that this was not what my target audience would be looking for. So I sat down and really thought about what would make someone want to visit Chicago. And I came up with the idea of drama. Drama is part of our lives and we live it everyday, so I thought creating an ad that centered in on dramatic and epic renditions of Chicago would engage my audience much more. To deploy this new theme, I am basing my video off of an epic movie trailer. Movie trailers are great for telling a story in a short amount of time and are very clear and entertaining. A trailer is also a great promotional tool because it allows for a snippet into what a movie is going to be about. Trailers also act as a first impression for a movie and carry a heavy importance for the success of a movie. So I think a movie trailer theme is perfect for showcasing the city of Chicago because a lot of the qualities of a movie can be juxtaposed into the story of a city. To enhance the clarity of my video I will be using voice and text to make sure my audience understands what’s going on. I will also be using drone shots of Chicago to enhance the “epicness” of my video. I have also added an epic trailer soundtrack that really drives the whole video and gives it that dramatic effect.

Epic Blockbuster Trailer Music from Alex Kupp on Vimeo.

Tinderella Moment from Jacob Searles on Vimeo.

In my previous draft of storytelling I mentioned how the storyteller tells stories to access an imaginative state, away from reality. Personally, my project does just that; since making the project, he and I have since stopped talking, which caused me a little grief. Being able to reflect on the great date we shared and the times afterwards allows me to escape the unsettling way we ended the relationship and remember the way we first met in New York City. I think adding the visuals to my project has furthered my ability to tell the story and contrast how we date in modern times versus how couples in the ‘50s dated/ decided to go steady. Finding archival footage to include in my project was somewhat difficult, especially with my theme of contrasting the two types of dating because of the way same-sex couples and dating was looked at prior to the 21st century. The films and sex-education movies I was finding that centered their idea around same-sex relationships were troubling and negative, which ultimately led to me using scenes from films of opposite sex relationships flourishing and ultimately ending in marriage. Through the process of finding archival footage to match my audio project I’ve realized that my project goes further than comparing the ways we went about finding dates. It also now delves into what society has granted as “acceptable” and normal. The story I am telling audibly will hopefully find less people uncomfortable than if I had the ability to upload it in the 1950s when these archival footages were taken. Not only that, all of the films I came across were very whitewashed. I think that by contrasting the two stories being told (both visual and audio) you can understand what dominated society as far as social norms and current issues. Being able to tell two different stories through visual and audio allows the audience to compare and contrast the history and strides we have made as a society. The visual elements of my film helps advance and promote the agenda of what was a comical audible story to an accepting and socially progressive mindset which we know express in the 21st century. **The footage I personally shot was the waitress walking over our 8th round of shots at 1 minute and 42 seconds

HOW TO ADD A FILTER IN PREMIERE

link to powerpoint

Kati Davis - Project & Philosophy Revision

“The creation of a single world comes from a huge number of fragments and chaos… We depict hatred, but it is to depict that there is more important things. We depict a curse, to depict the joy of liberation.” – Hayao Miyazaki

Why do we tell stories, you ask? We tell stories as a means of finding meaning in the meaningless and hope in the hopeless. We tell stories to splash color into a grayscale world, to illuminate parts of ourselves that would have otherwise remained in shadow. We tell stories to transport ourselves to places with people who are like our own children – paper and ink replacing flesh and blood – people who possess the brightest and the darkest aspects of ourselves. We tell stories to awaken the child that has begun to drift asleep within us, the one who fills our dreams with dragons and waterfalls and wings and magic. We tell stories to build worlds of our own with the pieces we have been given, constructing a clumsy jigsaw puzzle of memories and mayhem, composed of that stranger in the corner of the cafe and that sign we glanced at on the way to get groceries and that conversation we overhead in the back of the bus and that piece of the dream that clung to our consciousness. We tell stories because they are the straw through which we breathe the air that keeps us from sinking into seas of despair, the rope we cling to when the quicksand is pulling us deeper and deeper into the earth. We tell stories because they are an inherent part of us: embedded in our bones, coursing through our veins, flowing in and out of our lungs with each breath we take.

We tell stories because we are stories.

While working on my project for this class as well as reviewing my classmates’ projects, my definition of storytelling has slowly grown to include more than the traditional word-of-mouth or pencil-to-paper idea of stories that I’ve clung to for so long. Of course I knew that storytelling wasn’t strictly confined to these particular methods, but I did have a more narrow view of the way stories could be told – or, at least, the way I could tell them. By exploring the concept of dreams and figuring out how to convey the story of my dreams in a way that makes sense to my audience, I’ve begun to understand and accept that fact that stories don’t actually have to make sense. Dreams themselves are a perfect example of this. We can analyze and interpret them until we’re blue in the face, but will we ever really understand or make sense of them? Do any of us dream in perfect, Academy Award-worthy narratives? Of course not. Our dreams are composed of fragments: fragments of people, places, fears, desires, and memories shoved deep in the recesses of our consciousness... yet they are stories all the same, and they are stories worth telling. By stringing together random video clips along with words that may or may not have any relevance to said videos, I am closer to recreating a dreamlike state than I would be if I was only using footage that “made sense” with the words being spoken.

*On that note, any footage that involves the beach, palm trees, and/or airplanes (minus the skydiving one) belongs to me. 

Philosophy of Story Telling Revision

Humans are dependent on storytelling. It is a tool that we use everyday, and it is a tool that has multiple purposes. Stories are used as a means of learning, relating, and expressing oneself in a manner that provides deeper connection. Stories allow us to explain the more nuanced aspects of whatever it is we want to convey. They add layers and feelings that individual words by themselves cannot express. They allow people to reach the same emotional and mental ground. You could tell someone you are happy, but the word happy could be received and perceived in a way that doesn’t do the feeling you are experiencing justice. A single word can hardly be used to express the complex nature of human thought. A story on the other hand can depict everything you went through to achieve that happiness. The hardships you faced, and relief of overcoming them. The story gives context and allows the listener or reader to fully grasp and comprehend the feeling or emotion you wish to share. Stories teach us lessons. They are a means of teaching children ideas and notions that are hard to perceive with young minds.  They lay the foundation for cultures and societies. Stories tell us our past and they are used to predict our futures. Stories are also a way to convey one’s thoughts and emotions into something meaningful or entertaining. Stories can distract us from our ailments or give us hope to preserver through them. They allow us to sympathize and relate to people across the globe and across time.  Stories naturally have a visual component to them. Before man could express stories verbally he used images to convey his thoughts. Drawing shapes in the dirt or expressing a story through paintings on cave walls. Images always have been an integral part of a story. If the storyteller does not present images, the listener will naturally stir to mind visuals. Both forms of imagery can be powerful in driving a story. Picturing a story play out without given any visuals allows the listener to perceive his take of the events being told to him. Unleashing the creative imagination, which we all possess, to add structure and form to the story that is being heard. Withholding a visual component when presenting a story creates a new unique visual in the mind of every individual who hears the story. On the other hand presenting a visual component to the listener allows the storyteller to express how the story is playing out in his mind, the creator of the story. By being given visuals the audience can better understand the storyteller and the place he is coming from. This can lead to a connection between the storyteller and the audience. Since my last draft of my project I’ve changed my documentary a tad, but the main addition to my documentary is the addition of visuals. I’ve mostly used images from the Internet that aren’t literal versions of the text. I feel like this gives more flexibility with what I am saying and allows for better visual interpretation from the audience. I have most of my images in place but I still need to fill some small gaps. It seems like my topic, copyright, makes it somewhat challenging to capture my own footage.

Philosophy of Story Telling Revision

Story telling is more than just a set of words on a paper, or one persons’ description of an event. Story telling is an adventure. You follow the brave knight on his journey to slay the dragon. The football player running down the field to score the winning touchdown. It’s more than just one person’s thoughts being told, it’s an entirely new world to each person who hears, or reads it. Story telling is opening up part of your world and inviting people in to come join you on this mystical adventure you are describing. People open up and let others read or hear their thoughts as they describe what they have been imagining for some time. With wide ranges of a hero saving the damsel in distress, from a sports star, or someone who is down on their luck and overcomes the odds to fix what has gone wrong. The beautiful part about this is that the story is not the same to everyone. Regardless of how many people have known of this story there is always bound to be at least one small detail that is different. That’s why story telling is such an adventure. With other forms of media such as movies and television, what the creator wants you to see is put right in front of you. Of course many people have different takes on a show but unlike a story, the visuals are already presented to you so that everyone sees the same thing. They may interpret it differently, but unlike a told or written story people all know what a character looks like, and what they see. Storytelling to me is leaving in this hint of mystery, for people to be able to have their own interpretation of what is going on, to feel like they are actually there besides the knight as he slays the dragon. To be able to see what they want to, and that no one can tell them they are wrong. My project reflects this to a degree in a visual sense. Since my last revision I have started thinking outside the box of other footage I could use. Everything I was trying for was too literal which was very hard to find. Similar to my philosophy I figured I could be more outside the box than I was trying to be, so I started using loser based visuals. The viewer creates the story regardless of the visuals, so in the begging I have a clip of a cheetah chasing another animal across a field. I tried a lot harder to not use as much captured footage because I figured that to make it seem more interesting for the viewer I would try and find more stock footage, instead of the viewer having to watch me doing random things the entire time. I will capture some footage to use in the end as I was not able to finish all of the project but I certainly got a lot more footage than I had before break.

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.

Larry Law Storytelling/Revision

I suspect that there are two major reasons as to why we tell stories the way we do: entertainment and to convey a message to the reader. I’m sure there are other reasons as to why people tell stories and why people are drawn to hearing stories, but in my opinion, these two reasons are fundamental foundations for effective storytelling today.

Everybody loves a good story. We tell stories to seduce the audience, to enrich their lives. Storytellers paint pictures of far off lands, a damsel in distress, or a great war or battle. If you have ever been reading a book and could not put it down due to the anticipation of what may come on the next page, you know the feeling of being fully immersed in a plot. The goal of a story is to deliver not only a literal sense of wonder, awe, and enjoyment, but also to leave your reader wanting more.

I cannot imagine that there is a story that exists that does not try to convey some kind of message. The wonderful part of stories is that, for the most part, they are all unique, each with a different goal and theme.  I have always found that the most entertaining and captivating stories are the ones whose message is not spoon fed to me, but one that allows me to let my creative juices flow. While a direct message can be a productive strategy in some cases, I have always found it more appealing when I’m allowed to do some of the work myself.  The reader wants to meditate on the morals of a story and decode and decipher through all the imagery and metaphors.

The making of a video story involves a much more complex thinking process. Everything in this story is meditated so the precision of elements is crucial. Things need to fall at exactly the right place in order to evoke certain feelings. The ability to use imagery to capture an atmosphere adds an extra dimension to storytelling. The author can take show you and take you places that is just not possible when telling a story any other way. Visuals in a story are what transport the listener into the world of the author. So when a video story contains images, the author is skipping the imaginative process for the listener and showing them exactly what needs to be visualized (This can be both helpful and hurtful in certain situations). Stories can be a very good platform for expression, so when the means of telling a story is able to go into so much depth, it really makes the incident that much more meaningful and impactful for both the author and the audience.

Found footage is 0:55-1:16 (band playing in a poorly lit bar)

https://youtu.be/m6LrM_ydpOE

Greg Wagner Storytelling/Premiere

Storytelling to is an interesting concept. It can come in many forms. Some stories are fictitious. Others are real. Sometimes it is specifically the narrative itself that will capture the audience, and other times it may be the person or the medium in which a story is told that will be the centerpiece. Stories can be told for numerous reasons. A lot of the time they are told to educate people. They can be used to retell past experiences to inform someone. Other times though they may simply be used to entertain. When people think of storytelling, they will most often think of fairy tales and ghost stories around a campfire. This doesn’t have to be the case though. Storytelling at its core simply has to do with a narrative of some sort being presented to others. The narrative itself does not matter – it can be real or made up, informative or entertaining. The method in which it is presented does not really matter either. Most will assume orally when they hear “storytelling”. However, stories are told all the time through music, movies, photographs, paintings and books. There are methods that could be added to this list as well. Storytelling need not involve words or verbalization. It is very possible to tell stories simply through the use of images – as in the case of photographs and paintings. The methods in which stories are told are not mutually exclusive, either. An author of a story may opt to use words, audio, symbols, video footage, or any combination thereof. Storytelling does not need to be the quintessential gathering around for a bedtime story. Storytelling simply involves passing on a narrative of some sort to others, in a manner chosen by the author that to them is most suitable to revealing their narrative.

Video and Revised Philosophy of Storytelling

Like I mentioned last time, 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.  Going back to my 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.

In a recent class we watched the opening credits of a scary movie with happy 90’s rock music in the background.  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 real music was played, we quickly realized this was rather the opening credits to a horror movie. This is a great way that visuals and audio can evoke certain feelings to an audience.

 

I have not changed the audio of my last draft (aside from removing Frank Sinatra’s New York song, which I intend to put back in later), but I have added most or all of the visual elements to my timeline.  Because my project is so dependent on travel, the majority of the footage I have used at this time I did not capture myself.  The few clips I did capture myself were the scenes of the country and the city of Pittsburgh through a moving car, and a few of the still images while listing city nicknames.  I intend to get out and about over the next week and replace some of these sources with original content.

Revised Philosophy of Storytelling/My Project- Cassidy Davis

I believe stories hold an important role in our society. We share them to teach people, to make people laugh, to bond with people, and to remember people. The stories of our life, and the stories we hear along the way, make up who we are as unique individuals. Every person in this world has a different story. We might have similar stories, like for example two people could have lost their grandparents growing up, but the opinion and memories we have from that story makes us individual.

I am an actor, so personally I love the art of storytelling. I do it all the time. I get to tell stories, usually other people’s stories, while at the same time getting to share a bit of myself. That’s why I believe stories are so important because of the effect they can have on people. I mean people go to the movies (or watch Netflix) all the time to do just that- listen to other people’s stories. Whether they are fictional or not, we love getting lost in that world. I love the art of storytelling because I love getting to know other people, to be inside their world for a little, to understand them on a deeper level. Storytelling is a circle. We hear other stories, and as a result are impacted by them, either negatively or positively, and then in turn, we incorporate that into our lives and tell other stories, other lived experiences, other life lessons, and the circle keeps going.

Storytelling is important to me as an actor, but I believe it’s also important to us all as individuals, because it makes us who we are.

Documenting storytelling through a visual medium can be somewhat difficult because it can lack the exact emotional connection that exists when telling the story in the moment, or in person. It’s like the difference between watching a movie or going to a play. Although watching a movie can be exhilarating, there is just something extra exciting about going to see a play. It is a completely different experience. You get to be in the theater with the actors, the performers, and the rest of the audience and experience the entire emotional journey together. For me personally, I am more emotionally affected by plays as opposed to movies (usually, not always) just because there is an extra layer that comes with experiencing it all in person. I think I am facing similar challenges when trying to document my story through visual elements. No matter how hard I look for archival footage, or no matter how hard I try to capture footage on my own, I can’t seem to really capture the exact images/emotions of what that night was like for me. When I think of that night it isn’t the same as the images and footage I have found or created, which has been challenging and frustrating. There is something exciting about using visual elements within the art of storytelling, but I wonder if something is lost within that as well.

For my project I used footage found online as well as footage I recorded myself, which was the footage of the person walking along the street. I also decided to use pictures from that night in order to really bring the audience in to who I was with, what I looked like, etc. I also thought that if something had happened that night, these pictures would have been the last pictures of all of us. So I feel that it adds a sense of eeriness to the project as well. I am still struggling to find some footage/images for parts of the story, but here is my draft for now.

Video Project and Philosophy of Storytelling Korey Klinger

 

Stories are told for many reasons. They are told to entertain, to teach lessons, to express emotions, or simply to spread information. A story is a documentation of some event, either real or fictional. The purpose of telling a story is to create an experience for the audience. The author might be trying to share one of their personal experiences with the audience, or they may be trying to make the audience experience a new fictional story.

Story telling is difficult to do accurately.  A story will have one meaning to the author, but the audience can find an entirely different meaning. The author will usually try to help the audience understand or relate to their story using descriptive language and emotion. Although sometimes the story is told in a way to leave the audience confused. When telling stories, I usually want my audience to get an accurate interpretation of the story. However, when I hear a story, I like to imagine my own version and I often dismiss some details if they conflict with my interpretation.

Stories are told from a perspective, which is often limited. A personal story may be difficult to describe in both a way that feels correct and still portrays the intended message. Through retelling a real life story, the author might change or leave out some details. While this may make it not completely accurate, it may increase the impact and better portray any underlying themes. Even with fictional stories, the audience only has the author’s words, and must fill in the gaps themselves to get a complete understanding.

There’s a lot more to storytelling than just telling the story. Much thought is put in from the author on the arrangement of the story. Should it be told in chronological order? Is there a better order to tell the story? Will the audience be able to follow?  I’ve spent a lot of time tweaking my audio and video projects, cutting and adding pieces, trying to get it right.

When creating a video story, the author must make even more decisions. The author must decide whether to represent their story using literal or figurative visuals and how closely they need to match the events of the story. Here the author also has the option to alter the telling of the story to better match the visuals, as long as it doesn’t conflict with the story’s purpose. The author could use whatever footage they can get, and try to make it fit in the story as best as they can. With my project, it wasn’t possible for me to get anything more than pictures from the original event. I chose to get whatever similar footage I could find online or record at home, and tried to find the most relevant parts of my audio story to put them.

 

Captured footage: first 2 clips of dogs, from 0:23 to 1:40, and from 3:09 to end

Jenn Mikitka Project and Philosophy

*all of the footage that I took for this came out extremely blurry, so I only have one original clip in here. I recorded more, but until I can figure out how to get them to be clear, I found no purpose in adding them in.


We tell stories to learn important lessons. I think that’s why so many children’s stories are didactic. Because we’d remember the boy who cried wolf longer than we’d remember our parents telling us not to lie about things. When we read books by Dr. Seuss, we remember that a person is a person no matter how small and it sticks with us forever. Stories originated as an easier way to relay news and information and while it has evolved significantly, a lot can be said about its roots and continuing purpose. People write about things that are important to them, and if something is important to you, you’ll want people to remember it. Even in the Harry Potter series, the quotes that stick out to us are ones that have a lesson behind them or make us think a little more. For example:  “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” Or “We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” These books contain so many words and phrases that people could choose to quote, but the ones that appear over and over again are the ones that remind us what is important in life and I think that speaks volumes as to what we value in stories and storytelling. Of course, we want to read a good story that keeps us interested and involved, but we also want to gain something morally from it. We love to hate the characters who make bad choices and hurt others and celebrate when something stops them. That’s why the stories that sell have a protagonist who represents the good in the world and the antagonist who represents the evil. We like to empathize with the protagonist because we all like to assume that we are like them- that we are good people who would make the right decisions. When we read books like Speak, we empathize with the protagonist, even though we would likely be just like everyone else who held what happened against her and isolate her. I think we also tell stories to raise awareness. If people didn’t write muckraking stories about things like the meat industry or mental institutions, we would have never known about the mistreatments going on. By telling these stories and releasing this information, people were able to empathize and do something about these situations. If storytelling never existed, there would be a lot more injustices in the world. People like Holocaust survivors and sexual assault survivors tell their stories in hopes of raising awareness and hoping that by telling their stories, the things that happened to them will never happen to anyone ever again

Revised Philosophy/Premiere draft

Philosophy of Storytelling 

Story telling is an art form. A story, generally assumed to be composed of text, can be so much more than words, and may even contain not a single word. A story can be told vocally by a parent, with a children's story book in hand before bed time, just as it can be told completely silently by a complete stranger, with a very particular kind of pained expression in her eyes the instant just before she averts them.  

I believe a true story is never accurate.  In fact, I don't think accuracy can be a condition of a story whatsoever.  No two people will ever perceive the same story in the same manner, as one's perception is shaded by one's unique memories, thoughts, and feelings. One cannot listen to a story without forming associations, whether consciously or not, with his/her own experiences, just as one cannot listen to a story without forming opinions based on personal beliefs. Furthermore, what a person may glean from a story also depends on what is going on in his/her life at the time. One's mood at the time of hearing or viewing a story will highly influence the meaning he/she finds in it.  A story of a romantic connection might be alluring and hopeful to a person in love, while it is frustrating and depressing to one who recently lost it.

 The meaning one finds in a story is just as dependent on the story teller as it is on the listener. The "same story" can be told by two different people with different intentions and beliefs, which greatly affect the way it is passed along. Tone of voice, facial expressions, hand gestures, and even breathing patterns can be just as telling, if not more so, than the words being spoken. The story being told depends on the memories, thoughts, feelings, and associations of the teller just as it does on those of the listener. Similarly to the way a story's perception is affected by the personality of the listener, a true story cannot be told without containing some part of the person who tells it.

Furthermore, a story is told not only through explanation, but through representation; and there are various ways in which this expression can be achieved. The feelings or thoughts evoked by the imagery of an entrancing cloud of smoke swirling through a dark room can be just as telling as the verbal description of a general sense of serenity.  “A picture is worth a thousand words” is one of those cliched truths I can’t seem to detach myself from, particularly in terms of photography.  Capturing the tones of grey in an abandoned school building very well may be the only way to really capture a moment, a feeling, or even the thought of whatever lies behind those decrepit cement walls.  

Story telling is an ancient art, used for creating or supporting religious beliefs, impressing others (perhaps with a stretch of the truth), conveying a warning, or simply as a means of entertainment.  I believe storytelling is a lot of what connects humans, or at least makes us feel a sense of connectedness through mutual understanding.  It draws strongly upon the significance of memories, which are essentially the stories of our minds, based upon experiences.  

Home Video Footage Included:

“a stormy woods scene”

“candle being lit”

“watch close-up”

“eyes”

Revised Philosophy of Storytelling-Andrew Moul

A story is a picture; although instead of using pixels or paints, we use words to convey a message, meaning, or happening. From the moment we learn to talk, until the day we take our final breath, we all tell stories. But let’s not forget the listener. They are just as important, if not more than the teller of the story itself. For the story has already had a chance to leave an impression on the teller, but with every listener, the story has a new opportunity to leave an impression, good or bad, on someone else.

In kindergarten, we are given paper, three primary color paints, and a brush, to create a fridge worthy masterpiece. We may be asked to paint our favorite thing or place, or we may be asked to show our family members and pets. In this simple case, we can now share a piece of ourselves with our classmates. Through this, by using our limited range of skills, we can find similarities or differences, and build friendships and connections by illustrating a story. Our story.

In high school, we enter the art room with a set of new experiences and lessons that a few years ago, we never would have dreamt of. In our first assignment, we are given boxes of prisma colored pencils to express a thought, or a feeling towards something about which we are most passionate. Once completed, these drawings may be hung around the school so the others may share in our passions. Through shading, color choices, and patterns, we can more deeply and with greater complexity, communicate our ideas. Our story.

Once we have graduated, we get jobs and go about our business as contributing adults to society. On weekends, we have spare time which we occupy with visits to movies, restaurants, and the occasional museum. At the museum of art, we have a chance to see marvelous works that portray events, common everyday objects, and people. These pieces on display afford us a glimpse into someone else’s story. We get a chance to listen and learn from their experiences. Their story.

After a life of work, we have the opportunity to retire, and live our remaining years in peace and relaxation. By this point in our lives, we have seen many pictures. Some of which are ours, and some of which belong to others. And it is this time at which we are given a choice of as to whether we share these pictures with others, or if we keep them to ourselves. Do we allow them to impact the life of someone else? Do we open our albums, our picture frames, and our wallets to share our pictures? For remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. Our story.

In my project, I try to illustrate my thoughts as I play the piano. In an effort to help facilitate this, I am going to use pictures and images of my favorite things (to go along with the song I’m playing). These pictures and images will help me to tell my story. My original footage and pictures are those of my piano at home.