Philosophy of Storytelling
Like any message, stories can inform, entertain, or persuade and include elements of logos, ethos, and pathos. The telling of the story depends on the desired effect, feeling, or takeaway. I used to think of a “story” as a children’s book with a clear beginning, middle, and end that all connected and had a narrative arc. Storytelling can involve much more than the straight-forward sequences of events, and there doesn't necessarily have to be a clear message or take-away. I now think of stories as a collection of events, ideas, or descriptions. Stories can progress and build meaning through content, images, sound, videos, and effects. Each physical element of storytelling is important in the overall impression, and the creator’s decisions in composition impacts the story. We all know people who are good storytellers and others who are not. Each person will have a unique approach and sequence of decisions they make in telling a story. Content on its own may not seem like a “story,” but if it the content is composed well in a collection then it takes on its own life through the telling. For me, there is a blurred line between reporting and storytelling sometimes. A story doesn’t necessarily need to be something entertaining or emotionally impactful; a story can be a sequence of events, but good stories incorporate more and bring things to life by composition. Stories can leave the audience with a feeling and/or information. This is a much broader definition than what I used to think of, but there are so many approaches and formats that stories can take, so the term can encompass a range of content and composition.
Project Reflection
I took a while to decide which direction I wanted my project to go. After playing around with some ideas and composition, I kept the story and overall idea of the video consistent throughout the semester so I could stick to it and try to improve what I had. Creating the audio story was a task on its own since there are so many details and stories that I could have included, but I tried to stay focused on my transformation from hating cats to being obsessed with the new family cat. When I started to add images and videos, I wanted to show a variety of visuals without distracting from the audio. There are points where the images line up with the audio content, but there are other moments when the visuals are supplemental. The volume and variety of images I have of George speaks to the end result of my story: I love George! I took the approach of a family video or scrapbook to communicate this, and I continually rearranged visuals to make more sense and flow better. My purpose was to inform the audience of my family's story of getting George, entertain with some of the parts of the audio story and images, and create feelings that were warm and happy in talking about a beloved family pet.
I didn't do too much with effects since that wasn't needed to help communicate my story. I focused on scaling and positioning, working to format every visual to fit the screen the best it could. I also formatted occasional zooming and panning when appropriate. One video clip near the beginning, in particular, was off-center and wide-framed, so I set multiple scale and position markers throughout the clip to follow George's movement and get rid of the surrounding furniture in the room. I worked to space out the videos and images, the zooming and panning, and keep the visuals moving along with the audio story. There are two sections where I used a series of images together. I transitioned together the two images of my sister holding George as he tries to escapes to make it replicate his motion more. I also put three images of George laying lazily together in one frame since they went together and filled up the screen better than if they were on their own.
I included some images with family members, but not too many since I wanted the focus to be George. My family of six is shown in the last image with George, as the finale in communicating that he is an important part of our family and no longer an unwanted new creature that he initially was for me and my dad. If I included images of my family members with George all throughout the video, that would've made it more personal and probably would've required some more context of my family members. The story is one of personal experience, but I still wanted there to be room for the audience to take in the story without fully attaching it to me, and I want the audience to pick up on things that they could relate to. Rewinding to the beginning of the video, I used the archival video and two images to show the impersonal, cold, unfriendly, dark idea of cats that I had in my head before we got George. The progression from a black and white hissing cat to a colorful family photo with a cat communicates my experience perfectly.
No comments:
Post a Comment