Final Project/ Madeline Dattilo

Creative Process Piece

On Creative Process Behind “seance”

I certainly grappled a bit with the first step of this process.  I felt extremely overwhelmed, with a thousand ideas and yet none at all running through my mind simultaneously, and subsequently put off writing my very first draft until the night before its due date. Reading my initial draft to the class, an informative paragraph on Alan Turing, felt wrong.  I knew this wasn't at all a story I was meant to tell. 

My current story tells of a “seance” my current and past best friend and I conducted together around the age of eight or nine.  Writing the story was not particularly effortful; by this I mean it flowed out of me very naturally.  I didn’t feel I had to do too much revision to the initial draft. The seance was a result of the the combination of the knowledge of a concept’s existence without knowing completely what it means, and that all-powerful childhood imagination, which filled in the gaps of our understanding.  I am constantly questioning the line between childhood and adulthood, mostly in terms of how people’s outlooks change in transitioning between the two.  I find the belief that there is a permanent loss of imagination and sense of wonder, as one ventures into adulthood, to be quite depressing.  Is this “loss” intrinsic to humans, or have we constructed the idea of it and trapped ourselves in it?  I, myself, frequently experience intense nostalgia for that childlike wonder that I now sometimes feel is something I almost have to muster up.   

I went into Adobe Premiere Pro with a fairly specific idea of the style in which I wanted the visual  element of my story to be composed, and its aesthetics in general.  This idea consisted of a collage-style video, with many different sources of imagery that connect to each other and  to the story in some way.  My first near-completed timeline consisted of only stock footage, then I added some personal footage, initially just because Jen wanted us to. But after it became a part of my story, I realized it gave off a particularly personal feeling that’s difficult to describe with words.  

Jen also guided me into fostering a more meditative feeling in my video, by implementing certain types of imagery and pacing, since one of the primary themes of my story is essentially living in the moment, as children, by nature, tend to do. 

I still find myself wishing my initial story line had been different so that I could go all out with that sporadic, collage-style way of presenting imagery within my narrative, but I think in the end, being forced to somewhat let go of that style was a beneficial experience. Realizing that the style I was chasing is not necessarily appropriate for all subject matter (simply because I appreciate its aesthetics) bestowed upon me a new understanding of the relationship between a narrative and the imagery used to tell that story.

Video Story:

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.  I don’t think accuracy can be a condition of a story whatsoever.  Stories draw strongly upon the significance of memories, which are essentially the stories of our minds, based upon unique experiences. Memories are not accurate or inaccurate; they simply are. One can neither perceive nor tell a story without forming associations, whether consciously or not, with his/her past or present experiences and the thoughts and emotions that go along with them. A story of romantic connection might be alluring and hopeful to a person in love, while it is frustrating and depressing to one who recently lost the feeling.

The manner of expression of a story highly influences its meaning. The "same story" can be told by two different people with different intentions and beliefs, which greatly affect the way it is passed along. Additionally, something as seemingly subtle as one’s audible breathing patterns can be just as telling, if not more so, than the words spoken. 

Furthermore, a story is told not only through explanation, but through representation.  “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, a visual form of representation.  Capturing the tones of grey in an abandoned school building may be the only way to capture the meaning one gleans from a particular moment, the thought of whatever lies behind those decrepit cement walls, and  the feelings they evoke.

The particular course of a narrative depends on the memories, thoughts, feelings, and associations of the teller just as it does on those of the listener. As 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. This, I believe, is beautiful, in that storytelling is a large part of human connection. The meaning found in a story is just as dependent on the story teller as it is on the listener, and the two have an almost symbiotic relationship in this way.