Introduction
For our visual narrative project, we learned how to visually tell a structured story. In English, we read many different stories before writing our own. In Digital Media, we then took that story and created an audio version of it. In Design, we took the characters from our short story and created various projects related to them using Illustrator and Photoshop.
Story
In English, we started this unit by reading many different short stories by various authors, like the play Red by John Logan and the novel 1984 by George Orwell. We then took what we had learned about writing and applied those techniques to our own short story. We started by creating a character and figuring out their personality, needs, and wants. We then created the plot based around those things. I wrote about a girl named Jasmine whose best friend Lily had moved away when they were children. I was inspired by my own experiences of dealing with many close friends moving away when we were in elementary school.
In Digital Media, we recorded ourselves reading the short story out loud and then editing the audio in Pro Tools by adding music and various sound effects.
Overall, I valued improving my storytelling and learning different techniques to create more interesting characters. I also valued being able to bring my story to life through audio.
Here is the full recorded story!
Sunlight filtered through trees and a breeze drifted through the leaves as Jasmine walked down the concrete stairs of her school. She breathed in the crisp fall air and sighed contentedly. Finally, sweater weather was here. Leaves crunched under her boots as she crossed the road towards the direction of her house. Jasmine absently fiddled with the bracelet hanging around her wrist, the soft thread worn from years of use. Suddenly, a memory prompted by the bracelet flashed through her head. Today was the day she was video calling with her childhood best friend, Lily. Jasmine started walking faster and faster, then finally breaking into a sprint, eager to get home quickly.
She had first met Lily back in 2nd grade, when they were in the same class and assigned to sit next to each other. They quickly bonded over their shared flower related names and grew closer throughout elementary school. However, their dreams of attending middle school together were crushed when Lily moved a few states away. As they sat together on the curb of the sidewalk on their last day together, Lily pulled out two matching bracelets from her pocket. She passed one to Jasmine and explained how they could both wear the bracelets and be reminded of each other, no matter how far apart they were physically. Jasmine admired the twisting V’s of the chevron pattern and the skillful knots of the string. Tying the bracelet around her wrist, she giggled, “Now we’ll be friends forever!”
Coming back to the present, Jasmine decided to take a shortcut through a nearby park. She zipped past children playing in sand pits and people walking their dogs. Her mind completely focused on getting home, she didn’t notice a toy sand castle in front of her and stumbled over it. She managed to catch herself on a bench right at the last second and breathed a sigh of relief. Panting, Jasmine absentmindedly brushed her hands on her jeans but suddenly felt a coolness on her wrist. Confused, she looked down and saw her bracelet falling to the ground. She grabbed it, panicking, trying to put it back together, but there was no use. It had been completely sliced through and the woven threads had already started unraveling. Jasmine stood there for a few moments, gaping at the mess of purple and white string curled in her palm. How did this happen? Looking around, she realized there was a sharp piece of wood poking out of the bench she used to catch herself. It had missed her hand, fortunately, but her bracelet had not been so lucky and got caught on the splinter. She slumped to the ground, feeling numb inside. Logically, Jasmine knew it was just a bunch of string knotted together, but it was also much more than that. That bracelet had kept her and Lily connected over the years through middle school, then graduation, then high school. It was as though Lily was still here and they were celebrating those milestones together.
Tears welled up in Jasmine’s eyes. What was she going to tell Lily? How was she going to tell her that she broke the object tying their friendship together? Deep down, she knew they were already growing apart and feared this was the last thread connecting them together. Sighing, Jasmine wiped her face and stood up, trudging back home. Her previous excitement turned into anxiety and she felt more and more nervous about the upcoming call.
Once Jasmine arrived home, she opened her laptop and heard the familiar ringing sound of an incoming call. She stared at the screen and for a moment, contemplated pressing the red decline call button. Shaking her head, she took a deep breath and accepted the call. Jasmine was greeted by Lily’s grinning face and, once again, felt overwhelmed by anxiety. She tried to smile back, but it could tell it looked very forced. Lily’s face dropped and she looked concerned. “What’s wrong? Is everything okay?” she asked. Jasmine opened her mouth, but no words came out. She tried again, but still nothing. Tears once again began to fill her eyes and she struggled to hold them back. “Hey, it’s okay. Just let everything out,” Lily said gently. Jasmine explained what had happened in the park in between sobs as Lily listened carefully. Once she finished, she looked down at her lap, afraid to see Lily’s reaction.
“You know…” said Lily, her voice interrupting the silence, “we can still be friends without the bracelet.” Jasmine snorted, relieved at Lily’s joke. “It was just something I made to remind us of each other,” Lily continued, “Our friendship doesn’t really depend on it.” Jasmine sniffled loudly and asked, “Will this change anything?” Lily paused for a moment, and then said, “Well, you have to admit, our friendship has changed a lot. We’re not really as close as we used to be. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, and we’ve learned to adapt without being physically together.” Jasmine nodded; she had felt this too, no matter how hard she tried to ignore it. “I guess I’ll have to get used to having a bare wrist now!” she said, chuckling sadly. “Maybe not quite yet…” Lily said, winking mysteriously.
A few weeks later, while Jasmine was rifling through mail, she noticed an envelope with familiar loopy handwriting on it. She opened it and started laughing. Inside was a brand new friendship bracelet, just like before. The colors were the same, but the design had been updated. Different shades of purple and white wove together to form an intricate pattern. Tying it on her wrist, Jasmine felt complete again, as though a part of her had been missing. She was transported back to that day all those years ago when they first exchanged bracelets, but it was different now. This time, she knew, bracelet or no bracelet, her friendship with Lily would remain strong.
Illustrations
In Digital Media, we created an exquisite corpse in groups of 3 or 4. We were each assigned a part of a canvas on Illustrator and only given the starting and ending points. Without knowing what the other members of the group were drawing, we had to draw something following the start and end points. Then, we put the art together which resulted in some funny surprises. Here is my group’s exquisite corpse!
My favorite project of this unit was the Illustrator project, where we drew something in Adobe Illustrator and turned it into a physical object. We had many different options, ranging from stickers to embroidery patches to tumblers. I chose to create a wooden light box, with different designs on the top and sides. There were many steps to this project, from drawing it on Illustrator to printing it out with a laser cutter, sanding the wood, cutting diffuser paper, gluing the diffuser paper onto the wooden panels, then finally installing the led light strips inside. Overall, I had a lot of fun making this and learned many interesting new skills. Here are some photos of the process!
Here are close-ups of the designs:
My inspiration for this project was the name of one of the main characters from my Flash Fiction. Her name is Lily and I thought it would be cool to create something using a drawing of a lily flower. This project was challenging because I had to think differently than I usually do. Instead of just drawing lines, I had to think about which parts were going to be cut out of the wood and which parts weren’t. I also had to make sure the design would be structurally sound. Additionally, my original idea for one of the sides of the cube did not work out due to technical reasons so I had to adapt and come up with another idea. However, I am very proud of the final product, especially once the lights were in. I also learned a lot of interesting new skills that I can apply to future projects like how to sand wood and install led light strips.
Music Production
In Digital Media, we were instructed to create a parody of a song by rewriting the lyrics. I worked in a group with my friends Rye D and Sofia D.
Lyrics:
Chorus (sung by all):
Pick-up truck, pick-up truck, pick-up truck
I want to drive my pick-up truck, pick-up truck, pick-up truck
I want to drive my pick-up truck
I want to drive my truck
I want to drive my pick-up truck
I want to drive it how I like
Verse 1 (sung by Aditi):
You say blue, I say red
You say wine, I say beer
You say rights, I say hey man
Feminism ain’t my scene
But I do love guns
Verse 2 (sung by Sofia):
You Say Gay, I say Hell
You say choice, give me God!
You say science, I say Lord
I don’t believe in the vaccine
Thick sunscreen or Halloween
Now you listen to me
Chorus (sung by all):
Manager, manager, manager
I want to talk to manager, manager, manager
I want to talk to manager
I want to talk to boss
I want to talk to manager
I want to talk to – the police forces are coming your way
Verse 3 (sung by Rye):
So forget all your rights but mine
Strong alpha males, they’ll be lifting today
So look out for those hotties, like me
Karen babe? Uh oh, no… !
*Cut music*
Spoken outro:
Karen (voiced by Sofia): “Hello??? Hi hello?? Is anyone there?!? We need to speak to an employee!!!!”
Employee (voiced by Aditi): “Ma’am, we closed an hour ago…”
Design
*explain narrative creature project*
To make the creature, I first brainstormed different animals to represent the different personality traits of the protagonist Jasmine. Then I found different photos from the internet, placed them in Adobe Illustrator, and traced the various body parts. The Murtolotlfly is a mix of an axolotl to represent kindness, a butterfly to represent curiosity, a turtle to represent being easygoing, a dog to represent loyalty, and a magpie to represent creativity. I used an axolotl head, butterfly wings, dog body, turtle legs and shell, and magpie legs and tail to create the final creature. I also used color theory to create a color scheme representing those same five personality traits. For the background, I drew Jasmine’s bedroom using two-point linear perspective. Overall, this project was definitely challenging because of having to get all the proportions right and making the creature look uniform. I also struggled with drawing the details in the background with two vanishing points. However, I am very pleased with the final result and how all the little details came together. If I had to change something, I would probably try to add more shadows to the creature, especially the head, because I feel like that area looks a little plain compared to the rest of the creature.
For our next project, we took a photograph of the main protagonist from flash fiction in real life with a model and various props.
My flash fiction is about a girl named Jasmine and her best friend Lily. Jasmine and Lily have been friends since elementary school but one day, Lily moved away. In order to stay more connected, the two exchanged friendship bracelets. The main conflict of the story is that Jasmine’s friendship bracelet breaks and she feels like her link to Lily is gone. As the story goes on, Jasmine realizes that she doesn’t need to have a physical memento to feel close and her friendship with Lily is still strong. In this scene, Jasmine is sadly looking at her bracelet just after it breaks while she was on her way home from school.
To create this photograph, I first planned out the mood, props, lighting, background, and outfit that best represented Jasmine in this particular scene. Since I wanted to capture a sad mood to show her grief over the severed bracelet, I mainly used blue lights with an accent of pink lights. The red shadow behind the model represents her underlying anxiety at Lily’s reaction. I chose to take this photograph in a backyard because this scene took place outdoors in a park. The tangled purple and white string in the model’s hand represents the broken bracelet. The heart necklace symbolizes how Jasmine is an affectionate and friendly person. After taking around 75 photos with my DSLR camera, I narrowed it down to my favorite and edited it in Photoshop. I used an orange photo filter to tone down the blue lights and a cyan photo filter to counteract the pink lights. Furthermore, I added a black vignette to frame the photo and keep the eye focused on the subject in the center. I think the biggest challenge with this project was figuring out how to use the lights to best convey the mood I wanted. However, I am pleased with my work because I like the different colored lights and the composition of the photograph, especially the shadows. If I were to do this differently, I would probably lower the intensity of the lights while taking the photograph because they came out really saturated. Even though I tried toning down the colors in Photoshop, I still feel like it looks a bit strange. Overall, I enjoyed this project and valued practicing using the studio lights.