Ben Kreiman

For my Visual Narrative Projects I used my own experiences to craft fictional stories based on reality.

For my Narrative in Film project, I collaborated with Noam Sheba to create a short film centered on friendship and basketball. Throughout the production process, we encountered numerous challenges, from discarding several fully developed story concepts to overcoming difficulties in securing approval for the project. Despite these setbacks, the experience taught us the importance of persistence, adaptability, and creative problem-solving. Working through these obstacles ultimately strengthened the final film and helped us develop a deeper understanding of the filmmaking process.

In English class we had to write a short story about whatever we wanted. My inspiration for the story was my personal life experiences in elementary and middle school.

After writing the story I read it and made an audio production using Pro Tools.

I used music to set the tone of the story in certain moments and sound effects to add ambience and make you feel as if you are in the story. I am most proud of making a cohesive work involving sound and story design. I think this can be incredibly useful for making films and any work that involves some sort of audio editing because they say that sound can make or break immersion.

Solving the Equation

Solving the Equation

I feel a cold, bony fist hit me right on the nose. The whole world seems to stop for a second. Without a second thought, my hand is flying into his ribs. This hurt him; I can see he’s leaning over slightly. Before I even know it, fists are flying everywhere. The hallway is packed to the brim. All the kids around us are yelling words that are, to me, unintelligible; all I know is they are probably cheering us on. I love this feeling, I feel free; all that is on my mind is what is in front of me, Jonathan. This kid has been talking shit about me forever, and now it’s his time to pay. I hit him with a clean hit to the chin; now he’s off-balance. One more clean swing and he’s dropped. But before I can swing again, someone grabs me and pulls me off of him. The teachers finally made their way through the crowd. The next thing I know, I’m in the principal’s office… Again. This is the third time this month that I’ve been here. The principal looks at me, 

“What happened to our promise?” she said, disappointed in me. I promised her last week that I wouldn’t get into any more fights, or else I would get moved to a class for troubled kids. 

“He wouldn’t stop talking about my mom,” I replied. I hate it when people make fun of my family. 

“You know what this means, right? You’re now with Mr. Powell,” she said sternly.

This is the worst thing that could happen to me. I’ve been in my class all year, and all my friends are in it. While Mr. Powell’s class has all the weird kids. His class is full of bookworms and know-it-alls who do science olympiad and other nerdy things.

“Do I have to?” I ask cautiously

“Yes,” she answers…

Mr. Powell’s Class

“2 announcements before we start class. 1st, we now have 12 caterpillars, one for each student, that we will be taking care of and watching them sprout into butterflies over the next 4 weeks.” Mr. Powell pulls out a medium-sized jar filled with leaves and twigs. If you looked closely enough, you’d see green caterpillars blending in with the environment.

“Second, we have a new student. His name is Richard. He will be here for the rest of the year,” Mr. Powell says.

I look around, embarrassed; everyone knows what I got transferred for. I see tons of new faces that I’ve never seen before, all looking at me in disgust, as if I’m sub-human. It is a massive school, so most of the time when kids change classes, they completely alter social worlds. All my friends are now across the never-ending hallways back at my old classroom. I sit down in my new seat and look around at my new peers. They’re all looking at me strangely, so I look weird right back at them. I hate this class; everybody hates me already, and it’s not even been an hour. Mr. Powell starts lecturing about some stupid inequality thing. I zone out, staring out the window, in a different class with a different view, and I’m still learning absolutely nothing.

“And Richard, what is the answer to number 6?” Mr. Powell asked, in a powerful voice

I look up at the board and see number 6.

“X is less than 5y,” I blurt out, unsure of my answer

“Correct!” He responds, “You know your stuff, Richard!”

I didn’t think I was actually right; I mean, I didn’t guess it or anything, I just never tried to solve a math problem. It feels great, you know, doing something you didn’t know you could…

You know when you feel like you’re stuck in a time loop. When you feel like everything is happening over and over with no change, and you are stuck in the center. Well, that’s how I feel right now. I wake up, go to school, and go back home. I can’t fight anyone anymore, or I’ll get outright expelled, so no fun. I have no friends in the new class and they all seem to hate me. I feel dead even while being alive. I guess that’s why I like fighting, the adrenaline makes me think clearly. It’s the only time I can feel alive and have clarity of thought. It feels warm and almost home-like when everyone is out there cheering my name in the halls, even though none of them really care about me. Mr. Powell’s lessons are all teaching useless things like graphing linear equations and figures of speech. Why would I need to write when I can just speak?

“Richard, pick your head up!” Mr. Powell exclaims sternly

I jolted straight up in my chair, completely in shock. I think I got caught in a daydream again.

“Now Richard, have you done the graphing worksheet yet?” Mr. Powell asks

“No, not yet,” I respond

“Well, you have 10 minutes left of class, so you’d better get to work.” Mr. Powell says

“Ok”

I look down at the sheet of paper sitting on my desk and glance at the clock. I have to get this done by the end of the period. There are 15 problems on the paper. As the answers pop into my head, I write them down. By the time I’m done, there are 4 minutes left. That means it only took me 6 minutes to do 15 problems.

“Done!” I exclaim to Mr. Powell with my hand raised

“15 problems in 6 minutes, Richard?” Mr. Powell says doubtfully

He looks down at the paper and checks each answer carefully. He looks back at me.

“You did all of these correctly. Did you cheat off anyone?” He asks

“No, I did it all myself,” I respond, offended

“If you really did all of this, you should consider joining the math olympiad team.”

I sit and ponder for a second. I’ve never thought that I was smart enough to be in the math olympiad; I’ve always known I’m good at math, just not that good.

3 weeks later…

I don’t like to admit it, but I’m starting to really enjoy Mr. Powell’s class. We have one week until the caterpillars are out of their cocoons and have completed their metamorphosis. They have been really cool to watch every day during class instead of paying attention. I just started working on my math olympiad application with Mr. Powell during lunch break. He’s said that he is starting to see that I’m really progressing in class.

I used music to set the tone of the story in certain moments and sound effects to add ambience and make you feel as if you are in the story. I am most proud of making a cohesive work involving sound and story design. I think this can be incredibly useful for making films and any work that involves some sort of audio editing because they say that sound can make or break immersion.

For my Exquisite Corps project I wanted to make a 2D drawing that looked like a 3D world. I drew an ominous hallway because I wanted the drawing to be a little off putting.

My Short Story album art was meant to represent the story I wrote about finding a purpose and growing out of your negative behaviors.

Illustrator Project

“The chaos of the design is meant to represent the chaos in my mind even while I’m doing something as simple as walking.”

In Illustrator I was able to let ideas flow right onto the paper with no barrier. It allowed me to try every idea that I had and see if it worked.

Music Recording Project

During the Music Recording and Creating section of the Narrative Project, I completed two different projects. The first was the Music Recording Project. This project involved recording and producing a song in the studio environment while learning about the professional music production process.

One of the biggest challenges I faced was rewriting many of the original lyrics to make them school-appropriate while still keeping the meaning and flow of the song. This required multiple revisions and careful attention to the wording. Through this process, I learned more about recording techniques, audio editing, and how much preparation goes into creating a finished music track.

The Music Recording Project gave me valuable experience in both the creative and technical sides of music production, from lyric adaptation and performance to recording and post-production.

Experimental Music Project

The second project I created was an Experimental Music Project. For this project, I used nine different MIDI instruments to create a unique and unconventional song. Instead of following a traditional structure, I focused on experimenting with different sounds, melodies, and rhythms. Much of the creative process involved throwing random ideas into the project, layering instruments together, and seeing what combinations produced interesting results. This allowed me to create a song that constantly changes and feels unpredictable.

The project was heavily inspired by jazz, particularly its focus on improvisation and creative freedom. Rather than carefully planning every section, I let the music develop naturally as I added new ideas and sounds. Some parts were unusual and unexpected, but that was the goal of the project—to explore musical possibilities and create something original. Through this process, I learned how to use MIDI instruments more effectively and gained a better understanding of how experimentation can lead to unique and expressive music.

The music recording projects were some of my favorite parts of the narrative unit as they gave me a chance to have fun with making music. For the future I would like to learn some music theory and how to sing, so that both projects would be higher quality.