English

For the Narrative project in English, we worked on a World Building project where we work as a group to create a world, characters, and the story that they go on. My group’s project was set in a town that is structured around the Vyridian church and becomes in danger when the townspeople bring in a new church bell, which holds an ancient curse that slowly drives the people insane.

Research Paper

Surreal Composition

Another part of the World Building project is the Surreal Composition. The Surreal Composition was a way for us to visualize our world and show our group members how we envisioned the project. It was also a way for us to strengthen our Photoshop skills and learn how to combine multiple images into one.

I created this surreal piece in Photoshop, using techniques such as Quick START Selections with Refine Edge Brush, Smart Objects for Non-Destructive editing, and adjustment layers. My piece includes four images: an old church, a church bell, a ghost lady, and a stormy sky. This was inspired by my group’s Worldbuilding project in English. In our world, there is a small town centered around a church. One day, the church installs a new bell that, unbeknownst to the townspeople, is cursed and causes the people to become mindwashed and sickly. One of the characters in the story is a ghost who was killed by the power of the bell. In my piece, she is represented by the ghost in the window of the church. The idea I am trying to convey through my piece is the overwhelming power of the bell and its foreboding nature. It hangs high and large in the sky, symbolically representing its high level of control. The church is old, abandoned, illustrating how the bell has deprecated the honor of the church. Additionally, by including the ghost, the deadly effects of the bell can be seen. The dark colors and the stormy sky further the feeling of doom. 

My Worldbuilding research focused on manipulative techniques used by cults to control people. One of the main aspects of these techniques was isolation. I represented this in my piece by placing the old church in a desolate environment, devoid of any other life or buildings. My research helped me to better understand the ways in which the church could have come into power originally. In such a small town, most people did not have anyone to rely on, defaulting to the church to fill that role. As the people became more dependent on the church, their values and beliefs began to grow to match those of the church, just as typically happens with cult members. The church then becomes the center of the town and the sole leader of the small town. Thus, when the cursed bell is introduced, it adopts the power of the church to control and hurt people. 

Before this project, I have had times where I wanted to create a specific image I had in my mind, but found that I didn’t know how to. However, now that I have learned how to composite images, I feel more empowered than ever to express myself and my ideas. After learning this, I realized that compositing images is not as difficult as I imagined it would be before. I think I will definitely be using this skill much more in the future.

Pitch Video

After we pitched our world in a presentation to our class, we got feedback from the audience and used it to revise our narrative. Once we finalized the story, we put it all into a compact pitch video. This video gives a brief overview of the world, the characters, and the story, and a short reflection on how we revised it.

Reflection

Making all these projects — the Surreal Image and Pitch Video — was a really fun way to celebrate all our hard work in the World Building project. It’s really satisfying to see a visual representation of our ideas and see the project come to life.