Narrative 1

Introduction

The Narrative unit is the unit where I learned how to properly tell a story. In English, we did a flash fiction which is a fictional short story. This helped me to learn how to properly write a fiction piece. In Film, I worked with my Partner Mia to create a story about a Grumpy old man with a good heart remember who he is and help a little girl get her teddy bear back. I really enjoyed this unit and working on the narrative with my partner because we got to create a cool story that incorporated what we both wanted to do. Lastly, in Digital Media, I crated a sketch of Patrick from Spongebob and turned it into a patch!

Story

For my flash fiction, I had no idea what to do for it. I have a lot of ideas and am very indecisive so I mostly just based it on my narrative. I tarted with an idea of a grumpy fisherman who meets a young boy who is itching to go fishing with him. He’s reluctant and stingy but he ultimately comes around and opens his heart up. I made an album art cover for my short story in illustrator and I think it turned out really well. I produced my audio using my Tascam recorder and I’m really happy about how the English part of the Narrative unit turned out.

The Fisherman

Tall as the great redwoods surrounding his cabin, the man with the one-eyed stare could turn anyone who dared to look at him to stone. Wingo wore an eyepatch and hobbled from his cabin to the icy Alaskan ocean every day. He grabbed his rod and took to the sea as he always did, cigar in his mouth. 

As he arrived, a young man who wore yellow boots, a white jacket and a copper brooch of a salmon pinned over his heart stood directly in the way of Wingo and his boat. 

“Excuse me sir, I’ve seen you around fishin’ and I was wonderin’ if I could come along with you. I know of a great salmon spot.” 

Wingo didn’t look up, he just grunted and walked past him, but the boy continued.

 “I can help you! And I know it can be borin’ out on the sea on your own.” 

Wingo took the cigar out of his mouth 

“No. Now leave me alone.” Wingo turned and continued to his boat, loading up, grabbing another pack of cigars from the fish shop, and taking off to sea. 

After half an hour, he found a quiet spot where the shore was nothing but a speck in the distance, and the ocean was a vast land of opportunity. He was putting fish bait on the hook and imagining catching a King Salmon when he heard shuffling under a tarp at the bottom of his boat. He crept up to the tarp, grabbed a fillet knife and slowly approached the source of the noise. He pulled the tarp up in a swift motion, revealing the boy from before lying on the bottom of the boat. 

Wingo’s look of concern quickly turned to anger. He started yelling at the boy while the boy was apologizing profusely and pleading with him not to kick him off the boat. Seeing the little boy on the verge of tears, Wingo let out a sigh. Realizing that he was miles from shore, he turned to the boy and threw the can of fish bait down into his hands.

“If you’re gonna be here, you oughta be useful, got it?” The boy nodded silently.

They stayed like this for a while. The rod had been cast out again and again, the lure switched over and over and yet, nothing. The fish couldn’t be bothered by some lazy bait and predictable tactics. The boy, whose arm was tired and nearly numb from holding the bait out for so long, said,

“Are you even tryin’ to catch fish? Because if you are, The salmon spot is the place to be, not in the middle of nowhere.”

Wingo shot him an icy look. “I’ve been doin’ this for years so stop your yappin’ boy!”

“Please?” The boy asked.

Some may have thought that the pigment in the boy’s face reflected that of freshly fallen snow but when Wingo turned to the boy, he saw his face as that of a ghost. 

Wingo sighed heavily, starting up his boat. The boy sprang up with excitement at Wingo’s unexpected compliance, and with that, they were off.

 When they got there, Wingo couldn’t believe his eye. There were a myriad of salmon swimming around the boat. He had never seen such a densely crowded population of salmon and without allowing himself to think another thought, he snatched the fish bait, hooked it, and cast out his rod with a swirl of excitement and anticipation.

 Not even ten seconds later, he felt a tug that made him tense up and he began to reel it in, but it was too big of a force that he thought he might get pulled into the ocean with it. “Come help me boy!” The boy ran over, grabbed the reel and started cranking vigorously. 

The two fell backwards on the boat with the huge fish landing on top of Wingo’s bloated stomach. Wingo laid there for a moment, slightly taken aback, wondering why he was at the bottom of his boat with this immense weight on his belly. He looked down to find the salmon, big enough to have a week’s worth of food. He was ecstatic and started cheering. “Look at the size of this thing boy! We did it!” 

He turned excitedly to the boy to find him looking down at his hand, which had been slashed by the fishing line. Blood was gushing out of the open wound and onto his white jacket, making the boy pass out at the sight of it. Wingo dropped the fish immediately, grabbed the gauze from the first aid kit and wrapped it around the boy’s hand. He remembered himself doing that same thing when he was a boy learning to fish.  He had hoped someone would be kind enough to help him, but no one ever did. He started the boat back up and headed to shore, thinking about that memory the whole way home.

When they reached shore, the boy woke up to a foul smell and a piercing pain in his hand. He opened his eyes to see Wingo holding a cup of vinegar under his nose. He looked down at his hand which was now covered in gauze. “You’re awake. You alright boy?” The boy nods, looking down at his hand and then to the open first aid box. 

“Did you…did you wrap up my hand?” The boy asked, standing up looking at Wingo with a raised eyebrow. 

“I did. You’ve gotta be more careful, I don’t need a liability. Make sure to work on your reel before next time.”

  The boy looked up at him. “Next time?” 

For a split second, he thought he saw the corners of Wingos mouth turn up ever so slightly. 

“Next time.” He said. 

Wingo then turned and drove his boat away without another word.

Illustrations

In Digital Media, I created 2 things: an exquisite corpse and a patch. I had a lot of fun making them but they tok a long time for me to draw

This is the exquisite corpse we did in groups and mine it the Kraken to the far right. I chose this because I’ve always been fascinated by sea creatures and the tale of the Kraken so I decided to try and recreate a Kraken eating a boat using illustrator. I’m proud of how this turned out because I spent a lot of time on it but I wish I could’ve polished it up more and do more of a side profile.

Here’s a video simulation of my patch being embroidered!

Now I present…

Some challenges I faced when doing this project was figuring out how to fill the shapes with colors because they were all individual lines. Luckily, I remembered the live paint feature which is a feature that colors in a shape made with lines and that saved me a lot of time. Overall, I’m extremely satisfied with how my project came out. I put a lot of time into this project and it came out exactly how I wanted it to. I’m excited to use the knowledge I’ve gained from this project to create more things like this in the future.

Music

In Digital Media, we got to make parody songs. It was close to the Christmas season so I decided to do a parody of “Winter Wonderland” By Michael Bublé with lyrics describing how annoying it is to spend a lot of money Christmas shopping. I wasproud of this parody and think I did a good job to make it relatable.

I had a lot of fun making this parody and think it’s something a lot of people can relate to around the holidays. I ended up making this song at home because I didn’t have time to do it at school. I think it turned out pretty good and it took me a lot of time to do so I’m happy that it turned out well.

Film

Griffith:

For our Griffith’s Pattern Scene, I worked with Kylie and Mia. We decided to do a scene of a girl trying to open a building but failing. We used the Griffith’s pattern: Establishing shot, Medium, Close-up etc. We had a few continuity errors but overall, I think we did a good job on it. We learned a lot about continuity and film language.

Chase Scene:

Fo my chase scene, I decided to do a bit where Natalie takes CJ’s gum and they chase each other around trying to get it back. This was a lot of fun to makes because my friends made it with me and I ended up learning a lot about the 180 degree rule and continuity.

Suspense Scene:

For my suspense scene, I made it with my friend CJ. We chose to do it about this guy who gets an urgent call and runs to his car. His shoelaces are untied and there is a lot of obstacles in his way. This was supposed to be suspenseful because we don’t know whether or not he’ll trip! We asked our friend Owen from Design to be our actor.

Narrative:

In Film, we were challenged to create a Narrative film. This means that we had to create an idea, storyboard it, get actors, and produce it. This seemed very overwhelming at the beginning but we did it piece by piece which made it easier. My partner and I had an original idea to create a narrative about a girl losing her bracelet in a subway and someone trying to find the girl to give it back. We eventually developed it into a story where a grumpy old man is on a train with a little girl who leaves her stuffed animal behind. The old man debates whether or not to go after her to get it back but he ultimately does. I had a lot of fun creating this film wit my partner and I think it came together. I want to thank my partner Mia for being open minded and helpful throughout the Narrative. I couldn’t have done it without her!

First we Started with a Narrative Film synopsis, which is an overview of what our story’s about.

Narrative Synopsis By Eva Halsey

Act 1

We are starting out the film with 2 characters in a metro train and the main character sitting down in the train with

a notebook in hand, drawing something in said notebook on a page titled “Wishlist” and she’s smiling and closes the

book and holds it to her chest in adoration. The train makes an announcement that they’re at the stop. The Main

character notices and starts to get up to move off the train. The other girl also gets off the train and the main

character looks up to the other girl who is tucking her hair behind her ear and notices the other girl’s bracelet. The

other girl brings her hand down from her ear to her pocket and pulls out the item the main character drew on her

wishlist.

Act 2

The other girl turns and walks away and drops her bracelet making a sound. The main character notices the dropped

bracelet, and goes to pick it up. The other character turns the corner and leaves the station and the main character

gets up and starts running after her to return the bracelet. The main character turns the same corner as the other

girl to see the other girl going up a crowded escalator with a bunch of people behind her. The main character is

stressed because there are so many people and is scared they’ll lose the other character in the crowd. The main

character goes on the escalator and tries to find her by looking around people and pushing through to get to her but

failing. The main character then sees the other girl get off the escalator while the main character is half-way up. The

main character finally reaches the top of the escalator and is lost in a crowd trying to find the other character and

spots them walking down a street while they’re still stuck in the crowd.The main character makes it out of the crowd

and looks at the street the other character went down and it’s empty. The main character is confused and frustrated

that the other character keeps getting away and almost gives up but looks down at the bracelet and remembers the

goal of returning it to the other character. The main character hypes themselves up to find the other character. The

main character walks into a building on the street and asks the front desk and employees if anyone owns the bracelet

and gets rejected by everyone and this is repeated a few times with the main character going into different buildings

and getting rejected by everyone she asks.

Act 3

She goes into the last building on the street and asks the employee about the bracelet and gets rejected again. The

main character is tired of the chase and trying to find the other character so they just give up and begin to walk out.

The main character touches the door handle when they hear a girl crying and turns to look at who it is. The main

character looks at the other character and remembers her from the train station. The main character walks up to her

with the bracelet in hand and holds it out to the other character who is crying. She looks up at the main character in

surprise and takes the bracelet, smiling at them and thanks the main character for returning the bracelet . The main

character smiles back . The other girl reaches into her pocket and takes out the object the main character drew

earlier in their notebook as a gift for returning the bracelet. The main character holds the object to her chest and

smiles.

Story Boarding:

After we create our stories, we have to draw out each shot. I’m not the best artist but I had a lot of fun drawing out all the scenes. Throughout the storyboarding process, we made many changed to our story and it turned out for the better.

But sometimes it was hard and frustrating to draw every single scene. This was especially true for me as I am not an artist and struggled with drawing.

All jokes aside, storyboarding was very fun and a crucial part of making a Narrative Film.

After we started filming, we pieced scenes together to create a trailer for our Narrative Film.

After all the storyboarding, editing and filming, our Narrative Film was finally complete!

Overall, I’m very happy with this unit! I learned a lot about storytelling and how to create something really cool in Illustrator. If I could change one thing I would probably edit my Narrative film more but I’m proud of how it turned out. I’m definitely going to be using Illustrator again to make Illustrator projects in the future.