Introduction
The Visual Narrative Project was one of the most fun units I had this year, and as the name states, included visual story telling and narrating. In English, I wrote a fictional story, and learned how to apply visuals in my writing, with emphasis on “show, not tell.” In Digital Media, I learned many new technical skills, like producing my own custom graphic designs, or even my very own music. Finally, in Film class, I produced my first short narrative with a partner, which taught me many things. It will be shown below, along with the creation process and the full movie.
I valued many things from this project; some of the most important would be collaborating with peers, expressing my visual creativity, and bringing my ideas to life.
Story
In our English class, our major assignment was to write a “Flash Fiction.” This proved to be a very difficult unit, as we had to write our stories completely from scratch. I agonized over what I wanted to make my story about, until I finally decided on a high schooler struggling to ask his crush to dance. I tried to make the story based on an average guy’s experience, but was also inspired my myself(although I did spin off a bit).
The writing process started with a “Character Questionnaire”, which involved brainstorming many different aspects of the main character of my story. In this questionnaire, I put many of my own traits into the character, but in the end did not really use much of them. The next step would be the “Protagonist-based Plot Map”, which mapped out the exposition, rising action, climax, falling points, and then resolution of the story. It provided the base structure of my story.
The first step to producing the audio for this story was recording a voiceover narration of the full story. There were many failures, when I stuttered or felt like my voice sounded weird. Then, I put the recording session into Pro Tools, in which I was able to add sound effects and music to show the tone of the story. I wanted to convey certain feelings to the audience in certain scenes. Honestly, the production process felt a little awkward, hearing my nerdy voice and wacky story.
In this project, I valued being able to tell my story the way I wanted to tell it. Being the author, narrator, and editor allowed me to know exactly when a change of tone, sound effect, or anything else would be appropriate. Below is the full recorded audio, along with the full story.
The neon lights shone upon Bo’s pale face, a myriad of red, green, purple, and all types of colors blinding him. He was exhausted; jumping up and down to the music between a swarm of sweaty bodies tired him out. He would not really call it dancing, although others might have. Sweat dripped down his tan face. He had a strong chin that showed when he smiled, and had straight teeth. He lifted his hand up to his temple, and he felt bumps of acne as he wiped the sweat away. He sheepishly tried to push his hair down to expose less of his forehead. He had spent twenty minutes styling his hair earlier, staring at himself in the bathroom mirror, moving strand of hair by strand. There was no trace of that now.
Underneath his brand new leather shoes, the coarse turf of the football field massaged the soles of his feet. Yet the comfort of the massage only made him feel more nervous. He awkwardly swiveled his head between the tornado of short rouge dresses and oversized tuxedos swirling around him. The suit he had gotten to fit made him feel more put together than most of the people he saw, but he was not the tallest. He could not see over the large moshpit of people jumping in front of him. As he walked around, Bo felt lost trying to look for a group of people he knew. Then, he saw her. She was bouncing softly to the music, laughing with some of her friends. Her pink floral dress lightly bobbed up and down to the beat of the rap song; the flowers seemed to be dancing too. Her hazelnut hair swayed back and forth, and she had her hands up in the air. As he was staring, his eyes met hers. Bo quickly averted his gaze, and embarrassingly shuffled the other way. He hoped she didn’t notice, but in the back of his mind he knew she did.
He sighed and walked over to a nearby table, plates of half eaten pizza messily laid out. No one was there, so Bo assumed they were dancing.
He picked the spot farthest away from the clumps of plates, napkins, and cups, and slouched down on a chair. There wasn’t much time left; Bo had already missed the first few slow songs, and there would only be one more. He knew he liked her. He was fifty-percent sure she liked him back. Bo was not an unattractive guy; he had confidence and dressed well. But he always felt nervous around her. He thought of the letters he had written, but tossed out. The posters he designed, but never used. He laughed in his mind when he remembered writing the letters. Who does that now? He thought back farther, to the start of the school year. They had only one period together, but he had been attracted to her since he saw her walk into class on day one. She had this glow; this sway that entranced Bo.
The music stopped, but only for a second. The last slow song was playing. Bo took a breath. He ran his fingers through his hair, and stood up. He straightened his posture, slightly puffing out his chest and pulling his shoulders back into an upright position. He heard people complaining, asking to switch the song. He saw others start to walk away, leaving the large dance area. He fixed his suit, took another breath, and sauntered up to where she was standing. He was feeling good, and strode forward with confidence.
Finally, they were right in front of each other. His heart felt like it would beat out of his chest. He saw her friends out of the corner of his eye, giggling and whispering to each other in a small huddle. She was slightly flushed, and her large green eyes crinkled. She grinned at him. He grinned back, and extended his right hand towards her, his cupped palm facing the night sky.
Illustrations
We created many illustrations in Digital Media class this unit using Adobe Illustrator, like our short story album arts, exquisite corpses, and then our final project. These drawings allowed us to express or visual creativity and art for many different aspects. Our exquisite corpse project was a collaboration between three people, in which each member would draw a different part of a corpse. The corpse, or body, was divided into three sections that each one of us would draw on without knowing what our other group members were drawing. The sections did not necessarily have to be body parts, and there turned out to be some crazy illustrations.
Our final project was a custom art of our choice; we would create a design on illustrator, and then apply it to a tangible item. This could be our own stickers, a custom T shirt, candles, or much more. I chose to do a custom T-shirt – I wanted to create something I could wear at the Boba shop I work out. I drew a simple cup of boba tea, and heat pressed it onto a T-shirt.
My inspiration for this project was my job. I wanted to create something simple, eye-catching, but still adhering to dress code. I work at a boba shop, so I decided to draw a cup of boba to paste on a shirt. I grew by learning how to use Adobe illustrator better, and making my drawings more symmetrical and neat. I encountered struggles with the drawing process of my design; an example of this is drawing lines too long, at the wrong angle, or intersecting lines where they shouldn’t intersect. I overcame these problems by going slow, zooming in and making sure I got the tiny details in.
I would change the way I draw the cup next time, as it looks a little funky and blocky. I am most proud of the way the design turned out; it is a simple cup of boba that looks drinkable on my T-shirt. I will use the ideas I learned on this project in future projects or other areas by making sure to be patient, as rushing too fast will not give me desired results. This project changed the way I see others’ art by showing me that everyone has their own art style. There were many options for this project, and people made their own special unique designs for all kinds of the options.
Music
The parody project was a project I collaborated with a few of my friends on. We wrote a parody of the song “Allstar” by Smash Mouth, and all sang it together in the recording studio. The recording session was definitely the most fun part of the production. The process in producing the parody song first started with making and “perfecting” the lyrics. Then, all four of us went into the recording studio and sang together. We took the recorded audio and put it into Pro Tools, where we edited our own lyrics over the original song. We had already learned the process of removing the original vocals from the song, and used techniques like inserting a Low Pass Filter and using reverb. Our vocals were not very great, which made it even funnier listening to it, giving its parody feeling. Editing, mixing, and incorporating audio proved to be a lot more difficult than visual/video editing I did in other projects. I do not enjoy it as much as editing on for example Photoshop or Premiere Pro, but hearing the final product was very satisfying. The inspiration for our new parody lyrics was to create a dumb, funny, and out of the ordinary song about the game Fortnite.
Somebody once told me tryhard are gonna troll me
I ain’t the smartest gamer in the world
He was looking kind of scary with his finger and his thumb
In the shape of an “L” on her forehead
Well the noobs start coming and they don’t stop coming
I use my umbrella then I hit the ground running
Didn’t make sense not to live for fortnite
Your brain gets melted but you still have fun
So much to do, so much to see
So what’s wrong with taking the launch pad?
You’ll never know if you don’t try
You’ll never win if you don’t camp
Hey now, you’re an fortnite star, get your game on, go play
Hey now, you’re a pro gamer, get the show on, get paid
And all that glitters are legendaries
Only fortnite stars break the mold
It’s a hard game and they say it gets harder
You really suck up, wait ’til you get older
But the roblox kids beg to differ
Judging by trash games in their fixture
The 90’s we Built is getting pretty thin
The storm’s getting close so you might as well dip
My builds getting fired, how about yours?
That’s the way I like it and I’ll never get bored
Hey now, you’re an fortnite star, get your game on, go play
Hey now, you’re a pro gamer, get the show on, get paid
And all that glitters are legendaries
Only fortnite stars break the mold
Hey now, you’re an fortnite star, get your game on, go play
Hey now, you’re a pro gamer, get the show on, get paid
And all that glitters are legendaries
Only fortnite stars break the mold
Somebody once asked if I could spare some wood for builds?
I need to get myself away from this place
I said, “Yup” what a concept
I could use a little builds myself
And we could all use a little wood
Well the noobs start coming and they don’t stop coming
I use my umbrella then I hit the ground running
Didn’t make sense not to live for fortnite
Your brain gets melted but you still have fun
So much to do, so much to see
So what’s wrong with taking the launch pad?
You’ll never know if you don’t try
You’ll never win if you don’t camp
Hey now, you’re an fortnite star, get your game on, go play
Hey now, you’re a pro gamer, get the show on, get paid
And all that glitters are legendaries
Only fortnite stars break the mold
And all that glitters are legendaries
Only fortnite stars break the mold
Film
During Film class this unit, we learned many narrative movie making skills and produced several short films. A few examples of this are learning how to use Griffith’s pattern, and making our own chase scenes. We were challenged to produce these films on our own, doing our own casting, shooting, and editing. I valued the time my actors, classmates, and teacher gave me during movie production.
Griffith’s pattern is one of the most fundamental film-making techniques we learned in this unit. Griffith’s pattern is used to establish the setting for the rest of the scene, and gives the viewer an easier time understanding where the characters are and where the movie is set. I worked on this scene with a group of 3, and we figured out a little story to our scene. We were also challenged to add other specific shots to the scene using other techniques we learned.
Suspense scenes are especially popular in horror movies, and even action movies. They are made to keep the audience nervously anticipating what is about to happen next. Oftentimes, suspense scenes are so suspenseful because the audience knows something important that the character in the movie doesn’t. It is an important tool in film that many directors utilize to capture the audience. I also shot this scene was also shot in a group of 3, and it was fun playing the main character.
Chase scenes are some of the most action packed scenes in movies. They involve many changes in direction and pacing that make sure the action never stops. There are specific rules to be followed when making chase scenes, like the line of action and which way characters should be moving. I decided to add my own little touch to my chase scene; instead of making it just two characters running, I choreographed a short fight scene at the end.
One of the largest projects I’d ever worked on this year was actually in this unit. We were challenged to produce a Narrative Film, in which unlike our last experimental unit, was a full motion picture with characters and a story. I worked with a partner on this film, and it was a story of two men: mentor and mentee, fighting against ninjas out to kill them. We used all of the other techniques and information we learned not only this unit, but the whole unit in Film class. This project was definitely the most challenging and time consuming projects I’ve ever had, even though it was a two person collaboration. We needed multiple shooting days to film new shots or retake ones we didn’t like, and sometimes actors or directors couldn’t be there. Additionally, editing even a few minutes long film would take a considerable amount of time; our film was over 10 minutes. However, there were no regrets in the process; effort was put in, time was used efficiently, and the finished product turned out super entertaining. We also had to make our own short trailers individually based on our narratives, and I only realized how exciting the movie would be when watching the trailer after I completed it. Below is the trailer you can watch before the full film: “Iron Tiger”.
The first step in creating our Narrative Film was storyboarding. Every single film starts with a storyboard, which is similar to a flip book. We drew different shots and frames on note cards that when all placed in order, would tell the whole story and its synopsis without the maker having to explain. The drawings don’t have to be well drawn or colored, the only point of a storyboard is to quickly get the whole idea down into something visualizable.
Film synopsis:
Act 1: The scene is established on a dull, green hill on a cloudy day. Two men stand on the hill; one is training, while the other, the mentor, is watching. The student obviously is not putting much effort into his training, and the mentor is disappointed. Later, the two are walking when they suddenly at a bridge crossing they encounter two ninjas. The conflict starts, ending Act 1 and starting Act 2.
Act 2: One of the ninjas gets smashed immediately by the Master, while the other ninja pummels the student. The master then goes on to break the second ninja’s arm, which forces him to flee. After his awful defeat, the student starts to vigorously trains with his master, sparring with him every day and improving his skills. Bit by bit, he gets better and better, even getting so close as to ending in a draw during a spar with his master. Finally, the student is able to beat his master after a long time of training, but both stay humble. One day, the two are peacefully drinking tea, when they see an ominous group of two ninjas and one samurai approaching. They are the allies of the ninjas they had battled earlier. A serious and bloody battle ensues, the student is knocked out and the master is left alone to fend for himself. He cannot handle a one on three, which so gives us the abyss moment of the duo. This signals Act 2 has finished, and Act 3 is beginning.
Act 3: The master does his best, but is defeated with two fatal wounds. The student wakes up and notices his master lifeless on the ground, in a heap of blood. He is despaired, but stays calm. He inhales a deep breath, and takes on the three enemies, vengeance for his master drives him. He defeats the three, ending the samurai master with a devastating one-inch punch. He goes to his master, who is only alive for a little longer. With his dying breath, the master grips his student’s hand with his, proud of how far he had come.