Introduction
In the Visual Narrative Unit, we asked ourselves, “How can we illustrate a visual well structured story?” We were given the freedom to create any kind of story if it followed the story arc with the three Acts. In English, we wrote a flash-fiction story that we ultimately recorded and created an album cover for Digital Media. In Film, we learned how to create a short-film from pre-production to post-production including storyboarding, casting, management, filming, editing, and more.
What I valued from the Visual Narrative Project that helped me improve as a storyteller is how we are able to tell effective, emotional storytelling through showing, not telling. Since our short-film for Film did not have any dialogue, we had to figure out a way to show what was going on in the story.
Story
Our assignment in English was to write our own flash-fiction story after analyzing and reading many over the course of a month. My inspiration for my story was seeing gender stereotypes in our society still exist today, and using that to create a unique different story while combining some of the things from how I grew up in Tokyo. For the audio, I read my story in a quiet and suspenseful way for the audience to feel the tone of the story. I took this audio that I recorded and edited it in pro tools, adding pauses, sound effects, and music that made the audience feel like they were in the story with all the characters. What I valued from this process was the way we read our stories, and how the way we read it influences what the story is ultimately about.
Through the Hole of the Sliding Shoji Door
Roger was a stubby boy carrying a 50 yen coin with a hole in the middle. He was eight, wearing a gray striped shirt with denim overalls. Only one of his two eyebrows were raised as he lay on the polished maple wooden flooring. He gazed into each detail of the silver sharpened coin, absorbed as the coins he had usually seen did not have a hole in the middle.
Thump. Thump. Thump. He felt a blurred rhythm as it played softly to his ears. Roger clenched his body through a room full of old wired cables with breaking ends going separate ways, washed-out wooden oak tables, and blue plastic bins crowding on top of each other. Roger crawled until he saw a shoji sliding door with a miniature hole shining brightly from the other side, revealing the origins of the vibrations.
Through the hole, Ann, an exquisite brunette flowed smoothly from side to side. She wore a pink tutu that spiked outwards to the corners of the room. Sloop. She dragged her foot on the vinyl flooring, dancing gracefully with wings. Roger, on the other side of the wall, leaned in towards the delicate shoji as his large eyes grew even more prominent. Roger exhaled a sigh of relief as he checked his surroundings in fear that someone was watching him.
Ruth, a middle-aged woman, was walking towards him. She wore a white and black polka-dot dress where the black dots seemed to be endless. She had her hair in a slick, tall bun with clips on each side of her face. She gasped seeing Roger discover ballet as she swiftly dragged him out of the storage room into the backyard.
She filled the backyard with soccer balls one by one, adding a ball as each second passed. Roger’s body started to heat up as droplets of sweat dripped down from his forehead to his eyelashes. The pace of Roger’s breath grew rapidly as he was forced to keep running, mile after mile. Ruth nodded as she smiled at him, pointing to the soccer ball. Ba bump. Ba bump. Ba bump. Roger felt bulky strings attached to the sides of his back, pulling left and right to walk up to the soccer balls. The strings had authority over him that made him dribble, pass, and shoot like a cycle running endlessly: Dribble, pass, and shoot. Dribble, pass, and shoot. Dribble, pass, and shoot. Dribble, pass, and shoot. Dribble, pass, and shoot. Dribble, pass, and shoot…
Roger did not feel time, rather it was like time had stopped. Roger looked around as he felt his life in delay. As the cycle was about to start over again, he tried to move his legs towards the vinyl flooring where the ballerina was, but his body was not in sync with his brain. Ruth smiled and it turned into a quiet laugh. A laugh with mockery because she knew what he was trying to do. Roger squinted his eyes toward Ruth as his stare grew with fuel. The anger in Roger’s body loosened the bulky strings that were attached to his back. The loose strings allowed him to arrange his feet instead of being controlled. When he dribbled, passed and shot, he dragged his feet to the right, then to the left, moving in 4th and 5th positions. He slid his feet throughout his motion to create emotion like he was a ballerina dancing with Ann. He felt a temporary moment of freedom that he had desired his entire life…
Ruth panics in fear that Roger is able to arrange his feet in the way he would like to instead of her controlling him to dribble, pass, and shoot in a masculine way. She tightens his strings like a secured seat belt that locks in response to the rapid deceleration of a vehicle. The strings suddenly take control over his legs, forcing him to follow the endless cycle: Dribble, shoot, and pass. Dribble, pass, and shoot. Dribble, pass, and shoot. Dribble, pass, and shoot. Dribble, pass, and shoot. Dribble, pass, and shoot…
Illustrations
In Adobe Illustrator, we had an Exquisite Corpse project where each person in the group draws a section in the square box. Whether it’s the top of the body, the middle, or the end, the group mates do not know what their group members are drawing so it’s a surprise at the end.
We had a final project where I created a clothing art. My art design went on the back of a hoodie and it involves a hand holding millions of people layered up onto its palm inside bunched up words.
Whenever I’m shopping, I always wish to see more relevant uplifting designs and art on clothing but I rarely do. So for my Digital Media Adobe Illustrator Project, I decided to make a clothing art with a hopeful design. The design involves a hand holding millions of people layered up together onto its palm inside bunched up words. This artwork is relevant to my own life because my core values are empathy and harmony. I believe we should all empathize with others because I think it can unite us as a whole. Seeing all the overwhelming news and hate in the world, I was inspired to create something that spreads positivity and love. This design is my hope for the future where everyone is unanimous “of one voice”.
My design skills grew with this project because from the rough sketch of what our design was going to look like, I had to decide for myself what tools I used in Illustrator to get there. I first began re-drawing the sketch from the paper by using the pen tool on Illustrator, but I did not like how it was looking so I made a copy and hid the pen tool layer and tried using a paintbrush tool. This left a raw sketch look which I loved and represented the design more accurately. From this decision, I learned how different the style of the design looks when using different tools on illustrator.
A struggle that I encountered while creating this design was drawing the straight lines of the layered ‘humans’ with the paintbrush tool. Once again, since I decided to use the paintbrush tool instead of the pen tool throughout my whole design, it made it difficult at times when I had to draw something like this. The layered lines had to look somewhat similar with the distance between them and how it curved. I tried countless times trying to get the perfect straight/curvy line with these layers, but struggled again and again. At one point, I even remember just scribbling around the layers because I had tried so many times and failed. I overcame this struggle when I saw that maybe it wasn’t the lines that was the problem, but maybe the thickness of these lines. When I remembered this, I began drawing over these single lines and making the strokes thicker. When I did this, it looked much better, similar to the rough draft which I was pleased with.
I wouldn’t change much on my design because I like how it is but if I had to, I would change maye the colors throughout the whole design to make it pop more.
I’m most proud of the hand in this project because it looks pretty accurate and we can tell what it is doing. I’m also proud of coming up with a never done before design that is unique.
I will use the ideas I learned on this project in future projects when I create more art and place them onto everyday objects.
This project changed the way I see art because it allows me to be more appreciative that someone took the time to create something unique and kept working on it until they finished.
Music Production
The Parody Project was where we took a well known song and rewrote the lyrics to it to tell a new story. My partner Beverlyn and I took the song, “Stand by Me” and rewrote the lyrics to tell a story about someone’s experience going to a movie theater and asking someone to sit next to them. After we finalized our lyrics, we made a project in Pro Tools that consisted only the music playing along with Ben E. King’s voice so we could replace with us singing the new lyrics. We did multiple recordings so I edited the best soundbites together on Pro Tools to complete our Parody Project.
When we walk inside
And we hear the pop
And the line is the only stale we feel
Yes, I will get popcorn
Yes, I will get butter
When I ask will you sit
Sit by me
So darlin’, darlin’, sit by me
Oh, sit by me
Oh, sit
Sit by me, sit by me
If your eye that I gaze upon
Should contact with mine
Or our pinkies should slowly interlock
I will pay, I will pay
Yes I will pay for you
When I ask will you sit
Sit by me
Film
In Film, we produced a narrative short-film collaboratively with a partner or two. Everyone in the class pitched to the class what kind of film they wanted to create, and we arranged groups. We learned how to make a short-film from pre-production to post-production. There were challenges with collaboration at times and figuring out who did what since we all had to try all the positions. What I valued from this narrative short production is taking the time to go over our story structure using our storyboard to make sure everything in the film is clear and effective.
Synopsis
ACT 1
Fade in.
Asher is standing by a white blank canvas on an easel. He holds a paint brush and stares at the white canvas as he thinks of what to paint. Asher sighs in defeat, puts his paint brush back and proceeds to go into the kitchen where Nathan is cooking two lunch meals for himself and his brother Asher. Nathan offers one of the lunch meals to Asher but he rejects it and takes a chewy bar (Asher is rejecting help from Nathan + Nathan wants to reconnect with Asher but it’s only one-sided.) A stack of mail is on the kitchen counter and Nathan hands him a flier (art competition but he does not see what the flier is) but Asher brushes him off. Nathan forces Asher to take the flier. Asher goes back to his room and leaves the flier and chewy bar aside on his table even before reading it. Asher looks at the blank canvas again and thinks. He seems to not be able to think of anything so he looks at the flier Nathan gave him. The flier says “Most Prestigious art competition in the nation.” It shows the requirements, due date (12/07 11:59 pm), and prompt (“What does it take to be happy with yourself?”.) The camera whips to the calendar where it marks a circle on 12/05. Asher gets up and finds the materials that were described in the requirements. There are quick montage cuts of Asher getting the canvas, putting on easel, getting paint, paint brushes, etc.
ACT 2
10 paint tubes are laying out as it slowly runs out one by one (showing time has passed). Asher is still at his easel, but he’s asleep – he’s clearly been painting for a while. Pan from the messy table covered in paint and brushes up to his sleeping face. Nathan comes in to get an iphone charger and that’s all he’s focused on. As he leaves the room, Asher is sleeping in the background. Something clicks in Nathan’s head and he realizes that Asher’s asleep on his easel so he comes back into the room. He sees a bunch of open paint bottles and puts the caps on them so they don’t dry out. He puts his hand on Asher’s shoulder slowly and nervously, concerned, and Asher jolts awake and pushes him out the hall and slams the door on Nathan who is taken aback and startled. Fade out.
Fade in. 5 Paint tubes are shown and more are running out.
Nathan is eating his food as Asher comes in to get a new chewy bar. As Asher reaches for a bar, Nathan sees Asher’s bruised shaky hand and looks concerned. As Asher is about to leave to go to his room, Nathan grabs Asher’s hand that he grabbed the bar with. Asher is annoyed and yanks Nathan’s hand out of the way. Asher leaves but Nathan follows him. In his room, Asher looks at the plethora of paintings he’s made and sighs in disappointment because he thinks none of them are good. His eyes look at the calendar to see how many days he has until 12/07. 12/07 is marked on the calendar so he only has a few hours. Whip pan from his eyes to the calendar and back. He paces around the room in distress and starts to destroy his paintings, paint, and paint brushes. Nathan peeks around the slightly open door and sees Asher amidst his mental breakdown and looks worried/shocked. He sees Asher’s exhaustion when he breaks and falls to the ground where he begins to cry. Nathan stands there unsure of what to do, staring as Asher is having his breakdown. He leaves in the heat of the moment and goes elsewhere, Asher sees him leave and looks back down and continues crying. A few moments later, Asher looks back up to the door frame and Nathan comes in to put the broken pieces together with glue. Asher is still crying as he looks at Nathan putting many different paintings into one in a patchwork style. Asher tries to understand what he’s doing as he looks around. Nathan walks to Asher and shows him the glued back together painting. Asher wipes his tears and sees what Nathan did for him. He feels the fixed parts in the paintings and his eyes widen. He’s shocked that his brother cared this much for him. Nathan leaves to go back to the kitchen. Asher begins to feel less hopeless as he looks at the patchwork painting and realizes how cool it looks. (He gets the ide i’m a of patchwork style and uses it later)
ACT 3
A while later, Asher goes outside and sees Nathan chilling. This time Asher accepts the food that Nathan made for him earlier but he’s hesitant. Asher sits down and takes a bite and smiles at the taste. A few minutes later he puts his empty plate in the sink and goes into his room. He stands in front of his easel where there is a blank canvas, looks at the patchwork, and takes a deep breath. He thinks for a while and his face turns wistful. He walks back out of his room and walks straight up to Nathan and hugs him suddenly. Nathan waits a bit and is confused, but he goes into it and smiles. The camera freezes and it transitions into a canvas painting of them in the same style as the jumble of paintings Nathan put together earlier. The canvas painting is hung up in an art gallery. People come to look at it and they’re smiling and pointing. From afar, Asher and Nathan are admiring it together and they turn to each other and nod. Fade out.
This is a trailer for “His Muse”. It showed some of the great moments in the film, while not summarizing the film.
Storyboarding for “His Muse”
During the process of storyboarding, we really tried to draw shots that would convey the story in the “show” way instead of “tell.” For example, in one of the scene where our main character cries, in order to see the emotion, we do a close up shot.
For this exercise, we filmed a scene following the shots of the Griffiths Pattern. It follows the pattern but sometimes our focus was off and we should of left the clip at the ending last longer.
For this Suspense scene exercise, we tried to build suspense. But, some parts in our scene broke the suspension of disbelief.
For this Chase Scene, I found a very nice location that set the tone of the scene and filmed handheld which helped bring drama to the scene. There were definitely some parts that I could have included more shots to bring more suspense.