The worldbuilding unit in English was the main focus of the narrative unit, which we incorporated into our assignments in digital media. In it, we developed narrative skills through worldbuilding–the process of creating a fictional world–in order to think of a full story, involving the world itself, its characters, and their development. Ultimately, we decided what form of media we wanted our story to take (movie, show, etc.) and created a narrative treatment, which is a (in our case) three to five page document covering the narrative chronologically, as it would be presented in a real piece of media. The final assignment of the unit was the pitch presentation, where we made a set of slides and “pitched” our story to the rest of the class, as if we were pitching a real series/movie/etc. to a group of producers.
For my project, I developed a story I’d been working on (mostly mentally) for seven years, more or less. I didn’t really want to do this (especially not initially), since I knew it would be much easier to do the project with a partner, and I was extremely uncomfortable talking about the story I already had, but time and the roster change in the English and digital media classes resulted in me essentially having to choose it anyway. Being completely honest, that was a terrible idea, since my anxiety over talking about my ideas did not go away and I ended up not being able to finish the narrative treatment or pitch presentation.
Still, the opportunity to develop my story and get ideas was incredible compared to what I did with it in the past–I’d never really had the time or urge to develop it as much as I later did in English. Normally, I would link to the Youtube video of my pitch presentation, but I wasn’t able to do that, so here’s the logline and overview.
Logline:
In a sparsely populated world a century after an apocalyptic war, both military powers and physical beings brought into the world from myth present dangers and motivators. Two groups of people living across the world from each other find themselves connected by a thread of coincidence, and embark on a journey to hunt down a mythic beast.
Overview:
A century after a devastating war, the world’s population is drastically reduced. In the decades following the war, the human population has dispersed into smaller, more remote settlements, with heavy reliance on community and shared knowledge. With the near complete disappearance of modern knowledge, the influence of superstition and folk religion has risen, and this influence has begun to give physical form to rumored figures and creatures. Simultaneously, as settlements have stabilized, militias and militaries have formed and rebuilt themselves, and war has begun to threaten the world again. These two forces begin to clash when reports begin to surface of a rumored beast, famed for its valuable, seemingly indestructible pelt.