Introduction
During this project we Traversed the details of how to tell stories Throughout our classes We were taught a wide variety of new techniques and programs For example we used Pro Tools to make music with MIDI We also learned how to design beautiful Graphics in Adobe Illustrator
This project really Really helped us bring out and truly form the intention of our work especially in English with our narrative flash fictionwhile we were really coached in to fleshingout as many details as possible while still keeping it a relatively short story
Story
In English we were tasked with writing a flash fiction we learned many things like how to develop a character and why show not tell is so important You started by reading other flash fixings so we could be inspired for our own And then we were given brainstorming lists to come up with our own characters and our own setting I chose to somewhat mirror my experience and make my character somebody who’s going to college soon though that’s about where the similarities end After I had figured out the character and the other details I definitely felt ready to start writing it
Read New York Fashion
Alexis looked up from his laptop. The pool of light from his desk lamp was the only light in his room. The cursor blinked back at him as he reread the last sentence of his essay. He finally finished. His portfolio sat next to his desk, full of drawings of example pieces that he had completed during the fashion design classes his senior year. Ms. Carson and his other teachers had already filled out his letters of recommendation. All Alexis had to do was send out his application to the Fashion Institute in New York tomorrow morning, just in time to make the deadline.
2 weeks later
The New Orleans streets were still wet from the rain, which had recently stopped. This late in the year, darkness came early, and even in the late afternoon, all the street lights were on, and the lights from all the stores and restaurants were reflected in the puddles on the ground.
As Alexis walked down the New Orleans Street lined with intricately crafted metalwork
Something in one of the store windows caught his eye. It was a suit. It looked very fashionable, a shade of brownish-green that reminded him of a forest. The fabric had a corduroy texture that he thought accented the color beautifully. The style reminded him of one of the drawings of an outfit that he had included in his portfolio, even though his drawing did not show the soft lines created by the subtle corduroy-like texture.
As he admired the suit in the window, it made him think about his recent acceptance at the Fashion Institute in New York. His feelings about this were surprisingly bitter- sweet. After all the effort he put into the application, he had not actually thought very deeply about the consequences. He felt like the proverbial dog who caught the car: what do I do now?
As he approached his family’s bakery an all too familiar scent wafted before him, the sweet scent of his mother frying another batch of Beignets. The aroma of the deep-fried sweet dough and the powdered sugar was so special that it instantly told him he was home. He thought about leaving all this behind. Were there any beignets in New York? Probably, but nothing would be the same as his mother’s recipe. He suddenly felt a pang of what he realized the homesickness would be like.
As soon as Alexis walked into the bakery, his mom handed him a warm beignet, the hot donut warming his chilly hands. His mom stood back and admired his outfit. “Sweetie, you look so nice in that jacket! You have such a talent for tailoring.” She knew Alexis had used the forest green blazer he was wearing as one of his portfolio pieces. Actually mom I want to talk to you about that he said, mom I was thinking about how this is such a big step in life and i am have been feeling really unsure about whether I should go through with it or not he said as he took a bite the warm beignet in his hand. She looks at him and says that he should go. This is his dream, his goal, what he wants to do with his life. He should not give it up. He can come back and smell the beignets as often as he wants. They will be there, and she will be frying them.
Once we were done with with the story we were tasked with creating an audio book where we recorded ourselves narrating our story and then adding music and sound effects to give it more ambiance and emotion
I learned technically because I learned how to use Pro Tools in different ways that’s not just making music but is also kind of composing and producing
I would want to add one more sound effect if I had time
The music and the story I wrote in English
I will use these so I can make better things for other people like possibly family
This project made me appreciate the work of audio producers and people who work in similar fields
Illustrations
In this project we learned how to use a lot of Illustrator including some very useful features like the pen tool and symbols and we got to experience all that it has to offer
After we were done with the story the next part of the project was to do an Exquisite corpse in illustrator which is a type of collaborative project where you don’t actually know what everybody’s doing until you all reveal it and combine it together all you have while you’re doing it is a start and end point so they all match up
For the Illustrator own choice I decided to make stickers I decided to make stickers that were chicken themed I am a big fan of chickens and think they’re I designed them in Adobe Illustrator I started by designing an Easter egg I made the base elliptical shape and I started designing the detail with inspiration from a reference image I used many shapes and colors for the details on the egg for example one was orange and pointy and one other was green and round after I designed the started on the baby chicken design I found a reference image for the body and used my pen tool skills to trace it I traced it it I added a distinctive I also added cute eyes and feet and to top it off I added a gradient to the body I finished that I made a design of an adult chicken I did first by making the shape and color of the main body and then the head and feet and finally the details
Overall this section of the narrative project opened us up to some very useful and fun skils to use forevermore
Music
For this project we we’re asked to make a song in pro tools All it had to be was 36 bars of music beyond that it was completely open ended
My main inspiration for the song was definitely the Christmas season and just the festiveness of it because that’s when we started the project. Also, I took inspiration from it being a kind of hip hoppy from the drum machine beat that I had made earlier when we were learning the program. What I’m most proud of in my music production is definitely some of the slightly Spacey instruments I used and just my composition of notes. what I value from this project was definitely all the skills in creating music and using especially software that’s professional like Pro Tools. Not just that, but also overall the experience of learning this all was quite enjoyable
Overall recording and editing midi music with a very fun experience and a good skill to have acquired for future use
Design
In design we were tasked with turning our narrative story into a creature hybrid with the traits from the flash fiction
I based this creature on the story I wrote for my English class, about a person from New Orleans who had been accepted to Fashion School and had to choose between that and working for their family’s bakery. Eventually this gets resolved with the character’s mother telling them that they needed to go off on their own and be independent.
The process I took to design this creature started with me taking all of the traits of the character in my story and figuring out what kind of animals embody those traits. The traits were Cheerful, Forgetful, Stylish, Humorous and Adventurous. I also chose a specific body part to represent the animal. The body parts I chose were a robin’s wings and head, a bee’s antenna, a chameleon’s body, a platypus’s bill and the feet of a pelican. Then I went to Google images and sought out the best possible reference photos of these animals that I could trace with the Illustrator pen tool. After I had picked these images I traced them all one by one into line art and then combined them into a homogeneous thing. Then I added color with the live paint bucket tool and I started out in texture. Previously I had created a color scheme which I used in the process of the live painting. After that I added details like fur and feathers. The feathers took especially long because I moved each one individually into place. After that I had to do a linear perspective background. I chose a one-point perspective of a wetland on Lake Pontchartrain with a pier as the main focal point. I also created a beach scene with waves on some water but instead of sand on the beach it was more of a muddy beach to give it a more natural look. I frequently used the feathering effect, except for the pier where I used gradients to make it look more dynamic and less flat. Lastly I chose to position my creature in the sky and positioned it to make it look like it’s flying towards the pier.
The final part of the narrative unit in design was to take a photograph based on our story we were given professional lights that could be many different hues we also had to plan out all the logistics with our model
The character my portrait depicts is Alexis Labauve, a young adult from New Orleans Who has to make the hard choice between the family business and college far away. The moment I am portraying in my mise en scene is a scene where my character looks pensively into a window at a suit. As he thinks through his dilemma, spurred especially by the exquisitely tailored suit in the window
I created this image by first contacting my model and scheduling with them, which was my first challenge because they needed to also take their own portrait and had limited time after school so we modeled for each other. I modeled for them first.
After I modeled for them, they started to model for me. Once we got to my location,
I setup my lights and at first I chose to only use non-colored light but Then I realized it would be more advantageous to use purple light to really convey my emotional point after I had set up the lights I got my model situated with my props being a pair of pants
And an umbrella. After that, I got my model positioned. I started taking photos from all angles. I quite took a liking to a low worm’s eye view angle. After that, I had to narrow my shots down from 71 to just one and I started that by narrowing it down to 32 by removing all the non-colored light ones and then I eventually rounded it down to just one, which required little editing. All I did on that front was to crop the edges to focus the image and also remove some distracting things in the background with the clone stamp tool. I did all of this in Photoshop.
Overall designing both a creature based on traits and taking a picture based on the same trades with a very interesting and fun time that opened me up to so many more skills for the future