Narrative 1

Introduction

“How well can you visually tell a structured story?”

During the Narrative unit, Freestyle Students learn about tell stories effectively, through many different art medias. We work on describing characters and plot lines through various mediums such as digital art, storyboarding, and film. In the film project, I learned how to craft compelling narratives through visual storytelling techniques, from storyboarding to final editing using software like Adobe Premiere Pro. In music production, I explored how to evoke emotions and enhance storytelling through sound, using tools like Avid Pro Tools. Overall, I learned how to express characters and stories in many unique ways, especially with an emphasis on showing rather than just telling.

Story

In English, I improved my ability to develop characters, build engaging plots, and craft impactful endings. By practicing and learning more about writing, I have learned about way to develop my own style and voice. Additionally, creating art for these short stories in Digital Media allowed me to visually interpret the written word, exploring various styles and mediums to complement and enhance the storytelling process.

For my flash fiction story, I wrote about Eleanor, a woman who has dementia and gets lost trying to find her old home. Along the way, she meets kind strangers who help her, making her realize that home is more about the people around her than a physical place. My inspiration for this story was not something very specific. I wanted to try something different with my writing by tackling the challenge of portraying an older character dealing with dementia, despite not having much prior knowledge. In order to produce the audio version of my story, I recorded myself reading the essay and then added a variety of different appropriate sound effects to immerse the listener into the story.

*PUT SHORT STORY AUDIO HERE*

Lost in Time

Eleanor’s day began like countless others. In her cozy little house, the morning sun shining through the curtains, and the familiar scent of fresh coffee enveloped the kitchen. As she sipped her coffee and looked out at her garden, a feeling of uncertainty settled upon her. The names of the streets and the layout of her town had become increasingly elusive, slipping from her memory. Her gaze landed on a photo hanging on the wall, a frozen moment in time capturing her younger self, her husband at the time, and the home they had built together. A slight tremor coursed through her fingers as she touched the photograph, and for an instant, she was convinced that her true home laid elsewhere, a place she urgently needed to return to. Compelled by this persistent but vague feeling, Eleanor collected her belongings and wandered out of her house. Her only purpose was to retrace her steps back to what she believed was her true home. Yet, the streets she had lived on and walked on countless times were now completely forgotten, and with each step, she unknowingly distanced herself further from the home she had known for her entire life.

As she wandered through the neighborhood’s maze of unfamiliar streets, Eleanor’s sense of disorientation only got worse. She approached a kind looking woman walking her dog. Eleanor showed them the crumpled photograph she held in her trembling hand and asked, “Can you help me find my way home?” her eyes reflecting fear and hope. The kind stranger was a woman named Stella, someone Eleanor had known in the past but could no longer recognize. Stella looked at the photograph, her eyes welling with sympathy. “Eleanor, it’s me, Stella, your neighbor from just down the street. We used to chat over the garden fence all the time.” Eleanor’s memory remained foggy. 

Eleanor’s search for her old home was like trying to navigate a tricky maze in her own head. Having Stella there with her, even though she couldn’t remember her at first, felt reassuring and comforting. More and more people in Elenor’s community noticed her distress and offered their help. In the midst of her confusion, Eleanor was experiencing the kindness of strangers and reconnecting with her own history. Firstly she met a young woman on her way home from work. This woman noticed Eleanor’s standing confused looking at the street sights that seemed to blue into a confusing jumble. The woman, without asking, walked alongside her, casually chatting about the weather and local news. As the walked together, the woman guided Eleanor through familiar streets, subtly incorporating her directions into their conversion. 

The day wore on, and as the sun began to set, Eleanor found herself seated on a park bench, her hands no longer clutching the photograph. She looked at Stella and the other people who had rallied to her aid, her heart overflowing with gratitude. Eleanor’s eyes welled up with tears as she looked at Stella and the kind strangers who had gathered and supported around her. Along with her watery eyes, a gentle smile played on her lips and she extended a shaky hand to Stella, gripping it tightly with warmth for a few moments. This silent exchange between Stella and Eleanor demonstrated her gratefulness that words could not capture. She might never return to her old house, but she had found a different kind of home within the hearts of those who had shown her the beauty of human connection and to embrace the fleeting moments of clarity from her condition, and find happiness in the present.

Above is a behind the scenes screenshot of my Adobe Illustrator project for creating the album cover!

Illustrations

The Illustrator Project was one of my favorite projects so far this year. The goal for this project is to digitally design something in Illustrator and then produce it as a physical object using Freestyle’s various machines – color printers, laser cutter, die-cutting machines, or sewing machines. I chose to create a hoodie design because I thought it would be really cool to produce my own design that could be featured on something I can wear a lot. I specifically am choosing to feature my cat, Nova, because she holds a special place in my heart and plays a significant role in my life. Incorporating her image into my design on this hoodie will celebrate our unbreakable bond. Making a hoodie art design not only produced an aesthetically pleasing clothing piece for myself, but it channeled my creativity into something physical that holds meaning in my life.

Exquisite Corpse Illustrations

This was a collaborative project in Digital Media where three students contributed to creating a unique piece of artwork. The process involves dividing the canvas into three sections where each person works on their one section independently. Then when everyone is done, you put them/align them together for a weird, unique, and creative final piece. For this project I worked with Lucy Patron and Jessie Erb.

Illustrator Project

This assignment was by far my favorite project from the Narrative unit in Digital Media. The overall goal of the project was to become more skilled with Illustrator and use to to digitally design something and then produce it as a physical object using the various machines at Freestyle- color printers, laser cutter, die-cutting machines, or sewing machines.

Artist Statement: I chose to create a hoodie design because I thought it would be really cool to produce my own design that could be featured on something I can wear a lot. I specifically am choosing to feature my cat, Nova, because she holds a special place in my heart and plays a significant role in my life. Incorporating her image into my artwork design on this hoodie will celebrate our unbreakable bond. Making a hoodie art design would not only produce an aesthetically pleasing clothing piece for myself, but it will channel my creativity into something physical that holds meaning in my life.

Music Production

Parody Song Production

The instructions for this project were to choose a song and will write our own PARODY lyrics for at least 1 verse and 1 chorus of the song. We used a karaoke version (instrumentals only) for a backing track, and then went into the recording studio to record our lyrics. In the classroom, we mixed our song – basically finding the best takes, setting levels for each track and adding reverb for the vocals. Below is the MP3 of me and Lucy Patron’s parody song.

This piece of music is one we are very proud of. We wrote a parody of the original song, “FEFE” by 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj called FoFo. Our masterpiece parody was written about Fortnite, a video game that Lucy and I enjoy quite a lot. The lyrics are very well though out to maintain a good flow. We also included Fortnite sound effects to really immerse the listener into the experience of listening to our parody.

Film

In film, we learned about telling stories on screen. We studied how to create interesting characters and structure plots that keep audience interested. Throughout the unit, we watched and analyzed different films to understand how they’re put together. We also had many smaller projects that allowed to practice these different storytelling skills which all helped lead up to the big junior narrative project. Overall, the Narrative unit was all about learning how to tell stories effectively through film and giving us chances to explore our own storytelling styles and develop our skills as filmmakers.

Griffith Scene

The main point of this assignment was learning how to utilize the Griffith Pattern, a narrative structure commonly associated with DW Griffith. The part that was emphasized from his pattern that we were using was the process of introducing the location and characters. First, you show where the scene is taking place (wide shot of the school), then a closer shot of the outside of the tennis courts, a wide shot of all the characters, and then close up shots to their faces. Introducing a scene using the Griffith Pattern is important in film because it engages the audience while also ensuring everything make sense.

Suspense Scene

For this project, we were challenged to create a suspense scene using the different narrative techniques, structures, and patterns to establish this suspenseful feeling. Through the specific setting, characters, pacing, cross-cutting, and sound design we gradually escalated the tension of the scene. This was a super fun collaborative project that taught us how to build tension, anticipation, and any certain emotion which we definitely utilized in our future films.

Chase Scene

Narrative Synopsis

Storyboard

JR Narrative Trailer

JR Narrative Film