Introduction

For our Visual Narrative Project, we were challenged with the question,

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

During this Visual Narrative Project, we learned how to communicate our stories in innovative ways through films, animations, narrative digital art, as well as the essential components of storytelling. In order to produce the most professional work, we created all this work with professional utilities such as the Wacom Digital Drawing Pads, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects, HTML/CSS, and more.

From the Visual Narrative Project, I valued that we were able to create a story based on our own imagination, so it could go any direction and still have a significant meaning behind it. Storytelling can be tough at first, but with this project, I felt that I have improved on my storytelling skills because, throughout the process of writing the narratives, we had the chance to do peer reviews which broadened my perspective of seeing how I want my story to flow.

Story

In our English class, we were given the assignment of writing short flash fiction visually in order to use the principle of “show, don’t tell” to convey a story. In this project, we’ve learned the various creative writing techniques that rely on the use of nonliteral figurative language, imagery, and other fictional writing techniques other than dialogue, such as character development, story structure, point of view, etc. For this short flash fiction, my inspiration was my own life and how I balance multiple activities throughout my daily life. It tells the story of a young woman who must make difficult decisions in life and shows how her “passion” prevents her from following what she really wants to achieve. This narrative is meant to illustrate the point that, rather than pursuing an unpleasant life, the most essential thing is to enjoy what you’re doing.

Illustrations

After becoming familiar with Adobe Illustrator in Digital Media, we were given small projects to further expand our creativity and talent with one another. We were first given the assignment to create an Exquisite Corpse along with a group of classmates. We didn’t really have an overall theme, but seeing what my fellow classmates have done has allowed me to explore people’s creativity and has shown another side of their personalities.

The Adobe Illustrator Project allowed us as artists to explore our creativity even further when producing our own tangible items including mugs, clothing, stickers, puzzles, etc. I chose to produce a design of my dog on a mug so that every time I drink a warm beverage of some sort, I can drink out of something that I made myself and be proud of my work.

”ボンチャン” Artist Statement

For this project, I decided to create an artwork for a mug. My inspiration for this project was to create something memorable and something that I could treasure forever no matter the amount of time that has passed.

I learned that creating something memorable is almost rough in a way because as you’re creating it, it pushes you to create the best version possible because it is so special to you, and sometimes that takes time. I had struggled with trying to find a design that I could do for this project on my mug, but in the end, I decided to go with an artwork of my dog who is no longer with us. Even if he’s gone in reality, he still holds an important part in my heart and life, and when having the chance to create something that’s being printed out, I took the chance to make something memorable and the artwork that I created allows me to feel like he’s here with me again.

Music

Also in Digital Media, we were given the assignment to create a song-mashup/ parody using Pro Tools. We learned exactly how to split a stereo file into two mono tracks, add an equalizer, and add a low pass filter to the final audio, among other techniques, to eliminate the voices from our chosen music. I decided to write a song about how much I love to perform and how it has positively impacted my life so much.

“It’s Time to Dance” by Mia Florendo

Verse 1

Chorus 

Film

Griffith’s Pattern

As our very first exercise in the Narrative unit, we were assigned to create a short film that followed Griffith’s Pattern, where you have a sequence of footage from all distances such as a long shot (entire scenery), a medium shot (normally waist up is subject is a person) and finally close-ups (self-explanatory but closer to the subject, focusing on the eyes to show emotion). This was a collaborative project and working with my classmates to create this short film was nice, and an easy way to dive into the unit.

Suspense Scene

For our second practice film in the unit, we created suspense scenes, using cool angles and editing styles to convey a story. For my group, we decided to go with a more horror-based route, and we created a suspense scene where a girl who is editing her film has someone behind her and follows her every step, but never notices. With privileged position, the audience can see that the monster is behind her but she herself has no clue what is happening. We tried to make it more scary with the lighting and the audio. Hope you enjoy it!

Chase Scene

As our final practice film of the unit, we produced chase scenes! We learned about continuity and the 180-degree rule, as well as viewed a famous example from Back to the Future to gain inspiration! For this project, I was limited on time and resources so it’s not my strongest work, but I hope you like it in the end.

Narrative Film

During this unit in Film, we wrote, directed, produced, and edited our own narrative films. We spent most of the unit in the pre-production phase learning how to storyboard and filmed over a course of a month. We dipped deeper into film language and practiced them through short exercises such as the Suspense Scene, the Chase Scene, and Griffith’s Pattern Exercise. Creating a narrative without dialogue was difficult but it allowed us as filmmakers to create a film based on “show, not tell”.

Pre-Production

This was a collaborative project between me and my partner, Eva Halsey! We worked many hours drafting our storyline, as well as creating the storyboard, both of which you can see below. I believe that with the work we put in, we were able to produce a nice final film. A huge shoutout and thank you to our wonderful actors for this film, Gigi Woolfolk, Jon Halsey, and Rebecca Lowell!

Final Narrative Film + Trailer