Narrative 1

Narrative 1

Introduction

In the Narrative Unit, students learned to tell structured stories through a number of different mediums. In English, we wrote Flash Fictions, narrative essays of less than one thousand words. In Digital Media, we learned how to use HTML and CSS to enhance our WordPress websites, used Pro Tools to create audio recordings of our Flash Fictions complete with sound effects and background music to create an immersive experience. In Film, students created narrative Short films. We wrote, storyboarded, casted, and filmed our Narrative project.

Throughout this unit, I have learned how to effectively work with others. In Film, my project partner Emma and I worked well together. We compromised when we had conflicting ideas, worked to solve problems, and planned efficiently. In English, I learned to read my peers’ work and give constructive feedback. I also learned how to take others’ criticism of my writing and apply it to improve my work. In this process of creating my Narrative projects, I have developed my storytelling skills and digital art and creation skills. I feel that I have improved as a storyteller and a digital artist both in visual and audio art. I value the lessons I have learned and am excited to continue using these skills in the future!

Story

Flash Fiction Process:

Character Questionannaire

One of the first exercises we did in the process of crafting our Flash Fiction Essays was the Characer Questionannaire. This was to get a sense for who our characters were. Even if we were not going to state all of these facts about the characters in our essays, it was important to get to now them so that they come across as complex people. Characters are a very important part of a story. If your characters are flat and lifeless, the story will fall flat. This is why we spent a lot of time developing our characters for our Flash Fictions.

Through the character questionannaire, I discovered that Martina was selfish, blinded by her ambition, and apathetic towards the suffering of others. She was deeply insecure and was desperate to feel like she had control over her life. The questionannaire was around sixty questions, but I have chosen a few to showcase here.

Martina’s Questionannaire:

Plot Map

The plot map was the next step of the process. Here, I used a shorter version of the Hero’s Journey strucutre to organize my story. My final story ended up straying from this map because of the length requirements for the essay. I redrafted this story many times and continued revising the theme until I felt that the story and the characters would come through to the reader.

1. Status Quo
   • Martina is selfish
     • Cheats, lies, steals, 
     • It started just once in a while, she would tell white lies. Now, she hurts people every day. She enjoys it. She finds it thrilling to do things she knows are wrong. She doesn’t give thought to the consequences or what happens to the people she hurts.
2. Inciting incident
   • Uses Anna, who thought they were best friends, for self-gain, and discards and replaces her. 
   • Anna was strung along for months, and Martina was biding her time to cut ties with her.
3. Raise the stakes
   • Anna is hurt, but Martina doesn’t care.
   • The next week, Anna doesn’t show up to school.
     • Now, Martina misses her. She is lonely.
4. Turning point
   • Martina has an epiphany. She realizes how close-minded she has been.
     • She goes to visit Anna.
5. Denouement/The final act
   • She begs for Anna’s forgiveness, she needs it badly because, to her, Anna’s forgiveness represents the forgiveness of all the people she’s wronged.
   • Anna doesn’t forgive her
     • Martina has lost her only friend, someone who was deeply important to her, and whom she never appreciated.
6. Outcome/New Status Quo
   • Martina decides that she must right every wrong she has committed. She sets out to investigate how people may have been affected by her misdoings.

The assignment in English was to write a Flash Fiction Narrative Story of no more than one thousand words. I wrote a story about two young friends, Anya and Martina. Anya is invited to Martina’s house one evening. They have fun at first, but things take a turn when a prized vase accidentally breaks.

I produced an audio version of the story with music and sound effects. I recorded myself reading the narrative in one of the ISO Booths, and edited the pieces together in Protools. I found that everytime I took a breath, or shifted in my seat, the microphone would pick up the sound. This means that between every sentence I spoke I had to cut out unnessecary noises and piece the tiny individal clips together.

Creating an audio narrative helped my to see my story in a new light. Using the story I had written, I explored an entirely new medium, and another way for an audience to experience the story. I now have one story expressed in two ways: writing and audio.

Anya stared through the wrought iron gates, into the valley where the house lay. Even from afar, Anya felt the building’s presence. It gleamed as sunlight reflected off the marble, forcing her to squint her eyes. The building contrasted with the surrounding greenery so harshly that it looked like it had been pasted there, collaged on top of the rest of the scene.

It was Martina’s house. The invitation today had not come entirely out of the blue. The two had become close and would play often at school. 

The gates swung inward, allowing Anya to make her way down the driveway to the white steps. The bushes were neatly trimmed, the windows were unstained, and the floor outside was oddly clean. There were no leaves beneath the foliage, no spider webs, no dirt smudges, no flecks of mud. Everything was pristine.

The cleaning lady opened the door. Her kind wrinkled face put Anya at ease. The lady nodded at her respectfully, picked up her blue supply basket and mop, and shuffled away down the hall. 

The entrance was beautiful but sterile, and eerily silent. As Anya slipped off her shoes, the cold from the tile floor seeped through her socks and chilled her skin. 

A swooping staircase cascaded down the back wall, and intricate carvings made their way from the center of the ceiling down to the baseboards. Light refracted through the chandelier crystals and scattered around the room.

Anya heard Martina’s shoes click-clacking on the hard floor, quietly at first, then louder as she got closer. 

Her voice pierced the air, as she greeted Anya. The silence had taken up residence in the room, and by breaking it, she forced it to retreat. 

She led Anya up the stairs, and through a dark hallway, where they passed a sizable pink vase, half hidden in the ebony shadows. The hall debouched into a spacious playroom filled with toys. Anya recognized many she had walked past in storefront windows. She remembered how she had begged for new playthings, only for her parents to state firmly that they couldn’t afford them.

They played for hours, winding up frogs, pushing tiny cars around the room, and even hosting a tea party for the dolls. 

Their games progressed into the unlit hallway. They raced their cars along the carpet, down to where light from the door frame illuminated the end of the hall. They ran back and forth, never tiring.

On the last round, as they were getting back to the end of the hallway, a loud crash exploded behind them.

Both skidding to a halt, they turned to see what had caused the noise. It was too dark to make out what had fallen, but a shadowy outline slumped across the floor.

Martina flicked on the lights. She was starchy white, eyes wide, and afraid. She approached the crumbled pile in the middle of the carpet. Anya followed, kneeling beside the rosy ceramic shards which looked like they had once been a pink vase.

To Anya’s surprise, Martina was crying. The joy was gone. She stood next to the rubble, tear-streaked, her face full of anger, and desperation.

She jabbed her finger into Anya’s face. “Yo-You!” Her finger shook accusingly between Anya’s eyes. “You broke it!” She shrieked. 

Anya stood up in defense, sure of her innocence. The little table, which she assumed the vase had been placed on, was on the side that Martina had been playing on. 

Martina continued, sobbing in despair. “My Mother can’t know about this. She can’t!” Martina howled dramatically, wishing for the incident to not be true. 

Anya stood awkwardly, feeling that the situation was out of her hands. They stood silently for a minute, wishing they could leave the pieces there, and forget it ever happened. 

Finally, Martina turned towards Anya, her eyes boring into Anya’s with newfound bitterness. “Since you broke it, you have to clean it up.” Anya stepped back in dismay, but Martina folded her arms like she had seen her mother do many times. 

Though Anya felt certain of her guiltlessness, she didn’t want to risk Martina’s friendship. 

Martina left without saying anything and reappeared with a broom and dustpan. She stood and watched as Anya swept the remains into a paper bag. Anya, a criminal, forced to labor. 

When she finished cleaning Martina grabbed her arm, refusing to look at her, and dragged her down the staircase. Anya stumbled after her, clutching the bag of rubble. They went back through the front doors and around the back of the house. A shabby garbage shed was precariously leaning to one side, almost collapsing. 

Martina opened the door. Reeking garbage barrels were crammed into the hut. Martina roughly shoved Anya amongst the trash. The door slammed behind her, and Martina click-clacked back to the house. 

The shed was devoid of light and stunk of rotting eggs and a dead animal. Overwhelmed with fear, Anya ran back and yanked at the door handle. She jolted it every way, but it refused to open.

“Martina!” she called. 

No answer.

“Martina! Please!”

 The old wood of the door splintered her hands. She hit and kicked it, and threw herself into it, but it didn’t budge. 

Anya began to bawl. She wished the vase had never broken, that she was still up in the playroom with Martina. She thought of what her mother would think when she never returned home. Surely her family would worry, surely they would search for her. 

The minimal light that filtered into the shack was rapidly diminishing. A chilly breeze found its way through the cracks of the decrepit shed. Her pants had become soiled and grimy in the filth. As she breathed harder, panicking, the stench grew stronger, filling her lungs. Anya sat in the dirt for a while. She wondered how she had gotten here, and if she would ever make it back home.

I learned how to record my voice, edit the pieces together and merge them into one clip, and then decorate it with SFXs and Royalty-free music. I enjoyed the freedom that we had with this project. I could tell my story exactly the way I intended it to be told. I used music that I thought fit best, and searched for sound effects that matched the story. I learned how difficult and time-consuming creating audio stories is. I have more respect for people who create podcasts, audiobooks, and meditation audio.

I struggled with deleting all of the extra sounds that were recorded when I first recorded myself. Every time I moved or took a breath, the sound was very loud, so I had to cut all of that out. I also had trouble finding the right music and sounds for the story, because I had to choose the one that fit the vision that I had for the listening experience. I overcame this by putting time into the project and being decisive.

I would have spent more time looking for sound effects that fit the idea I originally had. I also would add music that fits the emotion of the story. For example, guilt and sadness in the parts where the character is feeling those emotions.

I am most proud of creating an audio version of my narrative story that I can show to my family. I am proud that I was able to add music and sound effects to enhance the listening experience. I was able to cut out parts, and string together many small clips to create a smooth-flowing story.

I will use the skills I learned in audio production, audio editing, and the use of SFXs in future audio projects. I feel very comfortable using Pro Tools now. I will be able to create audio for other classes as well.

This project made me realise how much work audio production takes. I value and respect the audio that I consume on a daily basis, more than I did before this project.

Illustration

In Digital Media, we focused heavily on illustration this unit. We had our Exquisite Corpse projects, our Choice Illustration Projects, Short Story Album Covers, and Website Heading Banners. The main focus was to learn how to use Adobe Illustrator, which we used for all of these projects. I drew all of the Heading Banners on this website page using Illustrator.

Exquisite Corpse group image

In the Exquisite Corpse project, we were partnered with three other classmates to create an exquisite “creature”. We weren’t allowed to know what the other students were making, and the final product was revealed as a surprise. My illustration is the third from the left, with the pink background and flowery bush. I wanted to create something fun and bright. The gold rings radiating from the bush were a final touch that I think brought everything together and made the artwork more interesting.

Illustration Project Choice

For this Illustrator Project, we were given the choice to use our artwork to create anything we wanted. You could use your illustration as a T-shirt or sweatshirt design, you could make it a night light, a patch, or a mousepad. I decided to make a tumbler. Below is the artwork I made, titled Beach Scene.

Title: Beach Scene

For the Illustrator Media Project, students were given creative freedom to create what they wanted using Adobe Illustrator. I decided to create a Tumbler that I could gift to my father. I printed a beach scene onto my tumbler. First, I drew out my design on Illustrator, then I heat pressed it onto the tumbler. I was inspired by symbols from childhood: a bucket, a shovel, flip flops, a small flower. I was reminded of the memories I had when my father would take my brothers and I to the beach. I also included objects that you often find or bring to the beach: an umbrella, a beach towel, sunglasses, rocks, a crab, and bits of grass. My father loves the beach. Hopefully, he will be able to use my tumbler for his morning smoothies.

This project is different from our previous projects for other classes because we created a physical object that can be used in our day to day lives. The tumbler I made will be used by my family, and it will continue to be seen by other people. In my other classes at Freestyle, we communicate ideas through writing or video production and film. In Digital Media, students learn how to express ideas through digital art, design, audio production, and photography. This project mainly focuses on digital art.

I became very familiar with Adobe Illustrator during this project. I primarily used the pen tool, but also the brush tool, and shape tool. I learned how to make gradient designs and create groups and compound paths in the layers. I became more confident in my digital drawing skills. In the future, I hope to become more familiar with the Wacom tablet. I think this could help me to improve my ability to create art digitally. I am proud that I was able to create a design and turn it into a final physical product that will serve a purpose. The tumbler will be useful to my family and will display my artwork. I will use the digital skills I learned from this project in the future. I will be able to create digital art for projects in the future and use Illustrator recreationally. This project helped me to see the value in digital art and appreciate the time and effort that artists put into digital works.

Being creative through Illustrator was an entirely new and exciting experience for me. It was very different from photoshop and the other Adobe applications we had used so far. It allowed me to express my art in different ways. Illustrator was difficult to learn at first, because there are many different tools and functions to the application. However, once I understood how it worked, it was very effective and useful in creating illustrations.

Music

Junior Experimental MIDI Music in DM

For the Experimental Music Project, I chose to make Experimental Interstitials. These are short musical pieces that play as transitions between scenes or other pieces of music in films or advertisements. I made five different pieces with varying themes and tones. I produced them with the intention that I might be able to use them in a film, or another digital production.

I first learned how to use ProTools, which has many different functions that were hard to navigate at first. I discovered which instruments I liked, what kind of feelings I wanted to evoke in the listener, and what melodies sounded nice. I didn’t have any experience composing or creating music prior to this, so it was exciting to test things out and learn as I created.

Title: Windy Journey

When I was creating this music, I thought of the four different sections as different parts of a journey. Some of the sections are darker, and slower, and other parts are brighter, and with more energy. I was inspired by the different natural sceneries that one would see when they go on a journey, like a hike or a trip.

I am most proud of creating a piece of music with contrasting sections, and making each part portray a different feeling. Though I am not experienced in music production, I am proud that I was able to make a musical piece that I may be able to use or come back to later in my time at Freestyle.

I value learning music production because it encouraged me to be creative, and pushed me to make music despite not knowing anything about music theory. This was my first time creating music using virtual instruments. I hope to continue to learn about and explore music production, and use the skills I learned in this project in future endeavors.

Learning to produce digital music through ProTools was an incredible experience! I had fun learning how to understand the language of music: counting beats, finding notes, and playing the different instruments on the keyboard. This project has given me more appreciation for art through sound. I truly believe that thoughts and feelings can be expressed through music, and that those emotions can be felt by the listener.

Film

In Film Class, we focused on telling Narrative stories through film. I learned about the rules of traditional storytelling in film, how you can use the camera to change the way the audience feels about a character or an event, how to write a story and storyboard it, and how to direct actors, and edit a narrative film. We started the unit with smaller, short scene projects, and ended with our Narrative short film production.

In the Narrative Unit, students were challenged to produce a scene following the rules of Griffith’s Pattern, a suspense scene, a chase scene, and finally a Narrative short film. I valued everything we learned in film class this unit. From the history of film, to the process of filmmaking, to working with actors and codirecting with my peers, to postproduction and editing, I learned so much this unit. I wish to thank my Narrative Film partner Emma, who was a joy to work with and stayed calm and level headed no matter what obstacles we faced. I would also like to thank Chase and Isabella, who acted in our film. They were both very flexible with their schedules, and dedicated much of their weekends for over two months to this film.

Griffith’s Pattern

Griffith’s Pattern is a set of film storytelling rules made by D.W. Griffith, one of the early pionneers of filmmaking. We learned that each scene must start with an establishing shot, a wide shot that shows where the scene will take place. Then we cut to a closer shot, introducing the characters and the going ons of the scene. After that, we may cut to medium shots and close-ups to show the characters emotions and reactions.

Suspense Scene

In film class, one thing we focused on is how to create a feeling of suspense and tension for the audience. We studied scenes from Alfred Hichcock’s film Psycho, and learned how to use his techniques in our films. We learned about pacing the story, and changing the speed of the cuts. We learned how to make the audience feel excited, nervous, and anticipate a climactic moment.

Chase Scene

The Chase Scene projects was one of my favorite ones to make. This film stars my brother Juda, and my two precious neighbors Sara and Elise. We had a great time filming this scene at Rancho San Antonio. This film took many days to film. Because of our limited schedules, we could make no exceptions. We had to continue filming no matter what happened: through bad weather, sickness, wrong costumes, and fatigue. It was difficult to direct the young girls, because they had a lot of energy and always wanted to play. I had to remain patient and try to make filming fun and engaging for them. I am proud of the work I put into this film and am happy with the result.

Narrative Film

Synopsis

Character Arc (Tim):
Beginning: Tim is shy, nerdy and insecure. He has a crush on his neighbor Laura, but he thinks she doesn’t feel the same way.
End: Tim has gains more confidence and feels accepted/liked by the girl he admires.

Story:
In the beginning, Tim goes out to get the mail. When opening his mailbox, he looks over to his neighbors house and sees Laura standing with her dog in hand. Laura waves and smiles at Tim, and he is surprised to be noticed by her. Tim waves timidly, grabs the mail and quickly runs inside. He feels insecure and afraid that he will say or do something wrong. When he gets inside, he takes a deep breath. Then, he hears a knock at the door. He looks through the window, realizing Laura is at his doorstep. His heart begins to race and he takes a deep breath. He opens the door and Laura smiles with his dog in hand. She needs him to dogsit for her. Laura hands the dog over to Tim and waves goodbye.

Tim is now alone with the dog. Tim rests the dog on the ground and watches as the dog explores his house. Tim continues to follow the dog. As the dog enters the living room, it begins to speed up. Tim picks up his pace as well. The dog starts heading towards the open side door. Tims stomach drops, and his eyes open wide. He begins to run at the door, hoping to close it before Fred reaches it. During Tims effort to reach the door, he hits a coffee table and trips. Tim looks back up, and the dog is out the door. Tims mouth opens wide in shock, he begins to panic and starts running after the dog. The dog runs through the backyard, in the neighborhood, and towards downtown. Tim chases after Fred. The dog is fast and Tim is putting in all his effort to keep up. Fred enters downtown and runs towards the library where Laura is being tutored. Tim begins to freak out. He tries to run fast, hoping to catch up to Fred before he reaches the library and possibly gets Laura’s attention. Fred runs past the window of the library where Laura is, and moments later so does Tim. Tim glances in the window quickly, checking to see if Laura saw them. Tim continues to run after Fred, hoping to get control of him. Moments later Tim finds Fred rolling in a pile of leaves and mud. Tim reaches down while Fred is distracted and grabs him. Tim glaces back into the library and sees Laura beginning to back up. Tim panics. He starts to run back home with the dirty dog in his hands. He goes as fast as he can, hoping to make it back before Laura. They pass through downtown, the neighborhood, and return back to the driveway of Tims house.

In the end of the story, Tim carries Fred through the backyard and the open side door. They get inside, and Fred closes the door to prevent Fred from running away again. Tim takes a deep breath, relieved to have Fred back inside. With Fred still in Tim’s arms, Tim’s eyes are drawn to the bathroom. He begins to hurry towards the bathtub in the hope to clean up Fred before Laura returns. Before stepping into the bathroom, the doorbell rings. Tim pauses. He walks towards the door with muddy Fred, and opens it. Laura is standing there. Fred stands there with the dog and raises his shoulders and smiles, almost laughing. Laura begins to laugh at them. At this moment they are bonding over the state of Fred and Tim b feels relieved that Laura isn’t upset. They continue to smile and laugh. The End!

The Narrative Film was the most challenging project of the Narrative unit. My project partner Emma and I worked on it for almost six months in total! We first decided on the story and storyboarded the entire film by hand. As we went we made edits to the plot, and continued to revise the story until we were done with post-production. Because of the changes we made, we had to go back and reshoot many scenes. There were many different ways that the story could have ended, and most of this was decided in the editing process because we had the shot the ending in multiple different ways so that we would have more options. Through this film, I learned to work with other people. I learned how to motivate ourselves and the actors when we were tired after shooting for many hours. I learned how to collaborate to produce a film that we are all proud of.

Making these Narrative films was fun and challenging. It was difficult to know when our shots were breaking the 180 degree rule, film continuity, or if there were jump cuts in our editing. Sometimes, we had to sacrifice strictly sticking to the traditional rules to preserve the feeling of the film. I had a lot of trouble finding copyright free music for my films, and this led me to choose many classical pieces for most of my films. I appreciate Mr. Taylor for challenging me to experiment with other types of music to enhance the quality and experience of my Narrative Film.