Introduction
The “Visual Narrative Project,” otherwise classified as, “Narrative 1,” was no doubt my favorite series of projects yet at Freestyle Academy. The main concept and goal of these projects was to create various pieces of art, whether it came down to producing a short story in English, making a parody song, digital art for our short story, and audio recording it in Digital Media, or producing a whole narrative film in Film class. I experienced and learned a wide range of techniques and skills that furthered my knowledge and ability in the realm of creativity. Especially, the art of storytelling. In the past when I’ve come up with a story for a film, for example, I never lay it out and write the whole idea up, it’s just placed inside my head and I come up with things as I go. But because of the way the process of creating and telling a story was taught over these past few months, I now have a much better and in depth understanding of how to create a solid, valuable story. Displayed here in this section of my webpage, you will find all of my finished products from this series of products along with an inside look of the work and preparation that went into them. Enjoy!
Story
The project that had the most collaboration from my three classes at Freestyle Academy, was no doubt, my short story. The main project was worked on in my English class and it was probably one of the first times, if not the first time, that I fully came up with my own storyline, and wrote it out into an actual piece. I fueled the idea for my story, somewhat based off the feeling of being restricted by your parents or even the feeling of a lockdown. And after quite a bit of thinking of the characters and the setting of my story, I got it. My story, “Pearls,” is centered around a teenage girl by the name of Hazel. She is very constricted by her “know-all” father and she never gets to experience any kind of freedom, something I have been very fortunate to have growing up. Her father criticizes her for almost everything she does and she quite simply has had enough. The story then goes on to track the ultimate decision she comes to about her future with Papa and the adventure that lies ahead. Not going to spoil everything for you!
After the process of developing and writing up the final piece of my short story was done, the project was then transferred over into Digital Media where we would record it. Last semester we learned the skills of how to navigate Pro Tools, an audio editing software. So now, for our short stories, we were challenged to record our whole story with the addition of emotion via our voice, sound effects, and music. And in the end, all three of these additions added so much to the story and made it a whole lot better. I also valued the creation of my story into an audio piece because I am always listening to music and sound is so important to me and my passion especially, film. Now, here’s my final audio recorded piece of my short story, “Pearls.”
“Pearls”
11:07PM, New York City: A long night to say the least. Hazel sits in bed anxiously. She feels as if she will never escape the pressure of Papa, she’ll never have freedom. Minute by minute, she contemplates her move. To stay, or to get away. Escape into the night, the city, the rain, into her own life. Papa, the controlling, self-centered man that he is, walks into her room. “I swear, you dare leave this house and you will face harsh consequences. I am absolutely sick of you. Goodnight,” Papa says. These are the only words exchanged between the two. Papa then leaves the room. Hazel’s moment is now. Home or a chance at a quick escape. A reset, a getaway to wipe her mind clean.
Hazel has had a brutal childhood, in a rough neighborhood. Raised in the Bronx, there isn’t much good surrounding her. Being under 5 feet tall, a teenage girl who is often mistaken for a child, a girl with a timid personality and huge doll-like blue eyes, hasn’t done much to command respect at home. The schools aren’t that great either, and there are tons of robberies and gangs. The streets are filled with discarded beer bottles, needles, and dreams crushed by gang violence. All of her life, Papa has been super controlling and pugnacious towards Hazel. Papa grew up in quite a similar life as well. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Papa’s Dad was super controlling. He always knew what he wanted and would get it when he wanted it: the typical Italian disciplinary father. And as we know, those same traits rubbed off on Papa. He was never given freedom or any ability to go out and explore his true purpose in life and have fun. Every day after school, Papa’s father forced him to work at the family-owned barber shop. Papa would shine all the customers’ shoes and then sweep up their hair from the floor. Dirty, busy, work. And why did he do all this? Because his father made him.
Every time he sees Hazel, Papa sees the ghost of his wife. Like her mother, Hazel is under five feet tall. She is a flower-like teenage girl, one who is often mistaken for a child. After a long day in the butcher shop, and an evening wondering where his daughter is, Hazel walks into the apartment just before midnight. Papa’s eyes dart from her huge doll-like blue eyes down to her black lace-up steel-toe boots, lowering his thick eyebrows in disapproval. But for Hazel, these boots protect her like armor on the grimy streets filled with discarded beer bottles, needles, and crushed American dreams. “Take off those ugly boots. Whaddo you want, to bring me shame? What kind of girl wears boots like a garbage man? Whaddo you doin’ hanging on the streets all night like somebody cheap? Some guy knock you up?”
“Stop! Dad! You are so controlling. You’re pathetic. I hate you!” Hazel runs up the uneven stairs, Papa chasing her, screaming, “You dare leave this house like your mother and you’ll face harsh consequences. I am absolutely sick of you.” She slams her door hard in Papa’s face and flops herself angrily on her mattress. She tries to control her breathing, tries to will herself to sleep. Two hours later, Hazel still sits in bed anxiously. She feels as if she will never escape Papa’s criticism, his need to be “the big boss,” and the smell of dried blood that permeates his clothes, and floats up into the house from the butcher shop below. Her world is ugly and closed. Minute by minute, she contemplates her move. To stay, or to get away. Escape into the night, the city, the rain, into her own life. Hazel’s moment is now. Papa or a chance for beauty and freedom.
Papa is like a granite church wall to Hazel. He never tells her how he was controlled and ruled over all of his childhood. It was tradition throughout the family and in the Italian culture he comes from. But why? Hazel just can’t fathom why he needs to know everything Hazel is doing; “Where, what, when, and how?” When she had a B in Science and Math, why did he jump down her throat? He never got past 8th grade himself, so why should he care?
And, that is why she has had enough. She not only wants to get away. She needs to. The relationship is one-sided. It’s choking her. Papa isn’t going to allow her to explore her future. Not after Mom disappeared.
Every scenario has run through Hazel’s mind. The good, the bad. GO! Hazel knows this is the time and her mind isn’t telling her otherwise. She gets together a couple changes of clothes and her daily necessities. She goes back to grab her mother’s pearl necklace. She empties her school backpack and stuffs everything in there. Hazel only has about $80 saved up in her piggy bank. She takes it all. Most doors in her house have alarms, except for a couple windows downstairs. Hazel picks up her backpack and money, and quietly creeps down the stairs. She unlatches the screen from the window and gently places it on the floor. The only thing left between her and freedom is the window. Hazel slides it open, hops out, closes it back up, and is now free, as far as she knows. It hasn’t even crossed her mind what Papa will soon find out and think. For the first time in her life, she can worry about herself and what she wants to do. Hazel unlocks her bike from behind the trash cans and heads for the train station.
She arrives at the station, not sure where to go. The only two trains within the next couple hours are Boston, which could take her to Cape Cod, or south, towards Philadelphia. Philly is way too long and is not what she is looking for. Hazel wants an escape from city life into a place where she can relax, reflect, and decide her own path, grasp for freedom. Cape Cod it is. Hazel goes up to the ticketing station and buys her ticket for the 1:43AM train towards Boston and a bus on to Cape Cod, with room for her bike.
While on the train, she reflects upon her decision. Whether it was impulsively made up in the moment or was actually the right thing to do. How it would affect Papa. Wait-stop. Hazel wanted a getaway, where she focused on herself and her wants. She’s getting distracted. Nevertheless, it’s the middle of the night and she is getting quite tired. She goes to sleep.
Hazel wakes up right as the train arrives. Dawn in Cape Cod. Hazel gets her backpack and heads out the doors of the train. Her Dad will wake up in a couple hours. She has $70 dollars left and uses $5 to buy some quick food. After that, Hazel heads for the beach. The beach is a place of peace. The waves crashing against the shore, the sound of the seagulls flying through the air. The everlasting peace and calm. The true place for reflection. Hazel spends her day there and has a beautiful time in her own freedom and happiness.
A few days later, Hazel needs a shower. Her money is running out. She fingers her mother’s necklace in her jeans. She could pawn it and get by a couple more days, but then what? She realizes what her mother didn’t do, all along, was stand up to Papa. You don’t need to run. You just have to say “No” to his face. Quietly and firmly.
She heads home to face Papa, with a newfound confidence, hard as pearls.
Illustrations
Throughout the time period that we worked on the various projects within the Narrative 1 unit, we learned a lot about the application Adobe Illustrator, one I’ve never used before. In order for us to actual learn the software, Mr. Florendo provided us with countless videos and additional help to help us develop our skills within the program. I have to say so myself, I’m pretty trash at drawing on paper, but in Adobe Illustrator, my illustrations don’t look nearly as bad, so that’s a good thing. Eventually, after a couple assignments where we got to practice the software, we were given one to top them all that truly tested our skills. A project where we got to create art for in my choice, a shirt. Pretty sick.
ARTIST STATEMENT: For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to create my own piece of clothing. And at the time of this project, one of my most listened to and favorite artists at the time was Travis Scott, a rapper. One of his most widely known songs is one by the name of, “Butterfly Effect.” Of course there are other people who have also made shirts out of his song before, which I kind of fueled inspiration from for this project, but I also wanted to add my own touch and design to this project and make it my own which motivated me. Furthermore, this project allowed me to grow because I was able to learn new software, like Adobe Illustrator, and turn that very art into a piece of clothing. That’s a pretty cool skill to have! The process sure wasn’t easy though. Adobe Illustrator is one of the hardest applications I have ever had to learn and I am absolutely no where near mastering it, but that’s what makes it interesting. By experiencing struggle, it allows one to keep trying. And when you don’t give up and keep going, it makes the end result so much more satisfactory. Throughout the process of designing in Illustrator, I tried so many different arrangements of words, shapes, and figures, but none of them stood out that much to me. I started to become on edge after hours of trying to create something I really liked, almost at the urge of wanting to quit, but I didn’t. I kept experimenting and was finally able to come up with a design I like and now I get to wear it around the world! Even despite the design coming out nicely in my opinion, I would change it to be a little more abstract. The best designs and art, in my opinion, aren’t so simple, they’re complex, they have multiple dimensions to them. Yet, with this piece I really feel the simplicity. And simplicity is good, I also enjoy it as well and in some cases it can work really well. But if I had the ability to create a masterpiece design for my t-shirt, I would want it a little more abstract too and maybe change the background color (not make it white on white). Nonetheless, I’m really proud of myself for not giving up halfway through and learning an extremely difficult and advanced program, even if it’s just the basics. And now, with my new knowledge, I will be able to work at mastering Illustrator if I so desire and create even more pieces of clothing. Who knows, maybe I could even start a brand! Finally, I am able to gain a lot more appreciation for artists in a different field than film and cinematography, rather the artists that design clothes and create things through Illustrator. After going through the process of learning how to use Illustrator I have developed so much respect for those that make a living out of this. I’ve probably learnt 5-10% about what goes into Illustrator, yet someone out there spends months creating a singular piece in this program. It’s phenomenal. Every art-form is to be appreciated and respected, and this one is especially difficult.
Music
I have to say, the Parody Song Project in Digital Media, had to be the most fun. I wouldn’t say that music is my passion, but I’m literally listening to it all the time and discovering artists from all different genres. It’s such a great art form. So, to be given the chance to create a fun parody song with a partner, was a really enjoyable experience. For this project, my friend, Behrj, & I decided to make a cover over the song “Scream & Shout) by will.i.am and Britney Spears.
To start off, Behrj and I rewrote the lyrics. There was no major intention behind them, but we knew that we wanted to create something that sounded pretty funny and still matched the beat and flow of the song. I’d say we were pretty successful with that. Once that was said and done, using our Tascam Audio Recorders, we recorded ourselves singing the song! Definitely took a couple tries, but we both got pretty close to what we wanted. After that, we took the original audio file, along with our audio, and created a parody song. In order to do this, we had to use various features in Pro Tools which minimized the vocals of the song and allowed for our voices to come in louder, while still hearing the beat. This was super challenging to do and I wouldn’t say I’m a pro at it, but it didn’t turn out too bad and is still pretty funny nonetheless.
[Intro: Reed]
Bring the action!
[Verse 1: Reed]
When we at Chuck e Cheese
You betta turn this down
You betta turn this down
You betta turn this down
We go get our prizes
We cashin’ out
We cashin’ out
We cashin’ out
The Mouse lookin at us
He really sus
He really sus
He really sus
We tellin Chucky
We cashin’ out
We cashin’ out
We cashin’ out
[Chorus: Reed & Behrj]
I wanna scream and shout at Chuck the mouse
And scream and shout at Chuck the mouse
We sayin’, “Ohh, oh no, oh no, oh no”
We sayin’, “Ohh, oh no, oh no, oh no”
I wanna scream and shout at Chuck the mouse
And scream and shout at Chuck the mouse
We sayin’, “Ohh, oh no, oh no, oh no”
[Interlude: Reed & Behrj]
You are now, now poppin with Reedo Tuxedo and (Lil Bjay, bruh)
[Break: Reed]
Bring the action!
[Verse 2: Behrj]
You a troll, c’mon man go take a stroll,
From the bottom, to the north pole
Goin’ fast we ain’t goin’ slow
No no, ay yo
Hear the beat, hear my flow
Eat it up and then eat some more
Like a candle we gotta blow
Blow blow, ay yo
Talk it out, talkin’ now
8am we clock-in now
Light it up and burn down that mouse
Mou-Mouse, ay yo
All this drip, and you gone drown
Here we go, we gon’ make this sound
Cause everywhere that we go
[Break: Reed]
Bring the action!
[Outro: Reed & Behrj]
A Reedo Tuxedo and Lil Bjay production.
Film
Film is no doubt my biggest passion as of late. Over the years I have fallen in love with the art form and it is the greatest feeling of getting to learn more about the process and create your own films. And in this narrative unit, we got plenty of opportunities to do that ranging from the most simplistic scenes, to full on developed films.
Griffith’s Pattern
Griffith’s Pattern pretty much kicked off film class at the beginning of this unit. So, to start off the year, we were introduced to one of the most famous and used techniques in film known as Griffith’s Pattern. After a few lessons of learning about the logistics and steps behind this type of scene, we were put into groups to use the formatting and create our own opening Griffith’s Pattern Scene in which we had the establishing shot all the way to the end where we see the conflict/resolution essentially. I was partners with Nate, Izzy, & Darya, and we filmed our scene at Mountain View High School. It was my first time filming with other people in a long time before this, but it was really nice to get to work with people again and was a fun project to film & edit!
Chase Scene
If you watch action movies, you are pretty familiar with chase scenes. Whether it’s in the Fast & Furious franchise or even the iconic chase scene in the Dark Knight, you know how thrilling these parts are. Before this project, I’ve never created a chase scene. And once the project was given, I was super set on doing a car chase scene. Unfortunately, that quote obviously wasn’t able to happen, but nonetheless, I still had a lot of fun filming my buddies chasing after each other. We went to Downtown Los Altos and had one of my buddies be the “criminal” and steal his car keys from the other. They then led a chase around downtown as my buddy chased after his keys. It’s a pretty fun little scene so go check it out below.
Suspense Scene
For this assignment, we were put together in groups and tasked with creating a feeling of suspense. Creating suspense, especially on bigger films, is super key to their success and the audiences reaction to the film, hence, Mr. Taylor had us practice it. Overall, it was a great experience working with my peers, coming up with the idea, and having fun shooting the little scene.
Narrative Film
This was no doubt the lengthiest project of them all. We were given multiple months to come up with our own ideas, group together with a partner, and then actual shoot and edit the whole thing. I’ve never been part of such a long production, but I must say that it was really fun. Being the director/co-director of your own film is a feeling that will never get old and my partner, Vinh, and I worked really well together. For this project we also couldn’t have any dialogue which definitely made it a lot harder, but it really makes you focus on the film aspect and each individual shot. Here’s our short written synopsis of our film, our storyboard, and lastly, our final product.
Synopsis
Film Written Synopsis of The Flower
General idea: There is a boy who wants to be in a relationship with a girl and seeks ways to impress her. The boy wants to get her a gift that will impress her and sees a very big bouquet of flowers, but the problem is that he doesn’t have enough money. He works for his money, only to lose it during a bike ride without realization. The boy is disappointed after realizing that he can only afford one flower, and is disappointed when he has to give it to her. But the girl accepts the gift and accepts him for who he is.
Act 1
- We establish the scene using Griffin’s pattern.the boy is sitting down with his girl friend.He realizes that valentine’s day is coming up and that he needs to get her something. He sees that the girl is dressed very nicely and has a lot of things given to her. He knows that she is a very wealthy girl. Despite being in a relationship, This is the polar opposite of how the boy is, since we come to find out that the boy is poor, and doesn’t have that much money. The boy seeks ways to try to impress the girl. He comes down to the idea that he should get her gift that will impress her.
Act 2
- The boy headset to the store. He looks around and spots a really nice bouquet of flowers. He looks at the price and sees that it is very expensive. He reaches inside his pocket and feels for money. But he doesn’t have any. He then works for his money. He mows lawns, does his chores, walks people’s dogs, and other things for the entire week. He makes 40 dollars, just enough for him to buy the flowers. He is excited, not ever in his life has he made this much money. He gets on his bike to go to the store as well as listening to music. Without him realizing, money starts to fall out of his pocket as he heads to the store. We cut to many dynamic shots of money falling out of his pocket. This scene creates a sense of suspension because it’s something the audience knows without the protagonist realizing it. Once he gets to the store, he grabs the expensive bouquet of flowers, and goes to the cashier to pay for it. When he reaches inside his pocket he notices that he only has one 5 dollar bill. To his surprise, he doesn’t have enough money to purchase the followers. The store clerk tells him that he can only buy one flower, with 5 dollars. He decides to buy the one flower.
Act 3
- The boy is disappointed. After all he has worked for, he has lost almost everything. Him and the girl meet up at the park. While the girl had given him a really nice gift, he reaches out and pulls out a dainty flower and hands it to her disappointed. The girl looks at it and her eyes lit up. She loves the gift. They hug and walk off the frame happy.