Final If:Then story Reflection

The final assignment has both been one of the most enjoyable and the most stressful. The long length allowed me really explore the situation and write it out as I saw fit without cutting too many corners. I felt that with the limitations of the past assignment, I was too rushed into telling the story and left out some details. The weeks of preparation really let me work through some of the problems and develop the story as a whole. The process can be seen here. Of course the longer length involved more if/then moments which is the part I struggle most with. I find myself writing out the story in the way I think it should be laid out and going back and adding the decisive moments in afterwards. This leaves the secondary options much less developed than the original story. This for sure is not my strong suit in writing, but with the constant developing of technology, this is an important thing to practice and I will continue to write in this style in my free time. I think my problem is, as a writer, being sympathetic with the characters personalities. In the choose your own adventure games of my childhood, I failed to relate to the process since the options we're never something I would have chosen myself.

I realized in this assignment that the decisions aren't as relevant to the personality of the audience as to the personality of the characters. The character bios really helped in terms of writing character and character development. Image courtosy of http://jonathanshipley.blogspot.ca/2010/09/forked-path-childhood-death-and-choose.html

Class trip to Film set

I have mixed opinions on the program wide trip we went on the other day. The trip was divided into two halves; one half was visiting Pinewood Studios while the second half allowed us to visit the film set of students in the Advanced Television and Film program. While I did enjoy the informative session at Pinewood, the film set I found rather dull.

At Pinewood Studios, we were given a demonstration of the new age of 3-D and the visual appeal of higher frame rates. We got to see clips shot at 48 and 60 fps and the comparison to traditional filming techniques, though somewhat difficult to get used to, was remarkable. The presentation was 'presented' on screen by James Cameron and his insight to the technological aspects made the presentation come alive as he pointed out aspects that  I would have missed. I found the information intriguing as it is being presented in The Hobbit, which is a film I would really like to see.

 

The second half I found rather uneventful. Having a hundred-odd students crammed around a tiny film set was not a fun experience. There was hardly a view of the crew and no chance to ask questions or to learn. It seemed like a waste of time to be perfectly honest. The minor excitement from being on a film set was squashed by the realization that there was nothing to do.

Image from : http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=40304

Final If/Then Story Process

Week 1
This week we have our first interview regarding our final story. My idea is as follows. There is a river, full of money. People in the nearby town have nicknamed it Spare Change River, since you're more than likely to find money in it if you go searching. I take the inspiration from a wishing well. Whenever I see one, I always wish i could just go in and take the money out. Except the wishing well is now a river.

For a while now, I've had this mental image of a man fishing in a shallow river, and have thus far been unable to incorporate it successfully into any writings. As much as I like this idea, it needs a lot of work. For instance why is there money in this river? It can't simply appear there, that wouldn't make any sense. Is there a limited supply of the money? How does it benefit the people that use it? How does it impact the society that surrounds it? These are all very important questions that must be tackled. I look forward to undertaking this task, despite its evident complexity.

Image from 
Week 2

 The story has continued to flow and develop. I've discovered that the river is full of money after a angry business man throws handfuls of bills away. He is doing it to spite a charity worker who has annoyed him. The character bio i really important for the business man. Why is he being such an asshole? His values have always been that a days pay requires a days work, and he believes that donating to charity is giving out money to people who don't deserve it. The choices he is going to make will hopefully change how he looks at the situations of others and not his core values. I've decided to make his secretary more important as well. She will help he business man evaluate his situation, through acts of sarcasm and downplaying his intelligence. She'll provide an outside perspective on his situation. The character will realize how his decisions influence others in a serious manner.

Run Lola Run.

The topic of digital if/then stories reminds me of a movie I saw several years ago. It was around 10th grade I believe, possibly in English class. I don't remember why exactly we were watching it, but I remember it being an exact visualization of what has been discussed in class. The story is something like this. The film is called Run Lola Run.

Lola's boyfriend is in trouble with a gang after losing 100,000 francs. After explaining the situation, he tells her that if she isn't there in 20 minutes, he's going to rob a grocery store to get the money.
Lola then goes through the actions of going to her boyfriend Manni, before he robs the store.

Though a simple concept the way the movie is produced is quite unique. Lola runs to her dad, a banker, and asks him to get the money for her. I'm unsure of the reason exactly, I believe it has something to do with an affair, her dad does nothing to help her, instead leaving her in the street empty handed. Lola runs to the grocery store to see Manni going in to rob it. Lola runs in to help him, but dies in a confrontation with the police immediately afterwards. After the story "ends", The story immediately starts over from where Lola hangs up the phone. By doing some things slightly differently and at a different time, the outcome is different, though on this second run it is still unfavorable. It starts over again, a different set of actions occur and a final, favorable outcome is attained. I wish I had seen the film more recently to express more details, as it is an enjoyable film to watch.

I'm surprised more media isn't approached in this way. It definitely makes the story more involving, since the audience realizes such fine details that affect the narrative.It made the experience much more in depth.

image from: http://wesleybauman.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/run-lola-run-lb-r.jpeg

Stories in Gaming

The amount of if/then moments in games is unfathomable. At first, as a somewhat potent gamer, I think of RPG style games where the player has control over the storyline. Red Dead Redemption or Fallout 3, for example, give immense control to the player. Whether you play as a civil problem solver or whether you choose to kill everybody on sight has an impact on the story. The player reacts to the situations provided in the game and then the game reacts to the solution provided by the player. What results is a completely immersive experience for the player, where they are in control of the story. For the longest time, this idea of choosing factors of the story was the defining factor in my mind of a game with if/then properties. Then, I changed my opinion on how serious the if/then moment had to be in a game. Games that, in the past, hadn't seemed to offer any choice, also showed dozens of opportunities for decision making. My example piece is Halo, any game of the main series. In fact, this applies to most recent First Person Shooters. The story is always incredibly linear. You are the hero. You need to go from here to here. Go. There is never any variance to how the story can go. However, that does not mean there is no variety! No two people will play the same level the same way. Often there are several pathways, albeit physical pathways, not story paths, to the goal. Weapon choice and fighting style all depends on the personality of the player.

Where one may wish to stay at a long range to battle, another may want up close and personal fighting. This results in different players getting different opinions about the same level based on the decisions that they make. So it turns out, that at any game gives the player more decisions than they are aware and, in turn, allows the player to have a completely unique gaming experience.

photo from http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/b/bb/Unsc_guns_halo4.jpg

The "If / Then" Structure

(photo from http://bashshell.net/shell-scripts/if-then-elif/) The If-Then structure is a personal favourite of mine. Finding countless solutions to a problem, and stretching off on tangents has been a creative writing technique I have indulged upon countless times in the past few months. Though I have enjoyed writing out the solutions to the problems I conceived, I never actually got around to writing out stories or each one. It was with this realization that I understood how much work writing digital media with this format requires. These stories require writing so much more than the average story. So much has to be planned out. I imagine it as writing multiple stories to the same introduction and I sense it being a huge strain on my imagination. I would judge myself too harshly, knowing that one storyline is better than another. At the same time however, as a huge fan of open world video games, I can understand how these possibilities make the experience better for the audience. It reminds me of the Chaos Theory, which I am again a fan of. This is another writing style I look forward to explore.

Digital Formatted Storytelling

With the digital age expanding so rapidly, it's easy to see how the methods of conveying a story are adapting as well. Storytelling is a significant part of everyday life. It is exciting to see new stories that emerge as technology gives rise to new ideas and even more exciting to see how old stories can be re-told in new formats. with the wide variety of tools at the common persons disposal, everybody is constantly telling stories. Not necessarily good stories, but they're being told nonetheless. Facebook is used for telling personal stories, while blogging sites like tumblr are being used more and more for stories told via photograph. It's surprising to find that, despite the constant and various forms that people tell stories, fewer and fewer people actually take to writing. Nobody is making the connection that they are story tellers. I hope that written stories will make a comeback as it is my personal favourite kind of storytelling. I also hope to learn to cross my stories into new mediums to tell a different message.

Short Film Analysis

(Photo courtesy of http://www.amazon.ca/Drama-Through-Storytelling-Practical-Elementary/dp/0889242208) After watching a series of short films this week, I have noticed something that I find rather surprising. The films that we're the most successful (In Here, one past media arts assignment, was one of the top 10 in Canada, while the ones in Digital Storytelling we're all top entries to a separate contest) and seem to win the most awards, are dramatic. Despite the apparent popularity of action oriented movies and stories, the stories that people enjoy the most are the dramatic films. Even action oriented films rely on a certain sense of dramatization to be convincing. As i think about it, more and more of my favourite films have have been dramatic, despite their unrealistic circumstances. Having a good sense of interaction, though not technically required, is an important aspect of storytelling, one which I very much need to practice. The act of drawing in the viewer to the ideals contained within the story is a skill to be developed.

Ohler's Story Map

The generic story map has changed the way I look at any given story. Whether it be a movie, novel, song or poem, I am looking to see if it fits this generic structure. I've found myself often hoping that a story doesn't follow it, that it is completely unique. I often question how accurate a generic story map can be. If a story can mean different things to different people, how can there be one definitive climax? Even from a simple analysis of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone it was evident that different people viewed different events as being the most significant. While I often question the story maps usefulness, I see its importance as well. It gives the author a method of keeping the story flowing in a forward motion, and allows the audience to keep track of the story's progression. I wonder if an author intentionally writes to fit this guideline, or if it naturally succumbs to its form. It makes me wonder how many critically acclaimed stories do not follow this trend compared to the ones that do; whether it is more beneficial to follow the standard or to forge a unique path. I suppose only writing more will show which writing style I am better suited for.

(Story map courtosy of http://s.spachman.tripod.com/Narrative/storymap.htm )

The Amazing Spiderman may not be the Best thing for the Spiderman Franchise

The Amazing Spiderman was, to put it simply, a fantastic movie. It stayed more true to the comic books then the past Spiderman movie line, (the synthetic web-shooters, the Gwen Stacey relationship, and the Flash Gordon led Spiderman Fan club being examples that come to mind) and it contained a great storyline, great effects and incredible character development. Despite all this, and the film being a financial success, I do not believe that this was the best direction for the spiderman universe to take. The Spiderman film rights are currently owned by Sony and, in order to keep those rights, a new movie must be produced every 5 years. This explains the rushed and unfulfilling Spiderman 3. (It was also the forced input of Sony that had the villain Venom thrust last minute into the film, which was also rather unfulfilling.) Had Sony not produced another Spiderman film, the rights would have been reverted to Marvel. Based on the success on the latest series of Marvel Movies; Captain America, Thor, The avengers, etc. I believe that The new Spiderman, under the direction of Marvel Studios, would have been even better. It would also allow Spiderman to interact with other Characters from that universe and let's be real. Spiderman in the Avengers would have been sweet.

( Photo from http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/ARMAGEDDON/news/?a=43950 ) http://screenrant.com/the-amazing-spiderman-movie-trilogy-benk-184764/