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Posted by
Marlia
INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL STORYTELLING
Aesop Fables - Ant and The Dove (Moral Stories)
Storytelling however is more than a childhood experience. Storytelling is the root of information recording and the medium upon which all other media rely for successful communication and retention.
Storytelling is a magical and powerful craft and can it transport the audience on a thrilling journey into an imaginary world. Although digital storytelling is humankind’s newest way to enjoy narrative entertainment, it is part of this same great tradition.
The biggest difference between traditional types of narrative and digital storytelling is that the content of traditional narratives is in an analog form, whereas the content in digital storytelling comes to us in a digitized form. Analog information, on the other hand, is continuous and unbroken.
Digital information can be stored easily, accessed quickly, and transferred among a great variety of devices. The digitizing of content is what makes digital storytelling possible.
STORYTELLING
Storytelling as an ancient art form and a valuable form of human expression
The National Storytelling Network http://www.storynet.org/ explains that:
“Storytelling is the interactive art of using words and actions to reveal the elements and images of a story while encouraging the listener’s imagination.”
In others word;
- Storytelling is interactive.
- Storytelling uses words.
- Storytelling uses actions such as vocalization, physical movement and/or gesture.
- Storytelling presents a story.
- Storytelling encourages the active imagination of the listeners.
All these components together make a great recipe. It creates an opportunity that allows storyteller to truly use cross-subject skills and knowledge. Storyteller can be creators of new stories, but also listeners of stories created by others who are unlike them. These components can be adjusted and appropriately tuned by the storyteller to the age level and knowledge of the intended audience.
Wherever there is a story told, there are listeners exploring new worlds, scenarios and developing critical thinking skills to connect them to their world and their own experiences.
DIGITAL STORYTELLING
The Life and Death of a Pumpkin-directed by:Aaron Yonda
Digital storytelling is narrative entertainment that reaches its audience via digital technology and media which is practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories.
Digital stories usually contain narrative with digital content, including images, animations, text, sound (music and sound effect), and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component.
Sophisticated digital stories can be interactive movies that include highly produced audio and visual effects, but a set of slides with corresponding narration or music constitutes a basic story.
Digital stories can be instructional, persuasive, historical, or reflective. The resources available to incorporate into a digital story are virtually limitless, giving the storyteller enormous creative latitude.
Constructing a narrative and communicating it effectively require the storyteller to think carefully about the topic and consider the audience’s perspective.
A digital story typically begins with script. The storyteller then assembles rich media to support the ideas and emotions in that script, including music or other audio effects, images, animations or video, and other electronic elements.
The storyteller pieces together and edits the digital story, creating a short movie in one of various file formats.
The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling
- Point of View– what is the perspective of the author?
- Dramatic Question – a question that will be answered by the end of the story.
- Emotional Content – serious issues that speak to us in a personal and powerful way.
- The Gift of your Voice – a way to personalize the story to help the audience understand the context.
- The Power of the Soundtrack – music or other sounds that support the storyline.
- Economy – simply put, using just enough content to tell the story without overloading the viewer with too much information.
- Pacing – related to Economy, but specifically deals with how slowly or quickly the story progresses.
What is story?
Story creates the deeper understanding about human nature that we experience when we hear or see what has happened to another human being.
Whether it’s an incident in the life of someone we know, the true-life experience of someone in the news, the adventures of a fictional character, or the heroic life of a compelling historical figure, we are fascinated by the progression of events that a human being encounters, and this progression of events is called plot
However, what engages our imagination on a human level is how the main character reacts to his progression of events is called story
How to get the idea?
You need to think about an interesting story. Remember, your ideas make your films, so do what you can to generate lots of possibilities.
The following are the sources that can be used to squeeze the idea to produce good story:
1. Write a shot story everyday
- A good way to keep your storytelling muscles in shape is to write one shot story each day. Lots of good ideas for both shorts and features come from short story ideas.
- Feel free to write these in more relaxed structure and see where the ideas and characters take you.
2. Watch and be inspired
- Watch the first 15 minutes of your favorite film with a pen and paper in hand, pausing to record your responses. After each shot or series of short, ask yourself:
- What does this make me think?
- What does this make me feel?
See whether you can creatively reverse engineer the visual storytelling techniques to see how the film is manipulating you both mentally and emotionally.
Different people will have different answer to these questions for the same shots.
To generating ideas you need to;
- develop a big idea inside the exciting world of your story
- use structure effectively to define your story
- create memorable characters that embody your ideas
- establish moral dilemmas and conflict that drive your story
Beginning the story concept process
The first step to making a film involves finding a great original idea to develop into script.
If you do not have the story for your film down before shooting, you do not have anything.
As a writer/ storyteller you should know:
- Who is the main character in your story?
- What does your main character do in your story?
- What types of themes are you interested in exploring?
- What make your idea original?
- Are you sure this is a film idea you would love to see?
The most important thing is the goal of telling a good story to audience and the primary goal of any film, play, novel, song, TV show, video game or animation.
The first and primary goal of filmmaker is to evoke a series of strong emotional responses from the audience throughout the entire story.
People also like to be entertained by amusement and surprise, inspired by the character’s noble actions, informed about new relevant ideas, and explore fresh perspectives and insight on life.
However you need to get the audience emotionally engaged in the story to stimulate their curiosity about the characters and events. You engage the audience when you tell the truth emotionally based on your own experiences and original insights about life in your film.
BASIC STORY STRUCTURE
Structure: it is the unseen but all-important method of organizing a work of digital storytelling.
In a work of digital storytelling, the structure not only supports the narrative but also helps determine the nature of the interactivity.
Structure is the framework of the story. It connects the basic pieces of the narrative and ensures that the work flows in a satisfying way.
Let start with some definition:
- Character
- A character is a fictitious being who represents a particular perspective or set of experiences in a story. Characters create their own realities as externalizations of their inner worlds in a sense
- Plot
- The series of events that happen in the story to the characters
- Theme
- Invisible underlying universal-controlling idea, moral message, concept, emotion, issue, essence, or soul of a story
- Conflict
- Obstacles that stand in the way of the protagonist in achieving his or her goals
- Interaction
- Characters interacting, connecting, and disconnecting from other characters, ideas, or things.
CREATING ORIGINAL CHARACTER, THEMES AND VISUAL METAPHOR
Character, plot and theme are the basic building blocks used to weave together films. These three concepts can be viewed as a pyramid.
Theme is the base for the story. Conflict sits in the middle, generating friction to keep the three sides moving. Interaction happens as we watch characters connect and disconnect from other people, ideas and things.
- Character, plot, and theme are the building blocks of a great short film.
CREATING ORIGINAL CHARACTERS
The more you know about your characters, the easier it is to write your script.
Assigning original sets of goals, traits, history, and other qualities creates characters with real emotional depth and personality.
Creating Active Characters
- Characters are defined through their choices, action and reactions.
- The strongest protagonists are usually active.
- When planning stories, keep in mind the three states of being characters:
- Have your characters make active choices that make events happen.
- Force your characters to deal and learn from these choices as the story develops.
- Recognize that every character creates his or her own situations (plot) from the externalizations of his or her inner world (character)
- What a character does is more important than what a character says.
- Characters need action and behavior to show us who they are
- Character can be defined in three ways:
What does character want and need?
- Protagonist should have two basic goals related to both plot and theme
- Want is the worldly plot goal to save the princess, rob the bank, save the world, find the treasure, or win the race.
- Need is usually unconscious inner motivation that compels the character to act in irrational ways.
- As characters attempt to get what they want, they often get what they need. Need may oppose want.
- Character, plot, and theme are the building blocks of a great short film.
CREATING ORIGINAL CHARACTERS
The more you know about your characters, the easier it is to write your script.
Assigning original sets of goals, traits, history, and other qualities creates characters with real emotional depth and personality.
Creating Active Characters
- Characters are defined through their choices, action and reactions.
- The strongest protagonists are usually active.
- When planning stories, keep in mind the three states of being characters:
- Passive
- Lump: no goals, no plans, no energy to do anything.
- Reactive
- Goal, plan or pursuit; two out of three: Needs a little boost to get going, but heading toward goal
- Active
- Goal, plan, and pursuit: fully engaged in quest to achieve goal
- Have your characters make active choices that make events happen.
- Force your characters to deal and learn from these choices as the story develops.
- Recognize that every character creates his or her own situations (plot) from the externalizations of his or her inner world (character)
- What a character does is more important than what a character says.
- Characters need action and behavior to show us who they are
- Character can be defined in three ways:
- Action – observe how they react to situations by what they do.
- Dialogue – listening to what they say.
- Third-party dialogue – listen to what other characters say about them.
What does character want and need?
- Protagonist should have two basic goals related to both plot and theme
- Want is the worldly plot goal to save the princess, rob the bank, save the world, find the treasure, or win the race.
- Need is usually unconscious inner motivation that compels the character to act in irrational ways.
- As characters attempt to get what they want, they often get what they need. Need may oppose want.
- Character want = plot goal
- Character need = theme goal
- Motivations = why they made these decisions based on want/need
Creating Character Identification
- When an audience relates strongly to a film, they are identifying some aspect of themselves with characters they see on the screen.
- Include as many of the following character identification techniques as possible when creating each of your characters.
- Try to incorporate identification ideas that already fit your characters in some visual way.
- The trick is not to make these too obvious or sappy. Make sure they are original and artfully presented in a very subtle way.
- Character identification techniques are:
- Admirable – the character is really good at something we can admire, such as being an expert in their field, brilliant, wise, witty, beautiful, very talented, resourceful, or respected.
- Similar opinions/ desires – you relate to the character’s view of the world and what the character wants.
- Flaws – imperfections. Physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological, or personality. Characters who are in conflict with themselves are interesting to watch. Try to make flaws symbolic to theme.
- Superhero qualities – the character can do something amazing such as breathe under water and talk to fish.
- Visual appeal – great actors have what is known as “screen presence”, meaning that you cannot take your eyes off of them in the frame.
- Introduce the main character ASAP – make it clear who the main character
- Empowered – active characters that make decisions to do something
- Sympathy – your character is having a hard time, bad luck or a bad day; is in pain; just lost everything. Your audience really feels where the characters is at emotionally and empathizes
- Helps others
- Love children/family/pets/self – smile at kids, compliment themselves in the mirror
Conan Edogawa - Active Character
Edward - twilight - re-active and active character
passive character
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About Me
- Marlia
- Education is very important in life. You must study hard and learn as much as you can.