Film Form Assignment

An Interactive Hell

During the course of my class, Telling Story in a Digital Format, I have been subjected to the horror that is an interactive script. Half of the problem for me lines in the script part of this assignment. I hate scripts but for any media related task for broadcast you need to have a script. the other half of this problem deals with the interactive portion of the script. The IF/THEN moments that allowed the story to be interactive and more tailored to suit a variety of audiences. This combined was my hell and this post is the culmination of my three and half weeks in said hell.

Interactive media give the audience a variety of choice when they pick up a product, however this practice is hard on the writer, especially when said writer is unable to organize themselves properly. I am one of those authors. My project was a ten page horror themed script, complete with five IF/THEN moments and various twists.

 During the outlining phase this seemed quite easy. Write four short stories instead one? Ok but in practice it was horrible. I found the IF/THEN moments kicked my ass harder than harder than the Canadians kicked the American's asses in the war of 1812. It was brutal and actually lead to me leaving my home late at night to escape the insanity that is an interactive script. (Note: Don't do this it is, you can be kidnapped without anyone knowing)

 Of course all of this was just the script, there were the character maps we had to fill out as well as the story maps. Never again...

 At the end of this assignment my teacher posed the question, "Would I do it again if offered a $100,000?" My answer:

NOPE

Web 2.0 and Content

Web 2.0 is relatively new in linear time but in relative time it's quite old. It's been around since the dawn of the new millinum and so far has managed to infect every part of our daily lives. From Phone to laptop, every portable device has the ability to pick up the internet and quick witted store owners know they can draw a crowd with free internet.

To that extent the web browser industry became competitive. Various companies starting up and jumping at the door to offer new clients as many services as they could with addons and quick surfacing times. With so many preferences it is easy to see that each person would have their own personal favourite.

 Each Web browser is a portal into the Web 2.0 world, doing away with long complicated coding and program just to get to a specific site while adding a search feature that made finding new content easier than ever.

Tokens are for Games

When I learned about story maps, I thought the best application for them would be to create the evolution of a character. They map out the beginning, end and transformation a character goes through during the course of a story. I think this application would have worked out best for many of the Token Characters in history.

Token characters are the bane of many media consumers and tend to be the minority character in movies and TV shows. Usually they are one dimensional and have very little redeeming qualities. Recently, I went to see a movie called Rise of the Guardians where one of the characters happened to be a Token Character.

This is the Tooth Fairy. She is the only female in the main cast of characters and the only one who happened to be under developed. Seriously. She is the only underdeveloped character in the movie. Even a little girl named Sophie had more character development despite having only four very short lines.

It would have been better to focus their writing time of the Tooth Fairy than trying to cram smaller details here and there. This movie is so highly dependent on the actions of the Guardians that having one of them, especially the one who represents memories, being flat and just dragged along leaves a sour taste on the movie.

NaNoWriMo- Four Weeks Of Hell.

November is the month of the year all writer, hobbiests and professional alike, look forward to. It also plays host to the infamous Nanowrimo. Now that the month has come to the end all writers can breath easier and soak their pain riddled fingers. For those who don't know what Nanowrimo is, you can check here. In writer language it's a month dedicated to tormenting yourself and your mind for a change to sharpen your skills. In Layman's term it's a month to write a novel.

 Taking part in Nanowrimo is the same as saying good bye to any of the fundamental writing rules you've learned before hand. Due to the time restraint and the spirit o the month it is not recommended to make outlines or plan out your story in detail. This practice is mostly used as a creativity booster and allows the writer to dump as much creativity into their story as they could, worrying about the editing only when it needs to be done - after the draft.

 Draft writing is one skill many new writers have trouble with, it's hard, time consuming and forces you to produce an imperfect work despite all the important warning your high school English teacher told you about always reading over your work. It's something that Nanowrimo lets competitors "write hot and edit cold."

Alone But Not Lonely

One of the first things you learn as a writer is that writing is a solitary process. You spend most of your time sitting at your desk with your writing instrument of choice (personally I prefer the computer) and commit your thoughts to a more physical form. During this time, it's important to remember the difference between being alone and loneliness.

 When I first found this video is was back in 2011 and I had just moved to Canada and discovered blogging.  I had even dedicated one of my past entries to this video. I found the video as moving then as I do now and an accurate portrayal about how I feel when I write. Sometimes I feel ashamed, staying alone and spending so much time in my head when I could be with others. This video definitely put things into perspective for me.Solitary activities can be fun.

In my case I'm never truly alone, it may sound weird but it's true. I always have my characters near to me in my mind, we converse and interact. I know many writers often feel the way I do and sometimes would love to catch a break from the characters' whose stories they're writing.

 Through this video I have come to realize that doing these solitary activities may not give me much human interaction but it helps me sort out my writing with relative ease as well as the turmoil I gather through my life.

Interactive Media

Media as we know it is changing. whether this is for the better I cannot say. I can say that, when you compare today's media to that produced fifty or more years ago you can see a remarkable difference in the way it is packaged and sold.

 Today more digital media is sold, allowing a more flexible presentation of content. While the stories follow the familiar movement of Freytag's triangle -having a beginning, middle and an end- it strays off a bit by allowing heavy user interactions. That is, it allows users to chose how they want to view the media as well how much and in what order. This form of choosing does exist in the traditional form of publishing as well but mostly allows for one possible outcome.

 The first of these to come out were text based RPGs and choose your own adventure books. They changed how people thought of producing content and even the way the creators interacted with their followers. with each book or game made creators provided the raw content needed for users who can pick and choose what is best for them or even re-invent more ways to enjoy the content stretching the enjoyment out from hours to days or even weeks.

 While maybe books, games and movies are still published in the traditional style there is a growing niche market for media that incorporates multiple plot lines.

Telling Stories in the New Millennium

At the turn of the new millennium stories began going digital. Anyone with a camera and some free time wanted to have their shot at fifteen minutes of fame. To this end everyone was running around making indie movies and trying to hit it big with very few success stories and lots of movies that would never see a large enough audience to give investors the confidence they needed to support up and coming artists.

 This is how Youtube began. With Youtube's birth, many up and coming directors, producers, actors and singers could have their shot at making it big and being discovered but it also opened the door for more hobbits movie makers, re-inventing the way we see digital stories.

The usual format for a digital story is beginning, middle and end, this introduces the audience to the topic, builds suspense and resolves any problems formed during the timeline. With youtube videos there is no need for an introduction as the audience can see the creator and interact with him/her by leaving comments or even posting response videos.

 The story doesn't even have to end and can continue for as long as the user posts videos.

How I learned to write.

When I was a young girl, around the age of nine. I began writing stories. Like most stories written by children, they were focused more on the self than actual plot progression and character development. I mean, how would you develop your self? Isn't that the same as seeing the future? I really had no concept of a good story outside of 'add more drama!'

 It wasn't until I picked up my first manga that I began to refine my craft. Micing the lines of plots I saw there to create my own stories. I still have the fanfic I wrote for that series but I shall never let anyone see it every again. 

 When I learned to write it was a trial and error kinda thing. where I would wonder: Does this make sense for this character or is this story easy to follow? Questioning my writing worked in the beginning, allowing me to correct my mistakes and move forward with a more defined purpose but until I started learning the techniques behind the craft I was still slowly progressing.

 I honestly suggest picking up books on the writer's craft. They help immensely when trying to edit your work or even just get better at writing in general. More often than not, they help you see where the major mistakes in your writing are, if you can swallow their medicine.

The Evolution of the Story Map

Before Gustav Freytag's pyramid was introduced to the world another thinker, Aristotle, had noticed the differences between a good story and a bad story. He had discovered that it had a beginning, middle and end the same way Fretag had. It was this realization that was fed down the line through writers who wanted to make compelling stories until it took the form of an M.



This M shaped story line is called a story map and is used to help guide writers through the pitfalls of their writing.Story Maps can show a writer where the holes in their story and help make it more engaging to the audience.

As noted on the picture the story map is an expanded version of the Freytag Pyramid. With the added categories, the story map is easier to use as a guideline but one feature of the story map is it's ability to map out internal conflict as well. The story map can show the transformation between the character's sense of self in the beginning of the story versus her sense of self near the end.

The Three Points of Good Stories

Many of the greatest media pieces produced in the western world follow the simple structure of Freytag's Triangle. They have an exposition, climax and denouement. The beginning of a story introduces your characters and the world they inhabit. This part of any story begins to build suspense until you reach the climax. The climax is the height of the story where the emotional energy of the story is dispersed and settles into the Denouncement. At this point, any character that is affected by the climax should have changed in some way.

When these steps are followed, the writer completes the contract they had with the consumer and the consumer is left feeling satisfied. However, should the writer fail to complete these steps xe is breach of contract and ends up hurting xir story. A good example of this is Batman Begins.

 During the movie, Christian Bale's character Bruce Wayne begins as a young man who had lost his way and managed to get arrested halfway across the world. He is rescued by Ra's Al Ghul and trained to become his heir. He is then put to the test and asked to kill someone, which he refused to do. Up until this point, the movie follows most of the rules in Freytag's Triangle. It has introduced the characters and the world they live in while also generating suspense but continues to keep that suspense bottled up.

 So instead of a Freytag Triangle, we get something like this:

 By the theory of the triangle, the movie is doomed to fail but is saved by it's comic background and action sequences.