Reflections on the course and digital storytelling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPUcyhbHNiU Link to Selfie

As technology evolves, so does storytelling. Ways to convey stories of various emotions become more powerful with the advancement in technology. Storytelling becomes more powerful with the inclusion of multiple sensory factors. What I mean is that traditional storytelling use either listening, looking or reading. Doesn't usually include combine them all very well. With digital media, we can combine and push our senses to feel and understand things like never before. Imagine trying to get someone to experience the loss of a sense (like sound or sight). You could convey a story and in the middle, take away an element of the senses. In the middle of the story, cut off the sound or take out the visuals and don't give it back to create awareness about people with disabilities. You can combine images to create powerful messages to incite change.

Digital media for me is a more powerful way for the individual to go about change. Writing a letter that may never be read by anyone about societal injustice? How about posting a well edited video showing the injustice? In our course, I've watched a few of my classmates videos and one that stuck with me dealt with one of my classmates and the effect that a natural disaster had. It gave me emotions that I would have never felt by hearing about it or reading about it.

As for my recent troubles, I was able to create a short selfie that didn't dwell on it but I was inspired to use somber tone and black and white. Hopefully it can convey a small amount of the emotion that trouble me at the time.

Better Late than Never? Misunderstood Books

MISUNDERSTOOD BOOKS   Link to the video

I want to apologize for the lateness of this video post. Misunderstood Books was a humbling experience. For a video that is under 2 minutes, it took a lot of planning. Creating the personalities of the books, finding different people to do the voices, then realizing I couldn't figure out how to sync the voices correctly (which required me to re-record them myself). I can't remember where I first got the idea to try to tell a story using stop motion, and while I think the concept has some great potential, it is a project that I felt I bit off a little more than I could chew. 

My original script gave the books much more in-depth personality and lasted maybe over 7 minutes long with just talking. It was a bit meatier and maybe melodramatic but I felt that the script ran a bit too long. Not only that but the required amount of space the app takes up while creating the videos was enormous which led to more complications. So I had to make lots of cuts all around to get something that actually turned to be more of a comedy than a dramatic story which I originally intended. 

Also it used about 400 pictures just to create the 2 minute video, and to save time and space I reused a couple of shots which almost gave an intentional B movie feel. 

I definitely tried to do something much different than my first digital story in terms of telling a completely weird story that somewhat people can relate to. Originally it was a long drawn out conversation about the books being replaced by technology but in the end, the iPad convinced most of the books that it was in fact the iPad who is more obsolete (given the fact that it will be replaced and die out one day where as books can last a lot longer, don't require power to run, and give a certain tactile feel that an iPad doesn't offer.

Once again sorry for the lateness.

The app is called Stop Motion and you can get a free version or a paid version from the app store. It works pretty well but it can be a little hard to figure out some of the tricks to get the effects you want. Could use a better tutorial.

Evolution of Games as Digital Storytellers

The Evolution of console video games as a digital storytelling medium.

Video games are an important part of digital storytelling because they give you active input into the story's outcome. They might seem rather crude initially but even taking a deeper look into the most simplistic game, the potential for storytelling is amazing if not a bit abstract. A game's story attempts to give the player a reason to complete the game. In essence, the player has a direct effect on the outcome of the story. The earliest game consoles such as the Atari 2600 had simple games that didn't feature stories( or if they did, they were negligible) but with a little creativity there could be a story there. Basically, these games were improved if you had a sense of imagination.

                                               I'm sure Cowboy Bill had lasso these bulls to feed his family. Maybe.

In the early 90's I was introduced to my very first video game system, a Nintendo Entertainment System. Back then, most games had a very simple story to tell; You are a hero tasked with saving the world or saving the princess. Most of these NES games usually left the story part of their games in the manual which for most kids meant that the story was mostly optional. Since most of my games were second hand (usually just the cartridge and no manuals) I pretty much never knew the stories of most of the games. There were a few games that storylines were much more important called Role-Playing Games (RPG). These games, such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior, required players to pay attention to story elements in order to know how to proceed to the end and hopefully complete the game. Due to the limited capabilities of NES, these games had rather straight forward stories which started and ended the same no matter how you played the game.

                                                      Pretty much this was the entire story of older games

As technology improved, video games improved, not only in graphical sense but also in story telling. The Super Nintendo (SNES) and Genesis allowed game developers more space to put in text which could better help further out story. Even the simple story of Super Mario World gives up a text based introduction to set the story. RPG's of this generation were allowed to expand their stories, usually featuring deeper characters and more expansive narratives than the older generation. While a large percentage of games focused on getting to a single ending, there were games that had multiple endings based on how you played the game. Final Fantasy 6's ending changed depending on how many characters survive the final battle. Chrono Trigger took this a step further with having endings that are affected by entire decisions during the adventure. Even though these games featured more optional ways to achieve the ending, there still was a general direction the game heads in which gives a rather linear feel.

                                                           The ability to tell stories was much improved

The final part of this look at the evolution of story telling in games will talk about the original Playstation era of games, which would feature the biggest impact to stories in gaming. The Playstation which was much more powerful than the previous generation of games once again pushed storytelling further than it's ever been. The Playstation was one of the first videogame consoles to make use of CD-ROMs which allowed for more information to be stored for usage within games. This allowed Full Motion Video (FMV) , higher quality music, and complete voice acting in games which led to limitless possibilities. FMVs allowed for either real life actors to do scenes or computer generated cutscenes to give a more movie like experience. Unfortunately, in the early life of the system, most of these were terribly written and performed. The best example I can think of is Resident Evil.

However as time passed, the quality of voice acting and dialogue was improved greatly. Metal Gear Solid is probably the prime example of video game story telling done right. It featured professional voice actors, and unbelievable amount of spoken dialogue ( the game needed two disk just to contain all of it). The story had action, suspense, betrayal and love and did a very good job handling each of these themes. It is very close to a movie experience but represents one of the best examples of a story being told on a gaming platform, even to this day. With two endings (one very emotional) based on your choices, it is the quintessential look into video game story telling.

       Graphics are a bit rough but the writing and voice acting are top notch for the era.

Next time blog I will expand on the American made RPG for later generations which offers a completely unique story in terms of freedom and choices in the game. Also, I will talk about video games that can have such powerful stories, they can make you cry.

Visualizing the Legacy of Mass Incarceration

CUNY's Graduate School for Journalism is looking for new ideas and ways to tell stories.  I went to a panel called "Visualizing the Legacy of Mass Incarceration" that focused on 4 journalists's experience of mass incarceration  through photo- journalism. Each journalist had an interesting method to tell their story though it mostly through digital photography or video.

Using photography is an interesting way to tell a story. In the age of social media, a photo or video has become synonymous with truth. A means to prove something happened or something exists.  I've seen a video of my friend, recording a concert and posting it, but the recording of the concert was bad quality and you couldn't hear the music. The point of it was to prove that he was there, that this moment happened.

Using very different ideas of photo-journalism, each panelist had some very interesting stories to tell. Joseph Garcia used his photos to focus on the lives of people who would most likely end up in jail which were gangs on the west coast, primarily Mexican. These photos often showed the misconception that gang life was just guns, money, and violence. It was shown to be actually more family oriented than anything. It wasn't trying to show that gangs aren't violent but showed that there is much more than we initially would believe, and that's using just photos without any captions.

Gabriela Bulisova showed the story of incarceration using a short video that focused on the family of those incarcerated. Initially narrated by a young child, it immediately captures the effect incarceration has on children.  We get to see the story unfold through different POV which can be an effective way to tell a story. Bulisova is creating a lot of these shorts video into a single documentary. You can check out the video at https://vimeo.com/128694428

Nikki Zeichner was a former criminal defense lawyer and dealt with prisoners first hand and she photo documented the terrible conditions of the New York State prisons. Considering that not everyone is guilty or that the system can be unfair in judging African Americans, she used some photos but mostly audio clips that let inmates tell their stories of prison. The most interesting story told was of a man who is in jail for life. He wanted to know what the Internet was and how it worked. "What can you do with it. In other prisons they get email, but not here... I've never googled anything". It's interesting that the internet is being used to tell his story, sort of ironic.

 You can check out her site at http://www.parolehearingdata.org/ which includes voice clips and photos.

Lorenzo Steele Jr. used his time as a corrections officer at Rikers to show the unfortunate issues that juveniles face. He went into Rikers in the early 90's with a camera ( which at the time wasn't an issues ) and took photos of just how the prison was. His photos showed how young children got caught up in the cycle of going to jail at a young age and never getting out. He uses his stories and photos to help young children in public schools to avoid making mistakes that could land them in prison. The interesting thing about Lorenzo's photos is that this can not happen anymore as they won't allow you bring a camera in now the social media quickly spreads info that certain government agencies may want to keep close to them.

     

 

I think the combined form of all the panelist's different methods of using photography or video create a compelling story about the truth of mass incarceration. It works because the journalists  are trying to tell a story that needs the use of  photos, blogs, and videos. The truth that too much money is spent keeping people instead of keeping them out, and impact it has on the families as well.  

You can check out more info at   https://www.facebook.com/events/878229315556401/

All photos were taken from https://instagram.com/everydayincarceration/

SPIRIT

I was inspired to tell a story of perseverance and overcoming fear. Every day people have to overcome all types of challenges. I decided to go snowboarding recently after an accident I had about 12 years ago and because of the injuries I received I swore I would never do it again. I think it’s nice to show a little goofy story that shows a man overcoming his fear.                                                      

I made a short video because my intended audience is the modern day audience who I feel don’t quite have a long attention span. It’s quick and straight to the point. I wanted to invoke the human spirit and to show that it’s ok to fall but you got to get back up and try again.

                I wanted to make a short story similar a movie trailer and for that I needed some epic shots and slow motion video. My story does have some logistical jumps but I think its fun once in a while to suspend logical thought (how did the main character get good so fast).

                I used iMovie for the iPad and I absolutely recommend it to anyone that has little experience with videos. It’s intuitive and simple to use. It does require some tinkering, because it doesn’t exactly show you everything you can but once you get accustomed to it it’s a pretty powerful tool.

              Filming while snowboarding was the most challenging aspect as most of my footage wasn’t of any use. Even the useable footage was passable at best. Also, deciding how long to keep certain shots going was difficult as I didn’t want to bore people but I wasn’t sure if the video was long enough at the end. The highlight for me was the moment when it goes to the slow motion pan around the main character and the music synced up perfectly.

                I learned that I need to plan the story out a little more in advance. Certain things like mood, audience and length were things I didn’t consider until I was in the middle of editing. I think having a clear cut goal in the beginning can help. Establish the type of story, length, and overall mood that you want you viewers to feel.

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