Diagrammatic Narrative

kbalbaraisphal22

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1FEhssqm39vEtxIGRqAUi49mkN1yROjEGiOgn7PIO9dg/edit?usp=sharing

 

John stood nervously in front of the crowded room, his hands shaking slightly as he prepared to present the annual report for his company. But little did he know, the shocking revelations he was about to share would turn his world upside down.

As John began to speak, the room fell silent. He spoke of the company’s corrupt practices, how they took advantage of the poor and mistreated their employees. He detailed the dangerous working conditions and lack of benefits for full-time workers, and how the company had recently cut wages despite the long hours and hard work that their employees put in.

But that was just the beginning. As John continued to speak, he dropped a bombshell that would leave the audience reeling. He revealed that the company was responsible for a tragedy that had affected him personally, and that the corrupt practices went far deeper than anyone had ever imagined.

The audience was shocked as John shared his personal story, his voice shaking with emotion. He spoke of his family’s struggle to make ends meet, of the injuries and pain they had endured because of the company’s neglect.

But even as John finished his presentation, the tension in the room was palpable. What would happen next? Would the company be held accountable for their actions? And would John and his family be able to overcome the devastating impact of the company’s corruption?

As the audience sat in stunned silence, John made a call to action, urging his fellow employees, shareholders, and customers to join him in demanding change from the company. But as the room emptied and John left to face an uncertain future, one thing was clear: the fight for justice was far from over.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge – Comparison

nforsyth23

The key differences I noticed were:

  • The video left out the entire second chapter about the backstory of the main character. Instead, we get a flashback/visual image of Peyton’s wife and kids and judging by their clothing and home we can visually see that he is a wealthy man.
  • Another key difference is that the gunfire/cannon fire is more impactful in the video version since we actually hear them, instead of just reading “aim, fire”.
  • Also, in the story, we get details about the “life” that Peyton sees when he’s free from the water, whereas in the video there’s a song that plays that expresses this.
  • In the story, Peyton travels for an entire day after getting out of the river but the video doesn’t clearly show how much time passes.

The film’s pacing successfully shows readers all of the events that happen when Peyton seemingly escapes his fate; with the exception of the scene where he is running through the forest since that scene doesn’t show exactly how much time passes before he reaches home. I think that the shot of the officer’s eye as well as Peyton’s eye was a great way to show the fear Peyton was feeling as well as the lack of emotion and even possibly anger that the officer was feeling. I also liked the scene where he dropped into the water. I feel like it was easier to grasp what happened in the video than it was in the story.

Visual Narrative I

nforsyth23

I’ve always been a writer, and as such, I’ve always had an issue with “filler” words and paragraphs. I have this idea in my head that every detail, every minute, of my story needs to be written and expressed. After reading the chapter about gutters in Understanding Comics, I’ve realized the importance of leaving some of those details out. This helps keep the story more interesting and less bogged down/boring for readers. I think the same goes for visual storytelling and for the visual narrative assignment I’m going to be working on leaving some of those blank spaces open and focusing more on the major plot points rather than the small details that readers should be able to pick up on themselves. I think this goes hand in hand with time frames as well. Showing the time that is passing rather than telling is going to be difficult for me, but I’m excited about the challenge. In my diagrammatic assignment, I used actual time in my frames to show the passage of time but I think I’m going to attempt to get more creative with this in my next assignment.

5 Short-Story Summaries

kpodelco23
  1. A story in the Classical Aristotelian 3-part structure
  2. A story in Kishōtenketsu 4-part structure 
  3. A story in an episodic structure (at least 3 mini-stories under a main theme)
  4. A story in a surrealist or fantastic mode 
  5. A personal anecdote as a fictional story

1- The dreams that come to life at night are usually a brilliant sight, transparent and blue, sparkling as though made up of the stars. But if the dreams are stars, then nightmares are the very blackness of the night sky, monsters of seemingly pure nothingness. Their bodies are made of something so much darker than ink that looking at them can feel like you’re simply staring into an empty space in the universe.  Nightmares are not unusual and often they are easily defeated. But for some reason, there lurks in the deepest parts of everyone’s minds, one nightmare that haunts ones every sleeping moment– Breaker. Breaker is a sleep paralysis demon of another kind, a monster that belongs to not just one person, but to every  denizen of Bryville.

The story starts (beginning) with an introduction to a special unit of dreamers  called ‘Lucidity’ to fight off the nightmares. It is made up of a large group of lucid dreamers who have the ability to control their dreams once they have breached into the physical world. Dreams are naturally stronger than nightmares, as those having nightmares generally have no desire to continue them. But Breaker of a different breed, having been formed by a collective fear shared by the whole town.The main portion (middle) of the story follows the newest member of Lucidity, a young woman named Lissa, who has shown the most potential for fighting nightmares yet. Lissa’s pressing problem is that she suffers deeply from trauma-induced insomnia, and so is unable to achieve sleep deep enough or fast enough to help fight nightmares. In the end (Resolution), though, Lissa is able to conquer her fears and past in a way that finally allows her to better control her sleep cycle, and use her powerful dreams to defeat Breaker. 

 

2-The story follows a young inventor named Aria, the daughter of one of the major steam-technology technicians, who lives in a world where steampunk technology and magic from the natural world are at arms. Magic wielders do not take kindly to the steam-societies, as their destruction of nature has begun diminishing the world’s magic. Aria inherited her father’s knack for machinery and works to take his place in the future. She’s never known her mother, and the role of her other guardian is filled in by her full-time guardian and advisor Thorne. One day, a frustrating project pushes Aria to her limits and her emotions suddenly materialize in the form of a magic burst (Introduction). After her initial terror and shock, she is left wondering how she is now meant to balance her place as a sudden gray area between the clashing worlds of magic and machinery. On her hunt for answers, she is accompanied by: Thorne; Raven, a member of steam-city lower class who claims to be on a hunt for fame; and Eira, a sorceress who plays the group’s guide into the world of magic. Together, they find themselves facing money-hungry vigilante groups, masters of dark magic, and mysterious kidnappers. (Development). In the end, they discover that Aria is not the unnatural being that she is painted to be throughout their adventures. A villainous man named Kyrathus comes to hunt her down himself. He is revealed to be the leader of a secret government organization charged with eliminating others like Aria in order to keep the societies at arms, so that non-mages can remain powerful (Twist). With the help of her allies, however, Kyrathus is defeated, and the group runs from the steam-city, now wanted criminals by the government (End).

 

3- ‘Spelling Mind Games’ is a TV-G series that resembles a typical criminal justice show, but with magic powers, and meant for a younger audience (think Scooby Doo). It follows a group of investigators who solve crimes; and in between individual cases there is an overarching story in which the group is pursuing a villain who spends the series pursuing  unbelievable power. At the end of every episode, the viewers get a look into the villains’ plans, often finding out that they were the source of the episode’s crime. It is a show centered around the idea that smaller crimes are often an effect of larger crimes at play (hinting at societal inequalities and organizational corruption). Episodes fall into 3 categories: short plots (solving small crimes); long plots (progress towards the villain); and world building plots (side ventures that develop the world or characters). 

An example of a short plot episode would be one in which a low-level crime is committed, such as the robbing of a small store or a mugging. The team goes off to find the culprit and discover the person responsible. Said person confides that they committed the crime due to difficulties finding work after being unfairly laid off from their previous job and now having no money. Though incarcerated, sympathy lies with the criminal.

An example of a long plot episode would be one in which the team gets a new lead on the main villain. They spend it pursuing the lead, nearly capturing the criminal before they inevitably escape and prolong the chase.

An example of a world building plot would be one that perhaps follows one of the cast to their home, where viewers get a deeper look into not just their own daily lives, but that of an ordinary citizen within this world. 

 

4- ‘The Somber Funhouse’ follows Michelle, a young woman living in the country who recently received news of her grandfather’s death. He had played a supportive role in her life since she was young, and his passing has left her in terrible grief. Unfortunately, Michelle’s hardships don’t stop there. After a few days of wallowing in her own emotions, her beloved cat, Darcy, escapes, running off into the woods behind her home. In her pursuit of him, she eventually comes across a mysterious circus tent and enters in hopes that Darcy may have gone inside. What she finds, though, is not her cat, but instead an impossibly large maze of funhouse mirrors– each one showing her different variations of herself throughout her life. Suddenly, led about by familiar figures of loved ones long past, Michelle finds herself traversing through time-traveling mirror realms, face-to-face with all the heavy losses of her past. She revists old homes, schools, pets, friends, and of course family in an attempt to learn how to finally deal with her own grief. With every mirror, Michelle gets closer to escaping the circus– and closer to accepting that the things we love never truly leave us. 

 

5-   Working in customer service is generally seen as a thankless and taxing job; and for the most part, Kai can attest to the truth of that statement. They suffer through their poorly-paying food service job for no other reason than the free food and the friends they’ve made along the way. Between the physical strain and frequently rude and impatient customers, it often doesn’t feel worth it. But just as they often see the worst side of humanity, they often also find themself seeing the best of it as well. Such as the people who gave Kai five dollars just for letting them use the bathroom (that was already publicly available!); or the man who had no cash to tip with, and so left behind a rose instead; or the woman whose husband was just diagnosed with cancer and needed an ear to listen to her fears. Between innocent children asking innocent questions, tired adults who break down at a kind gesture, and lonely elderly who just crave some company, Kai has the privilege of being reminded that sometimes humanity isn’t all that bad. And that at the end of the day, everyone is just stumbling through life in their own human ways. 

January 31: DG Storytelling prompt

kpodelco23

The plot of Great Rock n’ Roll Pauses seems to lie in the small daily conflicts that occur within this family’s home. The beginning of the story is us getting introduced to the family members through their own respective graphs and colors. Sasha, the mom, is thoughtful, artistic, and seems to be the support pillar of the family. She is represented by grounding colors such as browns, beiges, and yellows. Alison, the narrator, is inquisitive, observant, and engaged in the ongoings of her household. She represents herself with bright purples and the occasional orange. Drew, the father, is withdrawn, not emotionally savvy, and logically-minded. He is represented almost entirely by various shades of powerful or watered down reds. Finally comes Lincoln, the youngest, emotionally driven, and full of energy and enthusiasm. He is represented by lively and youthful greens of varying shades. These colors are interesting to me especially when I consider their relations to each other. Sasha being represented by browns and beiges for the most part puts her in a position to where she can act as a compliment to the colors of all the other characters. Brown being neutral in its tone makes it easy to fit in where it is needed. Her yellows feel like the more artistic parts of her, and it might explain why Allison chooses to use orange as her occasional secondary color. Her fathers red mixed with her mothers yellow gives her this blend of their two personalities. Lincoln’s green is also an interesting color choice, as red and green are contrasting colors, which add to the conflict that exist between father and son. 

There is conflict in the fact that Drew is often not present due to his demanding job as a doctor. There is conflict in the troubled and emotional past of both of the parents. There is Lincoln who is trying to find someone to listen to and engage with his interests; and on the opposite end, there is the rest of the family trying to be encouraging of his interests, even though they aren’t always interested. And of course, there is the conflict of Drew not understanding his son’s interests or obsession over something small like pauses in music. Drew, as a character of conflict, often has the slides and diagrams based around him shown in various shades of red. This may indicate his place as a source of trouble in the family, even if unintentional; like a red stop sign that keeps the family dynamic from driving smoothly along. 

I would say that Alison and her father show change by the end of the story, though I don’t see much in the mother and Lincoln. In my mind, Alli finds that there are stories in silences, and sometimes those silences become too overbearing. Her mother’s silence about her past is one example, in which she then realizes that she makes people uncomfortable by asking for these untold stories to be told. There is also the point where she and her father are walking back from the desert and she is hit with the possibility that time has flown by under the silence of the desert night, and that when they get back her mother and brother will not be there. 

Drew has the most obvious change in the way that he comes to view his son’s interests in musical pauses. It is clear that he wants to understand this topic better for Lincoln’s sake, but he doesn’t understand the fascination or purpose of the interest. Because of Lincoln’s difficulty in communicating from being on the spectrum, he often has a hard time getting his true ideas across, and so there is a gap between him and his father. This is shown especially well on slide 16, where we see Lincoln’s thought process go through several layers of turns, taking it farther and farther away from the idea that he truly wants to express. But in the end, Drew seems to come to his own sort of realization that there is power in the pause– an idea that he may have taken away from the long pause from the world that he finds in the desert. 

 

Between ‘Great Rock n’ Roll Pauses’ and ‘Diagrammatic Writing’, I was able to learn about a lot of tools and tricks that I can use to help myself put together my own story. Playing with the distance between words and blocks of text, the shapes that text can take, and the colors the text are written in do a lot to help guide the reader not only in terms of reading, but also in terms of how I want the story to be read internally and what sort of emotions I want to convey. I want to play with something like the circular diagrams that are used in ‘GRnRP’, as I like the idea of the reader being able to read parts of a story in any direction or order. It adds a level of freedom to it, and to me, makes a scene feel more loose, natural, and unstructured. I also like the idea of the intertwined texts that we read about in ‘DW’ as a way to show competing dialogues or conversations happening at the same time.