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Hi everyone!

My name is Kendall Brandon. I am 19 years old, I’m a senior here at Washington State University Vancouver, and I will be graduating in the Fall. I am majoring in DTC, minoring in Communications, and last semester I completed my Social Media Certificate. While I am taking this course as a requirement, I’m still very interested in the class and excited to learn more about storytelling. As of right now, I am not the greatest at creating and telling stories of my own, so I hope that this class will be able to help me strengthen those skills so I can improve as a storyteller. I am also hoping that this course will help me improve my creativity because that is something else that I tend to struggle with sometimes.

The genre of storytelling that interests me the most is probably drama or mystery. I think that these genres of storytelling interest me the most because they do a good job of captivating the audience and keeping their attention throughout the entire duration of the story. This captivation makes it a lot easier to immerse yourself in the story, which makes the story itself more interesting and enjoyable.

I think that my favorite medium for storytelling is movies, but sometimes I also enjoy novels. Usually, it is a lot easier for me to fully understand and comprehend the entire story if I can watch everything unfold instead of reading it. However, I think the story also influences the medium I choose.

My name is Cynthia Elizalde and this is my third year in WSUV. I’m a Humanities major with concentrations on English and Foreign Languages and Cultures, and a Creative Writing minor. When it comes to reading a book and watching a film, I enjoy genres such as Fantasy, Mystery, Fiction, Drama, Romance, and Action. I do enjoy reading manga, books, comic books, and online stories. I enjoy watching films and series from different countries, so that I can have a broader view of what the world has to offer through stories. It is interesting to learn how these stories from other countries are inspired by their own myths, urban stories, history, and culture. This is one of the reasons why I decided to have one of my Humanities’ concentrations as Foreign Languages and Cultures. 

I do have an interest in video games, especially when they have interesting stories and characters to follow along. Because of my lack of time, I have only played games such as Genshin Impact and Cookie Run for the last two years. These games have interesting character designs and world building, that is something that caught my attention and decided to play them. I want to create characters that are interesting for the audience and have a well written world so that people can immerse themselves into it. A game that has inspired me the most is Undertale. The story was intriguing and emotional, and it became one of my favorites of all time. Some series that have inspired me are To Your Eternity by Yoshitoki Oima, its story being  fantasy and emotional.

In the movie Fargo, the plot moves forward in a domino effect of bad decisions and actions. At the beginning of the movie, it is revealed that Jerry Lundegaard is in some sort of financial trouble. In order to escape this financial trouble Jerry wants to obtain his father-in-law’s money. To do this he contacts Shep Proudfoot who then sets up a meeting with Carl Showalter which ended up being a meeting with Carl and his partner Gaear. Jerry discussed a plan with Carl and Gaear to kidnap his wife Jean Lundegaard and demand a ransom of $80,000. Carl and Gaer would receive a tan Ciera in addition to half the ransom, $40,000. A seemingly simple plan that quickly turned sideways. In the process of kidnapping Jean and taking her to the cabin, Gaear killed a Minnesota State Trooper and two seemingly innocent bystanders who drove by the dead Trooper. As a kidnapping that was intended to have no physical harm to anyone quickly turns into a triple homicide Carl quickly becomes overpowered by stress and begins to panic, requesting $1 million as the new ransom which Jerry now gets no cut in the ransom. As tensions run high and Sheriff Marge Gunderson begins asking questions reckless decisions are made which lead to catastrophic consequences. Ultimately resulting in the death of Jean, her father Wade Gustafson, and Carl. As well as the arrests of Gaear and Carl.

When comparing Aristotle’s Poetics and the movie Fargo, the first connection I made was with Aristotle’s definition of tragedy. In chapter 6, Aristotle defined tragedy as “an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude…” This stands true because Fargo is based on a true story that took place in Minnesota in 1987. So, it is therefore an imitation of an action (the kidnapping leading to a string of murders) that are serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude because it shows how one bad decision led to another which ultimately lead to a great deal of sadness with many innocent lives taken.

The second connection I made between the two was when Aristotle said, “Again, Tragedy is the imitation of an action; and an action implies personal agents, who necessarily possess certain distinctive qualities both of character and thought; for it is by these that we qualify actions themselves and these – thought and character – are the two natural causes from which actions spring, and on actions again all success or failure depends.” This is something that I connected to Fargo because each of the characters had different personality traits that affected their decision-making. However, once the first person was murdered things started to spiral out of control which demonstrates an action that sprung, resulting in further actions which eventually led to failure.

Hello everyone!

My name is Allison. This is my fourth semester at WSUV and I will be graduating in the Fall. Prior to coming here I went to Battle Ground High School and did running start at Clark College. I am a DTC major with a minor in Communication and just completed my Social Media Certificate. I took this class for two reasons. The first reason is because in all honesty I just needed an elective. However, when looking through my options I knew that this was the best option for me. This brings me to the second reason I wanted to take this class which is to challenge myself. Storytelling is not something I am not very good at. I don’t see myself as a creative person when it comes to writing/creating stories. I am the type of person who tends to overthink things and ends up just deleting everything I had written because I don’t think it is good enough. However, think that this class will help me improve my creative writing skills which will help me later on in my career path. After graduating I plan on going into Social Media Marketing.

I would say that my favorite genre of storytelling is probably mystery if I had to pick one. However, I also like horror, drama, and romance. As for my favorite story media, it would definitely be movies or TV shows. I like being able to physically see the characters and hear their distinct voice to be able to follow along with the story.

tommy o.

Hello Storytellers!

I’m Tommy, a transfer student returning to school after a 30 year diversion; well, it was almost 30 years ago that I left the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This is my second term since coming back to school. I chose WSU-V specifically for the DTC program and its roots in both the arts and technology, two things that are dear to me. My main career was in global information security; Once a geek, always a geek. I am passionate about games of all kinds, video, board, role-playing, etc., and have a special place in my heart for collective storytelling. My goal in this class is to grow my skills as a storyteller.

Storytelling Genres: I favor sci-fi, fantasy, and psychological thrillers/horrors on screen. For books and comics I lean heavily toward horror and sci-fi. Sometimes I read fantasy, though not so much recently. For video games I prefer sci-fi, horror, and an occasional western theme. I tend toward single player mode and like to explore open-world environments. Although, all of my favorite games have very strong plot lines.

Story Media: I’m fascinated by short films. When time is tightly restricted it’s amazing to me how critical every aspect of sound and vision becomes to a well told story. Watching short films helps me better appreciate and digest longer format cinema. I read comics. I suppose it’s a similar attraction to short films, everything matters. Though video games have been important to me, I used to collect retro systems and games, I am not as interested in them currently. Or rather, my interests are focused elsewhere for now. I would not be interested in making video games, but the topic is a great discussion.

I am especially interested in seeing your various approaches to storytelling and creation in this class. I find other peoples’ perspectives an exciting prospect, and am curious to know more about your styles and processes.

Hello everyone,

In the 90s crime drama/comedy Fargo, you see the story of a man named Jerry orchestrate his wife’s kidnapping. The reason why he does this is for money, but his reason for why he needs the money is unknown.

The action/rising tension of the story comes about with Jerry asking the two criminals to do the job, the criminals breaking into the house, and then escalating again to the triple homicide. This is one of two high points in the film where the tension is very high, and the story shifts dramatically.

There is another point in the story where things shift, that is when the funny-looking guy gets shot and then shoots and kills Gene’s father. The movie seems to shift to a much more nihilistic tone, as we find out shortly after that Gene has been killed by the other criminal and that Jerry is very likely to be caught and go to jail.

The rest of the film falls into the “Pity and fear” category of the tragic structure, becoming more anxiety-inducing and tragic as everything falls apart at an even greater pace than before. It’s hard to watch everything unfold while imagining Jerry’s son going through life with his mom and grandpa dead, and his father in jail for in-directly causing the deaths of them both.

If it wasn’t already obvious before, Jerry is a deeply selfish man who is never shown to really care about his wife or son. He only did it for money, and when everything falls apart his only concern is fleeing. He is never once shown genuinely caring about his son, or even asking if Gene is okay after the funny looking guy tells him that “…blood has been spilled.” The end of the film where he is shown crying and resisting the police as they arrest him put the nail in the coffin that he is a slimy, pathetic worm who only cares about himself.

– Gibson

Hello everyone,

My name is Gibson, and I am currently enrolled here at Washington State University with the intention of getting a certificate in game design. I am 23 years old and I am very passionate about video games, music, and animation.

The genre of storytelling that interests me the most is horror, specifically psychological horror. This brand of horror tries to get viewers/participants into a certain mental state to scare and disturb them. One of the most common ways of doing this is getting viewers attached to a certain character, and then putting that character through life-threatening situations.

Video games is by far my favorite medium for storytelling. I love the amount of interactivity in games, as well as the interactivity they provide for players. There is a lot of freedom in how a creator wants to make a game. They can make it very linear or very sandbox-like, for example. There are many things you can do with a game that would be much harder to do with a movie, such as providing players with choice in how they want to accomplish objectives and experience the story.

One of my favorite games would have to be Red Dead Redemption 2. This game tells the story of a man named Author Morgan, who runs with a gang of outlaws in the wild west. He starts off the game as a bad, cruel man, but evolves into a good soul and changes drastically through the course of the game. It’s one of the few games that have really made me cry.

– Gibson

Hey y’all! My name is Kira Podelco (she/her). I’m 20 yrs old, majoring in English Teaching w/o degree and double minoring in both Spanish and Creative Writing. As you may be able to tell from that information writing and storytelling are a big part of my life and have been since I was young. I started creating my own stories when I was roughly thirteen and ever since then I’ve been seeking out new ways to really bring them to life. I haven’t had a chance to practice much with digital storytelling tools, save for using Twine a few times, so I’m excited to see where this course takes me.

My favorite genres of story are romance and fantasy. I’m a sucker for a well-built romantic story and lets be honest, magic is just really cool. That being said, I’m usually not very picky with what I watch/read/listen to/etc. so long as the story is told well and the characters are well developed. I really adore musicals because even if you don’t see the play or movie, you can still get a good idea of the story from the tone and lyrics of the songs. I have a bit of a harder time with visual media such as movies and shows because I have a hard time sitting still for that long without being physically engaged in something else. Podcasts work very well for me because I can listen to them while playing games, doing homework, etc. However, what I want to learn about most is games and making games, because my younger brother makes his own games and I love watching his work come together and want to be able to better understand what he does. Overall though, I’m just excited to have the chance to learn about how I can use (and how others use) digital media to tell unique stories. Excited to work with you all and to bare witness to your creative styles!

-Kira P.