Category: visual storytelling
Florida’s Natural – Final
For my final project, I decided to tell a story about an everyday problem—only with a comedic twist by exaggerating it just a little.
I had difficulty coming up with a story to do. As finals week loomed closer, I found my creativity waning, replaced by the stress and exhaustion of burnout—until an unexpected moment sparked an idea.
When I was walking through the juice section of the store, looking to replenish my beverage of choice, the idea suddenly came to mind.
The story is about having a difficult, inconvenient time trying to find that delicious orange juice, as most grocery stores don’t carry it anymore. :'(
Visual Storytelling Blog
Our group’s one minute video has a spooky story. The main character is dressed normally and goes for a walk alone. While walking, she stops to take a selfie but doesn’t like the first one. When she takes another, she notices a black figure in the background of the photo. Confused and uneasy, she turns around but doesn’t see anyone there. When she turns back, the black figure is suddenly in front of her. Scared, she runs the other way and looks back, but the figure is gone. Thinking she’s safe, she keeps running, but the figure appears in front of her again. This time, it has a face… her face. To film this, we needed a few things. The main character needs a regular outfit, and we’ll need a dark costume for the black figure. We’ll shoot in a quiet, slightly creepy place, like a park or around the school’s forrest areas. A phone will be used for recording with a bluetooth microphone that we can attach on the character. Later, we’ll use simple editing to add effects, like the figure appearing and disappearing, and add sounds to make it feel spooky.
Endless Tune – One Minute Short ROUGH DRAFT
Custom audio and end credits still needed!
With Victoria Clark, Jaxon Stephens and Brent Ocampo.
Week 7 Blog Post
Hey everyone,
The challenge for this week is to try and find moments of visual storytelling from the film Devil’s Playground. Keeping in mind the theme of Amish vs. English, I found that most of the visual storytelling came from the physical expressions of the people involved in the story. And this makes sense, as the story pertains to the people and their transition from the Amish style of living to modern English living. This proves to be an effective form of storytelling as the audience can follow the teenagers’ thoughts and feelings about this immensely important decision that affects the rest of their lives.
The first screenshot I found was the same one we used for the module thumbnail in this course and is also the poster for this movie on IMDB. I’d argue and assume this was the reasoning for it being the thumbnail, that this shot perfectly depicts the theme Amish vs. English. An Amish-dressed individual smoking a cigarette, two worlds colliding at one distinct moment. It also uses the person to tell the story and how they interact with their environment.
Velda Bontrager talks about and shows her Amish wedding dress. As we’ve discussed in class, the storytelling isn’t the dress itself or when Velda puts on the dress. The storytelling comes from Velda’s facial expressions, the way she looks at the dress as if in admiration of its beauty, but she later admits that she would never get married or go back to being Amish because of what the dress represents. The audience gathers the story from her expressions in this shot.
Next, we have a scene that isn’t facial expression but also one that I’m unsure if it’s real or not as I’ve seen documentary style films before that include incriminating evidence of narcotic use and distribution. This is a heavy contradiction to the earlier scenes of typical Amish living, with shots of farmsteads and families driving their horse carts. The storytelling here does show itself through the environment and the inclusion of Faron’s hands in the scene adds to the impact of what’s happening in the story. We’ve seen Faron tempted by the English way of living for a while and can see a trend of more and more dangerous substance abuse from drinking to smoking. Seeing his hands packaging “crank” tells the audience that his story has taken a dark dip on his journey in English living. Not quite as effective as seeing facial expressions, since we can’t see Faron’s face as he’s doing this, but we know as the audience he’s participating regardless.
Here we return to human expression as visual storytelling. After Faron gets off the phone leaving his dad a message in Dutch over the car accident he got in, the camera stays on Faron. We see his immediate reaction to the message. Looking down, fidgeting with his clothes, sitting still, all signs that Faron is experiencing emotion. The audience isn’t told exactly what Faron’s thinking, but can infer that he’s thinking about his life, his family, his accident, and ultimately leading the audience back to the theme of Amish vs. English.
Thanks for reading!
Amish or English? – Visual Evidence Blog
Job Interview and Car Crash Scenes.
In this clip of Devil’s Playground, Faron is trying to win back Emma and trying to see if he can make it on his own before going back and joining the church. Visual evidence is shown in the job interview and car crash scenes. First, the job interview scene is shown, where Faron is at the house of a family that is hiring for a landscaping business. In the interview they specifically ask if has his own means of transportation, and he answers “yeah, I’ve got a car”. Because he has his own car, they ask him to start as soon as possible. The next scenes then show Faron’s car busted in the middle of the road with the door wide open, and then Faron on the sidewalk with blood running down his forehead with an officer talking to him and sirens blaring in the background. While the transition of scenes seems jarring, it is important for the audience to see the visual evidence of Faron’s car crash. If they had only interviewed Faron about the car crash, it would not have had as great of an emotional impact on the audience. Because of the visual evidence, the audience can feel how Faron was feeling because of the crash, which is “How is he going to make it to his job? How is he going to make it on his own now?”. Visual evidence makes the story more real for the audience and allows them to have a sense of being in the “shoes” of the people being interviewed. Though as an English Faron has a car as transportation, he has to worry about car accidents and repairs. He must also worry about finding a means to make money, as no one is guaranteed a job in the English world. If Faron were part of the Amish, he would not have a car, but he would not need to worry about accidents and repairs, and he would be guaranteed a job.
Digital Effects – Blog Post
In How Not to be Seen by Hito Steyerl, a green screen is used to not only change the surroundings of the female character but to transport the viewer to a world that the cinematographer isn’t actually in. The green screen is used to change the surroundings of the character and objects she has, going back and forth from the studio that the character is in, and a world created by the green screen. The way the green screen is used challenges realism of traditional cinema, specifically when they put green paint on the character which makes parts of her face one with the background, and when they have an environment and a “green screen” in it, which makes the environment seem “real” and the green screen fake, but in actuality it is all still green screen. These effects make the viewer have a sense of an altered reality and makes them second guess which representation is the reality.
In Whispering Pines (series) by Shana Moulton, A green screen is used in a cut out shape and a line drawn off center which shows two different perspectives. At first it seems that the second perspective represents what the character is visually thinking, but then this perspective shows different environments. Showing two different perspectives at the same time alters traditional cinema as the viewer does not know which perspective is the real reality for the character. By showing two different perspectives side by side at the same time, the viewer must change their focus back and forth from both representations to try and understand what is happening.
Routine – Montage
Nurses Documentary Blog
The story of the documentary will be about the everyday lives of nurses during a pandemic, and the unique struggles they face by being a medical worker. I would create interview questions asking them about if/how their jobs as nurses have changed since the pandemic hit, and then I would ask them about if/how their personal lives have changed due to the pandemic and being an essential worker. For example, the information that I am trying to get at is if they need to take extra precautions when they get home from working at the hospital as to not get their household sick. Do they quarantine themselves away from their loved ones? Did they use to do their own shopping but now they have someone else do it for them? Has someone in their household gotten sick, and do they feel guilty about perhaps being the cause? Have they had a loved one die from COVID, but they were unable to see them due to being an essential worker?
Due to not being allowed at their workplace with a camera, some B-roll will be taken that is related to the narrative but not essential. As stated from the reading, “B-roll illustrates talk” so the B-roll will be in conjunction with the nurses talking about their pandemic routine. The B-roll is as follows:
- B-roll of them getting ready in the morning and leaving from their house. The footage will show their routine, either normal or abnormal. This will be in conjunction with them talking about their routine. This footage highlights how even though people may only see them a few times per year, they are people with individual lives of their own. This footage may highlight precautions they take while being home with loved ones, or perhaps that they take a long time getting ready to work at a hospital.
- Time-lapse footage of patients coming and going to and from the hospital, hopefully getting some shots of long lines and wait times. This view will go from a bird’s eye view, showing people arrive in their cars and walking to and from the building, then also a shot in front of the building of people going in and out. This footage, depending on what is caught, may show the demand on hospitals and their workers.
While I am personally not allowed in with a camera, I could ask the nurses I am interviewing if they would be willing to vlog updates about their shift, the focus being on their work conditions and what they have to deal with. There will not be focus on patients (as this is probably the reason why I am not allowed inside with a camera). This will be my only “evidence” to show their working conditions, and if they match with what they tell me. As stated in the reading “…shoot people doing what they’re do… Plan the location so that it becomes part of the evidence for the scene”. It’s important to show them at the location they talk about so that it becomes “real” for the audience.
The following footage will be them going home, and what they do at home. For example, their interactions with their family, how they deal with being a parent or partner, how they balance work/life or perhaps a lack of balance, the boundaries they set with other people in their household, and any precautions they take when living with other people while being a hospital worker. The footage captured would widely depend, but the point of this footage is being visual evidence for how the pandemic has impacted the everyday lives of nurses. Visual evidence is important because it shows the audience the truth of the situation, whether if what is happening matches with what is being told, and to give the audience a real sense of the reality.
Shameless Framing
What is happening visually?
Framing and editing are creating a busy, chaotic scene. Showing minor interactions like the two boys fighting over the bathroom shows that the family tries to manage with multiple people living in a single home.
How does continuity editing help narrate the family dynamics?
The continuity editing following the main character and then the behavior from the rest of the family members shows the roles they all play. Following the main character and the tasks she is doing shows that she is the main caretaker of the family. Showing the rest of the family members gathering at the dining table eating breakfast together shows there is no one else that has an equal role to the main character. Showing the box for electric bill money being passed around to all of the kids and them handing over cash with no question shows that they all have a means of making their own money and pitching in to the bills of the home.
What are the visual anchors within the chaos of movements?
The anchors in this scene changes at different points in the scene, but they are the main character, the electric bill and the milk jug. In the beginning it is the main character as we follow her as she gets ready and wakes everyone else up, as well as taking care of tasks. The electric bill money box comes from the main character and moves through the rest of the characters as well as the milk jug.
Framing Post
Hey class,
Here’s my framing video, it’s over the assignment length so apologies on that front.