Diagramatic Narrative Slideshow

There are many differences between the original book and the film adaption of the story “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge,” written by Ambrose Bierce. One of the most obvious differences is that not all characters look the same in the movie as they are described in the book. Some characters appear to be a different age than what they were originally depicted as.

Another example of a noticeable difference between the two works is the fact that characters seem to be a lot more chatty in the book than they are in the show. The show seems to do a good job of “show don’t tell” with some characterization being done through shots of film instead of through dialogue like it is done in the book. This makes perfect sense given the medium that the story is being showcased in. This is most strongly noticeable in the introduction of the story.

As a result of this bigger emphasis of show don’t tell, there are many different camera shots used in order to tell the story that the author was trying to express. Because of the way a certain scene is filmed, it can invoke stronger emotions in the reader that are more intense than what we got in the book of the same name.

– Gibson

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This is a story of a boy and his best friend. The series of pictures takes you into their relationship and takes you through their day. Starting with the dog waiting at the door for the boy to come home. Once the boy gets home you can see the dog is excited because he missed him and they begin to play. After getting tired from playing they lay on the couch together. For this story I focused on one of McCloud’s six panel-to-panel transitions. The transition that I used was action-to-action. This transition allows for you to see a larger part of their day in only a few pictures.  

The story I chose to depict or attempt to depict in 5 photos is of my brother forming a snowball. Initially, I was going to use the 5 photos to show him preparing for a potential snowball fight by throwing the snowball. However, I decided to leave out the picture of the snowball being thrown to leave it up to the viewer to decide in their minds what he is doing with the snowball. Is he throwing just throwing it for fun? Is he throwing it at someone? Is he making a snowball as the start of a snowman? That said, I used what we learned about closure from last week’s reading. As for the panel-to-panel transitions, I used action-to-action progression for my transitions. I show the actions he takes in preparing to go outside followed by the actions it takes for him to make the snowball with him as the only subject featured in each shot.

These pictures tell the story of getting ready to practice piano or have a lesson. The first three transitions are aspect to aspect, serving as a means to set the scene and establish the mood. The last two transitions are action to action, showing the logical progression of steps taken to start practicing.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gLjO4UpGwPmB6twmXn__nCNaI4ZLVdlQs5NABQsdTgI/edit?usp=sharing

I decided to read the short story first before looking at the film. The story is well made and is very descriptive of the area around Farquhar. There were moments where the author would describe the river and specifically a piece of drift wood. The short film takes away a lot of the describing that the text did. It went a lot faster than it seems it went in the story. Also in the text there was a whole section on Farquhar’s backstory that wasn’t present in the film. This may be a creative choice done by the director to give a vague background so that viewers can fill it in. Also in the film there is a scene where one of the soldiers takes the mans watch away. Reading back through the text I cannot find where this happens.

I think the film did a great job transitioning the ideas of the text into a visual setting. The silence and barely any dialog portrays the thoughts of Farquhar very well. It is like everything is flashing before his eyes and there is nothing he can do about it. Its a silence, but it is a sad silence because of the juxtaposed situation. I also think the use of imagery was  wonderful. The black and white nature of this film makes it seem more tragic and gives it a darker tone. I don’t think this film would have had the same effect if it was in color instead of black and white Overall, I think the short film sums up the reading in a neat little package, but viewers should still read the source material as well.

The photos are of my dog, Bandit, receiving a toy with the goal of destroying it. He is ultimately successful and celebrates by taking a nap. I tried to take the pictures at different angles and zoomed into one picture, the reminders of the alligator, for effect. Similar to what McCloud describes in “Understanding Comics,” I wanted the pictures to capture different feelings, such as humor when seeing him tear up the stuffed animal or satisfaction when you see that it has been destroyed. The images are put together subject by subject to illustrate how the story unfolds chronologically. Overall, I enjoyed making this piece as I feel it allowed me to experiment with the different methods of creating a visual story.

My photos are of my best friend, thank you very much wherever you are (in her room). This is a story of a worker, a student, whoever the audience relates with getting overwhelmed by an assignment and laying down in bed to ignore the problem. I tried to include an action shot of her getting into the bed, but I could have made it blurry like McCloud suggests on 133 with his obscure examples. If I could change anything I would zoom in on her frustrated face in the second shot to add depth and a different vibe than the rest of the pictures, like on page 136 shows in Understanding Comics.

McCloud makes a few points that I take into my own work. First is that what is on the “page” is not the thing, it is at best 2 existences away from the thing. It is a symbol that is either digitally or physically being given to the user. This means that there is a lot of leeway in what that represented symbol can mean to the user. showing someone a picture of an Orange can elicit different understandings than just showing them a physical Orange. You wont get all of the sensory input, especially depending on the limitations of your medium. However you can have more control in their perception of the subject. You can control the environment, the tone, and potential extra knowledge about the subject.

Another point he talks about is how a user sequentially experiences your work. Different cultures read in opposite directions, and when you give your work to an audience you have to know how they are going to perceive it. I usually try to give my work multiple angles to perceive it from, if a visual work, create different meaning depending on the visual hierarchy the user uses. I find it fun to create interactive experiences and imagine that some users will find fun puzzling out different meanings or stories from them.

The final point I take away is the importance of what transitions you choose to use in your work. Each one brings different experiences, some can slow the reading down to create tension or give more information by overviewing an environment. It was also interesting seeing the difference the direct constraints of a medium and the cultural expectations created in the use of transitions. Where episodic comics that sell chapters at a time used more time saving transitions as opposed to manga which are usually sold a book at time taking more time and giving more aspects of a scene.

*Bonus*
The touch on object permanence(closure) was really fun to read about in a literary sense. Even in someplace like videogame design this can apply since unperceived assets are usually not loaded but you still need to have a user think the whole world is there.

After reading Scott McCloud’s explanation of the way that time and ambiguous spaces are interpreted within media, I’m excited to use his ideas in my own project; Even mediums like film that utilize visibly seamless methods of transmitting images rely on the brain to fill in gaps between the 24 frames per second, and I really liked how McCloud elaborated on the opportunities this provides us as storytellers. In comics (or a diagrammatic narrative), this split is infinitely more emphasized, 

I especially thought his portrayal of “non-sequiturs” was fascinating and something I’d want to replicate. The contrast of two seemingly unrelated images that are obviously linked in some way is just a really potent narrative tool. Especially when working within a tighter timeframe and smaller scale story, using this method helps evoke meaning and interpretation with an economy of space. 

A trope I love in comics or manga is an ending panel that recontextualizes the entire story- pulling away, geographically or chronologically, from the bulk of the narrative and revealing some new piece of information. In the end it’s all about showing and withholding information, and McCloud’s exploration of this idea has been inspiring for my own future work.